The Incorporation or the Capitulation of the Church

I’m sure this is going to ruffle some feathers but this has been a long, long time coming, at least 15 or 20 years, and the time has finally come to air this subject out. It would be remiss of me to walk away from this, the lives of my children, grandchild, and beyond, hang in the balance.

Be assured, I am thankful for the opportunity that has been provided to my grandchildren to get a quality and spiritual education provided by the school they attend and the church that sponsors that school, but there is something that stinks in Denmark. The following is a letter sent out to two of my daughters, whose children, my grandchildren, attend a local Christian School organized by a local Bible church.

Dear Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxx Christian School Families,                               10 August 2021

In Matthew 8:1-13, the centurion states in verse 9 that he is a man under the authority of some yet with authority over others. XXXX is an educational institution under the authority of Governor Phil Murphy, the NJDOE, and the NJDOH with some authority as a Christian school to have leeway in some areas. This past Friday (06 August 2021), Gov. Murphy made an announcement about schools and masks in New Jersey for the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year (announcement and executive order).

The leadership of XXXX, along with the Xxxxxxxxxxxx Xxxxx Church leadership – as a ministry of the church, are going to follow this mandate for masks. Our latitude is found in the medical and academic exceptions/exemptions in the link above along with our continued allowance for face shields as a mask substitute – please find the ones that apply to your student(s). Mask and face-shield breaks will continue to be built into the day. Face coverings will not be worn outside, during snack breaks, at lunch, and during other times as well. Also, we will resume the use of lockers and the cafeteria as well as switching rooms for all applicable classes.

XXXX faculty, staff, students, and families are still allowed to pray, have Bible classes, conduct Chapel services, and teach/learn from a Christian worldview – may we thank God daily for the freedoms we do have.

Sincerely,

Mr. Xxxxxxxxx

Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxx Christian School

Superintendent & Lead Administrator

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Admittedly, this has begun to cause my blood to boil. My initial thoughts, that I have forwarded to my daughters to use in response as they choose, are here:

“Your reference to the centurion, in Matthew 8:1-13, is way off base. The centurion was an employee of the state and referring to the way the authority structure worked. It is a ‘this is like that,’ not a ‘this is that.’ I’m not sure where the authority structure of the state and the church overlap. In fact, they shouldn’t overlap, at all.

“Jesus told us that we should give unto Caesar that which is his and unto God, that which is His. The children of Christian parents are charges from God and to be raised in the ways of God not under the authority of the state. Peter told the (church) authorities attempting to scare him off that he felt obliged to obey God rather than man. Pay attention, the church was compromised.

“Allow me, please, to share a dirty little secret that the church likes to ignore, mostly for financial reasons, like tax exemption. The church sold its birthright for a mess of pottage when it incorporated under the state making it an entity of the state and, thereby giving some of God’s glory to the state.

“The church, above all, should know that one cannot serve God and mammon. What is the desire for tax exemption other than the seeking of mammon? Why has the church traded away its authority to speak to all of life, politics included, for a mess of pottage?

“Politics direct the life of the community; how can they be separated out of church topics. Yet the church has forbidden the church to discuss politics and the incorporated church has obeyed man rather than God. The church’s right to address sexual mores has all but been forbidden. Can abortion issues be far behind?

“Romans 13 tells us: For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil… For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil…

“I contend that when the state turns from rewarding good to rewarding evil, no Christian is obligated to obey. Do I need to list the evils of the state? Tax-payer funded, government-sanctioned abortion, profligate spending of money that does not exist but serves to bankrupt our grandchildren through taxation, the state setting itself up as God by demanding more than the tithe. When the state ignores the mandates of the Constitution and ignores the Law of the Land, it is not a terror to evil but a terror to good.

“Phil Murphy, the man my grandchildren’s school seems to think holds authority over the church, when he closed the churches, an unconstitutional act of which the state is forbidden to restrict via the 1^st Amendment, and therefore against the law, stated that the Bill of Rights was above his paygrade and so he gave it no consideration when he exercised his tyranny. Is this the man, a self-proclaimed breaker of the Law of the Land, you are suggesting the church should honor by yielding to his abusive mandates?

“Medically, masks have never been proven to effectively do what the “experts have promised.” But that’s not really the issue. In fact, if and when the state mandates full vaccination, will our children be forced to do so in obedience. Does that seem to fit within the guidelines of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?

