Should Churches Pay Taxes? Why Some Assumptions are Wrong
A Super Bowl ad stirs controversy
A Super Bowl ad spurred the Twitter crowd into renewing calls for churches to be taxed. Some people seem to believe that churches paid for the “Jesus ads” with money that would have been better spent paying taxes.
The following comments were just a few that cropped up on my Twitter feed during and after Sunday’s football game.
Even Alexandria Ocasio Cortez weighed in.
But who really funded the Super Bowl ads, and why are cries for church taxation frequently based on false assumptions?
To answer the first question, the ads were part of a He Gets Us campaign that has been running on television for nearly a year, and it isn’t paid for by churches. The 30 and 60 second spots are part of a multi-million dollar campaign from the nonprofit Servant Foundation, which has reportedly funded several conservative causes.
The ads are designed to portray Jesus as a compassionate friend who is radically inclusive, and funding comes from individual donors, according to a Servant Foundation spokesperson.
Church funding of Super Bowl ads isn’t the only misinformation floated by church tax enthusiasts. Other examples of wrong information are that ministers…
