Church taxes in Germany: not taking the pledge

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

Wouldn't people give more if the goals were set higher? The same parish has already had to cut staff. Wouldn't real challenges, also to those who pay church taxes, bring adequate funds to refill those empty staff positions?

Economically, such challenges seem quite realistic. Members who support their church through church taxes actually contribute fairly modest amounts. The average factory worker in Germany makes 5,000 marks -- equal to about $3,000 a month -- and pays 90 marks -- just over $50 a month in church taxes if he has no children -- proportional giving of less than 2 percent. Those with children pay even less. The church over the years has benefited from those with large incomes. A tax consultant once told me of a client, the owner of a small factory, whose church tax in a particularly good year was almost $5,000. Lake many German Protestants, he went to church only on Christmas Eve. "That's a large admission for one visit a year," the consultant said. The client replied, "Oh, well, the church does a lot of good things with its money."

And so it does. The church has done much more than maintain its traditional functions such as worship and Christian education, important as these are. Many local congregations -- in West Berlin the majority -- sponsor day care centers paid for in part by the city but costing the church hundreds of thousands of marks a year. Parents pay, only a few marks a month for excellent day care in such centers. Church-funded youth centers have provided meeting places not just for the church's youth; many such centers specialize in working with youth from the street whose problems might otherwise have led them to crime. German churches have also sponsored extensive counseling programs which deal with problems as varied as marital difficulties and debt burdens. These service activities have made Christianity a matter of deeds as well as words.

These programs are especially threatened by the cutbacks. But there are alternatives. The Protestant church press service here (itself already reduced in size and facing further cuts) reported recently on church fund raising in Holland where there is no church tax. Representatives of various Protestant churches join with Roman Catholics to go house to house once a year and urge church giving. Literature and pledge forms are left to be returned to the church of one's choice. In the quarter century since the plan began, church giving in Holland has doubled.