RD -ReligionDispatches
* October 13, 2011
Occupy the Greek Orthodox Church
Post by _Louis A. Ruprecht_
(http://www.religiondispatches.org/contributors/louisaruprecht/)
As the debate about IMF- and EU-imposed austerity measures and the
possibility of a Greek government default continues, there is one important
piece
of the puzzle that has not been widely reported outside of Greece. And it
involves the Orthodox Church.
What has been reported is important, to be sure. The IMF’s and EU’s
motives to date have been limited to ensuring that the troubled European banks
most heavily implicated in bad Greek debt get repaid. Their shocking
austerity measures—pensions cut in half, retirement age increased, huge cuts
in
social programs, education and health care, and crushing unemployment as the
inevitable result—have been designed to help Northern European banks, no
matter the cost to the Greek people.
More recently, street protests, nationwide strikes organized by the unions,
and targeted work slowdowns by air traffic controllers among others, have
been designed to insist that the people are paying more than their fair
share, whereas the banks are not paying anything at all. Whether you prefer
the word ‘default’ or the phrase ‘debt restructuring,’ a more just outcome
would be one in which the banks absorb some of this pain as well, by
agreeing to be repaid fifty cents on the euro for all the bad loans that they
made. That is what’s in the works this week.
But something new and unprecedented is in the works in Greece itself: for
the first time, the Orthodox Church has been identified as the corporation
it is, and the suggestion is that it should pay its fair share as well. The
Greek Orthodox Church pays very low taxes on its vast real estate holdings
and its clerics are paid by the state. That hand-in-glove relationship may
be about to change.
In an amazing development, the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreiou,
went to _Mount Athos_
(http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/3577/can_a_greek_monastery_be_ground_zero_of_global_financial_meltdown/)
two
days ago to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomaios, to discuss
the decidedly un-spiritual matter of the Orthodox Church’s responsibilities
in this time of Greek crisis.
Even more interesting is that the Church seems to be moving toward a deal.
It has already signaled its willingness to use its vast real estate
holdings to help finance the government’s debt, though it insists on doing
anything on its own timetable and in its own way.
This is remarkable, and we shall see what comes of it. Depending on what
we see, it might signal a radical new strategy for recovering money from
corporations that do not pay their fair share, and a radical new view of
churches as corporations.
While the situations are very different, to be sure, what if Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi were to meet with Pope Benedict XVI as Italy careens
further into its own Greek-style fiscal tragedy? What if a cash-strapped
Congress were to take a hard look at the books of churches here in the US?
--
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