pimpdave wrote:and of course most everyone wishes we could be like Germany and just ban the obvious scam of Scientology outright.
Yeah, the two big established gangs don't like competition and tend to get rid of it early on.
If you're a member of the catholic or evangelic church in Germany a part of your salary is automatically deducted and sent to aforementioned churches. If you leave the church you have to get that registered. Hospitals, kindergartens and schools can be financed to 90% or more by the state and still be considered "church-run", which means if you're the wrong religion you're extremely unlikely to get hired, you can be fired for criticising the church even in your free time, and if it's catholic-run don't even 
think about divorcing or living in a same-sex relationship with someone else. Yes, if you work for a church-run institution they exert control over your private life and force you to live according to the doctrines by threatening to fire you if you don't comply, they're legally allowed to do that. Even in state-run schools the churches get to determine whether a teacher is allowed to teach religious education classes (which are divided into catholic and evangelic respectively), you may hold doctorates in theology and pedagogy, but if the church says no for any or no reason whatsoever you're not allowed to teach RE classes.
16th century England doesn't seem that different all of a sudden.