The Divine Economy

Money Changes Hands

Liz Hinds talks about the church and money:

Continuing with the religion theme, this morning Husband pointed me in the direction of an article in The Economist reviewing a new book called The Divine Economy. An interesting and fun read - the article not the book, the "scope of which is big as are many of the words."

Snippets from the article.

The book compares the Roman Catholic Church to McDonalds, in their uniformity of service, whether you're in the Vatican or Venezuela you get the same thing. Also the two most popular brands (Christianity and Islam) have replaced smaller religions in the same way Tesco and Morrisons have replaced the corner shops.

In the 1960s Tom Lehrer declared that if Catholics "really want to sell the product" they should improve their music. He suggested, "Two four six eight, time to transubstantiate."

But this is the scary bit: in 2016 a study of American faith-based organisations found that they had revenues of $378 bn, which is more than the revenues of Apple and Microsoft combined. And churches usually don't pay tax.

And the best bit is the reviews the bible gets on Amazon.

"A boring read."

"The plot is not cohesive."

"The main protagonist is a bit full of himself."

"Disappointing."

"The font is extremely small."