Calgary church feeds 150,000 people a year. Loses charitable status.

Because, even though it happily feeds anyone in need – including homosexuals – it has the gall to disagree with abortion and homosexual activity:

Calgary church loses charitable status for its “non-partisan political activities”.

A Calgary church has lost its charitable status in part because it spends too much of its time advocating on social issues such as abortion and marriage.

In October, the Kings Glory Fellowship Association, a non-denominational Protestant group, was told by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that for several reasons, including a lack of clarity on how it spends it money, they could no longer issue charitable receipts.

But the letter highlighted that the group spent more than 10% of its time on “non-partisan political activities and therefore strayed into activities “outside its stated purpose.”

“We note … the members of the Board of Directors espouse strong negative vies about sensitive and controversial issues, which may also be viewed as political, such as abortion, homosexuality, divorce, etc.”

The CRA allows charitable organizations to spend some time on “political activities,” but the cutoff is 10%. A spokesman for the CRA was not immediately available to explain how the percentage of time a group spends on non-charitable works is determined.

Artur Pawlowski, the head of the Kings Glory Fellowship, said his group “has nothing to do with politics and we do not advertise for a party or a candidate. The only political activity you can connect us to is defending our right to speak.”

Mr. Pawlowski said the primary mission of his church is to feed homeless people. He said this group supplies food for about 150,000 a year, mainly to people “that no one else wants to deal with.”

“When we feed people we don’t care whether they are homosexuals or have had abortions or been divorced but we preach what the Bible says about those issues.”

He said the financial issues are just a “smoke screen” and the real agenda is to “keep us quiet.” Mr. Pawlowski also noted that his church has never been audited by the CRA.

I do hope that Archbishop Fred Hiltz leaps to the defence of Artur Pawlowski, since one of the Famous Five marks of mission is to respond to human need by loving service. Fred, are you there? You’re breaking up, Fred.

I wonder why the Anglican church of Canada still has tax free status, since it is almost exclusively a politically motivated organisation that is constantly petitioning the government over one thing or another while actually doing almost nothing useful itself.

The Kings Glory Fellowship Association feeds 150,000 people a year, espouses politically incorrect causes and loses its tax exempt status as a charity.

The Anglican Church of Canada, a national organisation, by comparison feeds almost no-one, peddles politically correct banalities and, mysteriously, still has charitable status.