How to make money out of religion: John Cleese sets up his own church!

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › How to make money out of religion: John Cleese sets up his own church!

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blakamin

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#1605165 5-Aug-2016 18:45

raytaylor:

I am pretty sure Jedi means withheld response, rather than Atheist.

Big difference there.

Correct me if i am wrong

Close! Closer than what I was told, anyway.

Actually it's "Not Defined".

Unfortunately some effwits are running around telling people to "put christian so Australia doesn't end up a muslim country".

FFS, Muslim was only 2.2%, compared to 25% catholic at the last census.

I hate people.

frednz

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#1605199 5-Aug-2016 20:48

joker97:

Not original. John Oliver set up his religion last year.

Yes, the John Oliver videos on setting up his own church and then closing it again are well worth a watch! If any of your kids are getting into groups that you are unsure about, the culteducation.com website is a good source of information. I have just come across this interesting page about Guru Sri Chinmoy. He claims to have lifted 7063 pounds with just one arm when even when using two arms, “real” weightlifters have not ever lifted much more than 1000 pounds! Such is the power of religion and belief in oneself (and possibly the clever use of levers). And of course this guru has also lifted elephants and aircraft with one arm (amazing)!

frednz

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#1605319 6-Aug-2016 10:11

andrew027:

I dunno. Ask Brian Tamaki.

I guess we could also ask how Gloriavale has accumulated assets of $41.2 million, not bad for a charitable religious group.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11584606

But any church has significant expenses to meet and is heavily reliant on keeping numbers up and donations rolling in. In return, as John Cleese mentions, its members might just have priority access to Heaven, who knows! So why shouldn't the taxpayer subsidise such a worthy group of people who do such a good job in the community?

Fred

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#1605374 6-Aug-2016 12:00

frednz:

<snip>

I guess we could also ask how Gloriavale has accumulated assets of $41.2 million, not bad for a charitable religious group.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11584606

<snip>

"The 400 to 500-strong community, based on the shores of Lake Haupiri, has a tax-exempt charity operating as the Christian Church Community Trust.

Trustees are listed as Steady Standtrue, Enoch Upright, Howard Temple and Fervent Stedfast."

Sideface

frednz

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#1605793 7-Aug-2016 12:30

Sideface:

frednz:

<snip>

I guess we could also ask how Gloriavale has accumulated assets of $41.2 million, not bad for a charitable religious group.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11584606

<snip>

"The 400 to 500-strong community, based on the shores of Lake Haupiri, has a tax-exempt charity operating as the Christian Church Community Trust.

Trustees are listed as Steady Standtrue, Enoch Upright, Howard Temple and Fervent Stedfast."

Great names aren't they! We have to be very aware that young people in particular can be rather idealistic and impressionable and that spending a large amount of time in one of these groups can sometimes divert them from gaining a proper education and future employment. It can be decades later when a person who got into one of these groups early in life realises that their ability to think critically was impaired for a long time because of the dominate leadership of such a group!

PhantomNVD

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#1605800 7-Aug-2016 12:44

frednz:
andrew027:

I dunno. Ask Brian Tamaki.

I guess we could also ask how Gloriavale has accumulated assets of $41.2 million, not bad for a charitable religious group.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11584606

To be fair $41.2 million shares between 400 (pop stated as 400-500) is only 103,000 per person, so isn't this essentially another 'marai' tribal style of living?

If only all the govt payouts to Mauri were used as efficiently for the general good of the "tribe", social welfare and crime in this country would surely plummet! And the ongoing educational concerns of the minority's group would also dissipate if they were empowered to live and work together for the common good.

I think overall, groups like this reduce the taxpayer outlay far more than they 'take' from the taxes.

*edit- spelling