College, I must admit, can be delightfully hedonistic. Well, while I have admittedly few vices personally beyond late nights and snuggles, there is something alluring about the decided lack of rules and the general enthusiasm for the unorthodox that looms over college communities (or at least, liberal college communities). It's intoxicating (At times, literally so for many). You get caught up in this whirlwind of fun and learning and friends. It's really the best place I've ever been in my entire life.
But I miss saying grace. I miss having that one moment with a bunch of other people when you just stop and forget about yourselves and your day and simply take the time to be grateful. I miss waking up for church on Sunday mornings. I miss daily prayers. I miss having Bible study time, and I miss people not thinking I'm crazy because I can easily reference certain verses. I miss people understanding things I take for granted and figured everyone could easily comprehend, like communion and Lent. I miss being a part of a community of faith, what the Quran calls the "umma."
It seems silly. These things have always been a fairly substantial part of my life. But here I am, not doing them, and I totally could do a lot of them. I try to explain things to people, and I've kept up a lot of things, but goodness I do so love sleeping in on Sundays. Sure I could say grace in the dining center, but honestly, I get busy talking and scooting chairs, and I forget. I could say my old highschool prayer at the same time, but usually I'm in class.
I know, I know. Excuses, excuses. But I'm doing what I can.
College has really strengthened my beliefs though. I can articulate them, discuss them, and I see now how really important they are to me. I've seen how curious people can be about faith, and I've seen how refreshing it can be to consider things from new perspectives.
But it's kind of hard sometimes to be one of the few believers in a sea of the faithless and to see how much the church has let so many of them down. It hurts. These wonderful people, most only about 19, 20 years old, who have been hurt or disappointed by a centuries old institution that is meant to bring hope, but that they consider an instrument of oppression and an utter sham...
I don't think it's my place to bring people to the church. Honestly, it's not my calling. I'm neither persuasive, nor pushy, nor that specific about my own faith to lead anybody else anywhere. In every freaking spiritual gift assessment I've ever taken at every church I've ever been at, I've never gotten my stupid results back (lazy Methodists for the lose), so goodness knows what my calling actually is.
The one thing I'm decent at in my opinion is loving people. And I guess while I'm here, I'll just stick with that.
God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for my school. Amen.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Beach Reading - "A Million Miles in A Thousand Years" by Donald Miller
If you hang around here long you're going to find that one of my favorite contemporary thinkers and authors is a guy named Donald Miller. He wrote this pretty amazing book called "Blue Like Jazz" that rather revolutionized my thinking a couple of years back. He's done so again with his newest book, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years".
I heard Donald speak almost exactly a year ago, he was working on this project at the time. I remember wishing desperately that the book was already in print because the way he spoke of life as story resonated so strongly to me as a writer. It is FINALLY done and on the shelves and it does NOT disappoint.
I brought it with me to the beach as a beach read. I read it through the first day we arrived and then I spent half of the evening and today underlining the things that my spirit went "YES!" to as I read it the first time. I don't want to share too many excerpts but so much of what he said hit me right where I live. From the authors note at the very beginning of the book to the afterword at the end this book spoke to my soul.
On page 59 in the middle of the page there is this quote:
With the exception of gender, this passage applies directly to me:
Those who know the details of my real life this year will understand why I found this quote so incredibly comforting.
I am still absorbing it all. I highly recommend it though. Its on sale for just under $12 at Family Christian Stores. Go get it.
I heard Donald speak almost exactly a year ago, he was working on this project at the time. I remember wishing desperately that the book was already in print because the way he spoke of life as story resonated so strongly to me as a writer. It is FINALLY done and on the shelves and it does NOT disappoint.
I brought it with me to the beach as a beach read. I read it through the first day we arrived and then I spent half of the evening and today underlining the things that my spirit went "YES!" to as I read it the first time. I don't want to share too many excerpts but so much of what he said hit me right where I live. From the authors note at the very beginning of the book to the afterword at the end this book spoke to my soul.
On page 59 in the middle of the page there is this quote:
If I have a hope, its that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you.
With the exception of gender, this passage applies directly to me:
"I feel written. My skin feels written, and my desires feel written. My sexuality was a word spoken by God, that I would be(fe)male, and I would have brown hair and brown eyes and come from a womb. It feels literary, doesn't it, as if we are charcters in books.
You can call it God or a conscience you can dismiss it as that intutive knowing we all have as human beings, as living storytellers; but there is a knowing I feel that guides me toward better stories, toward being a better character. I believe there is a writer outside ourselves, plotting a better story for us, interacting with us, even, and whispering a better story into our consciousness."
