How does Catholic and Protestant raise money to maintain church?

Question

I am looking to find
- how different school of Churches fund themselves ?
- Why is Catholic rich ? or is it not ?
- Is Proselytization a neccesity for sustainence of the church ?
If any body knows about Islam/Mosques that also would help.

Answer 1

The church is supported by the collection plate. Of course you can't avoid the connection of the more members the more money in the plate. They have to pay their pastor, plus his insurance. Often they have to have a parsonage for him. They have to maintain their building and grounds.

Prostelization is a no-no, it is called sheep-stealing and is frowned upon.

Catholic churches are among the wealthiest church bodies, they are the largest in the world - so that makes sense.

Rural churches are usually the poorest, low membership and blue-collar workers with lower incomes themselves.

While the government does give churches a tax break, it does not subsidize churches.

Answer 2

Donations from members. Some churches are rich and some aren't. I know of some churches with way too much money sitting in the bank, and I know of some that have to have chicken-n-dumpling dinners to raise money to pay the light bill.

Answer 3

donations are what support the churches and all religions need such money. how else can the preachers, prists , bishops, imams, and all that crowd afford to look down on their followers and eat steak and caviar, while feeding their flocks with bullsh*t. if there were no donations, the churches would close and the people would stop eating bullsh*t and try something more nurishing, like steak and caviar. it'd taste better , too. and they'd be able to save enough money to buy that gas for their suvs

Answer 4

1. Investing in pharmaceutical firms that make condoms. The Vatican is a known shareholder in one firm that does.

2. Do business deals with the mafia, including illegal land-flipping. Two prominent Italian bankers were murdered to shut them up. (How does one commit suicide with one's hands tied behind the back?) And a catholic cardinal (Paul Marcinkus of Chicago) was given refuge in the Vatican for years until the statute of limitations ran out on criminal charges in the US.
http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/vatican2.htm

3. Obtain donations through illicit means: Murder Teresa took money from Charles Keating who committed the single largest fraud in the US "savings and loan" collapse.
http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/mother.htm