Editor;
I agree unequivocally with Mr Standiford (PM 18/1) that churches must be taxed and I am informed that in the USA this would provide an income equivalent to the entire revenue from individual tax payers.
It’s not only taxation. In the Philippines today an entire bus was held hostage by a preacher who ranted on non-stop at high volume for twenty minutes. My protests were met with a few smiles and stony silence and my request to the conductor to charge him a fare and make him sit down simply engendered a grin and nothing else. I mention this as it displays another example of how religion ignores the normal rules of a civilized society. Would the passenger have tolerated the man if he had been a politician? I think not.
A similar example in my own country is that of sanctimonious busybodies criticising the second in line for the throne for not attending church regularly. That same church is now telling people to give up using their computers for lent! This is not merely stupid and downright inconsiderate but looks rather like an own goal! It might have been better to have told people to give up going to church for lent.
L. Ron Hubbard, the fraud and con artist who founded the Church of Scientology, was one of the most successful religious scammers since the medieval popes and he said, “If you want to make money, start a religion!”
As a proactive suggestion to anyone who wishes to promote the taxation of churches, a good idea would be to start a petition on the internet.
Yours etc.
Michael Nightingale
UK