Those who know the details of my real life this year will understand why I found this quote so incredibly comforting.
"The human body essentially recreates itself every six months. Nearly every cell of hair and skin and bone dies and another is directed into its former place. You are not who you were in February."
I am still absorbing it all. I highly recommend it though. Its on sale for just under $12 at Family Christian Stores. Go get it.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
I Was Born in the Sign of Water
and its there that I feel my best...
I'm taking off for a week and heading to the beach with my family. I'm leaving the blog in the capable hands of my co-authors and I hope to come back refreshed and with maybe some new insights to share.
I've become rather disenchanted with spiritual retreats where other people tell me what they think it is I need to know. I think that perhaps the best model we have for spiritual retreats is Jesus. Big surprise there. Often after an intense period of ministry or testing he retreated alone to collect himself and recharge and reconnect with his purpose and his Father. This year has been an intense period for me, whether it is testing or just life beating me down I don't yet know. I do know that I am nearly desperate for some peace and time to be alone and collect myself and recharge and reconnect with my purpose and my Father. In that sense this trip is a spiritual retreat for me.
I have some thought provoking reading material (Donald Miller's newest book - A Million Miles in A Thousand Years) as well as some mindless diversions (dominoes, craft projects, tabloid magazines) and I am counting the minutes until my husband gets home and we can pack the van and head south.
I am seriously addicted to the online world so I'm expecting some pretty brutal withdrawal symptoms. I have cut and am continuing to cut my online presence and commitments as a result of conversations with Matt and revelations from my own instincts about things that have contributed to the drain on my time and energy that has me running for the ocean. I am sure there will be more such things pruned away before I return. If I disappear from some of the online places where our lives intersect know that this is likely why. Nothing personal.
"There's one thing in my life that's missing, its the time that I spend alone..." And I'm about to remedy that situation. Have a great week. I'll talk to you when I get back.
I'm taking off for a week and heading to the beach with my family. I'm leaving the blog in the capable hands of my co-authors and I hope to come back refreshed and with maybe some new insights to share.
I've become rather disenchanted with spiritual retreats where other people tell me what they think it is I need to know. I think that perhaps the best model we have for spiritual retreats is Jesus. Big surprise there. Often after an intense period of ministry or testing he retreated alone to collect himself and recharge and reconnect with his purpose and his Father. This year has been an intense period for me, whether it is testing or just life beating me down I don't yet know. I do know that I am nearly desperate for some peace and time to be alone and collect myself and recharge and reconnect with my purpose and my Father. In that sense this trip is a spiritual retreat for me.
I have some thought provoking reading material (Donald Miller's newest book - A Million Miles in A Thousand Years) as well as some mindless diversions (dominoes, craft projects, tabloid magazines) and I am counting the minutes until my husband gets home and we can pack the van and head south.
I am seriously addicted to the online world so I'm expecting some pretty brutal withdrawal symptoms. I have cut and am continuing to cut my online presence and commitments as a result of conversations with Matt and revelations from my own instincts about things that have contributed to the drain on my time and energy that has me running for the ocean. I am sure there will be more such things pruned away before I return. If I disappear from some of the online places where our lives intersect know that this is likely why. Nothing personal.
"There's one thing in my life that's missing, its the time that I spend alone..." And I'm about to remedy that situation. Have a great week. I'll talk to you when I get back.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
My Online Friend Mary Died Yesterday
And on the mothering board we frequent there is a long thread of people who have had their faith shaken by her death because we were all praying so fervently for her healing. I cannot comment there on the thoughts that are going through my mind for they aren't the happy "Christian" platitudes that people seem to expect and perhaps need to hear in times like these.
Am I sad for the loss my friend's family is experiencing? Of course I am. Death is hard for those of us left behind.
Does it break my mama heart that her 10 surviving children, ages 22 to 2, are going to go through the rest of their time on this earth motherless? Absolutely.
Do I believe that her lack of being healed in this life in any way has anything to do with us not praying enough or believing enough or having enough faith? Absolutely not and the fact that we as a group seem to collectively bear that false guilt infuriates me about the way the church teaches about healing.
Mary had stage 4 lung cancer when she was diagnosed. She was pregnant with her 11th child, a surprise pregnancy in her 42nd year. She was stunned when they found the cancer and by the time they did find it she was very aware that there was very little medical science could do for her or for her baby. She did what any of us would do in that situation. She turned to prayer. And she called on us, her friends, to pray with her. Praying for Mary was a privilege. Of course we prayed for healing. Who wouldn't? This was a friend and her baby. And I believe that Mary drew strength for her battle from knowing she was being lifted 24 hours a day in prayer. Yet the battle didn't end the way we hoped. She and her baby died yesterday within hours of each other.
