Zapatero's government in Spain has decided to cease passing on money from taxpayers for the Catholic Church (more than 140 million Euros per year). Besides that, the State would start collecting the taxes Spanish catholic clergymen have never paid. Spain was the last bastion on the practice, and now Spanish citizens can choose weather they contribute 0.7% of their income taxes or not. Churchmen (in the case of Catholics, you don't have to say "churchpeople") responded with a campaign to stimulate "donations" and declared that Spanish democracy is threatened by "excessive secularization".
I'd say it's the opposite. It only makes sense to give money to the church if the church controls the State and there's no religious tolerance. It is not a function of the State to stimulate religious practice. If that was the case, the bare minimum a truly democratic system requires is that all churches benefit from it. Which – let us be honest – would wreck government finances.
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