Let’s say a church has a single mass for six days and sometimes it skips a day or two. And the attendees are less than 5 or 10 (mostly priests) everyday except Sundays. It would make a lot sense when it’s part of an institution like a hospital or a school. But churches that operates on its own or with a religious order. How does that work and what keeps them afloat? I’m talking about churches in major cities not rural towns or villages. I know about four churches that are walking distance from where I live. Two are belonging to institutions while the other two are from religious orders. One of them is in international order. I’m aware that megachurches leech off their followers and are connected to politicians. And scandals involving megachurches are sensationalised than orthodox churches. How does a small church that spent millions on purchasing land gain from a few attendees everyday? Is religion what really drives them or is it something else? Salons that barely function are most likely money laundering fronts but can we say the same to churches? Churches are fronts to some unknown crime? What do you guys think?
Are churches fronts to illegal businesses?
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People leave them property / money and they don’t pay taxes. I’m not saying they aren’t fronts but it’s possible to run a church for just the electric / water bill.
Churches donate to and endorse politicians right under our eyes. So yes. That is illegal
I go to a really small church, I’m talking less than 15 people and we gather in a small house small, they get by because the “higher ups” help pay for expenses as long as the pastor keeps track of the expenses (spending book, receipts, the usual)
Watch “The Righteous Gemstones” on HBO. Yea it’s a comedy, but it’s also closer to reality TV than you’d think.
A couple things to consider:
Some, probably.
Most, probably not.
Exclusive brethren
I’m not saying this can’t happen. It almost certainly has happened and does happen sometimes. But I think you have a false impression of how things really work.
Many churches are kept afloat by a core group of just a few members who are making large contributions. I was part of such a church, and wasn’t even aware until years later that they were operating on a shoestring and I was one of the main financial supporters. The church had a lot of young people with little to no disposable income, and I was doing pretty well in my late 20s and gave 10% of every paycheck. The church had youth and YA-oriented activities, concerts and the like, for which they charged a small admission to help cover costs, but that core group of financial supporters, me with a solid career and a couple of small business owners making decent money, were what really kept them going.
I think that church’s financial picture might have been a little unusual for a church of that size, but the same principle holds true across the board and especially in smaller churches. Where the means of support aren’t apparent, look for a few big donors who are making it work. Sometimes it might not even be that church’s own members. There might be another church or religious organization that donated or helped pay for the property, or are helping pay the pastor’s salary, or the pastor might be working another job and taking no income from the church.
On another note, even megachurches are often operating in good faith, although many thoughtful observers within Christianity have objections to how they operate. The bad ones stand out more because so many people are impacted.
Can any organization be a front for illegal operations? Yes. Are all? No.
It’s relatively easy to launder small and large amounts of money (depending on the size of the church and its congregation) through tax-exempt organizations like churches or other places of worship through donations, alms, tithes, or whatever else it’s called. Just look at the pastors of mega-churches living suspiciously extravagant lifestyles.
Only if the church is a christian church with a Hispanic priest. Then it could be a front for a cartel
(This is a joke I just had to say it)
Churches do money laundering and human trafficking, yes.
The medium sized mainstream protestant church I’m a member of has a building dating from the 1950’s. We just paid off the mortgage this year (refinanced for improvements). We have one service a week but there are numerous activities going on every day like Alcohols Anonymous, scouts, Christian yoga, etc. Some of these groups rent the space, most do not. We can barely afford a full time pastor. Believe me, no illegal business is going on.
I am a member of an extremely small Baptist church in the suburbs of a major city. A good Sunday for us is 20 worshipers. Post-COVID, that is; before 2019 we usually had about 50% more.
I know for a fact that we’re not a front for any illegal business activity, or any business activity at all other than perhaps our twice-yearly “garage sales” for donated goods/clothing (legal for a nonprofit under local law).
Our pastor is part-time (the polite term is ‘bi-vocational;’ he and his wife both hold other jobs) and everyone else is a volunteer. Including me; I lead the worship and music.
