Catholic Scandal
A German bishop (i.e. Tebartz-van Elst) ends up in the news in 2013 for the cost of his lavish, new residence plus revelations of other extravagant activities etc.. The costs of the residence are reported to have grown from initially Euro 2 million to Euro 31 million. People on Twitter were saying he who is without sin cast the first precious stone.
Charitable donations to the catholic church in Germany are reported to have significantly dropped thereafter.
In the wake of this scandal, Germans abandoned the church in large numbers.
Protestants Affected
Out of fear for loss of charitable donations in the wake of the above mentioned scandal the protestant church of Germany finally decides to become much more transparent about its finances and budgets (see e.g. here).
If I am not mistaken, the churches in Germany were rather secretive about their finances in the past.
Tax Revenues
Unlike the many churches in the U.S., the German churches are largely dependent on the so called church tax collected by the government on behalf of the two major churches, i.e. catholic and protestant.
Now we learn, e.g. that the protestant church expects total revenues in 2014 of Euro 556 million of which a whopping Euro 445 million are from the church tax. Charitable contributions are only a meager Euro 514,000.
Message To German Clergy
Martin Luther castigated the catholic church for its practice of indulgences.
It is about time that the christian churches of Germany voluntarily abolish the church tax and live primarily from charitable contributions.
