The cost of religion?

Hobbit said:
Aw, lovely animal dwelling green countryside... how nice. Playing the emotional card is a poor substitute for a good discussion. Selling the farm land to a tenant farmer means it stays green. Selling the freehold of a shop to the tenant means it stays a shop. Investing the money into blue chip companies guarantees a return that will fund a free welcome into a Church.

I appreciate we won't agree on this as I'm coming from a religious standpoint that saw Jesus throw the Philistines from the Church for making money in the building. It's a principle I'm arguing. The Church can make money in other ways but I fundamentally disagree with being charged to visit one irrespective of why someone has visited.
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For me I just view them as historic buildings with wonderful artefacts inside to see that need a great deal of money to upkeep which they have to self finance

People travel from all over the world to visit London and its attractions and just as we go all over the world we are required to pay an entrance fee which will go towards keeping the building a wonderful attraction for visitors - same with Westminster Abbey which I think is about £20 a ticket but is full of history.
 
Liverpoolphil said:
For me I just view them as historic buildings with wonderful artefacts inside to see that need a great deal of money to upkeep which they have to self finance

People travel from all over the world to visit London and its attractions and just as we go all over the world we are required to pay an entrance fee which will go towards keeping the building a wonderful attraction for visitors - same with Westminster Abbey which I think is about £20 a ticket but is full of history.
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That's the problem though Phil, if it was a former stately home or former bank etc I'd totally agree with you, it's not though, it's a Church, a working place of worship and as Hobbit says, from a religious point of view it's just wrong.
 
Not sure the amount of money the people who own the attraction is relevant. I'm sure Disney is not short of a dollar or two but it costs plenty to go there.

If you want to use it as a place of worship it is free . If you want to see it as a tourist attraction it costs the going rate that they can get away with. As all tourist attractions do.

I'd of thought all the tories on here would approve of such entrepreneurship.
 
pauldj42 said:
They are the main shareholder in The Metro Centre up here, cash some investments in,
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Not for a long time but they still own part of it. Their smaller share now earns them more than their majority share a few years ago. Basically a professional retail company bought it out and ran it properly. My wife use to work on the management side. She always found them very friendly and polite but for clear reasons, they were not sharp at running a business. It makes the church a very tidy stack.

If they cashed it in their income would cease. Better to keep a steady flow than one large surge which eventually runs out.

Back to the point. Some fee is okay with me, it must cost a fortune to run St Pauls and a few quid from everyone would add up. That amount sounds excessive but then you don't have to pay it. If you really want to pray somewhere then there are lots of other options. Most go round it as a tourist attraction and it is on that basis that it gets judged.
 
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Hacker Khan said:
Not sure the amount of money the people who own the attraction is relevant. I'm sure Disney is not short of a dollar or two but it costs plenty to go there.

If you want to use it as a place of worship it is free . If you want to see it as a tourist attraction it costs the going rate that they can get away with. As all tourist attractions do.

I'd of thought all the tories on here would approve of such entrepreneurship.
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To me it's the difference between a private profit making organisation and a Religion, I'm yet to see Disney asking the community to run a cake stall to fund a new roof on Space Mountain.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
which church would that be? I can assure you that my church does not have more money than it could spend. The CoE and Catholic church might have - but I think you'll find that Presbyterian/Protestant churches are not awash with cash.
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Church of Scotland worth over half a billion and owns over 4,000 acres in Scotland not on the scale of RC or CofE granted, but not exactly on their knees either.
 
Just playing devil's advocate here......

If it is OK to charge a fee for St Pauls cathedral, at what point does the church draw the line and stop charging? Charge for ALL cathedrals? Only the big ones? All churches right down to local village ones??
 
pauldj42 said:
Church of Scotland worth over half a billion and owns over 4,000 acres in Scotland not on the scale of RC or CofE granted, but not exactly on their knees either.
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No - not on it's knees - but that figure will include the value of all of it's property - and for starters, with 1500 parishes that's a lot of church buildings, halls and manses. And as the church owns all of these properties (and not the congregations) it is the church that has have the central funds to help the congregation maintain and improve all of that property, and to continue to fund all the overseas mission work it does.
 
drive4show said:
Just playing devil's advocate here......

If it is OK to charge a fee for St Pauls cathedral, at what point does the church draw the line and stop charging? Charge for ALL cathedrals? Only the big ones? All churches right down to local village ones??
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Most churches will ask visitors for a contribution - I always give at least a couple of quid - even if I just pop in for 5mins.
 
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SwingsitlikeHogan said:
No - not on it's knees - but that figure will include the value of all of it's property - and for starters, with 1500 parishes that's a lot of church buildings, halls and manses. And as the church owns all of these properties (and not the congregations) it is the church that has have the central funds to help the congregation maintain and improve all of that property, and to continue to fund all the overseas mission work it does.
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That's the stock answer for all religions, I'm intelligent enough to realise they all need massive amounts of income to look after their estates and wages etc, it's when we get the cries of poverty it sticks in my throat.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Most churches will ask visitors for a contribution - I always give at least a couple of quid - even if I just pop in for 5mins.
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But that's the issue, why are they always asking and do you(general term) want to give money or is it you're expected to give money.

Same as the RC church, you almost felt judged at times on whether you put coins or paper on the collection plate.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Most churches will ask visitors for a contribution - I always give at least a couple of quid - even if I just pop in for 5mins.
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That's fine by me because a voluntary contribution is quite different from a fixed admission charge.
 
bobmac said:
If there is one almighty God, why does he/she need more than one 'church'?
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And likewise,why does each religion claim to be "the" one religion?

Can only feel religion is nothing but a comforter for the old and nothing but a source of conflict no matter in the World you are.
 
My only issue was how much they charge, not whether they charge and they do charge at most Cathedrals. I live 12 miles from Canterbury and they certainly charge there.
 
Bunkermagnet said:
And likewise,why does each religion claim to be "the" one religion?

Can only feel religion is nothing but a comforter for the old and nothing but a source of conflict no matter in the World you are.
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Can't help but agree Sir. You can live your life by a set of values and morals based around goodwill to all men without believing in any kind of god . I think it's officially called being a "humanist".
 
chrisd said:
My only issue was how much they charge, not whether they charge and they do charge at most Cathedrals. I live 12 miles from Canterbury and they certainly charge there.
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I don't want to go over old ground regarding the thread title. But I must question your use of font Throughout this thread
 
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