Re:What is a church? (Score 1)

I dunno, an income tax for churches seems kinda like a money making scheme to me. Seems the Catholic and Lutheran churches are living pretty high on the hog in Germany. Those two churches own more land than any company or organization in Germany except the German government. And it was the NAZIS who originally instituted that tax for those two churches, to buy them off. If the leaders of those churches had any shame at all for the activities of their predecessors for allowing the Holocaust to occur... well, if it were me, I'd have refused to accept any such money collected! But, we are talking millions and millions of deutschmarks, and, well... it's nice work if you can get it. Furthermore, German COURTS OF LAW have recognized Scientology as a religion. Dozens of times. What form of money-making is outlawed? Scientology derives income from services and from materials (books, tapes, etc.). Now, surely certain jurisdictions have tried to outlaw the ways that Scientology promotes itself and gets income, but these were not illegal until those jurisdictions decided to try to find ways to destroy Scientology -- and even German courts have found that such laws were themselves unconsitutional! So, please, enlighten us.