Church taxes in Germany: not taking the pledge

Christian Century, August 13, 1997 by William E. Downey

To an American observer the solution to the German churches' predicament may seem obvious: supplement church tax income with member pledging. I have offered this proposal more than once to my friends in the German churches, but it has so far met with little response. I often have the feeling that my suggestion isn't really heard. Why? Most likely because German pastors are afraid that free-will giving would subvert their ministry.

I have worked in the Berlin-Brandenburg church for almost 20 years while retaining a relationship math the United Church of Christ in the U.S. as an associate missionary. Upon hearing my American accent German clergy have often over the years turned the subject of our conversation to church life in America, and frequently they have expressed sympathy for their American colleagues who have to (so they say) "dance to the tune" set by a few big contributors. No amount of firsthand reporting by me that my experience was different, even during the Vietnam war, has been able to convince them otherwise.

This stereotype of the American pastor as a lackey of generous givers hasn't changed over time. Recently a minister of the Berlin-Brandenburg church told me that he heard the same fear expressed frequently in ministers' meetings and added, "It is my opinion too." Speaking under the condition of anonymity since his remarks were critical of a former parish, the minister continued:

I was very involved in the peace movement in a former

church, and it brought me and the group I led into

conflict with much of the parish leadership. If these people

had been making large contributions directly to the

parish, they would have put me under pressure to stop

my activities under the threat that they would

otherwise withhold their contributions. I sincerely believe I

would not have been free to act as I did in this parish on

the peace issue.

Ilse von Loewenclau, a retired Old Testament professor at the former Protestant seminary in East Berlin who has also served as guest professor at Bangor Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Theological School, said that in her experience German ministers are afraid that a pledge system like that in the U.S. would impair their freedom. "Whenever the conversation here in Germany moves to the finance system in the United States, I hear the same thing, especially from the clergy: `Yes, it may raise a lot of money, but then a few people who give generously will tell the ministers how they should run the church,'" she said.

Superintendent Klaus-Heinrich Kanstein, who took part of his theological education in the U.S., related similar views. "Ministers here do have this prejudice against the American system. But it is a poor excuse for inaction," he asserted. Kanstein said that the area he leads in the state of Brandenburg north of Berlin is overaged, with unemployment running at 27 percent.

"The so-called church tax system, which is really voluntary giving since it comes only from church members, was a good system when most people were employed and in the church," he told me. "Today because most retirees pay no church tax and the unemployed also pay nothing, the church tax comes from a minority of the church members. The thing that is really wrong with the church tax is that it is anonymous. You get a good feeling making a gift, but having money taken out of your paycheck before you even see it never gives you a good feeling."