Our property was purchased in the 1950s and our buildings/facilities have been paid off since the 1980s, and we are tax-exempt. It’s still a struggle to meet the electric bill and (especially) the insurance premiums. A lot of times we have no choice but to ask someone to step up. When we needed new door locks and latches to meet building code I ended up spending four thousand dollars out of my own pocket (and I make roughly $50K/year before taxes). Maybe some day I’ll get reimbursed; more likely not. I’m counting on ‘not.’
Still, if you believe this stuff…and I really do, with reasons…you can expect that no sacrifice will go unrewarded in the long term. (It’s just the getting from here to there which is a problem…!)
Even in small towns, a lot of small churches are a way for self proclaimed pastors to enrich themselves with real estate and all the fringe benefits that come with running a tax free organization. It’s too easy and there’s too much incentive for it. That’s modern ‘murica.
Just like any the rest of the nonprofit sector a few good ones some, criminal ones, and others that just take advantage of people’s fear.
Are these all or mostly Catholic Churches? Think of it as a loss leader. They need to be everywhere, and some of those congregations will be small.
Churches are hurting for attendance and the weekday masses always have lower attendance in the first place due to things like work. It’s usually just retirees that go to weekday services.
This is popular way to launder money.
Churches don’t pay property taxes and they own their properties. The cost of being there is essentially zero. Many churches rent or lease their space during the week for extra income.
Churches do a lot more them just Sunday mass.
I work in a bank. We have churches that come in every Monday with thousands of dollars in cash and thousands of dollars on checks from their collection plate.
Some churches have a nursery school that’s attached to the church that can make them some money. They also might do fundraisers like bake sales, bingo, flea markets, etc. (edit: They also might rent the church building to other religious congregations to use at times when the church isn’t using it.)
And then of course there’s large donations from wealthy old people, either out of genuine piety or as a way to reduce their tax burden.
If a church is part of a larger organization, the larger organization may be footing the bill from other activities and other churches’ contributions.
For example, historically, monastic orders in Europe supported themselves by brewing and selling alcoholic beverages.
For others, like the Catholic Church, often times the big cathedral in a central location is financed by wealthy backers arranging funding drives as a way of investing their wealth into the community. The church’s view is generally that they aren’t building the church to make money, they are building it to glorify god and provide a place of worship. It’s not always about the financial soundness of the venture – having your church out on the outskirts of town where there are less people is bad for your attendance rates. The large cathedral can later fund its operating expenses (heating is a huge expense when you have a huge building full of empty, high space!) through things like hosting weddings. St Patrick’s cathedral, for example, generally requires a fairly sizeable donation to the cathedral in order for your wedding to be performed there (in addition to the other, standard requirements such as being catholic, living in the area governed by the cathedral, and so on).
Any large organization based church will be doing accounting that funnels money up and then back down, to some extent.
They’re almost never built as investments though. Why would LDS build churches in Manhattan? Well, there’s not that many members in Manhattan, but there are members, so they need to, organizationally, have a few churches in Manhattan for their followers to worship at, even if the main organization is net footing the bill for this. It’s not a good look if your goal is to be running a global church, if some of your followers are “unchurched”.
What do you mean front???
Churches are often tax exempt and operate via donations and fees for weddings and funeral services etc
Older church’s are legacy church’s. the land was inexpensive at one time and likely had plenty of volunteer labour. The Catholic Church was once demanding about donating. Less so now. Many newer church’s ask for 10% because they were started recently and costs are higher.
They can be. Lots of nonprofit tax fraud schemes
They generally aren’t fronts, no. A church that’s a branch of a large organization can run at a “loss”, costing more than its constituents contribute, because the organization has massive resources and can operate everywhere it sees value in doing so. Remember that a church organization is almost the polar opposite of, say, Pizza Hut or Safeway, where closing underperforming locations is part of doing business. Churches are normally there to serve people, not to make money.
Strangely, you identify successful churches that collect enough to cover their operations as leeches. As though, in your mind, a church that collects more than it needs is a parasite while one that collects less than it needs is probably criminal.