Just Who Is The Aggressor?

November 30, 2017

This seems to be a rather disturbing story.

Over one thousand civilians have been killed by US-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since 2014, a shocking coalition report says.

According to the document, US-led forces in Iraq and Syria conducted “a total of 28,198 strikes that included 56,976 separate engagements between August 2014 and October 2017… During this period, the total number of reports of possible civilian casualties was 1,790,” it added.

In June, Amnesty International released a report, criticizing the action of the US coalition in Mosul, Iraq. Dubbed “At any cost: the civilian catastrophe in west Mosul, Iraq,” the document says that, apart from IS attacks, civilians suffer from “relentless unlawful attacks by Iraqi government forces and members of the US-led coalition.” The report said that at least 5,805 civilians were killed by the US and Iraqi strikes.

This is wrong, beyond words. It is actions like this, and the critique that churches, prior to then Senator Linden Johnson's 501c3 assault, would very vocally speak out against.

Prior to 1954, there was no such thing as a 501(c)(3) church. All donations, contributions, gifts, etc. given to churches were automatically tax‑deductible under the old English common law, known as the "Law of Charities." Then in 1954, Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson (D‑Texas) sponsored legislation which brought churches under the new 501(c)(3) section of the Internal Revenue code.

As a part of this legislation, churches would incorporate, and having that status, they could not be sued in a legal action. This was promoted as a "benefit" to the churches. The churches never bothered to look to the Scriptures and previous law to find out that churches could  not be sued.

Virginia is the only state that does not permit or allow churches to incorporate. In recent months, there have been several instances where the government has stripped the tax‑exempt status from churches and demanded back taxes for violation of this covenant. And those pastors who "claim" that they can go into their pulpits and say anything they wish, contrary to "public policy," do so at their own peril. They have made a contract with the government, which they are in violation of, and they are in fact lawbreakers and civil criminals, for which they and their church can he held liable and responsible.

With these hobbles, most churches cannot speak out against the atrocities governments undertake. Maybe 10% of churches, that aren't hobbled under the 501c3 cripples, can freely do so. Of course, the trade is that all organizations (that I and associates have come across) will NOT provide any sort of financial help--from "seed funds" to loans--unless you have that 501c3 status. One would think that to be discriminatory, at least. One prays that good will help change these tragedies of man.