Thread by @ThomasRoss28

Fireworks will be early this year. April 2. You do not need to wait until July 4. Let me explain.

36M Americans used to take charitable deduction each year. Thanks to the GOP, now most will not. Unless all their deductions exceed the new std deduction of $24k for married jointly. New tax law., remember? (Yes, I’m a CPA.)

Now, I’m sure most people give to charity for great reasons, but the fact that the govt is effectively paying for part of it, by lowering their taxes, is in the back of their minds. A lot of very good charities will be very hurt this year.

Most charity doesn't go to the poor. It’s the Boy’s Club, art museums, Planned Parenthood, PBS, etc. These are excellent causes! But Christians first must help the poor, hungry, sick, & prisoners, Mt 25? Strangers in need? You do believe what your God told you, right?

32% of giving, $100B, goes to churches. Yes, some have real charity “program services”–the soup kitchen in the basement. I used to manage three such programs, as a volunteer, at the same time. 2% of that $100B goes toward that. That’s the ONLY part that should be deductible.

Yes, the janitor & the office employees need paying. Denomination fees, New bibles. That new roof. Most ministers are rather poor - no high salary. Catholic priests get nothing but food, clothing & shelter. (Yes, I’ve been on the finance committee of a legitimate church.)

Some have evangelical missions (that’s deductible – spreading your propaganda to far off lands?) (In my former church, it was Appalachia. Well, those heathen Baptists need some Methodism.)

All that being said, the primary purpose of most fundamentals and evangelical churches is to enrich the ministers – high salaries, free cars, housing, lavish living, country club memberships, And more: an estimated $34B per year in fraud, embezzlement, etc.

For some strange reason, that 32% number has been falling sharply. (I can’t imagine why.) Yes, fewer Americans are now church-goers. (I can’t imagine why.) But that change is far smaller than the drop-off in contributions.

Most of you know that 90% of that haul each year comes in on Easter and Christmas. That is the purpose of their lavish productions. The Big Money days. Indeed, serving little other real purpose, they might as well close down the rest of the year.

So, back to the subject, fireworks will be early this year. April 2, the day after Easter Fools Day, the trusted money changers will be seating in their Golden Rooms, counting the haul from the day before.

It will hurt every church, even the rare few that actually preach the authentic Gospel.

You know, peace, non-violence, service, self-sacrifice, truth, honest, honor, personal transformation – all those things that ‘Jesus’ (his name was Joshua, folks) taught, and no ‘Christians’ pays the least attention to, except a few small, odd groups like the Quakers.

Imagine this: money changers total the haul, look at each other, and even before they deposit all that cash and checks, they have a bitter job. They argue about who is going to make that awful call, to the Bahamas, to the private jets, or the lavish mansions.

To Joel Osteen, Ted Haggard, Jerry Falwell, Rick Warren, James Dobson, Franklin Graham, Bill Hybels, T.D. Jakes, Charles Stanley, John Hagee and all the other Robber Barons. “Our donations are down 50%.”

And these vile serpents who gave us this vile president and ‘Congress’# will be on the phones all day Easter Monday, yelling at those same people. “How could you do this to us?” Good question. I have the same question for the serpents.

# (Sorry to quibble about semantics, but in order to be called a legislature, it would have to legislate.)

As it happens, I will be touring DC that fine Spring day. I have not seen in in many years. I used to live there, and so have been vacationing in Europe, or national parks, etc. I was hoping for cherry blooms. But fireworks will do just fine.

unroll

Note: Easter has not fallen on April 1 since 1956. The combination should have a name for this rare event. I have dubbed it Easter Fools Day. It must be celebrated with song, jesters & chocolate bunnies.
BTW, when Easter will be each year is a matter of simple calculus.

c = y / 100 n = y - 19 * ( y / 19 ) k = ( c - 17 ) / 25
i = c - c / 4 - ( c - k ) / 3 + 19 * n + 15
i = i - 30 * ( i / 30 )
i = i - ( i / 28 ) * ( 1 - ( i / 28 ) * ( 29 / ( i + 1 ) ) * ( ( 21 - n ) / 11 ) )
j = y + y / 4 + i + 2 - c + c / j = j - 7 * ( j / 7 )

l = i - j
m = 3 + ( l + 40 ) / 44d = l + 28 - 31* ( m / 4 )

And here, you were thinking that that course you took was worthless.