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No Cathedral in LA!
Los Angeles recently celebrated the opening of a $200 million
dollar cathedral.
Well, on one hand it is a beautiful work of art. It's
a well designed, very attractive building. But I just don't
think it's anything that LA needs. I know that it was built
with private donations. But let me point out that private
donations could have been used to feed people, or for medical
care. Also, as I have argued in my rant against taxes, it's important
to note that all money donated for this cathedral was tax
deductible. So doesn't that mean that Los Angeles taxpayers
effectively paid $60 million for this building, if we assume a
30% tax rate? It's a powerful argument for rejecting the notion
that religious donations should be tax-exempt.
Maybe a cathedral makes sense in New York. St. Patrick's Cathedral
is a landmark for the city. But anyone who knows Los Angeles
knows that there are really only two landmarks worth discussing:
the beach, and the freeway. Los Angeles is not a city of great
museums, and it's not a city of great football stadiums. And
it's not a city of great cathedrals. LA is so spread out that
Catholics would be better served by investing their money
in many smaller local cathedrals.
To me, the LA Cathedral is a monument to materialism and excess.
It looks particularly idiotic given the current
Catholic sex scandals.
Maybe this colossal mistake can give us time to think about our
beautiful city of LA. If you had $200 milllion, how would you improve
LA?
comments? You can email me at :
mattinjersey@yahoo.com