Posted on 07/23/2019 4:33:23 PM PDT by marshmallow
The Catholic and Protestant churches both lost over 200,000 members last year. The losses have hit the churches hard, as members of both churches pay up to 9% of their taxable income as church taxes.
Germany's Catholic Church lost 216,078 members and Protestant churches lost some 220,000 in 2018, according to data published on Friday by the German Bishops' Conference and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).
In total, around 23 million German citizens are still members of the Catholic Church and 21.14 million are members of the Protestant churches. The two groups account for 53.2% of the country's total population of over 83 million.
Hans Langendörfer, secretary of the German Bishops' Conference, described Friday's figures as a "worrying" statistic.
"Every departure hurts," said Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, president of the EKD. "Since people today, unlike in the past, decide out of freedom whether they want to belong to the church, it is important for us today to make even clearer why the Christian message is such a strong basis for life."
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
“Church taxes” paid by citizen, not paid by the church...
https://wwkn.de/en/about-german-taxes/church-tax-kirchensteuer/
I can see why my Great-grandfather moved to the US back in 1876....
Take a stance against perversion and maybe some will come back.
There are Christians in Germany at all?
Ask the church how much assistance they’ve given Merkel importing muslims. You’ll have a good idea why people have left.
Well if they are preaching the German version of the same liberal booltshiht they do here it’s no wonder.
state run and funded churches.
May the real Gospel of Jesus Christ sweep the continent, may the Holy Spirit move and make disciples of all men—those who profess now to be atheists, Muslim, or even Christian but in name only.
We need revival folks, in Europe and North America.
I blame the false pope.
The liberal, clerical hierarchy is failing to bring the truth of Christ to inform, inspire, and challenge the “sheep without a shepherd.” Germans can get lies from socialists, fascists, and Islam why would they need the lies of liberal Christians? They need the Truth that sets people free. Pathetic!
My understanding is that it is German Catholic bishops behind the “Amazon Synod” - let’s worship these perfect pagans and dump Catholic doctrine to be better “Christians”. If true, the German Catholic church isn’t Catholic anymore. Of course they’d then lose members.
I think you are correct.
A lot of small Home Churches are being established.
23 million *members* does not mean 23 million *attendees* of the Catholic Church.
I've seen other sources that say the Church Tax is 8 or 9% of the taxpayer's income tax, so up to 4.05% of income.
The amount is 8-percent of your yearly income tax. If you make around 32,000 Euro (the working class average), which is about 38,000 dollars....you can figure your income tax is in the ballpark (assuming you are married and have at least one kid) of six thousand Euro.
Don’t forget, you are also paying into the pension tax, and the public health care program as well.
So from the 6,000....you multiple it by 8-percent and come to 480 Euro a year for the church. This equals roughly 40 Euro ($50) a month.
What you get from the deal? If you want a church wedding or a church funeral, or a kid’s confirmation episode...then it’s covered in the local town church. The main complaint by folks is that they don’t attend but maybe two or three times a year, and they don’t think the money is being wisely used.
The general strategy is that you keep paying into the ‘pot’ until you are married, and the kids are finished on confirmation classes, then you quit. That way, you get full use of the church for practical purposes. Once you pass on, the village or town will have a multi-use chapel at the burial yard which is used for funerals (for a fee).
You can look over at the Catholic Church with it’s abuse accusations, and the scandals involving renovation of property....then look at the Lutheran Church folks with the migration and immigration support. Both have wasted resources and trust.
Yeah, those 200,000 protos really need to keep it in their pants.
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