The hook: I read something about a Mormon Church financial scandal, and I wondered if the LDS church had the most money, or if it was Scientology, or maybe — as I assumed — the Roman Catholics, or perhaps the Muslims had all the cash, or wouldn’t it be ironic if it was the Buddhists?
None of the above! As of this writing, the Greek Orthodox Church has alllllll the money by far.
The amount isn’t as impressive if you convert it to Euros, but still, that’s close to a trillion dollars. Ten times more than the second runner-up, the Mormons. The table splits the Catholics out by country, but even with all the countries consolidated it’s nowhere near the 974 BILLION dollars their Greek cousins have. I saw a photo once of a friend’s Greek Orthodox wedding, and it was stunning, but still I was surprised. I suppose it’s all the Greek shipping money.
The third entry, Venkateshvara Temple, is odd in that it’s pointing to one specific Hindu temple. It’s evidently a pilgrimage destination and everyone leaves money there. They do feed the poor, but you’d think they could feed everyone in India for that many rupees.