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Insurance for the second coming...

I have emailed the insurance company, to ask if they will divulge the nature of the church's complaint.
:)
 
Unlikely. Data Protection Act, etc.

I'd love to know though!

Possibly the church is alarmed at the thought of anyone (even charity) profiting from the second coming. Also, maybe (although it would be hypocritical), the church views insurance as gambling, and therefore sinful? I know other religions outlaw insurance for this reason.

Perhaps they are worried that if one of these women does immaculately conceive, the Baby Jee will be horrified that his pampers and rusks are from the profits of a capitalist society. Or something.

I was going to say "I'm sure there's a more sensible explanation than that" but then I realised we're talking about the church protesting insurance for immaculate conception of the child of god, and I realised how little sensibility comes into this.

ETA: It could also possibly be that in the event of a successul insurance claim, that would mean the woman concerned had proven the identity of the Baby Jee, which would have huge ramifications for not just the church and its authority, but the entire planet. I'm guessing that the church does not want such a situation (and identification) in the hands of anyone but itself.

Apart from anything else, there would be the safety of the baby to consider.
 
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Wasn't he able to feed the multitudes? Food and clothing should be coming out of the wazoo. I'm not sure what other expenses a baby or child would have. Maybe security? I mean the first time he was here on earth, he ended up in jail, on death row, and then crucified. Couldn't have that happening again. Maybe the superpowers don't kick in until puberty. Are there any divinity majors who might know when divine powers in immaculately conceived god-men actually mature?
 
"We sometimes get weird requests and this is the weirdest we have had." - Britishinsurance.com managing director Simon Burgess.
That didn't initially stop the insurer collecting £100 annually since 2000, though. It seems obvious that an annual £100 contribution simply isn't worth the bad publicity and possible lost business that could ensue from defying the Catholic Church's condemnation of the insurance policy.

As for the reason behind the denunciation, it could be an entirely secular matter of the church having other business, perhaps through intermediary agencies, with the insurer, which business is worth a good deal more than £100 a year. No doubt, the church has some perceived moral grounds for objecting.

In any event, the story says something about Mr Burgess.

'Luthon64
 
But the article also says that the premiums were donated to charity. So they weren't making any actual money off of this.
 
But the article also says that the premiums were donated to charity. So they weren't making any actual money off of this.
Although I don't know the precise financial arrangements of the insurance policy, I am very wary of that claim. The insurer may indeed have made donations to one or more charities (e.g. for reasons of taxation), but it will be very difficult to prove either way that it was these £100 that were donated, rather than any other £100 premium or part of a higher one. More importantly, why would the insurer act as a conduit between the nuns and the charities, unless he derived at least some benefit therefrom? The possibility of PR mileage itself may have been sufficient. Surely, the optimal arrangement would be for the nuns to contribute directly to a charity of the insurer's choosing in return for a free policy of the kind described.

'Luthon64
 
[re: myrrh; copied from the thread in Religion]

From a woo supply site, the price of myrrh: CA$4.00 per ounce, about US$3.40; that's CA$64.00 per pound, US$54.40.

Price of frankincense: CA$50.00 per pound, about US$42.50.

I believe these prices are for the raw resins, to be placed on burning charcoal rounds as I used to back at college in the 1970s. Prepared incense cones, sticks, etc. are cheaper but the myrrh and frankincense will be diluted and adulterated. It's not the same. The real things are exotic, evocative, unfamiliar, intriguing. Not just "sweet smelling and somehow kinda-sorta spiritual."

Gold, on the other paw, is a mite on the pricey side.
 

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