The Atheist’s Christmas Rights

Richard Cochrane writes:

“German politicians are so upset over crowded Christmas Eve church services that they are threatening to limit attendance to church tax payers only.  Germany’s Catholic and Protestant churches get over 70% of their funding from revenues collected by the tax office from community members.  Germans who officially leave their church are exempt from the church tax.

“Worried that regular churchgoers could not find a seat or get a ‘good’ seat due to the popularity of the traditional Christmas service, Thomas Volk, a top member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in Baden-Württemberg, said the church should be selective.  Martin Lindner, a member of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) in Berlin, also expressed alarm at the lack of places in church and told Bild that parish members should get tickets entitling them to the best seats.

“The Weimar Constitution of 1919 and Grundgesetz (Constiution) of 1949 are the legal basis for this practice.  In Germany, on the basis of tax regulations passed by the communities and within the limits set by state laws, communities may either:

‘require the taxation authorities of the state to collect the fees from the members on the basis of income    tax assessment (then, the authorities withhold a collection fee), or choose to collect the church tax themselves.’

“The church tax is only paid by members of the respective church.  People who are not members of a church tax-collecting denomination do not have to pay it.  Members of a religious community under public law may formally declare their wish to leave the community to state (not religious) authorities.  With such a declaration, the obligation to pay church taxes ends. Some communities refuse to administer marriages and burials of (former) members who have declared to leave it.

“The money flow of state and churches is distinct at all levels of the procedures. The church tax is not meant to be a way for the state to directly support churches, but since expenses for church tax are fully deductible in fact such support occurs on a somewhat large scale. That has atheists’ and non-members’ underwear in a bunch.

“The church tax is historically rooted in the pre-Christian Germanic custom according to which  the chief of the tribe was directly responsible for the maintenance of priests and religious cults. During the Christianization of Western Europe, this custom was adopted by the Christian churches (Arian and Catholic) in the concept of ‘Eigenkirchen’ (churches owned by the landlord), which stood in strong contrast to the central church organization of the Roman Catholic church. Despite the resulting medieval conflict between emperor and pope, the concept of church maintenance by the ruler remained the accepted custom in most Western European countries. In Reformation times, the local princes in Germany became officially heads of the church in Protestant areas and were legally responsible for the maintenance of churches.

“Not until the 19th century were the finances of churches and state regulated to a point where the churches became financially independent.  At this point the church tax was introduced to replace the state benefits the churches had obtained previously.

“Taxpayers, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant or members of other tax-collecting communities, pay between 8% (in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) and 9% (in the rest of the country) of their income tax to the church or other community to which they live.  The tax payments are fully deductible.

“It was, to some extent, such federal support of religion through taxes that entrenched early American federalists who objected to both income tax and state supported religion.  It infuriated early separatists, many of whom joined pilgrims going to the New World.  Such freedom from religion morphed into the current debate, mostly by the ignorant—meaning uninformed—about freedom of religion.  Which is vastly different from current manufactured conflicts over trivial displays promulgated by atheists, agnostics and secularists determined to interfere in others’ faith and practices.”

How about the hypocrisy of unbelievers who block faithful church members from attendance, or at least decent seats, at Christmas services?  Apparently the atheists and other unbelievers like the feelgood pageantry, even though they consider it to be based on a delusion.  Someone has remarked, however, that if all the great deeds, art and architecture and the rest of Christianity are based on a delusion, it is still the grandest delusion imaginable.

Of course, the hypocrisy doesn’t stop there.  One poll found that 12% of those Americans claiming to have been born again don’t believe there is a God (!).  Now, THAT represents some sort of weird delusion!  I suppose it has to be classified with the Russians’ voting Josef Stalin as their third most admired head of state—right after one who suppressed the radical elements in Russian society.

What is happening, of course, is that we’re far advanced into the anti-Enlightenment, where feelings are all that matters.  But do we really want a society, an electorate and a government ruled by feelings instead of reason?

For my part, I’m still disgusted with a packed Christmas Eve service I attended in which many of those attending engaged in talking, laughing and horseplay even during communion.