Texas megachurch caught manipulating traffic data to get new stoplight (Livestream) 

Render onto Caesar 😂

*make them open their books like all other charities and tax the ones that don't do charity as the tax code specifies. Not as pithy though

You'll get no argument from me.

💯

Absolutely… no more trusts to hide behind

They should never have been excempt to begin with

Like your idea !

@@bernardofitzpatrick5403 Thank you, I used to go to a church that did that due to only having a small car park.

"Because that would be UnAmerican!" Or something like that.

He's a Texan. Enough said.

why should tthey care about this planet, they are just visiting here and are "not of this world", and they get to leave this one to ruin and go to their eternal castle in heaven

We can give them our thoughts and prayers, to help.

Absolutely because we all know prayer works... 🤣🤣

@@darleneh608 I was thinking more just give them the middle finger and Tax bill.

Perfect comment

LOL

Ive never understood how religious tax exemptions worked. They make more money every service than some countries do a year. That tax money could be putbtowards healthcare. Helping homeless. Helping thevpoor, hungry and needy? They can build a modern glass cathedral to rival Notra Dame de Paris but cant allow homeless people sanctuary in the um sanctuary. Something seems ironic there

@@GredelsRage Goes to show the churches and their *UTTER HYPOCRACY!!!*

True. And yet they are always asking for more money.😂

I've never understood it either. I can understand it, if they got a tax rebate on genuine charitable work, such as feeding homeless people. But a blanket tax exception. No, that should be abolished!

@@johnburn8031 The churches don't get tax rebates because they don't pay taxes.... *PERIOD!* And that's the crime right there! The churches are *FILTHY RICH* and they use barely any of that wealth to help *ANYONE!*

That was punny! I actually laughed

It's the War On Church Traffic. Don't you know traffic is the Devil's tool? 😏

@@HighStrangeDrifter Traffic really is the Devil's tool, but I'm a cycle commuter, so... 😉

Because Jesus said we would be.

@@HighStrangeDrifter I saw the devil tool in the gym changing room I ran away.

What you atheists don't seem to grasp is that the church, in saying so, by virtue of their divine authority, automatically sanctifies it, imbuing the act with virtue, morality, and (dare I say) a nobility unrecognizable to the common unbeliever's course understanding. /s

Just being a normal person religious or not If you dont lie, cheat, steal, cover up abuse,claw for money, judge everyone or insult minorities, you are already a better Christian than these people by default, Without ever stepping into a church you are already closer to being "Christ like"

Yeah, that's why they have the "simply ask forgiveness" escape clause...

And these gods justify so much corruption. The ends justify the means.

People sin. All people, and it is, or should be acknowledged by churches. A true Christian is one who accepts that but tries to do the right thing owning up when they fail. Unfortunately a lot of Christians forget that and also fail to forgive others for their "sins". James 7.3 "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" Oh, by the way, I'm not a Christian but was bought up in a Christian family that sees the bible as a guide which has to be taken in the context of the period it was written and that a lot of it is alagory rathet than literal. Hence the fact I wasn't indoctrinated but allowed to find my own way in life.

Mega churches are bs. All to fulfill their greed.

I know Josh fairly well from the Bridge in Spring Hill, TN. You say scandal after scandal, what else has he been up to?

@@carolinek2526 looks like someone’s compiled a big, big list in an article titled “What Lakepointe Church and Pastor Josh Howerton think about women”, although while it focuses on women it also touches on other points like treatment of disabled people and staff.

What a pity.

Haha brilliant accountability. Busted.

Kudos to you for reaching escape velocity on the wings of reason and rationality !

💛

That's your fave thing he taught you? It's one of my LEAST faves. Men now use it when they've cheated on their wives. It is SUCH a disrespectful attitude. You are planning for a manipulation of another person. DISGUSTING!!!🤮🤮🤮

I can relate...my dad was an Nazarene preacher and that is definitely something he would agree with. Love your name, btw

@@misslayer999 thanks :) my condolences 💐 fun factoid, every time I hear the term “Nazarene” I think of a cute little nectarine/tangerine hybrid

Not to mention in many cases enabling, facilitating and hiding effectively industrial levels of abuse.

@@SilverMKI You just described the Catholic Church and the systemic abuses within Islam. I could list others, but those are the 2 worst offenders. Judaism takes a very close 3rd place...

Gee, a church tried to influence people with a fase and misleading story? Wonder where they got that idea?

Honesty has never been a common virtue among the religious. Spreading their religion depends on them lying frequently.

Honesty seems to be a myth to me. It's almost as if the reality of honesty is that people who think they are honest are lying to themselves. The reality being that they are only honest while it is easy to be so. But, when push comes to shove, everybody is innocent until proven guilty, even if they have to lie. Kind of remind me of George Carlin's "everything is full of s***".

Very true. Hard for them to be honest to others when they lie to themselves.

Yes, and always has been!

Maybe because that involves work?

A megachurch in the southern USA probably thinks it has total power

@@barrylangille3523 probably :)

Technically, bearing false wtness is more like lying in court, or slander. Apparently lying just to get what you want is okay.

