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I am a believer in God, but I am not a believer in organized religion. When I was younger, I tried every religion out there, pretty much. I was Christened Greek Orthodox, then tried the Catholic church, then the Methodist church, and finally the Baptist church. All of them came off as so phony that I finally stopped going to any of them.
Just the other day I passed a local church and the sign out front said "Jesus accepts everyone, and so do we !" Evidently, that church that wrote that letter feels only those with money are worthy of salvation.
The church loves you as long as the money is coming in. What a sad commentary about religion. That's why I have always said religion is nothing but a business and they should be paying taxes like everyone else.
I am not religous but i was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school. The parish had a large, and very beautiful, church, a rectory, convent, two school buildings and a hall. Tuition was modest..$10 a year and $5 a month. Granted this was over 40 years ago but that was even modest then.
Yes, there were collections during Mass and special collections during the school year. I dont remember anyone being shamed or excluded if they couldnt afford to contribute.
The priests didnt drive expensive cars. There were no signs of wealth. Those collections had to support that parish. The financial burden of maintaing 6 buildings had to be pretty high so I cant blame them for asking for money.
If you belong to a church, you should contribute as much as possible. God provides but the bills have to still be paid.
My late mother used to get tithing letters from the Methodist church she had attended for over 50 years before she went into assisted living. She could no longer attend her church because there was no one to drive her (the facility bus only went to the Catholic church next door, to which she had no objection). The thing is, the minister of her old church knew she was in assisted living, because they visited her at the facility when she first moved there and was still in relatively good health and sound mind. However, she still received the requests for money even when she had gone into the locked-down memory care unit. At that point, she didn't even know what city she lived in.
Money hungry idiots hiding behind religion.
I wonder how they expect a 92 year old woman to participate outside of showing up for church services.
They figure they might get something out of her in her will no doubt, her house and the rest of the stuff, the whole thing is a huge scam! I was just watching a video about the Navajo Indians living right here in the USA who have NO running water at all, one indian woman took it on herself to get a truck and fill it once a month with water and try to give some water to each of the 250 households, but it's never enough.
They showed people living in dumpy trailers making do with buckets of water for everything, and having to recycle the water after everyone washed their hair and the like, meanwhile the US Govt AND the churches spend untold vast sums of money, food, water and supplies on foreign countries while citizens of OUR country live like this!
The Navaho never had political voting rights before about 1940 there and by then all the water rights were already granted by the Govt to various ranchers and so on, so the only source of water they can possibly get is digging a VERY deep well costing $500,000 which of course they don't have.
There is an old well nearby that was used in the gold mine, but that water source with an old windmill above it is contaminated by toxic chemicals and can't be used, so they have to drill much deeper if they do.
We should be having a focus on AMERICAN citizens first, especially the Native Indians we STOLE the land from back in the 1800s to begin with!
Well, that's not "real" membership or "the church" --is it?
I thought Jesus said that the "church" itself was actually made up of a spiritual body of believers/everybody and anybody accepting and believing in him, and NOT some physical building???
As for that group of unloving unkind people, and what they did to that little old lady, SHAME ON THEM! Absolutely disgusting!
Last edited by picklejuice; 08-22-2015 at 11:13 AM..
Well, that's not "real" membership or "the church" --is it?
I thought Jesus said that the "church" itself was actually made up of a spiritual body of believers/everybody and anybody accepting and believing in him, and NOT some physical building???
As for that group of unloving unkind people, and what they did to that little old lady, SHAME ON THEM! Absolutely disgusting!
I was wondering the same thing, aren't Protestant churches individual communities? Unless we're not getting the whole story, why didn't the congregation stand behind her? The Congregational church my wife goes to would have, they have no financial requisites, they voluntarily tithe what they can, in their case, they more than cover their costs and do good things with the excess. If the community doesn't support the church, says something about the church, doesn't it?
They figure they might get something out of her in her will no doubt, her house and the rest of the stuff, the whole thing is a huge scam! I was just watching a video about the Navajo Indians living right here in the USA who have NO running water at all, one indian woman took it on herself to get a truck and fill it once a month with water and try to give some water to each of the 250 households, but it's never enough.
They showed people living in dumpy trailers making do with buckets of water for everything, and having to recycle the water after everyone washed their hair and the like, meanwhile the US Govt AND the churches spend untold vast sums of money, food, water and supplies on foreign countries while citizens of OUR country live like this!
Navajo are a semi-sovereign nation dude.
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