Well, it's official now:
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loginYet many people will call themselves Christians and are recognized as such while also paying nothing or next to nothing to the Church. I don't think there are many people calling themselves scientologues without actually spending thousands of dollars.
I think you misunderstood my previous post... people have to be introduced to a religion at some point, usually as a kid by their parents. At this point, their parents are paying membership dues and the added cost of religious education to the church, in return the kid gets to have all the special ceremonies performed, be it a baptism, confirmation, bar/bat mitzvah, etc. Afterwards, for the rest of their life that kid can go around saying "I'm a practicing christian/jew/etc" and not necessarily be lying, while not paying anything out of their pocket since their parents took care of it at some point in time. The fact that scientology has an entry fee doesn't set it apart from any other religion. If they
forced members to keep paying ridiculous amounts of money every year, or be banned from the church, then yeah, it's different from most others and a little ridiculous.