By Ken Perkins
Imagine, if you will, that you open the latest Linn’s Stamp News and read that the next new issue from the U.S. Postal Service is going to be a stamp honoring the Catholic religion. That stamp would be front page news. The controversy would keep Twitter twittering for at least a week. After all, the very first sentence of the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution is “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”.
But a recent issue of Linn’s shows Germany issuing just such a stamp. In fact, for many years the Federal Republic of Germany has issued separate stamps honoring both German Catholic Day and German Evangelical Day. They commemorate the regular meetings of each religious group in various German cities.
Don’t be confused by the term ‘evangelical’. Unlike in the U.S., where ‘evangelical’ is associated with outreach and proselytizing, in Germany ‘Evangelical’ simply means any Protestant denomination which is a member of the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD – Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland), a group of some 20 Protestant groups throughout Germany.
In keeping with the approximately equal numbers of Germans enrolled in each group (as of 2016 German Catholics are about 29% of the population, Protestants about 27%), Germany seems to keep a balance between the number of stamps issued for the two. Thus, for example, Scott #856, celebrating a German Catholic charitable campaign of 1963 was rapidly followed by #866 celebrating the Evangelical Church day of 1963.
Much like our own Constitution, the German Constitution of 1948 outlaws religious discrimination and establishes no state church. But Germany’s Constitution does recognize large, stable religious communities as “statutory communities” which are allowed to give religious education in state schools, and have their membership dues collected (for a fee) as a ‘church tax’ by the federal government. The dues are about 8-9 percent of a member’s income tax.
What a difference between two Western countries’ approach to religion. Just another benefit of paying close attention to your stamps.