“Why would we, again, yield to covering our faces? Does that bring glory to God? What is the most distinctive visual characteristic God has given us that distinguishes each of us from all other children of God? Our faces; and yet, the school is once again asking our children to hide God’s special stamp upon their countenances.

‘A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God.‘

“The letter closed with… ‘may we thank God daily for the freedoms we do have’. What kind of statement is that? It sounds like capitulation. According to the Law of the Land, there are no limits to our liberties when self-practiced. I’m glad the Founders of this country did not take that milk-toast attitude or we wouldn’t be discussing whether we should be obeying government tyranny, we would just be doing it with our mouths shut, other than to say, ‘Thank you, may I have another’.

“FYI, to anyone concerned: No, we are not thankful because we are being allowed to exercise some of our God-given rights. They are God-given so no one has the authority to encroach upon them… not the church and, certainly, not the state.

“I pray that God will open the eyes of those making these decisions. Read through the Bible and count the many times that God’s people ignored the unjust commands of the state, Old and New Testament. The state’s appointed governor of Judea thought he had authority over Jesus but he was sadly mistaken.

“Jesus told us, as His people, that ‘the works that I do shall (w)e do also; and greater works than these shall (w)e do.’ Are we living up to that?”

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What would one think the percentage of churches in America that are incorporated? Do the numbers justify such an idea? In other words, does might, or numbers in this case, make right? Methinks not.

Let’s go to the charts. According to data collected in 2010:

1. While there is no official directory for all the congregations in the US, it was estimated that there were approximately 350,000 religious congregations in the US.
2. Of that 350k, it is estimated that 314,00 are Protestant and other Christian churches.
3. 24,000 are estimated to be Catholic and Orthodox churches.
4. Non-Christian congregations are estimated at 12,000.

How many US churches are incorporated? That’s an elusive number and the searches I attempted with various wording did not return one item that hinted at any such number. Most of the searches yielded returns about why church incorporation was probably the best way to go.

I did find this: “Churches traditionally operated as unincorporated associations, but that operational format left the church and its personnel exposed to legal liability for debts, accidents and harmful actions committed by employees under the church’s supervision.”

So, historically, it was not the practice of churches to incorporate. Oddly, in the pros for incorporating, the idea of tax exemption for contributions was not mentioned. Nor was the requirements mad upon the church, regarding allowable topics to address, was left out, as well. Frankly, I’m not impressed by the reasoning for the reasoning to incorporate. The idea of incorporating to avoid responsibility and liability. Who should be responsible for debts taken on by the church, accidents on church grounds (isn’t that what insurance is for?), and harmful actions of employees of the church? More attempts to avoid responsibility because our culture has gone litigation mad, I guess.

While the search did return a link stating: why churches should not incorporate, the link reproduced a document entitled “Incorporating Your Church: Why and How?” and was nothing more than a number of reasons why incorporation made sense.

Not a whole lot of objectivity from my vantage point.

Allow me, thus, to continue my rant.

One commentator on the inefficacy of masks available to the general public made this point: Put on a mask and stand next to someone smoking a cigarette or cigar. If you can smell the smoke, you can get COVID, a much, much smaller molecule than cigarette smoke, while wearing a mask that you thought was protecting you.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that the idea, that any church and any Christian School a church runs, are under the authority of the state, stinks to high heaven. There is no truth in Scripture that supports any such lie. Rather, all Scripture advocates against it. The Xxxxxxxxxxxx Xxxxx church has passed judgment on Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel, taking instead the side of the state. In fact, the ordeal of the Israelites demanding a king, in Saul, and the warning that Samuel gave the people about such a request of the protection afforded by government and the inherent abuse that would occur under such circumstances, mitigates against the wisdom of any such idea. Shameful.

The answers needed in this instance, which are hard to come by, are what does incorporation of the church under the state entail, and are there requirements imposed upon the church that would not otherwise be illegal?

There are documents on the Internet, by law center groups that define issues that are verboten for the tax-exempt incorporated church to participate in. The fact that the issues raised need to be addressed by lawyers should speak for itself.

Allow me to address politics and how they affect the church.