It doesnt count if you are just cheating those DIRY DIRTY secular people.

👏👏👏🍀🍀🍀

theft of government funds

Never how do you think we get follows if we told the truth the we were only scam to get your money no one would join.

So sorry for your loss

"it's for the children's safety" and the government caves because elections 😂

Taxing churches won't increase tax revenue, it only kills churches. Most church goers don't actually believe in the non-sense but a few do. It is primarily a social club and in today's era of social isolation churches are more important than ever. Unlike other social clubs churches have a diverse group of members that covers the whole range of socioeconomic groups, so it brings people together that would not other wise get to interact socially

That's nothing compared to what the mormons ask their congregants to do!

They sure can't have people deducting that gas money from their donations.

@@willj1598 facts

Prosperity gospel, yes, they do, "obviously" nothing bad ever happens to good people so anyone who is poor must not have been "good" enough. Every time I think some form of religion might be benign they come up with some bs like this.

Mine would give side-eye when I do that. Definitely my dog, so judgy.

As a Traffic Engineer for a large Texas City for 35 years, we NEVER told anyone when we might be conducting signal warrant evaluations. Ever. And if the study counts appeared to be skewed, we would do random field observations and recounts for validation. Also all driveways would have to be open and operating normally. Executives at some office building, or hospital, or school, or government building, or church might try some shady stuff like bumping numbers up by closing driveways, but it’s really easy to detect. And the cost and danger of placing an unnecessary traffic signal makes it worth the time to do and re-do the traffic studies as often as necessary to get it right. We never kept $1 million in the budget for random pop- signal installations. They were studied in-depth, evaluated, approved, surveyed, designed, and placed in the budget for future fiscal years.

See what you did there !!

Unheard of! 😅

Your hospital needed a Rolex wearin' preacher man.

@@willj1598 im in Ga, there is no shortage.

For extra malice, can we get it to let the bicycles and pedestrians go first?

@@celiashen5490 That's not malice. That's just good traffic light programming.

So much so that my face hurts now.

Sounds like the girl was faking being a fundie in order to get her parents off her back. ...you think that Bible she's got might be classed as a biohazard? Or maybe it's one of those Bibles with a hole carved out into it and it contains "toys" instead of a flask.

Or the church could have a bus or buses to pick people up and shuttle them to the church? Another scheme could be to encourage their church members to car pool?

I think they are looking for a more affluent clientele than bus riding folks.

American Christianity and helping the poor fo together like vegans and eating meat. Not only do they not do it, they are fundamentally opposed to doing it on an ethical basis.

@@willj1598 No matter how much you’re paid, driving while sitting in traffic is boring. There is exactly one day a week I can take the bus to work, and it’s my favorite. I didn’t cover my childhood bedroom walls in posters of super cars to dream of being stuck in bumper to bumper now that I have one, so I love the day someone else drives me. I just wish they’d expand the service to cover more days. Or build a light rail…

@@piedpiper1172 I absolutely agree with you about time and get your point. I grew up in the fine city of Denver, public transportation there is a joke so when I was a kid the only people on the bus had no other option. It certainly never got you anywhere in a timely manner. I doubt it has improved.

👍

You have to wonder why it's "Lead Pastor of Creative", undefined. Is it is it marketing? Advertising? Do they not want to look too much like the business they are?

Generally the more a religion has in common with either a Silicon Valley startup or an NYC hedge fund the further you want to study away from it.

One can not add or change traffic signs, on public roads, thats a crime.

This is where also they could work with the city to allow them to set one up on that day. Then the area could be signed to warn that traffic lights on Sunday. There are options and they didn't try all of them.

They could just pay for the light they want outright. It’s about $250,000 to build a new traffic light (+-75k state to state). That’s why we do traffic studies and such before installing them-because the budgets are limited so we prioritize where they go. If you’re willing to pay for it outright, most places will permit it and work with you. I helped a subdivision get a light to assist with exiting traffic. The county agreed to build it for them and assessed it as a dedicated additional property tax over 10 years. (The final cost was divided evenly across every plot, and added to each plot’s property tax. You could pay it early if you like, or ride out the ten years). The threshold was that at least 66% of the properties had to vote in favor of the project. This is pretty standard. Many counties will help you with orphan roads, bridge access, and so on this way.

I could see them sending staff members out there to drive back and forth over it.

Not "their" but "they're"! "Their" is the plural possessive while "they're" is the plural accusative.

@@neilforbes416 it's allcrhe same to me

@@liamodonovan6610 Because you went to school in America where the education standards are *ABYSMAL!*

It's why every year more Americans are identifying as non denominational or non-religious

Ah, but did they ever take a moment to stop and think about what they were doing?

@@stevewebber707 The megachurch? No, I don't think they did.

Taxing churches won't increase tax revenue, it only kills churches. Most church goers don't actually believe in the non-sense but a few do. It is primarily a social club and in today's era of social isolation churches are more important than ever. Unlike other social clubs churches have a diverse group of members that covers the whole range of socioeconomic groups, so it brings people together that would not other wise get to interact socially