In Carl Trueman’s recent essay for First Things, titled, “Preparing for Winter”, he makes the case that Christian institutions need to have what he calls “a two-fold strategy”. The first is to become not only independent of government funding but also to be financially prepared for the day when not-for-profit status is revoked. In other words Christian schools, colleges and churches will not have tax exemptions.
Anyone watching the current scene will know this comes as no surprise. In Canada where I live, the provincial government is threatening to remove government funding for Christian schools in the public system that do not have a pro-LGBT policy.
Amazingly however, there is a tendency to ignore unpleasant realities and chose to revert to nostalgic thinking, decrying alarmism and simply hoping for the best.
The strategy ought to be hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
No Right to Exist
This prospect of no tax exemption for churches has been long anticipated. But another more challenging problem comes from being unable to register as a society or an institution. How do you handle money as a church if technically, before the law you have no right to exist?
This was the situation that perplexed me about the churches in China. When I visited China, I was amazed to see the extensive networks of theologically sound, missiologically robust churches. But in the eyes of the government, these churches did not exist.
They were ‘unregistered.’
The Puzzling Question
Practically this lead to puzzling questions for me as a Westerner. How could I financially support the mission of the unregistered churches?
In other contexts, I would simply write a cheque or make a digital money transfer to the account of the non-profit society that distributed monies to the workers on the ground.
If the charity was not registered in North America, I may not be able to get a tax reciept for the donation. But at least I could send money, legally and openly to Christian workers.
Not in China.
There are no ‘not-for-profits’ or charities through which I could send the money. Again, in the eyes of the law, the church does not exist.
So in my Western thinking, my solution would be to just send money. Send it via paypal or a wire transfer. The solution seems simple until I think in this new way. If the church doesn’t ‘exist’ before the law then money sent to someone is by nature ‘illegal’.
The Christian Outlaw
Are Christians money-launderers? They’re not supposed to be. But that is exactly how governments view a foreign donor to a Christian worker in an unregistered church. Chinese citizens must account for their money just like any other governed people around the world. Lacking a category for money that is donated, the government will conclude it is illegitimate. Can the government be persuaded that reciept of foreign donations to Christians is a good thing? I don’t know if it’s possible. But I do know it would be viewed as a bit sketchy.
For a Westerner, it is uncomfortable to think that being a Christian is being an outlaw. Yet that is what it’s like in many parts of the world. And that experience is coming to an income tax form near you.
Thoughts to ponder:
Is your church financially viable if donors could not recieve a tax deduction for their gifts?
If your church could not exist legally, how would a church building, and church staff be funded?