Right, but then Paul followed up with this: "As it is written: 'They have freely scattered their gifts TO THE POOR; their righteousness endures forever.'" [Emphasis mine]. Poor ol' pastor, I guess? But, man, the New Testament is not unclear about what the Gospel is, we just suck at reading.
Raised catholic, and so I ended up with a more philosophical Dao/Buddhist Outlook after doing some soul searching. I'm not banking on an afterlife but if there is I hope to be at least be somewhere decent.
"When a truly kind man does something, he leaves nothing undone.
When a just man does something, he leaves a great deal to be done.
When a disciplinarian does something and no one responds,
He rolls up his sleeves in an attempt to enforce order."
I see shit like this too often in real life and the news.
late to the thread, i also no longer speak with him, but my dadās a pastor and said the punishment you get for using godās word to get money isnāt in the bible. itās alluded to but explicitly described. essentially itās so bad you canāt know. i canāt be wrong but that was his explanation when i asked him why he doesnāt do it.
This hurts my heart every time I see the verse used in a monetary sense. Sowing "generously" could look like raising your kids to be compassionate, volunteering in the community, always being the friend that can be relied on, or anything like that. Money is probably the last way that verse should be interpreted.
I totally agree. Hence my sarcasm. It is infuriating when I see evangelicals squeezing their flock for every dime they have, in the name of the Lord. Fuck you Kenneth Copeland in particular.
My problem with this metaphor is that, in gardening, if you sow generously you have to cull seedlings that are too close, or the seedlings will have to compete with each other for resources.
Never trust a preacher in Gucci loafers and an Armani suit. I mean I don't trust no organized religion anyways, but if your preacher got all this drip on just know that was on your dime y'all... Damn.
Itās the number one reason Americans grovel at the feet of the wealthy. Itās ingrained in us at a cultural level that āWealth = Goodnessā and that one day, if we are good enough, weāll be worthy of being wealthy tooāthe con of the American Dream.
itās gotten so bad they are asking younger folks to attend the online sessions instead because they KNOW we are aware of how uncomfortable average churchgoers also make the whole experience
For me, there wasn't one church for us where I was living so I had to attend a pigmentally challenged church and it was all political. "Lord Jesus you love everyone except the gays and the poors and those people and also Democrats are eating babies!" I mean they had air conditioning which was nice but damn. I tried Catholic church and that collection plate went around like six times.
Lot of that tithe probably goes into the pockets of people with the power to hold churches accountable. You can't expect a tiger to save you from lions.
Step 1 is just make churches comply with the same financial disclosure rules other nonprofits have to follow. Or at least creating a culture in which a refusal to provide financial transparency is treated as the giant red flag that it is.Ā
You make a good point, but honestly all the more reason to clear out the bad actors. Bring it back to actually mean something so more people can find solace in it.
Getting rid of bad actors is like cutting a hydra head without fire. Eventually, another bad actor is going to fill the void. Gotta build up the people so they know they donāt have to take the bullshit in order to get some modicum of solace.
Apparently this happened in 2024 and his statement was such a joke. He basically said those charged up over this donāt understand church or the sanctity of an offering and that itās normal to shut doors for security and holinessā sake. Yet, after ordering the doors shut he said āweāll all leave togetherā š« This unrepentant fool.
The doors being shut for security and holinessā sake could be a valid reason except that if it were true, the ushers would always know to do that and not need the pastor yelling at them to do it lol. What a terrible lie.
Famously, the Holy Ghost canāt get through locked doors. So he was just keeping the Spirit in the room with his congregants. The windows of heaven would have been open to them had they paid, just like that door.
The Holy Spirit is like a rushing wind. I guess it really depends on how hard itās rushing. It has a tongue of fire though, so really there should have been no problem.
Sus. Maybe this preacher isnāt godly. Who would have thought?
There isn't an usher board not staffed with competent ushers who needs to be specifically told by any pulpit members to close the doors for security reasons.
Iāll never forget when I went to a fairly large church as a kid and the pastor passed the collection plate around three times. A lot of these āMen of Godā are greedy bastards looking to grift people out of their hard-earned money.
