Rush Limbaugh v. Churches

According to the Legal Information Institute of the Cornell University Law School

A non-profit organization is a group organized for purposes other than generating profit and in which no part of the organization's income is distributed to its members, directors, or officers..... Non-profit organizations include churches, public schools, public charities, public clinics and hospitals, political organizations, legal aid societies, volunteer services organizations, labor unions, professional associations, research institutes, museums, and some governmental agencies....

For federal tax purposes, an organization is exempt from taxation if it is organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, public safety, literary, educational, prevention of cruelty to children or animals, and/or to develop national or international sports.

And speaking of non-profit organizations, Rush Limbaugh had some harsh words on August 12, remarking

Remember, my friends, the rich are not all millionaires, especially as this regime defines them. This regime defines the rich as any of you making $200,000 a year or more, and in some cases you can earn less than that and be called rich for their purposes. Yet they use the word "millionaires" in this story: let the nation's millionaires hold onto this $36 billion. The more accurate question would be, do we want to leave that $36 billion in the hands of America's small business? But even at that, even if you don't look at it that way, where have we gotten to the point that all money has to go to government first and then government sends it out to where it needs go? That's a crock. Eric Cantor the other day, paraphrasing, said, "We're going to have to decide whether the private sector exists simply to support the government or whether the government exists to support private sector."

Can you believe we're even asking this question? Yes, I can. 'Cause I knew this is who we were electing. United States of America, we gotta ask ourselves a question: What's the purpose of the private sector, to support government? And, yes, it is. That's the answer if you're a Democrat today. If you're an American liberal, a leftist, or what have you, the private sector is the golden goose that they're killing to support them, bunch of lazy idiots. Many of them don't want to really work. Nonprofits, siphon contributions as their salaries and so forth and think of themselves as good people, charitable people. I mean these people are rapists in terms of finance and economy. The financial sector, the private sector of this country is being raped, is the way to look at this, plundered, whatever.

"Nonprofits, siphon contributions as their salaries and so forth and think of themselves as good people, charitable people. I mean these people are rapists in terms of finance and economy."

Churches are non-profit organizations. Why does Rush Limbaugh believe that, while they "think of themselves as good people, charitable people," they "are rapists in terms of finance and economy?"

It's bad enough that Limbaugh characterizes the usual boogeymen- liberals and Democrats- as rapists. Why must he label churches and their active members as "rapists?"

The contempt this man has for ordinary people- in this case Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other persons of faith- is extraordinary. And never-ending.

Media Matters has the audio here.

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