Obeying the Lord by Honoring Caesar

Our system of tax laws offers to entities wishing to be recognized as non-profit organizations several lucrative tax benefits. In exchange for these tax breaks, collective entities (a group of several individual persons organizing to achieve some common purpose) wishing to be recognized as non-profit organizations, including churches, must, as an entity, voluntarily give up their rights to absolute free speech.

If a collective entity wants the same rights of free speech that individuals have, then that entity is free to give up their tax-exempt status and pay their full tax burden. No one is forcing any entity to become and operate as a non-profit organization under 501c of the revenue code. All entities that form a non-profit entity are made fully aware of these restrictions when they form their respective organizations.

If you don’t like the law or find it to be unfair, that doesn’t mean you can arbitrarily decide to ignore it.

Consider Jude 1:8, which says that those who “reject authority” are actually false prophets and false teachers.

In this instance, the Greek word for “reject” actually translates to mean action taken to nullify or defy the law. Interestingly, this scriptural instruction was written during the time of Nero’s reign, in which Nero was infamous for nightly burning Christians alive as a form of public entertainment.

Transparency

I have been working with both political and non-profit organizations for almost a decade. Some of the worst financial mismanagement and abuses I have witnessed have been in churches and religious non-profits rather than for-profit entities. Just because an entity is recognized as a non-profit organization it does not mean that the organization is magically immune from financial waste and fraud. In contrast, for-profit organizations are often more careful with how money is used as waste always negatively impacts the bottom line.

Efficient Use of Resources

The bare minimum cost of setting up a non-profit organization ranges from $5,000 to $10,000. Instead of these sunk costs, we have been able to immediately marshal our resources to directly begin producing valuable resources for you, our supporters.

Avoiding this burdensome red tape helps to keep our overhead costs down. Organizational simplicity allows us flexibility. We may have to pay more in taxes; however, we spend significantly less in accounting and legal fees that non-profits must spend to ensure compliance with the Federal Revenue Code, fifty state revenue codes, and the charitable solicitation rules of over 10,000 separate tax jurisdictions.

Simply, by subjecting ourselves to the full scrutiny of the tax code and Internal Revenue Service as a for-profit entity, we are more transparent and more efficient with the dollars that you entrust to us.

It seems that not a day goes by that my email inbox isn't filled with both mass and even personal requests by various organizations and efforts asking for donations. That is not, and will not be the 1tim2:2 Project. While other organizations and efforts are locked in a constant money chase, under our unique organizational structure we have already secured long-term fiscal health and solvency. Simply, our efforts can be focused on carrying out our mission instead of fundraising.

Conclusion

It is our commitment, based upon Mark 12, Romans 13, 1 Peter 2, 1 Timothy 2, 2 Peter 2, and Jude 8, that we will keep it simple, give Caesar his due, and be about our business of obeying the Lord. As one of our primary projects is helping people follow the scriptural instructions to honor and pray for our political authority, we find that it would be completely hypocritical of us to not subject ourselves to these commands of scripture.