The following continues the serialization of Chapter 5 on Religion from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:
The Economic Implications of Religion
Churches are not taxed much. Any income they derive is not taxable.
 | PDF Should Churches Be Taxed?. By D. B. Robertson. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press,... Dawson J. of Church and State.1970; 12: 500-501 |
Property associated with charitable purposes cannot be taxed. While any land utilized for profitable enterprises are, the influence churches can have on politics and business can be significant just because they own so much prime land. Further, in the U.S. alone, the Internal Revenue Service reports that Americans took tax exemptions for nearly $100 billion in religious donations. Mind you, this is largely worthwhile, for churches do a lot of good.
The financial health of churches, of course, is being challenged by those abuse suits just mentioned. In other ways, the decline of religion is definitely occurring. In the U.S., the Catholic Church is finding difficulty recruiting and keeping nuns (180,000 in 1965, less than 70,000 today, with many older than 70) and priests. There are companies in trouble with the law on their pensions. The financial shortfall for retirees of all orders will be $20 billion by 2023. Financially, this is could well be a more significant issue for churches than sexual abuse.
Hospitals run by churches are transferring ownership, for the cheap management and labor used for operations is diminishing. Land values are growing, making church/hospital property attractive for development, and certainly, more prone for dual use.
During the past half century, church attendance in the U.S. has dropped from about half to one-third. Between 1989 and 2004, the Catholic Church in Northern Ireland saw a drop in attendance from 90% to 62%. From TruthBook Religious News Blog (truthbook.com/news/2003/_10_01_archive.html):
o A City University of New York survey undertaken in 1991 showed that Americans who picked “no religion” had doubled over the past decade, and stood at third place behind Catholics and Baptists.
o 71% of Americans believe in the devil, a 7% rise in five years. What??
o Republicans are more likely to believe in God than Democrats, but Democrats are inclined towards astrology, reincarnation, ghosts and UFOs.
As a result, churches have gone high tech, embraced business principles and are into marketing, following on the heels of the evangelicals. One convincing fact carefully administered is the apparent survey result by Jonathan Gruber, an economist from MIT, that someone’s income can rise 10% by doubling personal church attendance.
But the idea that religion can bring material advantages is the basis of the Protestant work ethic laid out a hundred years ago by Max Weber (right). Gruber posits that church attendance yields “social capital”, building a web of relationships that fosters trust. Churches, further, offer a kind of mutual emotional and financial insurance. Finally, belief in Jesus, or his equivalent, can reduce mental stress, allowing for a higher focus on the opportunities for financial gain.
Mega-churches have also blossomed, providing total service seven days a week, from dawn to dusk, and these complexes also house banks, drug stores and schools. They help with real estate needs, medical-lending equipment, and personal counseling. Some of them show a weekly attendance of 30,000 and include entertainers like Randy Travis and skate-boarders jumping over a fire to illustrate salvation.
Shifting from churches to the matter of death itself, there are also changing financial implications. On the pure economic quasi-religious front, there was a time when the funeral industry fought Costco, Chinese imports and the federal government to maintain “fair”—meaning the highest possible—prices for caskets. It now turns out that there is an even bigger problem.
The Cremation Association of North America reports a clear growth, for rates were at only 6% in 1975, increasing to 28% in 2000, with an expectation of cremation being the burial of choice for 43% of Americans in 2025. While these urns today generally are stored in crematoria or like a casket in the earth, so a headstone and the traditional visiting process can be honored, more and more, simple wakes even without a priest, seem to be a growing trend. Then the cremated remains are placed in an attractive covered vase, which can be purchased at Wal-Mart’s or Ross’s, is then kept at home to show evidence of some close respect. More and more, too, the ashes are just carefully and gloriously released into the environment, as religion itself is facing the dust to dust syndrome. This residual feeling will carry on for generations, but the overall drift, because of economics and general non-belief, will show a continuous slide.
As a result, funeral plans, mortuary firms, casket manufacturers and churches will financially suffer. The typical traditional funeral, with casket, has a cost in the range of $10,000. While the grief factor will maintain some strength for maybe another generation, with higher disbelief will almost surely come this glide towards non-traditional (dumping the ashes) methods of honoring the dead.
The financial implications towards religion in general will need to be a high priority matter for those involved with the Golden Revolution. More than the economic aspects of this issue, though, will be the necessity to deal with the very foundation of religion itself.
In most ways, an argument can be made that we miss the whole point of religion when we attempt to attach a monetary value to its existence. Where would civilization be today if not for religion? Could the societies of the past endured and progressed without the partner that was God? If God was not created by Man at the beginning of thought, would we be here today? Well, my simple answer is yes, but the fact of the matter is that He was crucial to our presence today, and how best now to deal with Him without the crutch of an afterlife and the advent of a stronger case for evolution?
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The Dow Jones Industrials shot up 123 to 9939. World markets were mixed, but the Japan Nikkei sunk further to 9441. Gold fell $3/toz to $1237 and crude oil is at $72.51/barrel, which is $1.73/gallon. The USA average for gasoline today is $2.73/gallon. Of course, the price in Hawaii is $3.50/gallon for regular gasoline, with Maui at $3.80/gallon.
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