markz said:
Buy property and you dont pay land tax, is that the deal?
Because some churchs I see, huge plots of land, very minimal vehicles in their lot. I often wonder how they can afford the land tax.
I'm straying off-subject again, but the legal exceptions given to religions reminds me of my perhaps first disaffection with the church, the Catholic one.
As a kid in Chicago, I would sometimes take the bus downtown alone for adventure. Back then in the early evening it would be crowded with people. (I must point out that this was before downtown Chicago turned black at night. And I don't mean lack of sunlight.) A common scene, that stood out because of the funny uniforms, was a group of nuns, 4 to a car, driving Cadillacs. parking and going to the downtown restaurants.
I was too young to even comprehend the cost of the bill at such restaurants, but all boys knew the status-ranking of cars. Cadillacs were the cream of the crop, and the combination of a status symbol with distinctive religious costumes is an incongruous one.
Cadillac Nuns?
I later learned Nuns take a vow of poverty. Maybe once upon a time the church really was poor, and the vow was appropriate. Then they got rich, but because rituals resist change, they simply hadn't updated the vows.
Whatever the explanation, the church not only promotes a fictional narrative, it's hypocritical.
