Philo... an 'emotive campaign', eh?

I am well aware that what I say will not change minds, and I do not seek to, knowing how inflexible we all can be.

I merely point out the danger of allowing religions such tax-free status, when there is scant evidence that 'being religious' has any connection to the 'good works' being done.

Funnily enough, I did apply for a job as a chaplain, or is that 'Chaplin' Philo?, but was knocked back because only Xtians can be school chaplains in Qld.

I also applied for a job as a 'school mentor' under the 'everyone loves Tim Costello' World Vision plan to infiltrate and recruit in public schools, but was again told that only Xtians have the required skills to be school mentors to 'the kiddies'.

Funny, eh? How Xtians believe only they have 'the power', when there is so little evidence of a Christian world view actualy benefitting the world to date.

But I am surprised to learn that you know about my extensive community service record.

I do tend to agree with you on the 'pop star' driven campaigns to 'rid the world of poverty', especially when I can see so many churches at the forefront of this claptrap, no doubt raking off a few millions as they pass through the Holy Moula Filters down at the Temple Square.

They seem to mostly be about flogging goods from rich nations and burdening poor ones with more debt, while shonky types get brown bags on the way through.

Far better to engage people in understanding why they are poorer than others, and who makes them so, and why they need to be kept poor, as the Pope likes to ensure so many are for instance... but it would be unfair to single his mob out as the only bad apple in the barrel, of course. Plenty more where he came from.

Philo,

As you are obviously missing the point I am going to trya and use small words:

When I talk of the church I don't mean the stone building with its pitiful congregation, I am talking about the huge business that is the church organisation with a turnover in the region of $23 billion in Australia alone.

If a business does not make a profit, it pays no tax. Niether does a charity or non profit organisation. The reason the Catholic or Anglican churchs shelter behind their tax free status is that their organisations make a very tidy profit, and tjey would rather ship it off shore than contribute to the tax coffers.

I don't give a hoot about what happens at the local church level as it has bggr all to do with the church paying tax on its business interests.

The aid to Africa generally does not go to the corrupt governments, but to the local charities, who on the most part do a lot of good. This is undone by the corrupt govs and evangelical priests spouting on how bad condoms are, resulting in many cases of HIV and subsequent death.