From the BBC:
Germany's Roman Catholics are to be denied the right to Holy Communion or religious burial if they stop paying a special church tax.
A German bishops' decree which has just come into force says anyone failing to pay the tax - an extra 8% of their income tax bill - will no longer be considered a Catholic.
The bishops have been alarmed by the number of Catholics leaving the Church. They say such a step should be seen as a serious act against the community.
This is not really news, as the Kirchensteuer surcharge has been part of the German tax system since the 19th century. You have always been able to opt out, and when I worked there, none of my employers ever asked me whether I wanted to pay it, which saved me the hassle of explaining that a) I'm an atheist and b) I've no interest in paying a Pfennig more in tax than I have to.
The unanswered question always was: what happens if you do opt out? Surprisingly few of my clients ever did. The answer must have been that you are ex-communicated (or whatever the equivalent is for Protestants), meaning you can't go to Heaven, but then of course, the next question would be, what happens if you opt in again for the last few months of your life? Does that buy you a place in Heaven or would you have to pay back tax for the missing years? What if a German Christian were to move abroad for a few years and thus not be able to pay the tax? And so on.
Nobody ever really talked about all this, and as far as I am aware, people who opted out were no more likely to be killed by bolts of lightning or falling trees than anybody else.
Education in Oz
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13 comments:
Don't you also lose your rights to use church provided services like childcare, leisure centres, etc?
M, I dunno, nobody ever talked about it. Nurseries and schools are run by the local council or the state education system and I'm not aware of any church-provided swimming pools or suchlike.
I opted out (having been right royally stitched up into opting in in the first place). I was solemnly assured that my 'home church' would be informed, so I assume that somewhere in Lambeth Palace or Church House there is a little pile of letters from the German tax office informing them of the errant behaviour of members of the Church of England.
H, interesting. I'd love to know what they do with those letters.
Our of interest, were you at any stage hit by bolts of lightning, tree branches, swarms of locusts?
I too wonder what they do with the letters. I didn't have the heart to tell the German official who had administered the necessary oath that it was unlikely that British bureaucracy would be up to the task of tracking me and keeping me out of church (unlike, presumably, that of Germany). Also, that it seemed a bit rich to grass me up to Rowan Williams, given that they hadn't been paying over any of the tax to the CofE in the first place.
"what happens if you opt in again for the last few months of your life?"
I think the parable of the Prodigal Son is the answer to that one.
Germany's Roman Catholics are to be denied the right to Holy Communion or religious burial if they stop paying a special church tax.
LOL - go to ASDA, buy some wine. Buy some bread. Get a few of you together and find the service online. Perform it.
Simples.
H, excellent point. you should have solemnly told them that you wanted your contributions transferred to the C of E.
B, that's what I think. But what if that was your intention all along? Surely God wouldn't be fooled by a low down trick like that?
JH, I thought they used like Carr's water biscuits or something?
In answer to your point, it is apparently impossible to divert the 'tithe' to anyone other than the official german protestant and catholic churches, which has led to the bizarre situation that members of e.g. protestant 'house-churches' opt out of paying the tax so as to donate the money to the church they actually adhere. I guess the same would go for the many muslims in the country.
Are you guys familiar with the term 'Scribes and Pharisees'?
You will find at least one not far from home.
H, or the atheists, who divert the tax into their own pockets.
RS, wot?
Having enough people believe you are the sole vendor of tickets to a comfortable eternity is a boon. Imagine what ye olde BT or BR could do if they had a proper natural monopoly like that. "Employee fiddle your kids, eh? *shrug* He's on vacation in one of our country clubs now anyway. What's it to you? And did you pay your ticket, or did you figure the scorching heat of eternal damnation wasn't so bad after all?"
Kj, indeed. They ought to re-write the Bibble so that it says "Thou shalt not travel without buying a ticket".
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