What makes me angry is that our grief is tainted with a false sense of guilt. An inflated sense of our own power that leads us to blame ourselves for something we truly had less than no control over. It is taught in the churches under various names, "name it, claim it", "claiming your healing", "believing for a miracle"...the thing is, at its core, its a form of witchcraft. Its the idea that if we just say the right words with the right amount of faith then God MUST do what we ask of him. Like Dorothy Gale tapping our red glitter heels together and chanting "There's no place like home, There's no place like home..." we feel cheated when the Wizard doesn't grant our wishes.
Yes, we are told to come boldly before the throne of grace and present our petitions to the Lord. Yes, we are told, and I believe, that our prayers can sometimes move God and change what otherwise would be. But ultimately I think we show a shocking lack of humility when we presume that is the USUAL outcome. Miracles are called miracles because they are rare.
As I prayed for Mary, always in the back of my mind was the awareness that the battle she was fighting was one that most people do not win. Is that a lack of faith or a solid grip on reality? I truly think it is the latter. The outcome is not what I had hoped for. I don't pretend to comprehend the purpose of taking a mother from her children especially when she had children who were still so young. Yet in these times and situations I keep coming back to God's response to Job and I realize that I wasn't there when He laid the foundations of the earth and I don't have sufficient understanding to make sense of these things. I honestly take great comfort in that fact. That it is OK not to understand, not to have to make sense of things like this. I am incapable of understanding.
What I DO know and understand is this, the God I know and serve would not punish my "lack of faith" by taking the life of another person. He just wouldn't. Therefore any thought that such a thing contributed to this is false guilt.
Am I sad for the loss my friend's family is experiencing? Of course I am. Death is hard for those of us left behind.
Does it break my mama heart that her 10 surviving children, ages 22 to 2, are going to go through the rest of their time on this earth motherless? Absolutely.
Do I believe that her lack of being healed in this life in any way has anything to do with us not praying enough or believing enough or having enough faith? Absolutely not and the fact that we as a group seem to collectively bear that false guilt infuriates me about the way the church teaches about healing.
Mary had stage 4 lung cancer when she was diagnosed. She was pregnant with her 11th child, a surprise pregnancy in her 42nd year. She was stunned when they found the cancer and by the time they did find it she was very aware that there was very little medical science could do for her or for her baby. She did what any of us would do in that situation. She turned to prayer. And she called on us, her friends, to pray with her. Praying for Mary was a privilege. Of course we prayed for healing. Who wouldn't? This was a friend and her baby. And I believe that Mary drew strength for her battle from knowing she was being lifted 24 hours a day in prayer. Yet the battle didn't end the way we hoped. She and her baby died yesterday within hours of each other.
What makes me angry is that our grief is tainted with a false sense of guilt. An inflated sense of our own power that leads us to blame ourselves for something we truly had less than no control over. It is taught in the churches under various names, "name it, claim it", "claiming your healing", "believing for a miracle"...the thing is, at its core, its a form of witchcraft. Its the idea that if we just say the right words with the right amount of faith then God MUST do what we ask of him. Like Dorothy Gale tapping our red glitter heels together and chanting "There's no place like home, There's no place like home..." we feel cheated when the Wizard doesn't grant our wishes.
Yes, we are told to come boldly before the throne of grace and present our petitions to the Lord. Yes, we are told, and I believe, that our prayers can sometimes move God and change what otherwise would be. But ultimately I think we show a shocking lack of humility when we presume that is the USUAL outcome. Miracles are called miracles because they are rare.
As I prayed for Mary, always in the back of my mind was the awareness that the battle she was fighting was one that most people do not win. Is that a lack of faith or a solid grip on reality? I truly think it is the latter. The outcome is not what I had hoped for. I don't pretend to comprehend the purpose of taking a mother from her children especially when she had children who were still so young. Yet in these times and situations I keep coming back to God's response to Job and I realize that I wasn't there when He laid the foundations of the earth and I don't have sufficient understanding to make sense of these things. I honestly take great comfort in that fact. That it is OK not to understand, not to have to make sense of things like this. I am incapable of understanding.
