The purple economy

For Wallace, the purple economy is, “the wealth generated by the eternal mass exemption from taxation of supernatural organisations, their subsidiaries and their charitable arms”. According to Wallace, “the sums that have been lost to revenue up to now through supernatural charity tax exemptions, and that will be lost into the future, are many billions”.

His is a powerful argument for scrutiny and change.

First, churches are changing. Losing members to the point where some will disappear, they desperately and eagerly grab hold of any cash, grant or tax protection on offer. Note the eagerness in which the latest handout in the form of school chaplains was appropriated.

Calls for inquiries into the funding of secret and abusive churches which teach in their schools the subjugation of women, creationism as science and how to avoid voting, is not Christianphobia.

Why should the church demand that the Australian Defence Force fund the training of its clergy, or Centrelink be used to support Mercy Ministries, in which damaged women must begin by “identifying patterns of sin in the past generations of their families”?

When the Catholic Church demands of taxpayers more than a $100 million to fund evangelistic crusades, cathedral tagged indulgences, and an affirmation of “the importance of the universal church and the person of the Pope”, it should not be surprised that it causes anger in the community.

Priests and pastors are changing: they appear to have no shame or any civic responsibility. Renton notes that the Tax Assessment Act, “gives total exemption to fringe benefits given to employees who are religious practitioners”. This in turn means that, “as there is no cap to this, some churches use remuneration packages that consist of nil salary and 100 per cent fringe benefits”, which in effect can create “an unwarranted entitlement to social security benefits”.

How many parishes and priests are manipulating the system in this way? Why should a pensioner struggle to pay her council rates, while her next door clerical neighbour deftly avoids them?

Wallace notes a further change which should mean a rethink of the state’s investment in churches. At no time in Australian history have churches been so creative in the management of their finances and so entrepreneurial in their business activities. He notes that, “the Catholic Church does not consolidate its accounts and it is in their interest not to do so. It has 200 religious orders which control assets worth tens of billions of dollars”.

Church assets across all denominations now include car parks, agri business, office buildings, insurance companies, travel agencies, record companies, banks and residential apartment towers.

Who would know that ACS is actually Australian Christian Services, which is a wholly owned company of the Pentecostal churches, dealing in everything from cash management, car leasing, home loans and business insurance? Or that Bethel Funerals is owned by Word Investment Ltd, which in turn is a company of Wycliffe Bible Translators?

It’s not Christianphobia, when Kellogg’s complains of the competitive advantage of Sanitarium, a wholly owned company of the Seventh Day Adventist church. All such companies are in direct competition with other parts of the private sector, but are protected by a series of tax exemptions, not available to their competitors.