robert wrote:edededed wrote:Perhaps tax exemption should only be for those religions (or philosophies) that take vows of poverty, and thus realistically just would be unable to pay taxes. For example, Buddhist monks traditionally (in India) were beggars - they were not allowed to even handle money, so they could not buy anything. (This changed as Buddhism went further east.)
A vow of poverty means the person doesn't own anything, but really doesn't say anything about life style. Years ago I was vacationing in Bangkok and my wife and I were walking to dinner. We passed the Four Season Hotel and my wife wanted to walk in and see the lobby. While we were inside a bus pulled up and a group of Buddhist monks checked into the hotel. I comment on the fact that Buddhist monks were staying in a luxury hotel and my wife said they were from Taiwan and although they were monks they were known to live very well.
I'm not complaining, in the west monks did a pretty good job laying the ground work for brewing beer and making wine
Oops - sorry for the late reply...
Buddhism definitely changed a lot as it went eastwards - notably a lot of the rules became relaxed or else "interpreted" in a way that they stopped being followed. Most eastward in Japan, monks can now drink alcohol, eat freely, have sex (and children), have businesses and money (not to mention own temples), sleep on nice beds, etc. Notably the dress is quite fancy as well, certainly not robes befitting beggars. I don't know so much about the monks in Taiwan, but perhaps it is similar. (The Buddha himself predicted that this would happen eventually anyway.)