What I DO know and understand is this, the God I know and serve would not punish my "lack of faith" by taking the life of another person. He just wouldn't. Therefore any thought that such a thing contributed to this is false guilt.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Who We Are
T-Bear – I was raised Southern Baptist, became Methodist in college, married into the Church of Christ and over the last decade and a half followed along as God brought me back through the Southern Baptist Church and to the Methodist Church once again. I attend a Methodist Mega-church in a moderately large Southern City. I was a rather mainstream Methodist looking around though I began to observe some things that seemed consistently to put me at odds with the mainstream. For example: I believe in the radical idea that God actually loves and accepts EVERYONE. That puts me at odds with the "Our Way is RIGHT" mainstream. I also believe that God would have us raise our children with gentleness and reason rather than trying to shape their character through behavioral modification techniques involving pain. That puts me at odds with the "Christian Parenting" mainstream. I have a burden for the GLBT community born of burying 4 friends in 5 years at the height of the AIDS crisis in the early 90’s. That puts me at odds with the "Sanctity of Marriage" mainstream. I am a home-school mama who is also a belly-dancer, that that little hobby put me at odds with my peers really surprised me. Apparently I don't fit into either the "public/private school" or "Christian home-school" mainstream. It was probably about that time that I finally realized I must be a rather Unconventional Christian, hence the title of this blog. So I invited some of my Unconventional Christian friends to join me in this experiment in cooperative blogging. My friends and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. Sometimes we don’t even agree among ourselves. This is a place to contemplate and discuss stuff we encounter along the journey. Welcome. * update *I am currently worshiping with an amazing group of rather Unconventional Christians at First Baptist Church Memphis and I love it!
Matthew - Raised Free Will Baptist, I began to question the marked difference between the way the Bible said people were supposed to act, and the way the members of my dad's church behaved. This dichotomy grew over the years, until I came of age, and dropped out of organized church life altogether. Burned out and saddened by the discovery that yellow bricks sometimes just lead to the bank, I set out to determine for myself exactly why it was that so much of what people claimed were the words of God actually turned out to be misquoted, misunderstood, misused, misogynist, misanthropic, misappropriated and missing from the Bible itself.
RobynHerself - "Eclectic" describes me because I never can squeeze myself into any prescribed mold, whether political, denominational or anything else! When asked to choose my "favorite" of anything, I am overwhelmed by the many possibilities because life is a palette and how could I possibly choose just ONE of anything? I think most of the streams of theology contain bits of the truth and the Christian denominations hold pieces to the puzzle. Politically, I look at each issue on its own merit. I have come to value "consensus" rather than "majority" when it comes to government, in church and in every level of American government. Democracy works best when rooted in the collective wisdom of people seeking to meet needs rather than a "survival of the fittest" mentality. I pray that my opinions and attitudes will be grounded in scripture and God's truth rather than any prepackaged manifesto. God is continually "deprogramming" me and teaching me new things. All my answers seem to lead to more questions. Am I an idealist? Yes... if believing that respecting others and cooperation would bring us to a whole new level spiritually and in society is idealistic. Some call me naive, usually when I bring Jesus' teachings into political or religious discussion! The longer I live, the more "idealistic" and "naive" I become. The more Jesus' teachings merge with my experience of the political and church landscape, the less "at home" I feel among conventional Christians. When I begin to flounder, fearing I'm losing my foundations, this scripture helps me regain my balance: "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8) Everything else is unnecessary complication. Life is HARD, people. Let's love each other.
Lil Spoon - I’m supposed to tell you things I think it’s important for you to know about me. I’m liberal, almost painfully so, although in the past year or so I’ve found myself becoming slightly more conservative on the scale of being liberal. That probably makes no sense, but that’s the next thing you need to know anyways: sometimes I make no sense. I’m in college, and I’m probably going to be a religion major. I’m a strange hybrid of a Methodist and an Episcopalian and a Quaker, and I grew up in a Methodist/Baptist family and went to Episcopal school, though I have a close affiliation with both the Jewish and the Quaker community. Go figure on that one. But at the end of the day, my heart belongs to the Episcopal Church. I love hymns and kneelers, and I simply can’t function without my copy of the Book of Common Prayer. The formality of most Episcopal churches seems to be an odd contrast to my relatively relaxed life views, although their overall liberal attitude makes it a perfect fit, and I actually love the formality and the sense of unity it brings to a congregation. I don’t want to give too much more away though; you can just figure me out as I go, because that’s pretty much what I’m doing myself anyways.
