National Moral and Religious Compassion Care Act

The BBQ Pit
1

Alright, thought experiment time.

We decide that we must find a compromise between liberal and religious compassion and care for the poor, the sick and the old, embodied in the modern liberal welfare state; and the conservative religious idea that this should be left up to them. But we’re going to be dicks about it.

First we register every church, temple, religious organization in the country and sort out some kind of representational system for a ‘congress’. That Congress of Religious Ministers gets to determine the details of government sponsored health care, welfare for the old and disabled and the poor. Every bit of it. Subject to being able to get those laws past Congress, which has no right to modify proposed legislation, just Yes/No. Congress also has no right to change existing law.

(Watch the Atheist Churches spring up and silly new religions form, just for input.)

Now that we know what we have to pay for, here’s how we do it. We enact a 5% tax on all income under $1 million and a 10% tax on all income over $1 million* Obviously this will not pay the bills, so any unpaid portion is then levied on the religious organizations, on a per capita basis. Those organizations will have to raise their moral levies however they want. Tithes, bake sales, secret mercenary armies, up to them.

But we’re basically saying “We’ll run these programs exactly as all of you different religions can agree upon, and we’ll fund part of it with taxes, but since you’re getting a form of control, you’re paying the bulk of it.”

We’re also not getting into state sponsored religion, as the registration is mandatory for all religious organizations as is registration as a member (or not). Oh, don’t get your undies twisted, they know who the fuck you are already, don’t give me conspiracy theory crap about registering.

  • As those programs would no longer be under the general budget and covered only by this special tax, normal rates could be reduced. Or we could just pay down that huge debt that was a horrible issue of great concern among Republicans right up until one of them was elected.
2

What if this ginormous council can’t agree?
And you’re going to put a 5% tax on MW workers?
And you’re going to get Congress to agree to change the constitution so that they are unable to change existing law?
And what if the churches don’t raise the needed money?

Those are just the first few fantasies that came to mind in reading your proposal.

It’s probably a good idea that you posted this in the Pit. :wink:

3

One of the liberal churches introduces abortion funding.
In under an hour, they’ll have to carry the entire Congress out on stretchers.
And it is not like church leadership always follows the wishes of its members in these areas. (Catholic priests say no, Catholics say yes to birth control, for instance.) So before you know it there will be the Church of the $10 Copay.

4

Well yes, that great big ‘excluded middle’ in the thought experiment. You know, the thing that isn’t going to happen, but what if?

Like the zombie apocalypse or mad max post apocalypse, totally ignoring how the situation couldn’t happen in the first place. :smiley:

5

Oh. In that case… brilliant!!!

6

Why not just make it easier for religious organizations to set up health insurance plans (specifically covering and specifically not covering conditions as they see fit) for their congregants, which they pay for through tithing, bake sales, etc.

7

You say that like it’s a bad thing?

8

The church congress, alas. Not ours.
These days, if I watch Tim Burton’s Invaders from Mars, I root for the Martians.

9

The first debate held in that body would be over its composition. As in, who gets to be here, anyway?

And also, if they’re here I’m not going to be here.

And also the Nation of Islam teaming up with Creativity, Positive Christianity, and White Nationalist Odinism and trying to kill all the Jews.

That debate would also be that body’s last debate, and its only debate.

Aside from that, it would be fun watching all of those One True Faiths fight it out between each other. A bunch of absolute monarchs, unquestioned rulers, trying to compromise on something? Ha. No. The fistfight between the Mormons and the Scientologists alone would be priceless.

10

Set up pay-per-view; the take from that alone should probably fund this healthcare system for 5 years w/o any other financial input. It’ll dwarf McGregor-Mayweather!

11

Proportional Representation based on previous census.

Let’s say 400 members, because that allows better representation for smaller groups.

Christian 70.6 282 seats
Mormon 1.6 6 seats
Jehovah’s Witnesses 0.8 3 seats
Eastern Orthodox 0.5 2 seats
Other Christian 0.4 2 seats
Unaffiliated 22.8 91 seats
Nothing in particular 15.8 63 seats
Agnostic 4.0 16 seats
Atheist 3.1 12 seats
Non-Christian faiths 5.9 24 seats
Jewish 1.9 8 seats
Muslim 0.9 4 seats
Buddhist 0.7 3 seats
Hindu 0.7 3 seats
Other Non-Christian faiths 1.8 7 seats

If you add up Unaffiliated, Nothing in Particular, Agnostic, Atheist, you get 182 seats, which is certainly quite a lot less than the total “Christian” seats, but those are divided by the various sects, so they would actually outnumber Evangelical Christians.

12

You’re missing the point:

How are you going to fend off a charging bull Southern Baptist who’s so pure of faith he’s convinced the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon and therefore has absolutely no place in this, or any other, group of religious people?

And then you have all the Right-Thinking Types who are similarly convinced that Muslims are members of the Religion of Peace and must be purged in fire and flame.

And of course you have the more genteel, civilized types who know deep down that while Jews and Christians and Muslims can all get along, all of the non-Abrahamic faiths are unpronounceable cults and members of same need to be deprogrammed so they can find God and become people.

It’s basic definitional issues, by which I mean some members of these groups do not define each other as being humans.