I'll just leave this here as one sample of many:

https://images.cdn.circlesix.co/image/1/1366/0/uploads/posts...

Let's just say that not every church is the same as your Methodist church.

What are we supposed to be looking at here?

Russian Orthodox priests in Romania and Bulgaria are absolutely terrible. They prey on a gullible and very poor population while living in opulence and flaunting their wealth. In Bucharest, Romania, they are currently building a church to the tune of 100 million euros.

https://balkaninsight.com/2018/11/23/heavy-price-tag-oversha...

70% or more of that came from public funding, essentially tax payer money rerouted to build this monstrosity, something the country really can not afford.

And all of that for a pissing match about who has the tallest church.

Meh.. I find it difficult to care too much on a site whose population regularly fawn over a billionaire who stands to make billions more, largely due to booking sale of taxpayer-funded carbon credits to his company's most recent quarterly earnings as profit.

People around the world have different value systems and tolerances. For me it's impossible to consider state-funded excesses of the church without drawing comparisons to the likes of Musk. As for their relative social benefit, that's another topic entirely..

Those have pretty clearly stated profit aims. Churches, not so much.

Your complaint was about use of public money:

> they are currently building a church to the tune of 100 million euros.

> 70% or more of that came from public funding, essentially tax payer money rerouted to build this monstrosity, something the country really can not afford.

In Tesla's case, $428m of public money contributed almost one third of all profits made by the company in a single /quarter/, at a time when the dollar's future as a reserve currency is being called into question due to panic spending to support a system on the brink of collapse.

The trick will likely qualify it for inclusion in the S&P 500, making it further eligible for more of that sweet public money over winter, as the current administration discusses that index's performance as an explicit target on an almost weekly basis.

No, my complaint is about churches and their lack of transparency with regards to how they process their income and the fact that they don't pay taxes. The should never receive taxpayer funds.

Thank you for commenting, I had no idea there was that much public money going into Tesla.

How is that any different than America where preachers tell their poorest congregants that they should give 10% of their income before they pay their bills? If they come up short on their bills are short, “God will provide”?

Some are even willing to use credit cards to pay their tithes if they come up short.

It is quite similar.

This is the same in Poland.

The recent elections confirmed the conservative direction of the country, fueled along others by the catholic church.

The good thing is that religion is not compulsory anymore. There used to be a time where not bring part of the church meant beung a real outcast.

This included the communist rulers who were quick to chistianise their children because otherwise they wild have hell in the family.

That was acually not bad as the church balanced the state.

Now they are omnipotent, and this is also the reason more people can be outside of church - because church is not unanimously seen as a savior anymore. Quite the opposite in the ranks of 30-50 yo people.

I lived there for a few years in total, I'm well aware of all this and it is a sad thing to see this raise its ugly head again. The church was instrumental in getting rid of the communists but they are a huge problem by themselves as well.