Matthew - Raised Free Will Baptist, I began to question the marked difference between the way the Bible said people were supposed to act, and the way the members of my dad's church behaved. This dichotomy grew over the years, until I came of age, and dropped out of organized church life altogether. Burned out and saddened by the discovery that yellow bricks sometimes just lead to the bank, I set out to determine for myself exactly why it was that so much of what people claimed were the words of God actually turned out to be misquoted, misunderstood, misused, misogynist, misanthropic, misappropriated and missing from the Bible itself.
RobynHerself - "Eclectic" describes me because I never can squeeze myself into any prescribed mold, whether political, denominational or anything else! When asked to choose my "favorite" of anything, I am overwhelmed by the many possibilities because life is a palette and how could I possibly choose just ONE of anything? I think most of the streams of theology contain bits of the truth and the Christian denominations hold pieces to the puzzle. Politically, I look at each issue on its own merit. I have come to value "consensus" rather than "majority" when it comes to government, in church and in every level of American government. Democracy works best when rooted in the collective wisdom of people seeking to meet needs rather than a "survival of the fittest" mentality. I pray that my opinions and attitudes will be grounded in scripture and God's truth rather than any prepackaged manifesto. God is continually "deprogramming" me and teaching me new things. All my answers seem to lead to more questions. Am I an idealist? Yes... if believing that respecting others and cooperation would bring us to a whole new level spiritually and in society is idealistic. Some call me naive, usually when I bring Jesus' teachings into political or religious discussion! The longer I live, the more "idealistic" and "naive" I become. The more Jesus' teachings merge with my experience of the political and church landscape, the less "at home" I feel among conventional Christians. When I begin to flounder, fearing I'm losing my foundations, this scripture helps me regain my balance: "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8) Everything else is unnecessary complication. Life is HARD, people. Let's love each other.
Lil Spoon - I’m supposed to tell you things I think it’s important for you to know about me. I’m liberal, almost painfully so, although in the past year or so I’ve found myself becoming slightly more conservative on the scale of being liberal. That probably makes no sense, but that’s the next thing you need to know anyways: sometimes I make no sense. I’m in college, and I’m probably going to be a religion major. I’m a strange hybrid of a Methodist and an Episcopalian and a Quaker, and I grew up in a Methodist/Baptist family and went to Episcopal school, though I have a close affiliation with both the Jewish and the Quaker community. Go figure on that one. But at the end of the day, my heart belongs to the Episcopal Church. I love hymns and kneelers, and I simply can’t function without my copy of the Book of Common Prayer. The formality of most Episcopal churches seems to be an odd contrast to my relatively relaxed life views, although their overall liberal attitude makes it a perfect fit, and I actually love the formality and the sense of unity it brings to a congregation. I don’t want to give too much more away though; you can just figure me out as I go, because that’s pretty much what I’m doing myself anyways.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Be The Church
If this blog had a scripture verse in its tagline it would be Micah 6:8 - for those unfamiliar the verse in the NIV reads as follows:
The church, as she was intended to be, was to be a venue for justice and mercy and to be characterized by humility in her walk with God. We've blown it. Badly.
Matthew hit on some of my own pet issues with the church. If the church was BEING the church we wouldn't be in the mess we're in right now. The government wouldn't have to be involved in health care reform or welfare or any other "human services" areas because the church would be filling those roles. Because she is not, the government has to step in. And because she is not and the government has to step in then logically it follows that the government has the right to bill the church for its services.
I hear a lot of hysteria in Christian circles about how "They" are going to take away our ability to preach the whole of Scripture. Too often when I tease it out "They" is the government and the "truth" that the person is referring to is something along the lines of "Abortion is Murder" or something to that affect. Clearly "Love your enemies" isn't the kind of speech that is going to get us on "their" list. Well, if this is what "we" really believe then one answer to the problem is to surrender our precious tax exempt status and disentangle ourselves from the government's pockets and hence from their regulation of what we can and cannot say, what we can and cannot do, who we can and cannot marry.
There is a saying in real life, "Follow the Money". If you want to know who has the control/power then follow the money. If the church wants autonomy to be the church then she needs to cut her ties to the state and pony up her portion of taxes just like any other organization does. We can't have it both ways. A day is coming, and quickly in this economy, where we are going to have to decide whom we are going to serve. Freeing ourselves from our ties to the government coffers is one choice we need to make.
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
The church, as she was intended to be, was to be a venue for justice and mercy and to be characterized by humility in her walk with God. We've blown it. Badly.
