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My angle for contributing to this forum is that I want to be a type of "anti-corruption" internet superhero :P :P :P (Actually I'm joking by saying that.)
So I'd like to call attention to anything I see that is wrong.
Recently I took an out-of-town friend to St. JtD and was shocked to see a security guard at the entrance to the church and a sign indicating that one needed to pay $10 to get in there.
Is anyone else bothered by the fact you have to pay $10 to get into a church?
Is this Christianity for Tourists?
I wrote to the church about this and was told the $10 is recommended...but I did not get that impression when I was there. I felt I had wasted a trip (since I did not want to pay $10 (on principle) to enter a church).
wow that is very gauche......... and very sad. there are people that just want to pray or get some peace out time and go to church. Maybe we should contact bloomturd and tell him to tell them they cant do that anymore.. last part was a joke lol
If I recommend that you send me $10,000, do you think that lays any onus on you to DO it?
A quarter will work just fine at St. John's. (Do we remember what Jesus said about the moneychangers?)
When we were there, it did not seem like a "recommended" situation.
Lots of people pay $25 to get into the MET Museum because they are not sure about this whole "recommended" situation.
I've lived here 15 years and it did not seem as if the $10 was recommended. The church also seemed EMPTY except for a tour bus which had pulled up outside.
So basically St. JtD makes its money from tourists.
My angle for contributing to this forum is that I want to be a type of "anti-corruption" internet superhero :P :P :P (Actually I'm joking by saying that.)
So I'd like to call attention to anything I see that is wrong.
Recently I took an out-of-town friend to St. JtD and was shocked to see a security guard at the entrance to the church and a sign indicating that one needed to pay $10 to get in there.
Is anyone else bothered by the fact you have to pay $10 to get into a church?
Is this Christianity for Tourists?
I wrote to the church about this and was told the $10 is recommended...but I did not get that impression when I was there. I felt I had wasted a trip (since I did not want to pay $10 (on principle) to enter a church).
Am I wrong?
Yes you're wrong.
Wooooooow... How dare a "church" ask for donations... After all St. John the Divine provides social services, youth programs, tapestry textile conservation, and the cathedral only took over 100 years to build.
From the sound of it you only wanted to see the cathedral as a tourist attraction to begin with, and not for spiritual reasons. So I can't help but find it ironic that you'd kvetch about the "suggested" donation on "principal".
Cathedrals have overhead to pay just like everyone else. The upkeep and expenses for St. John the Divine is HUGE. One of my art teachers volunteered as a stonemason for St. John the Divine because they couldn't afford to hire enough professional sculptors during the latter years of the cathedral's construction.
I think it a testament to bad character when one who has the means to pay the "suggested" $10 donation pisses and moans about it. St. John the Divine is more than a "church" (that's like calling a cruise ship a "boat")... St. J the D is Cathedral, a work of art and architecture- the likes of which many do not have the good fortune to see in their lifetime. Sadly a lot of air-headed tourists take such marvels for granted and just assume money to operate such places grows on trees. Sorry honey. Their money has got to come from somewhere, and I don't think they're out of line ONE BIT to ask for a suggested donation.
When we were there, it did not seem like a "recommended" situation.
Lots of people pay $25 to get into the MET Museum because they are not sure about this whole "recommended" situation.
I've lived here 15 years and it did not seem as if the $10 was recommended. The church also seemed EMPTY except for a tour bus which had pulled up outside.
So basically St. JtD makes its money from tourists.
So how long do YOU need to live in NYC to understand that "recommended" means "recommended"?
Like St. John the Divine, the Met has large expenses to cover as well. Seriously, take a GOOD, LONG, HARD look at both places and ask yourself what it takes to keep those places running. You can be a patron of culture and the arts and pay the full donation, or leave. The only moral reason for anyone paying less than the suggested amount is if they're honestly too poor to do so.
While you claim to have been a resident of 15 years you don't sound like a NYer to me.
wow that is very gauche......... and very sad. there are people that just want to pray or get some peace out time and go to church. Maybe we should contact bloomturd and tell him to tell them they cant do that anymore.. last part was a joke lol
That's why "Recommended" is "recommended". IF you're poor any donation is fine, and if you can't afford anything they wouldn't turn you away to attend mass. St. John The Divine runs a soup kitchen as well if memory serves. It's not an operation to fleece tourists, the OP is just pissed at the idea of donating money, thinking in conspiracies to rationalize her lack of charity, and missing the bigger picture.
Wooooooow... How dare a "church" ask for donations... After all St. John the Divine provides social services, youth programs, tapestry textile conservation, and the cathedral only took over 100 years to build.
.
Your assumption that I went there as a 'tourist" is inaccurate, as is your argument.
Which other church in the country demands money before people can even enter it?
That is not a donation, it is an admissions fee. This isn't a carnival, it's a church.
As for their "service programs" - they seem negligible.
You seem to have a very conservative orientation to this issue.
That's why "Recommended" is "recommended". IF you're poor any donation is fine, and if you can't afford anything they wouldn't turn you away to attend mass. St. John The Divine runs a soup kitchen as well if memory serves. It's not an operation to fleece tourists, the OP is just pissed at the idea of donating money, thinking in conspiracies to rationalize her lack of charity, and missing the bigger picture.
Basically, this church fleeces tourists to the tune of $10 a shot. The tour bus pulls up, they get out, they have to pay $10 and the church is happy.
So real New Yorkers (unlike the people defending the church's fleecing scheme) walk away, but tourists have been driven there and pay through the nose for BAD ART and a gaudy architectural design.
Jesus, when did people become so conservative and happy to support money-grubbing "religious" institutions - unless we've got some folks from the church suddenly responding.
The church was empty.
And, no, there is no soup kitchen here.
Please make up more mis-information.
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