6 ms·

If you read anxiously through the whole article like I did thinking: "Yeah I get it but what are the numbers?" From 2015 article: "The Hillsong empire they fou

If you read anxiously through the whole article like I did thinking: "Yeah I get it but what are the numbers?" From 2015 article: "The Hillsong empire they founded (she, too, is a senior pastor) pulled in tax-free revenues of nearly $80 million in Australia last year and more than $100 million internationally." https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/inside-the-hillsong-churchs-moneymaking-machine-20151026-gkip53.html https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/inside-the-hillsong-churchs...

pluma 8y ago
Wait, tax-free? Surely this is a for-profit business, not a "church".
- dwd 8y ago
  And their status is not likely to change while one of their flock is the Prime Minister.
  - chris_wot 8y ago
    This has being going on for far longer than Morrison was even in parliament.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - lgunsch 8y ago
    Why would they need to change their status just because they have a large revenue from being successful? Girl Scouts, a non-profit, bring in 700 million from selling their cookies. United Way Worldwide, another non-profit, has a revenue of 3.9 Billion.
    - FireBeyond 8y ago
      That's not an apt comparison. Non-profits are still taxed, and only eligible for some sales tax exemptions (depending on the state - very few in some). Religious organizations are considered tax-exempt.
      - lgunsch 8y ago
        I suppose I was thinking of it from a Canadian perspective. AFAIK, non-profits are generally exempt income tax. edit: In Canada, I meant to say.
    - dwd 8y ago
      Many non-profits are simply corporates who don't pay tax. They often suffer from the same issues of pay disparity paying the executives large salaries while the workers at the bottom are often volunteers. While most non-profits don't simply exist to fund someone's lifestyle (some do) and do provide benefits to society they should have a greater level of scrutiny to receive tax free status. Same should go for churches - particularly ones who preach "give freely and you will receive back 10 fold". There's a weird crossover between Amway and other multilevel marketing organisations and the Pentecostals. Not just the mega concert style of their events but the language they use and the attitudes you come across.
- gscott 8y ago
  Salary and other things are not tax free. Eventually the funds will be spent and taxed multiple times.
xamuel 8y ago
Mega-churches remind me of this warning from Jesus: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it."
- bartread 8y ago
  Be careful with that: it occurs at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. That sermon isn't so much a statement of how people in general should behave as a statement of how believers are to behave as compared to those who consider themselves religious. I don't get the impression Jesus was picking on one or other religious party in particular. Morever, in the UK at least, depending on where you look, around 5-10% of the population attend church[1][2] - that's about 3.3-6.02 million people. Of these, one third attend churches with a congregation of at least 350 people[3]. There are churches with thousands, which would traditionally be referred to as megachurches, but these are a small proportion of the whole. Anyway, that's somewhere between 1 and 2 million people attending larger churches (including megachurches), which puts them solidly in the minority - definitely not "the many". I don't have accurate figures for churches >1000 people primarily because the third source doesn't include figures for the Catholic church. Still, the 23 protestant churches listed account for <100k people, so not even "the many" as compared to the number of people attending larger churches. The perspective that might support what you're suggesting here is that Jesus often seems to be comparing with those who are conspicuously religious, who one would suppose are often figures of authority (although there's plenty of content on how we're to deal with those much closer to us as well). Seen in that context the leaders of megachurches are certainly conspicuously religious, but they are far from the majority of church leaders, and the third source suggests that the vast majority of leaders in the ~37,500 churches in the UK labour substantially in obscurity regardless of their character. [1] https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html [2] https://www.compassionuk.org/02-million-people-attending-church-regularly/ https://www.compassionuk.org/02-million-people-attending-chu... [3] http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/perspectives-php/1109/03-2009 http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/perspectives-php/1109/03-2...
- DannyB2 8y ago

pluma 8y ago

Wait, tax-free? Surely this is a for-profit business, not a "church".

dwd 8y ago
And their status is not likely to change while one of their flock is the Prime Minister.
- chris_wot 8y ago
  This has being going on for far longer than Morrison was even in parliament.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- lgunsch 8y ago
  Why would they need to change their status just because they have a large revenue from being successful? Girl Scouts, a non-profit, bring in 700 million from selling their cookies. United Way Worldwide, another non-profit, has a revenue of 3.9 Billion.
  - FireBeyond 8y ago
    That's not an apt comparison. Non-profits are still taxed, and only eligible for some sales tax exemptions (depending on the state - very few in some). Religious organizations are considered tax-exempt.
    - lgunsch 8y ago
      I suppose I was thinking of it from a Canadian perspective. AFAIK, non-profits are generally exempt income tax. edit: In Canada, I meant to say.
  - dwd 8y ago
    Many non-profits are simply corporates who don't pay tax. They often suffer from the same issues of pay disparity paying the executives large salaries while the workers at the bottom are often volunteers. While most non-profits don't simply exist to fund someone's lifestyle (some do) and do provide benefits to society they should have a greater level of scrutiny to receive tax free status. Same should go for churches - particularly ones who preach "give freely and you will receive back 10 fold". There's a weird crossover between Amway and other multilevel marketing organisations and the Pentecostals. Not just the mega concert style of their events but the language they use and the attitudes you come across.
gscott 8y ago
Salary and other things are not tax free. Eventually the funds will be spent and taxed multiple times.

xamuel 8y ago

Mega-churches remind me of this warning from Jesus: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it."

bartread 8y ago
Be careful with that: it occurs at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. That sermon isn't so much a statement of how people in general should behave as a statement of how believers are to behave as compared to those who consider themselves religious. I don't get the impression Jesus was picking on one or other religious party in particular. Morever, in the UK at least, depending on where you look, around 5-10% of the population attend church[1][2] - that's about 3.3-6.02 million people. Of these, one third attend churches with a congregation of at least 350 people[3]. There are churches with thousands, which would traditionally be referred to as megachurches, but these are a small proportion of the whole. Anyway, that's somewhere between 1 and 2 million people attending larger churches (including megachurches), which puts them solidly in the minority - definitely not "the many". I don't have accurate figures for churches >1000 people primarily because the third source doesn't include figures for the Catholic church. Still, the 23 protestant churches listed account for <100k people, so not even "the many" as compared to the number of people attending larger churches. The perspective that might support what you're suggesting here is that Jesus often seems to be comparing with those who are conspicuously religious, who one would suppose are often figures of authority (although there's plenty of content on how we're to deal with those much closer to us as well). Seen in that context the leaders of megachurches are certainly conspicuously religious, but they are far from the majority of church leaders, and the third source suggests that the vast majority of leaders in the ~37,500 churches in the UK labour substantially in obscurity regardless of their character. [1] https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html [2] https://www.compassionuk.org/02-million-people-attending-church-regularly/ https://www.compassionuk.org/02-million-people-attending-chu... [3] http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/perspectives-php/1109/03-2009 http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/perspectives-php/1109/03-2...
DannyB2 8y ago