As my blog's name says Jesus always needs money. He can create worlds, heal the sick, raise the dead, but never has enough money. This hard hit recession is even making it even tougher for the Lord and Master of the Universe. Friday's article in the New York Times describes the woes of Jesus trying to pay his electric bill or paying his gospel singers. Trying to keep up all that adoration He craves it no easy task.
A couple of interesting statements in the article are "Some members, newly jobless and ashamed, turned in tithing envelopes that were empty" and "On one hand, more than 50 families out of a total of 580 in his congregation this year asked for their annual dues to be reduced". You know some churches require you to make a financial contract with the Church. Nice way to guilt the members, so much so that some are too embarrassed to even show up. One church board member told his pastor to stop asking for donations and pray for the economy to turn around. What's wrong with these politicians? All we need to do is pray - problem solved. Well, it is only a theory or actually an unproven hypothesis. This god is unpredictable.
"While the recession has sharpened the drop in giving, it is not entirely responsible for it. Rather, it has accentuated and accelerated a trend away from giving to religious organizations that scholars have been tracking for the past decade. The impending wave of retirements by baby boomers, who start hitting age 65 next year, threatens another blow to congregational income." I know where 20+ million went to a pseudo-science Creation Museum in Kentucky that says man rode on dinosaurs denying all evidence except the TV show the Flintstones.
How is it the churches suffer with this? Does the story of Joseph in the Bible show that righteous people are bless with great wealth? The prosperity gospel.
"The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master." - Genesis 39:2
"The LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did." Genesis 39:23
"Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.'" - Genesis 41:41
All they need do is pray and be righteous and Jesus will...will..still NEED MONEY.
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
ReplyDeleteMy house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.—Isaiah 56:7
But you have made it a den of thieves—Jeremiah 7:11
The reference to den of thieves may be a reference to inflated pricing or more sinister forms of using a religious cult to exploit the poor.
It all gets down to "SHOW ME THE MONEY"...
very true.
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