Let's say you belong to an exclusive club. You pay well for the privilege.On Christmas Eve, your club is planning a very special event with Santa and gifts and lots of good wine. All club members are excited and intend to attend looking forward to a wonderful evening with friends and family.
All of a sudden, your club is inundated with strangers and hangers-on who take all the good seats, and have the audacity to act as though they have a right to be there. They are not members of the club and thus never pay dues.
You'd probably get pretty damn angry and might even get a little "grinchy" on Christmas Eve.
In Germany, Roman Catholic and Protestant churches are still mostly funded by tithes, which are collected by the German government's tax office. Germans can opt out of paying these tithes, but they must then leave the church.
This creates a problem at Christmas, for all kinds of non-tithing Germans show up for Christmas services at Germany's Catholic and Protestant churches. That makes many good tithing Germans a bit angry and frustrated.
Some German politicos have suggested that "midnight mass on Christmas Eve should be reserved for people who have paid their church tax."
Spiegel Online reports that "Thomas Volk, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats in the southern state of Baden-Wurttemberg, said that many regular churchgoers were angry that they can't get a seat because of the onslaught on churches at Christmas."
Volk thinks that on December 24 (today), churches should admit only those people who have paid their church tax. Regular members would be given tickets to guarantee them a seat at services.
One problem remains unresolved, though. If this were to become policy, how would it be enforced.
Why not post soldiers at the doors to check tax returns?
1 comment:
How will they resolve this peacefully? I suspect fist fights will break out.
Bob Poris
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