this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2024
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Summary

Rwanda plans to tax church offerings, arguing some churches exploit poor Rwandans through the "prosperity gospel," which links faith to financial blessings.

President Kagame, who has accused pastors of "squeezing money" from the poor, has already shut down nearly 8,000 churches for failing safety and regulatory standards.

Critics, including journalist Ivan Mugisha, view the move as authoritarian and an attack on religious freedoms.

The government also proposes requiring pastors to hold bachelor’s degrees.

While some acknowledge the need to curb exploitation, others argue taxation could harm legitimate faith-based initiatives and exacerbate inequality.

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[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 50 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The US needs this, desperately

[–] alphacyberranger@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

After few months I'm afraid the US is gonna more and more rogue pastors

[–] redshoepastor@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I'm pretty sure "rogue pastor" in the US is gonna look like Dietrich Bonhoeffer (and probably suffer the same fate). The "rogue pastors" we would want to keep in line with a tax are all huge, HUGE Trump advocates from their pulpits, so mainline now.

I chose the wrong profession....

[–] ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 23 points 4 days ago

Absolutely based.

[–] nulluser@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago

legitimate faith-based initiatives

Found the oxymoron.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 13 points 4 days ago

Rwanda is ahead of the “civilised world”.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

The government of Rwanda is not preventing the poor from being taken advantage of, they're taking a cut of the action.

[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 days ago

Well you do gotta give Cesar back what he done minted.

[–] the_toast_is_gone@lemmy.world -1 points 4 days ago

If the problem is churches taking too much money from people, how is taxing them going to change that? Won't that just encourage them to take more?