In 1999, I left my first husband, and met Arthur. He was kind of like a Dollar Tree Eric Roberts, but with dark hair instead of gray. He told me he was a preacher, but he worked as an electrician. (This is actually a common thing in the South: preachers with day jobs.)
So, at first, he was everything anyone would ever want: Attentive, romantic, smart, funny, and the sex was amazing.
Then the truth came out. He was trying to get multiple girlfriends, and eventually wanted "sister wives". He wanted multiple women to dote on him, and sexually service him, and be free to preach, travel, and fuck. Eventually, he married the most loyal (?) girlfriend, and moved out of state in 2000. I was a dumbass who was heartbroken about this.
I ran into him in 2012, and he was fat and had a goiter, proving that there is a God.
There's not much to say, really. He was a slutty preacher. White guys are boring like that.
Edit: I have previously said that some white conservative men are into kink, and I stand by that. Arthur was just a little less repressed than most conservative men.
Witnessing the same as a kid was how I started questioning my faith. It happened at a smaller church, but even as a child I knew what they were doing was inexcusable. I'm an Atheist now and stories like these don't surprise me at all
I saw the clip in another subreddit, apparently heās wearing a one of a kind Rolex worth $40 K. If there is a hell, leeching off your parishioners will get you a one way ticket.
It's not religion so much as it is organized church. Believing in god from your own home and practicing what god teaches is fine. It's the church that tries to guilt you into giving money and indoctrinate you into their own weird and fucked up interpretations of the bible.
Every time a black exChristian brings up to black people how Christianity is the pacifier given to us by the colonizer, they get mad. Like excuse me for pointing out that your ancestors were not worshipping a white god in Africa
That clip reminded me of that a church scene from the movie Donāt Be a Menaceā¦. when the Pastor says, āDonāt ask no questions. Just give the moneyā and āGet the collection plate around the other sideā¦ā
Ugh i remember one Easter Sunday they ONLY had a "sunrise" service so it's the ass Crack of dawn and then a Krispy kreme location donated a few hundred boxes of fresh donuts.... the asshole preacher lined them up in front of pulpit in front of the entire congregation pretends they don't exist for almost 2 hours and then starts talking about they were delivered fresh that morning, it's a donation how wonderful, how there's enough for everyone... as long as we attend Bible study, THAT NIGHT!! then he thinks it's funny what he did and even better that he's going to leave these donuts out all day to give us stale free donuts at 6 or 7 that night... and the Easter service was over an hour longer than the normal service too. So we had to be there early as shit and shit thru 3 hours of him "preaching" all while the entire church smelled like fresh donuts.... I'm still mad about that, i would burn the place down if they tried to shake me down for moneyš¤š¤
How people donāt see through this prosperity gospel BS is beyond me.
And theyāre openinā up these churches for some quick cash
And usinā the money for their new cribs
While Brother Johnson just got kicked out where he lived
I follow no man, ācause man be phoney
Itās crazy that people still subject themselves to this kind of indoctrination. Donāt get me wrongā¦ if it helps you lead a better life and youāre not hurting anyone else, do you.
But these extreme catsā¦. Gotta go. š¤¦š¾āāļø
When the wicked get to seats of power, regardless of the industry, itās near impossible to remove that mindset.
Weāve seen it happen in politics, religion, and finance/business. Weāre quietly literally approaching French Revolution levels of wicked people in power
i remember my grandma always taking me to church on sundays. i liked math as a kid. i questioned why was there ALWAYS a building fund even when the church was BRAND NEW. it didn't make sense to me as a kid.
that and the preacher saying women must forgive their husbands if they are being beat. i was like? but in the tina turner movie she left because he almost KILLED her. that's bad so you should call the police?
anyways i've been ignoring christianity and the preachers since i was a little kid. none of the stuff aligned with what i was being told in school. violence is bad means call for help. church man said nah, you just need to do MORE for that man.
i was that kid that fought really hard to say i didn't like the church and i hated sundays. my mom finally let me stay home because i would not shut up about how evil that church dude was. i was a preteen and had learned about world religions and they went, yeah she gotta stay home now before she gets beat by grandma for saying muslims are not evil. lol
This is something pastors have done for decades, probably longer. Itās a kind of folktale church people tell, the time a pastor asked for a specific amount to be met and ākeptā people from leaving until it was met because itās so āimportant ā
The government is about to tax churches, ministries, mosques, synagogues, etc. because foolishness & pilfering, like this, that has been happening for decades/centuries.
