OPERATING A CHURCH
Portions of this
material have been taken from the 'Magick & The Law' series of books,
(C) copyrighted by Nelson H. White, and used with permission. For
additional information see:
www.TechGroupBooks.Com
First of all understand us...We will very quickly cancel the membership
of any group who does not follow the Bylaws of the Association of Cymry
Wiccae, or breaks the Rede. We are not offering your group a membership
so you can avoid income taxes or wish to hide your personal money in the
church.
We are trying to make
it easier for you to legally stop other groups or individuals from
harassing you. If you are a member of a legally recognized religion, you
have a right to certain time off for religious reasons. You also have a
right to worship any way you please, free from harassment by your
employer. You have a right to wear religious ornaments or icons
(pentacles). Belonging to a legally recognized religion makes it
easier for you to bring charges of Civil Rights violation if you are
fired because you are a practicing Witch or Pagan.
Therefore, it behooves
you to establish the validity of your organization in as many ways as
possible, and to operate your church (Coven, Grove, etc.), in a squeaky
clean manner.
KEEPING RECORDS
That means keeping a record of all tithes and/or donations; establishing
an accepted accounting method; and keeping a record of all Handfastings
(marriages), Births, Sainings (dedicating children), and Deaths.
It is very important
that you establish the legitimacy of your church as soon as possible.
FUNDING INCLUDING TITHES AND DONATIONS.
You should have sufficient funds to operate without outside support for
at least a year, or until your membership grows to the point where your
church is self supporting. Much of the first year is going to be taken
up in paperwork.
FOUNDING PERSONS
To optimize the speed with which your church begins to operate
efficiently and effectively, you should be very careful about whom you
have in the founding and/or governing group. It will be these persons
who will be investigated if the authorities become suspicious of your
activities. The worth of your entire organization will be judged by the
image your founders or officers present. They will be signing all
papers, assuming all debts, etc. According to most corporate attorneys,
the ideal church officers would all be over 21, preferably with good
credit ratings, all veterans, all college students or graduates, and
without arrest records. That is usually difficult to attain in a pagan
church, given the usual rebelliousness and dislike for authority
inherent in such an organization.
In other words your
founders or officers don't have to be the real powers of the
organization, nor do they have to be exceptionally bright. They do need
to be presentable.
CLASSES AND CHURCH SCHOOL.
(THIS SECTION IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING REVISED)
DISTRIBUTING PRINTED MATTER.
(THIS SECTION IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING REVISED)
ELECTING OFFICERS.
(THIS SECTION IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING REVISED)
STRUCTURE OF THE ORGANIZATION
As far as the actual structure of the organization, we have already
established that you need to be a corporation, and given you an accepted
sample set of Bylaws to work from. Always remember, if you don't think
of it now you will face it later. I will at this time point out the
popular translation for Vox Populi; Vox Dei; which is: "My God, how did
we get into this mess?"
COMMON PITFALLS
It is the purpose of this manual to point out some of the common
pitfalls, which surround anyone who has the audacity to form anything
approaching a pagan or witchcraft church. Lets face it you will have a
very hard time of it. To many persons in government, Magick is equated
with "Black Magic" and/or "Demon Worship", while Witchcraft is equated
with "Satanism." Your best bet is the accepted legal "Church" format,
where your activities are genuine religious activities. Your best
protection is "freedom of religion" under the first amendment. Once you
have established this, the rest will fall into place.+
It is this very aspect,
which will make local government officials very reticent about granting
your status as a church. There are already a large number of
non-religious "churches" in existence and it is getting rougher to
create new denominations as time goes on.
The IRS has been
more-or-less forced into the basically un-constitutional position of
deciding who is a church and who isn't. The states are even more hard
pressed to determine who is a religious non-profit corporation. As of
1980, the state of California had more than 800,000 non-profit
corporations, all tax exempt.
The states have quite a
problem. Their tax base is shrinking, the voters are turning down tax
issues, and the self same voters are voting themselves more and more
benefits, at the expense of the states. Consequently the states are
quite leery of granting tax exemptions for anyone, especially "a bunch
of kooks with a weird church." It is up to you to make sure you are a
church and can prove it to the state. At the rate things are going, a
good many groups are going to receive a severe shock when their
non-profit status is revoked.
Thankfully, if you have
joined the ACW, you have already satisfied most of the requirements that
a local and state government agency would set for you to meet.
