The Cost of Religion
By: Jacob Beck and Christina Rencis.
Edited by: Ryan Patel and Andrew Smith.
For the past century, the Catholic Church has collected millions of dollars in taxes from German believers. This money has been accumulated through an 8-9% tax on an individual’s annual income. On Monday, a German Catholic reform group, called “We Are Church,” stood up against the age-old tax. Their criticism is rooted from a statement by Germany’s Catholic bishops, revealing that members of the Catholic faith will have to pay taxes or they will not be able to have certain benefits or be an official member of the church at all.
The criticism is timed with a case in Germany’s top administrative court. The challenger is a faithful Catholic named Hermut Zapp. He wants to be able to practice his faith and be part of the religion without paying a tax. Zapp is not only a religious man, but he’s also a retired theology professor, so he is challenging the very system he knows so much about.
After much debate, the top administrative court ruled on Wednesday that Zapp must either pay his annual Church tax, or disassociate from the Catholic faith. This sets a huge precedent for the German Catholic Church since this tax brings in millions of dollars each year. It is also an expense that drives away over 100,00 Catholics each year, nearly 3 million over the past 20 years. And with this decision, more may leave.
We live a country where there is a clear separation of Church and State. It’s what we know and our society runs differently. Here, religious institutions have internal fees. To become a member of many religious facilities in America, one must pay member dues, which is then distributed to many facets of the institution. However, in Germany, a religion reaps in the benefits of a mandatory tax.
The German Roman Catholic Church has become an equivalent to a government or money-handling body through this century old tradition. But this idea isn’t new. It started back in medieval times in England, where the Catholic Church was run in a similar manner. People felt the pressure of social norms to participate in religion and pay for what religion did for them. The Church would then use that money to help the poor through the money-lending branch, the apostolic camera. Kind of like a bank.
But like all well-intentioned people, the Catholic Church in Britain had its reasons, and so does the German Catholic Church. One of the most important factors during medieval times was to give poor people a more level playing field to prevent uprisings But couldn’t something similar happen in our modern day scenario? With Wednesday’s decision, maybe people who are Catholics but do not want to pay the tax will start a protest or uprising to prove that a religious tax to maintain membership is unfair.
But do German citizens really have a reason to be upset? If we, in America, pay dues to join religious institutions, are we not doing something similar to paying a religious tax? Maybe this is a behavioral economics debate, but the decision of German leaders to impose a tax automatically gives it the negative connotation of the three-lettered word “tax.” While paying dues is optional, people are still more inclined to do so because they are invited to, not forced. So what would you rather do? Pay a tax or pay dues?
Discussion (2) | September 30th, 2012 Categories: Government Policy, Institutions