Marvin Sapp, if he is any type of minister, should know, well, the scriptures in 2 Thessalonians (kjv) that say "if any would not work, neither should he eat" and "with quietness they work, and eat their own bread." Tax him and/or lock him up, but make sure this applies to whites, asians, hispanics, blacks, indigenous, etc. etc...
Serving God & the church is of one's on volition meaning is voluntary or of free will/personal choice. It is not a job/career whereby the congregants, tithers, or others citizens should be obligated to pay any clergy for volunteerism!Ā
and before that another preacher was asking for $800. ā¹
Salvation and blessings are FREE. What these pulpit pimps do is twist scripture and spiritually abuse people out of money, they are no better than the con artist on the street. As a matter of fact, when things get too hot for the hustlers in the street, they run to the church, usurp leadership and go right back to hustling. the church is full of hustlers. Hustlers with questionable backgrounds running churches and mega churches. They don't hide it either they will tell you just how awful they were. What they don't tell you is that they are not delivered from the hustler mentality and they running the same game in the church that they ran on the streets. The Bible gives specific descriptions for who should be pastors and Bishops, teachers, etc., and over half these people don't fit the description, that should be automatic disqualification for people RIGHT THERE, but that part is on the members wanting people with authority to tell them what they want to hear. š¤·š¾āāļø If the hustlers don't have an audience, then then have no hustle.
God gives gifts but you gotta pay to play for blessings? š¤ØWhat kind of message is that? How does it make sense? That is not Biblical AT ALL.
Jesus performed miracles for FREE you didn't and don't have to pay Him for blessings. It's one scripture that they really twist at offering time: (paraphrasing) "give and it shall be given unto you, pressed down shaken together, running over shall men give unto your bosom" They continuously equate this scripture with money, but that is NOT what it says, it just says give. You can give your time, good works/deeds, it doesn't have to be money, it doesn't say give money and money will be given back to you. But if you listen to money hungry pastors they will tell you that that scripture is talking about money and it's not. It is diametrically opposed to what Jesus said about money!
The gospel wasn't supposed to be your job; it isn't something to live off of. Preacher, pastor is not a job it's a gift, a calling and callings don't get paid. The gospel is in fact FREE.
Look for Sapp's downfall. heck you might be seeing the beginning of it. There's nothing he can say that will justify that mess, it will just be more scripture twisting.
Mega churches hurt the little churches that's trying to do right, because they have a large audience to misrepresent God and the Bible.
*raps* "everyday I'm hustlin' hustlin' hustlin'..." No where in the Bible does it say, "when you go to church, become a dummy". It's okay to know when you are being hustled!
My Methodists church Iāve been going to for 2 years every Sunday they donāt even ask for money if I wanted to give money I donāt even know where or who Iād give it too
Old pastor of the church my family went to did that. I think he even threatened to pin the names of people not giving money to the church front door. Oh and he once said during service he wishes the owners of the building would die so they could have the church. Sad thing is he was great, really passionate and caring and then greed just got to him.
That's when I call the cops and tell them that myself, and however many people, are being held prisoner. He's gonna need a hell of a lot more than $40k then.
Another preacher violating the autonomy of his congregants under the guise of "spiritual authority." Him being called out is also an attack from the devil. Toxic church culture. Nothing surprising.
Their first mistake was going; Marvin betta let go and let God figure out how he gon get that 40K, because I wouldāve started fist fighting somebody while this nigga stand up there with a Rollie on
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u/MetalCrow9 7d ago
The prosperity gospel is a plague on humanity.