I don't trust fat preachers. There's just something about representing yourself as a role model in Christianity while also being a walking billboard for gluttony that screams "Hypocrisy". I also don't trust extravagant or fancy churches. No matter how many paintings we have of Jesus in white robes with whispy blond hair, the fact remains that he was a wanderer in the desert who bathed in rivers when he came across them and gave all he had (including his life) to those in need. I cannot reconcile this with mega-churches or churches with indoor basketball courts and state of the art technology. Not only does it reek of pride, but it also diverts funds from charitable Jesus-like purposes to rather selfish ones. The Vatican is of course, the worst, but there are plenty of evangelical churches here in the US almost as bad.
There's a church here in town I just hate. hate with a passion! Electronic church bells that blare musak Christian rock, a gymnasium, a fat preacher, all of it. How many mosquito nets could that money have bought for malaria-ridden countries? How many AIDS medications could have been purchased and sent to Africa? How many hungry people could have been fed with that money? Jesus made bread and fishes for the masses; he didn't just feed his own little group fancier food.
I hate most churches, but I do hold a soft spot for the little one-room churches with old basement kitchens and no air conditioning. They somehow seem more sincere, a little less arrogant, more humble. They seem closer to God than the ones with plush carpet and padded pews and wide screen plasma TVs.
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3 comments:
I would love to invite you to come to said church one Sunday so you are able to see what we are about and not just judge on outward appearance. I will agree that the church has spent funds on upgrages, but I look at it as outreach to the youth and other non-members to get them intrigued to come. The multi-purpose room has served a great purpose to help keep the youth occupied in a town that doesn't have much to offer. My church has done a lot of missionary and charity work, so I don't believe we are just about the flash. I really don't want to get into a huge debate, just wanted to state my informed opinion about this specific church.
I actually never even noticed the church until I was there one time. A big video presentation about sending shoeboxes to impoverished children, shoeboxes with bibles in them. Now I get the whole argument that saving the soul for eternity is better than saving the body for one lifetime, but bibles rather than vaccines or food or clean water? And the big sign proselytizing to the highway traffic bugs me too. I'm not saying that the sermons are bad or that they're all about the flash, but they're a little too much about the flash for my taste. And even as an outreach thing, why spend the money on recruitment rather than on charity? Why are all those thousands of dollars better spent on bringing kids to church than on actual selfless good deeds? I just think that when recruitment surpasses charity as a goal, it's a bad sign.
roberts05,
What you win them with is what you win them to.
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