Let's hope he is more kosher than Mother Theresa, as she is generally regarded as having been a 'front to back', pious but living in a palace, fraudster.
I sense people like the idea of a role model living a life of self-denial and modesty, and they like to buy into it; it makes them feel good about themselves, perhaps... ??
--- There's a story blowing up in the UK right now re: an idiosyncratic woman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camila_Batmanghelidjh, running a charity doing charitable acts for disadvantaged youth, whilst in fact running her own unaccountable mini-kingdom, generously funded by the government with tax-payer funds. 'Buying yourself into the moral nobility on the back of the hard-working man'. Is it a form of modern co-dependency, the hippy era redux for the 2010's... ? Like 'Fair-Trade', or buying strips of far away jungle in order to rescue it. Denying of ourselves, and if the exploiters get rich off the back of it, 'we did our best, our intentions were noble, so I can cast off my 21st century guilt', for today.
The curious thing with Ms. Batmanghelidjh is how so many people wanted to believe in her. Be photographed with their arm rather awkwardly and inappropriately draped around her - garnering a bit of moral stardust. It reminds me of religion, in the absence of evidence you have to have faith.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... s-den.html Do a Google/Image search and you'll see several pix of her alongside Cameron the PM... that's how far her star rose. And still these people refuse to face their own vanity and folly and accept that she is a fraud.
--- The church raises church taxes alongside payroll taxes in many countries in Europe. Germany, Austria, parts of Scandinavia, and that's off the top of my head. You can opt out of them, but let;s hope your head of HR isn't devout.
'A German bishops' decree which has just come into force says anyone failing to pay the tax - an extra 8% of their income tax bill - will no longer be considered a Catholic.' [continues] - Ah spiritual blackmail... how noble hehe... but what does the Pope do with all this money?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-19699581