Now that we are once again all riled up over the ACORN debacle, I thought a fun exercise would be to compare and contrast the two organizations.
The Catholic Church, as a religious entity, is entitled to a variety of favourable tax treatments and deductions. Donations to the church are tax deductible. There is also Catholic Charities that I assume receive similar federal funds as ACORN or other charitable groups.
I thought one particular comment interesting when discussing the videos of ACORN workers, and the recorded conversations:
The legitimate call he is referring to is the one where Congress decided to cut any and all funding to ACORN, not because of any illegal actions by ACORN, but for the “damning” statements low level staff made during a fabricated sting operation.
Now, I wasn’t going to bother citing any of the alleged abuses by the Catholic Church, because there haven’t been any actual cites about illegal actions perpetrated by ACORN, but if you feel like a little light reading, skim through the wiki page on the subject.
So, given the treatment of ACORN, is there any reason why the Catholic Church isn’t given the same?
Or is the mere accusation of kind of helping a pretend pimp (or pretend law student) more heinous than actually sexually abusing little boys?
If you ask me, a pedophile priest (and the person that covers it up) is NOT the sort of person I want staffed at community organization. Doesn’t that seem like a more legitimate call for Congress to make?
And the answer is… yes. As a matter of fact, it would be a perfectly legal and legitimate step for Congress to exclude Catholic Charities from federal funds, assuming the appropriate factual predicate existed.
Are donations to ACORN tax deductible? Here’s a hint - yes, they are. Has this changed as a result of their scandals? No, it has not.
So if you are alleging that the Catholic church is being treated in a way that ACORN is not, I am afraid you are mistaken. So the title of your OP is misleading.
That’s a way to say, “Assuming similar circumstances existed.” For the purposes of this discussion, I will stipulate that priest abuses are sufficient cause to take this kind of action.
You mean like ACORN did? No, I don’t see any reason to revoke the tax-exempt status of either ACORN or Catholic Charities.
But again, I don’t see the basis for your distinction between the wrong-doings of ACORN and the priest-pedophile scandal. it is apparently your belief that even organizations whose heads cover up significant crimes should continue to receive federal funding. So why should the Catholic Church not retain its funding? Similarly, if an organization is not responsible for the misdeeds of those who work for it, why should the Catholic church be held responsible for what those who work for it did many years ago?
The Catholic church gets federal money for education (among other things) and the dollar return is certainly better than the money spent on public schools. In places like Cleveland they’re involved with poor inner-city kids (thanks to vouchers) who would otherwise be subjected to poorly performing public schools. Comparing it to an organization like ACORN doesn’t make sense.
Just a guess, but I don’t think that Congress has the political will to attempt anything that would be publicly percieved as backstabbing a major religion.
Right. And as I said, above, it would be a perfectly legal and legitimate step for Congress to exclude Catholic Charities from federal funds, just as they did with ACORN.
I thought cover-ups were not reason to disqualify an organization from receiving federal money.
The founder of ACORN covered up the fact that his brother stole somewhere around a million dollars. His brother was also an employee and leader in ACORN. According to you, this is not serious enough to warrant withholding federal money. So you are contradicting yourself.
As far as the Catholic Church per se is concerned, the response has been exactly the same - both ACORN and the Catholic Church retain their tax-exempt status.
Catholic Charities was founded in the US in 1910, and is the second largest social services provider in the US (behind the federal government). ACORN was founded in 1970 and handles about $25 million a year. Relative to their sizes and history, Catholic Charities has never suffered anything nearly like the various embezzlements, cover-ups, voter fraud, and general lack of accountability in ACORN.
So far, the alleged “various” sins of ACORN that you seem to be referring to apparently boil down to one embezzlement, cover-up efforts of that one embezzlement, and no voter fraud (since ACORN is legally obligated to submit all voter registration forms, even if individual dishonest voters or dishonest ACORN employees have put false data on them).
I agree that it wouldn’t be appropriate to defund Catholic Charities as a social-service nonprofit institution just on account of the molestation cover-ups in its parent religious body, but I think you’re grossly exaggerating the institutional malfeasances of ACORN in trying to make that point.
Well, it WAS serious enough for Congress to act. So what you’re saying is that a cover-up of one instance of theft from and organization, is so sever as to warrant speedy Congressional action. But the cover-up of MULTIPLE acts of child molestation are okay?
And I have contradicted myself at all. I think IF we’re we’re going to go after charitable organizations, it seems weird to have started with ACORN. But now that we’ve fried the little fish, why are we letting the big fish continue to rape children?
Except that as far as ACORN is concerned, they’ve had to shut down, meanwhile the Catholic Church is happily going about their business.
Suffered anything nearly like the various accusations? Or suffered actual criminal acts?
I guess what your saying is that being accused of “various embezzlements, cover-ups, voter fraud, and general lack of accountability” is WAAAAAAY worse than being convicted of 11 counts of molestation of boys.
An employee stole FROM the company, not from little boys
His brother covered up the theft, but didn’t allow him to do anything to little boys
Some garbage about voter fraud, that was actually voter registration issues, that has yet to result in a conviction, also not involving little boys.
A bunch of doctored videos, acquired illegally, showing employees saying things that are stupid, but not illegal, and also not about little boys.
Against the Catholic Church we have, well, I guess nothing. I can see why there isn’t much point in Congress taking actions.
Except for a thousand or so acts of sexual molestation towards young boys. Followed by a cover up in which the accused (and later convicted) were moved to areas where they were still in contact with young boys.
So one organization was destroyed through act of Congress. The other organization continues to wreak havoc globally. Does it seem weird which one is still standing?
The solution is not ‘nothing’ or ‘dismantle’, it’s something much more subtle. Either both organizations have done at least some wrong, and should both be punished accordingly. Or we have a completely fucked system full of partisan hacks.