In addition to being
tax exempt, churches are more-or-less quiz proof, which incites the ire
of many officials. Except for things like building codes and zoning
regulations, public health and safety, churches are not required to
keep, or at least show their records in court.
MINOR CHILDREN
If a peace officer has reason to believe that a MINOR is being injured
or is the victim of a crime, under the extra-ordinary powers of State
Law, the peace officer may break and enter any place without a warrant
and rescue said MINOR. Moral: have no minors in your church unless you
are willing to take the possible consequences. Additional Moral: Learn
the difference between infant, juvenile and minor. as these terms apply
in your state and county.
General Theorem: If you
know more law than the police, and if you behave in a strictly legal
manner, then you can require the police to operate in a legal manner,
and observe your legal immunities.
Corollary: Legal
immunities are useless, unless you have in fact not broken the law. If
you are in violation of the law, then the above Theorem is useless.
POLICE INTERACTION
We recommend that you avoid holding any public activities until all
licenses have been obtained. One way of forestalling any sort of raid by
the police, is to hold an "Open House" and invite the local police in
writing (not by telephone). Keep lots of copies of any and all
correspondence with any government agency, especially the police or
other law-enforcement branch. If they decline or fail to show up, Fine!
If they do, equally Fine! You really don't care, as long as you can
prove that you offered to let them look. After they have had their tour,
close the door on them, gently but firmly. Write more letters, listing
all the officers who got the tour, their comments, your remarks, etc. as
before, keep plenty of copies at your lawyers office or a safety deposit
box.
What you are doing is
taking out police insurance in advance of a police raid. I realize that
all of this concern about the police is not very magical, however that
is the way the world is and if you ignore it, sooner or later it will
reach out and grab you. It is much better to be prepared, and have one
or more contingency plans ready to use.
PUBLIC RELATIONS.
(THIS SECTION IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING REVISED)
PROTECTION
In extreme cases, or where the community or local government is hostile,
you will have to go to extremes yourself. Do not ignore physical
security for paper security. Build that fence, get that gate, put those
bars on the windows, get those loud dogs, install those floodlights, set
up that alarm system, etc. etc. Sure it sounds paranoid, but it hasn't
been that long ago since some unpopular churches were bombed, right here
in the south. Not only will a good secure location make it more
difficult for troublemakers to get in or out, but it will save you a lot
of money on your insurance. As the present economic condition declines,
more and more people are making their "living" stealing from others,
your security can reduce this risk.
Also remember this: if
fundamentalists begin to harrass you and the police start bothering you,
SUE THEM!! The one thing that will discourage folks from being stupid on
your time is to TAKE THEIR MONEY!! Get yourself a lawyer or contact the
ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). Research your state law on
statutes involving slander, malicious acts, etc. Every time someone says
you are devil worshippers, send them a letter offering them a chance to
make a public retraction. If they refuse or ignore you. WOPNERIZE THEM!!
If they have to spend money on a lawyer to defend themselves, sooner or
later they will discontinue their actions. There is nothing that
discourages people and government institutions more from committing
civil rights violations, than to take their money and/or hold them up to
public view.
If you have anything of
value, sooner or later somebody will try to get it away from you. Again,
it is best to be ready. Remember, "the price of liberty is eternal
vigilance."
All the foregoing was
learned through bitter experience. Other things you can expect,
depending upon the community in which you live are: selective
enforcement of regulations against you but not against others;
enforcement of obsolete laws; attempt by the city to enforce laws that
do not exist or have not been adopted as yet; and so on.
If you plan to buy real
estate in the name of the church, investigate the counties property tax
exemptions as you might be able to get out from under several hundred
dollars worth of property tax. In the case of a church operated store,
you might be able to avoid the inventory taxes that some states and
counties levy. Also check with the phone company and other utilities
about preferential rates for churches, or perhaps a free listing in the
yellow pages. If you plan to solicit funds from the public, either on
the street or door to door, some counties and states require that you
register with them first. In any event give receipts to any person who
donates more than a $1.00 This is one of the marks of a legitimate
organization. If you solicit funds, your solicitors should have a church
issued ID as well as copies of your tax determination letter, to show
anyone who asks.
To sum up, if you
conduct yourself in a respectable, businesslike, legal manner, you can
require others to treat you the same, regardless of the religious
differences between you.
SAMPLE NEWS RELEASE AND FORM LETTERS TO BE SENT TO: POLICE, NEWS MEDIA,
CITY AND COUNTY OFFICIALS.
(THIS SECTION IS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING REVISED)
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