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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