Church and the Dollar bill

A curious thing, something about a vow of poverty and what does the Pope wear? A three foot hat that you can be sure isn't just made to look expensive.
The big evangelical ministries you see on TV, like Pat Robertson. Why does he need your money? What is he using it for? It doesn't appear to be for helping the poor. One estimate is somewhere between 140 million and one billion. Man, that is an awful lot of bills put into the collection plate. What is he doing with all of the money people are continuing to send him?

All of this begs the question, Why are churches exempt from taxes? What makes those corporations even more special than say the Chase Bank - not that they aren't required to pay taxes, it is that they have too many ways to hide their money.

Somewhere down the line someone will say "well, look at all the good things they do for the poor."

Let us just look at that idea for a moment. According to the Catholic church, you are supposed to give them 10% of your salary. I can see that supporting the place that is supporting you is a good idea. According to the Pope, birth control is a sin. Black and White, use a rubber, go directly to hell. Where is the support for you there? Abortion, another very hot topic. Again, sin. The connotation I get from his message is that you asked for it, you have to live with it, or back to hell again. You asked for it? I know ladies who were raped as children, as teenagers, and as adults. If one of those ladies got pregnant, should they have to bear the pain of it for the rest of their lives? What about is the mother was in great danger of dieing from this pregnancy?

Don't get me wrong, I am not picking on the catholic church because they are the only bad guys out there, I am only speaking on what I know.

I read somewhere that the taxes that the churches would be paying if they were not exempt was something like 70billion. A pretty nifty sum - I wonder what could be done with that amount. As a disclaimer, that figure of 70billion would be before any deductible sums were applied. Like any corporation I expect the after deduction taxes payable amount would probably be pretty close to zero