Will Burningman become a religion?

[ezekielchakras]

The essence of religion is structure and direction.
Guidance is presumed through a superior or interior spirituality that enlightens all eventually to an alternative reality of existence and peace.

The essence of Burning Man is generational freedom from any guidance from all organized religious doctrines and societies with the belief that innate community sensual awareness will enlighten you.
Leave No Trace (LNT) lacks every sense of nurturing harmony that could benefit from the fruits of your labour - plant a tree and please leave a trace of life.
Rules of the road to accommodate collective safety are the roots of an imagined primordial upheaval in life that will blossom from creative fantasy into an organized society - really?

To me, Burning Man was an experience that I learned how to return to my religion upon a visually sadistic undertone of carnal flair.
I admit that I am a stronger individual because of Burning Man by awakening the desire to rise up from the surreal attempt upon reality on the playa.

If you are lost, Burning Man may help you find your faith.
It is YOUR faith, NOT the faith of others that you will find at Burning Man.

Therefore, Burning Man can not be a religion.

Any questions?

[Simon of the Playa]

yeah,


WTF?

[Zona]

God has not been to Burningman yet, I know I invited him, and he did not return my calls. In fact his son has not returned my calls. What do we do with people like this, who claim to be just like us...we go on with our party, and drop them from the list, as there are lots of our things to see and do besides call them all the time.

In fact I think they owe the rest of us money, they did not pay their taxes! Bad friends indeed.

[bm_cricket]

.
What about instead of a religion, it became a political party ???

Imagine the possibilities.....

I am, and I'm frightened but a little turned on.. Hmm..

[bm_cricket]

or Scientology for that matter

Good point. If Scientology gets tax exempt status why the fuck doesn't Burning Man? I think there are more people with the man tatooed on their ass than this thing:

[bm_cricket]

It's a ritual and it's a matter of time before people ascribe meanings to the ritual and start fighting over interpretations. When the first blood is drawn is the birth of a religion, what a holy day it will be.

Hallelujah. Blessed be.

On the 1st day the Gate opened. And the city got busy.
On the 2nd day the art was almost finished. And zip-ties were everywhere.
On the 3rd day the party got bump'n. And it was intense.
On the 4th day the art broke again. And there were more zip-ties.
On the 5th day the frat boys came. And it was messy.
On the 6th day the Man fell. And shit got wild.
On the 7th day the temple fell. And the religion was born.

Yeah.. I can see it happening.

[xhoosier]

does that mean we can strip naked, take mushrooms, smoke dope, and dance all night without worrying about those undercover police at BM.

Couldn't most of this be protected under the premise that BM is a religion?

[FaeTora]

I think the answer is technically Yes & No. It is one of those grey areas of the law because while it should be protected under faith, the laws also state the most of those are high enough class of drugs to potentially be prohibited from religious practices. I can ask around if you like though. I'm truly dorky and know lots of people smarter than I.

But if it is a faith, does that mean we get to take it off from work as a religious holiday? Holy days of obligation would take on a whole new meaning.

[bm_cricket]

So, maybe I'm out of touch but.... Wouldn't Burning Man LLC save a bundle if they became absorbed by a 501c3 non-profit (church like, or otherwise qualifying non-profit foundation) They could accept tax deductible donations, we Burning Man nuts use the various tiers of ticket sales above and beyond the minimum ticket as a donation, thus allowing us little people to make "tax deductible donations" each year. It would be for the children, or the arts, or some such..

In other words... Why haven't we done this yet? Hell, I've only been baptized once and it was in a bucket of playa mud in 2008!

[theCryptofishist]

501 (3)(c) status can be quite restrictive. Rumor was saying that was why they weren't going for it. Then, the rumor mill started with something new--they were trying and eventually they did not gain it.
Now it's not wise to take playa rumor seriously.

[bm_cricket]

501 (3)(c) status can be quite restrictive. Rumor was saying that was why they weren't going for it. Then, the rumor mill started with something new--they were trying and eventually they did not gain it.
Now it's not wise to take playa rumor seriously.

Why not take it seriously?! If I didn't take it seriously I wouldn't have spent an entire night looking for No Doubt in deep playa! And 'ya know what? When I finally found them it was totally worth it!!!

No, but really, 501 c3 is pretty flexible. Working/volunteering on the board for one myself I know that, other than a lot of paperwork, it's very straight forward.

Here are a few reasons why I think it would be smart:
-Most federal, state, county, and city governments have considerably lower rates for use of public spaces... considerably lower.... thus saving us on the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent renting the playa every year
-BM Org wouldn't need to deal with taxes (I'm not sure what state they formed in but since they operate out of California they probably pay a freak-ton of taxes) thus saving the LLC hundreds of thousands each year
-They could structure the ticket sales so that there is a "base" ticket and a "donation" ticket, thus letting each of us write off a few hundred bucks each year. The savings to the "community" would be huge (each Burner gets $100 back on their taxes?!), all that extra money would be funneled back into the community or into burner friendly alternatives.

Reasons why it's a problem:
-You usually need to start the organization with the intention of making it a non-profit from day one.
-Larry couldn't sell it.

Complications:
-If Larry formed a new Burning Man 501.c3 which absorbed the Burning Man LLC then he could still be a CEO and have administrative board rights, a salary, and all that jazz, but probably have an extra million dollars to play around with each year!

Now.. explain to me why that sounds like a bad idea?

[Ugly Dougly]

Isn't Burning Man a 501 (3)'(c) corporation?

[theCryptofishist]

No, it's a Limited Liability Corperation.
Supposedly they wanted to change the status because they wanted to be able to retire without getting sued for things that happened when they were on the board.

[bm_cricket]

No, it's a Limited Liability Corperation.
Supposedly they wanted to change the status because they wanted to be able to retire without getting sued for things that happened when they were on the board.

They can still easily maintain that veil of security with a 501c3. There are special kinds of insurance (Called "Directors and Officers Liability Insurance") which prevents them from being responsible for anything the org does. They probably already have a type of that insurance because otherwise simply forming an LLC isn't enough to prevent yourself from being sued.. it just increases the chances that the blood sucking lawyer doesn't take your home, assets, and the shirt off your back.

In other words, if they are just doing it to keep a "distance" from anyone who wants to sue them then an LLC doesn't give them anything a 501c3 can't also give them. When they got started an LLC is much simpler but in Burning Man's current state a 501c3 and it's more complicated paper trail isn't any more complicated...

[theCryptofishist]

If you re-read my post carefully, you might see that they were trying to gain that status, not that they feared losing it.
And anyway, why are you arguing it with someone who's already admitted that she doesn't really know a thing?

[bm_cricket]

If you re-read my post carefully, you might see that they were trying to gain that status, not that they feared losing it.
And anyway, why are you arguing it with someone who's already admitted that she doesn't really know a thing?

Wha? oOh.... damn..

Sulks off...