Lagos

Last Sunday, after watching how tens of thousands of people in multicoloured dresses gathered in the streets of Lagos by 4 o’clock in the morning; how they made their pilgrimage to Canaan Land in rickety buses through muddy and gravel roads; how they listened and watched on Video-TV screens the preaching of the bishop in that gigantic triple-ship church building called „The Winner's Chapel“; how they laughed, sang and danced to Gospels; how they rolled back to Lagos for hours in the afternoon at snail speed, under the scotching tropical sun and the stinking exhaust fumes – I am inclined to say: the Christian Churches in Nigeria and Germany have little or nothing at all in common.

While in Nigeria a spiritual market emanating from privately organized places of worship, denominations and religious persuasion flourishes, the situation in Germany is somewhat more clearly defined. The two main officially recognised churches (Roman Catholic and the Protestants) still constitute by far the largest religious communities. Approximately 52 out of 80 million citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany are protestants or catholics – however only on paper. The number of regular church-goers of catholic confession dropped in the last twenty years from 47 per cent to 16 per cent, in the protestant church it has stagnated at approximately four per cent. In everyday life of many young people in cities such as Berlin, Hamburg or Frankfurt going to church on Sundays does not even come under consideration. Even at the country side the picture is determined increasingly by the empty pews. There is often only one minister taking care of several villages – the demand is simply too low.

It would lead too far to discuss here why people in Nigeria are obviously getting more and more religious, while many Germans turn away from the churches. It is interesting, however, that both developments raise similar questions. When at present it is being discussed in Nigeria whether the churches should continue to enjoy the privilege of tax exemption, in view of their extra-economic activities, one is strongly reminded of those debates, which are currently going on in Germany.

Also in the Federal Republic of Germany the state grants large privileges to the churches. They are not only exempted from corporate and property tax, they also take approximately eight billion euros in taxes from their 52 million members annually. Nine per cent of monthly pay goes directly to the churches. The renowned news magazine Der Spiegel estimated the fortunes of the officially recognised churches in Germany by the turn of the century at approximately 500 billion euros. That is why many citizens in an increasingly secular country are asking themselves: For what do the churches need so much money?

The churches on their part justify that with their comprehensive social work. In accordance with the constitution, they are responsible for religious education, for carrying out child, youth and development work, maintaining cemeteries and maintaining their own real estate. The protestant church alone possesses about 75,000 buildings in Germany. Among them are 27,000 churches, chapels and community centres, children day care centres, schools as well as 7,000 residential houses and apartments. Over and above that the churches in Germany have their own universities, hospitals, travel agencies, insurance houses, banks and radio stations. According to the estimations of „The research group world views in Germany“ the two large religious denominations represent a conglomerate of approximately 80,000 legal entities and compete – just as in Nigeria – with secular service providers on the free market.

That puts the state under increasing pressure to explain to its taxpayers. When the Federal Republic of Germany was created in 1949 on the rubble of the Second World War, 98 per cent of the Germans were organised in one of the two large churches. With this background, „The Rhein Catholic Republic” of the first Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (CDU) did not have to worry itself over its legitimacy. The Germany of 2008 however does not have much to do with the Germany of 1949 any more. In a few years time the formal members of the two Christian denominations will even constitute less than half of the population. In view of the constant rise in number of Muslim citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany (at present approx. 3.3 million), one would eventually ask the question, whether the tax concessions enjoyed by the Christian churches still correspond to the constitutional requirement of equal treatment of all religions.