Merriam-Webster gives this definition of “politics”:

1a: the art or science of government

b: the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy

c: the art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government

2: political actions, practices, or policies

3a: political affairs or business

especially : competition between competing interest groups or individuals for power and leadership (as in a government)

b: political life especially as a principal activity or profession

c: political activities characterized by artful and often dishonest practices

4: the political opinions or sympathies of a person

5a: the total complex of relations between people living in society

b: relations or conduct in a particular area of experience especially as seen or dealt with from a political point of view

The word politics is derived from the Greek word πολιτική – politiki

From Wikipedia: “Politics (from Greek: Πολιτικά, politiká, ‘affairs of the cities’) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations between individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status.”

In other words, politics is infused into every area of our lives, it is the business of how the community, and the people of the community, conducts business. I have often commented on the idea people express that they do not involve themselves in politics with, “well, that’s okay because politics will, nevertheless, involve itself with you. In other words, it’s inescapable.

So, when you think your property taxes are too high, the sales tax you pay on the necessities of life are too high, your income taxes are too high, and that your township, county, state, or federal government is spending wastefully… that’s politics. When you think that the regulations and costs imposed upon you by local and state government to start a business are too burdensome, when you think that the roads in your town should be better maintained, when you think that your failing schools, receiving millions of taxpayer dollars, are failing you and your children, that’s politics.

When we are struck by a, co-called, “pandemic” and elected officials, and the non-elected bureaucrats installed by elected officials, begin encroaching on your Constitutional rights, that’s politics. When your governor, or your mayor, mandates that you cannot go to church, that you cannot have family gatherings, that you cannot visit your dying loved ones, that your children cannot go to school, and on, and on, and on… that’s politics.

So, do you think your life is governed by the politics in which you claim you do not involve yourself?

Returning to the letter beginning this post, in what way is the church, and the Christian schools that the church establishes “an educational institution under the authority of Governor Phil Murphy, the NJDOE, and the NJDOH”?

One word: Incorporation… as an entity under the authority of the ruling state government under which the incorporated church established itself.

One would have thought that when Governor Murphy began restricting liberty and forbidding the opening and operation of the churches, hiding his intentions under ignorance, and stating that he had not given the encroachment of Constitutional liberties much thought, and made his tyrannical pronouncement that the Bill of Rights was above his paygrade, the churches would have learned something.

Let me be very, very clear… at best, Governor Murphy is a fool. In reality, it’s more certain that he is a liar because he is not stupid. This is the oath of office that Phil Murphy swore, with his right hand raised in the air (to God) and his other hand on the Bible: (I, personally, watched Phil Murphy’s swearing in on a YouTube video, and have transcribed it here, word for word):

“I, Philip Dunton Murphy, elected governor of the state of New Jersey, do solemnly promise and swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and to the governments established in the United States, and in this state, under the authority of the people, and that I will diligently, faithfully, impartially, justly, and to the best of my knowledge and ability, execute the said office in conformity with the powers delegated to me, and that I will to the utmost of my skill and ability to promote the peace and prosperity and maintain the lawful rights of the said state, so help me God.”

I challenge any church in the state of New Jersey to make a case as to why the governor of the State of New Jersey should be obeyed when issuing unconstitutional proclamations that clearly violate his oath of office. Again, I reiterate, Phil Murphy, a Goldman Sachs investment banker, is not a stupid man. I, therefore, can reach no conclusion other than that Phil Murphy knowingly perpetrated a lie when he proclaimed that he did not consider the Bill of Rights, and did not concern himself with such weighty matters when, in fact, his fidelity to the Constitution was, not only, the first line of, but was the mainstay of his oath of office.

A message to the incorporated churches of the State of New Jersey, and elsewhere across the United States. When the son of Solomon, Rehoboam, rejected the plea of his father’s wise advisors to pay attention to the leaders of Israel, who in asking for respite said, “Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you,” he, instead, turned to his young advisors, surely lacking in wisdom and life experience, and took their advice, calling the leaders back and responding arrogantly, much like Governor Phil Murphy did to the people of New Jersey, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!” 

Does the church have anything to learn from this incident? The leaders of ten of the tribes of Israel, responded, in kind, saying, “What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O David!”

I ask, shall the leaders of the incorporated houses of God subject their flock to the tyrannical dictates of a state aligned against God? As stated above, the church cannot serve God and mammon. What inheritance does the church have in the secular state? Should the state lead the church, or should the church of God lead the state?

A last word to the leaders of the churches, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, (i.e., the state as it sets itself up in the place of God) in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

I welcome, and await, any reasonable response. Please, Change My Mind!