Temple of Advanced Enlightenment

If you would like to purchase Temple Apparel and show your support please Click Here. Proceeds benefit the Temple and you can wear your support loud and proud. Check out our Apparel Store today!

Currently we accept cash donations and checks made out to The Temple of Advanced Enlightenment.

We are also accepting donations of used cell phones for use in our Phoneraiser efforts. Please mail or drop off donations of cell phones, cash, checks and money orders to the address below. Funds will be used to establish and build our beautiful temple and give us a permanent home of worship.

Donations of your unwanted cell phones and ink cartridges can mean support for
our organization.
You will be giving old technology new life and keeping it from polluting our landfills.
Each cell phone can pollute up to 132,000 liters of drinking water. Your unwanted
cell phones and inkjet cartridges will be recycled in accordance with EPA
regulations or refurbished and reused.

Here's how you can help:

Our online fundraising store has over 650 of the most popular magazine titles at up to 85% off newsstands prices. Purchase or renew your favorite magazine subscriptions and 40% of your purchase will go directly to our cause!

Make purchases at over 450 online vendors and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Temple!

Choose from the widest range of products and services and help our cause! Hundreds of Brand Name items that we would probably buy online anyways, so why not do it here and also do some good!

Churches Need Not Apply for 501 (C) (3) Status

In order to be considered for tax-exempt status by the IRS an organization must fill out and submit IRS Form 1023 and 1024. However, note what the IRS says regarding churches and church ministries, in Publication 557:

Some organizations are not required to file Form 1023. These include:

Churches, interchurch organizations of local units of a church, conventions or associations of churches, or integrated auxiliaries of a church, such as a men’s or women’s organization, religious school, mission society, or youth group. These organizations are exempt automatically if they meet the requirements of section 501(c)(3).

Churches Are “Automatically Tax-Exempt”

According to IRS Code § 508(c)(1)(A):

Special rules with respect to section 501(c)(3) organizations.

(a) New organizations must notify secretary that they are applying for recognition of section 501(c)(3) status.

(1) Mandatory exceptions. Subsections (a) and (b) shall not apply to—

(A) churches, their integrated auxiliaries, and conventions or associations of churches.

This is referred to as the "mandatory exception" rule. Thus, we see from the IRS’ own publications, and the tax code, that it is completely unnecessary for any church to apply for tax-exempt status. In the IRS’ own words a church “is automatically tax-exempt.”

Churches Are “Automatically Tax-Deductible”

And what about tax-deductibility? Doesn’t a church still need to become a 501c3 so that contributions to it can be taken as a tax deduction? The answer is no! According to IRS Publication 526:

Organizations That Qualify To Receive Deductible Contributions

You can deduct your contributions only if you make them to a qualified organization. To become a qualified organization, most organizations other than churches and governments, as described below, must apply to the IRS.

In the IRS’ own words a church “is automatically tax-deductible.”

Churches Have a Mandatory Exception To Filing Tax Returns

Not only is it completely unnecessary for any church to seek 501c3 status, to do so becomes a grant of jurisdiction to the IRS by any church that obtains that State favor. In the words of Steve Nestor, IRS Sr. Revenue Officer (ret.):

"I am not the only IRS employee who’s wondered why churches go to the government and seek permission to be exempted from a tax they didn’t owe to begin with, and to seek a tax deductible status that they’ve always had anyway. Many of us have marveled at how church leaders want to be regulated and controlled by an agency of government that most Americans have prayed would just get out of their lives. Churches are in an amazingly unique position, but they don’t seem to know or appreciate the implications of what it would mean to be free of government control."

The church in America today is, by and large, not speaking to the vital issues of the day. The church has been effectively silenced. There has been a chilling effect upon the church’s freedom of speech for fear of IRS retribution should the church get out of line. The inevitable result is a moral downward spiral in the culture as the church stands mute.

This did not happen by accident, but by design, and it is something of relatively recent design. Churches were added to IRS Code § 501c3 in 1954. All one need do is analyze who is responsible for sponsoring the congressional bill to include churches in § 501c3 and it should become apparent that his agenda was not to empower the church, but to silence the church (hint: the sponsor was a Senator from Texas who later became President).

The free speech which churches have enjoyed for centuries in America was not stolen from them, rather, they unknowingly gave it away when they replaced their natural exempt status as an unincorporated church with a new and substantially different status as a government authorized tax exempt 501(c)(3) corporation. The government legally (although not equitably in this author's opinion) claims a vested interest in the assets of such government created organizations by reason of the government granted tax exemption that these unnatural entities are not otherwise entitled to. (Churches that are not incorporated are not taxable entities nor do they fall under the purview of the law applicable to 501(c)(3) corporations; however, they do face other risks and liabilities which corporations do not.) It appears the original intent of the law as crafted in 1913 was not aimed at eventually stripping churches of their free speech but that is the result of it today. Extracting a church from being a 501(c)(3) corporation and returning it to its natural place is not an easy thing to do and it could result in the government confiscating all of the church's assets or forcing it to transfer the assets to another 501(c)(3) organization. This is a very real probability under the same legally upheld reasoning that permits them "to ensure that the assets of such organization are preserved for charitable or other purposes specified in § 501(c)(3)."

Donate to the Temple of Advanced Enlightenment

Churches Need Not Apply for 501 (C) (3) Status

Churches Are “Automatically Tax-Exempt”

Churches Are “Automatically Tax-Deductible”

Churches Have a Mandatory Exception To Filing Tax Returns