Matthew hit on some of my own pet issues with the church. If the church was BEING the church we wouldn't be in the mess we're in right now. The government wouldn't have to be involved in health care reform or welfare or any other "human services" areas because the church would be filling those roles. Because she is not, the government has to step in. And because she is not and the government has to step in then logically it follows that the government has the right to bill the church for its services.
I hear a lot of hysteria in Christian circles about how "They" are going to take away our ability to preach the whole of Scripture. Too often when I tease it out "They" is the government and the "truth" that the person is referring to is something along the lines of "Abortion is Murder" or something to that affect. Clearly "Love your enemies" isn't the kind of speech that is going to get us on "their" list. Well, if this is what "we" really believe then one answer to the problem is to surrender our precious tax exempt status and disentangle ourselves from the government's pockets and hence from their regulation of what we can and cannot say, what we can and cannot do, who we can and cannot marry.
There is a saying in real life, "Follow the Money". If you want to know who has the control/power then follow the money. If the church wants autonomy to be the church then she needs to cut her ties to the state and pony up her portion of taxes just like any other organization does. We can't have it both ways. A day is coming, and quickly in this economy, where we are going to have to decide whom we are going to serve. Freeing ourselves from our ties to the government coffers is one choice we need to make.
Stop stealing from me!
In cities all across the country, new churches are sprouting, faster than can easily be counted. As I drive through the streets of my small, financially-challenged town in the Rural South, a week never goes by when I don't see at least one being prepared for occupation.
It seems the campaign to win the hearts and minds of the general populace is well underway- and thank goodness, eh? After all, every church helps to provide for the needs of the community, through the tithing of its congregation- I'm so proud of them all, sacrificing a portion of their paychecks for the Greater Glory of God (c)! I'm so glad that those monies, which are already taxed by the Federal Government, go into the coffers of such organizations, dedicated to the purpose of charitable works in the local community. Why, I see soup kitchens, free housing, clothes banks, and volunteers everywhere, from every church around, making sure our poor, our helpless, our infirmed, and our disadvantaged brothers and sisters are well-taken-care-of.
It's certainly a great thing that our Founding Fathers envisioned, this wonderful trade-off of tax-free status, in exchange for the government never having to spend public funds to take care of those among us who have physical, medical, social, and emotional needs. It fills me with joy to see how well it's all worked-out. I mean, really- we don't have to worry about anyone going hungry, or losing everything because of an illness, no sirree, not with these folks on the job, glorifying God with every soul they provide for the needs of. Tireless, really.
Honestly- it's no big deal when a church buys a nearby plot of land that happens to have a successful shopping mall on it, and opens facilities there- it's all in the name of helping others, and who cares if the taxes on some multi-million-dollar property just stop flowing into the government coffers. I'm sure they'll make it up elsewhere- heck- I'll pony up the difference on my own tax bill, cheerfully! It warms my cockles to see how inventive churches have become at generating money for their purposes- I'd never have imagined keeping the tenants in those shopping malls, and charging them rent. It's brilliant, I tell you! Why, the uses for that income are incredible- I'm sure I'll see even more free food, clothing, shelter, and medical care for the needy out of it, just any day, now.
And I don't really even mind that the salaried staff of these glory-filled places don't pay income taxes- they've earned the pensions and college funds the flock gives them. Managing such a complicated, gigantic infrastructure must be stressful. No wonder they need several vacations and getaways per year. And, of course, their children must be educated to the hilt, to ensure that they, too, can continue to build more churches, so that the Divine Calling of Charity (c) is met, all around the world!
Friends and neighbors, we musn't let our own paltry needs weaken our resolve. Our best contribution to the cause, obviously, is our weekly tithes- I daresay none of us would have any idea how to accomplish all these great things for the Almighty! Rejoice! We're serving our fellow man in an awesome way!
It seems the campaign to win the hearts and minds of the general populace is well underway- and thank goodness, eh? After all, every church helps to provide for the needs of the community, through the tithing of its congregation- I'm so proud of them all, sacrificing a portion of their paychecks for the Greater Glory of God (c)! I'm so glad that those monies, which are already taxed by the Federal Government, go into the coffers of such organizations, dedicated to the purpose of charitable works in the local community. Why, I see soup kitchens, free housing, clothes banks, and volunteers everywhere, from every church around, making sure our poor, our helpless, our infirmed, and our disadvantaged brothers and sisters are well-taken-care-of.
It's certainly a great thing that our Founding Fathers envisioned, this wonderful trade-off of tax-free status, in exchange for the government never having to spend public funds to take care of those among us who have physical, medical, social, and emotional needs. It fills me with joy to see how well it's all worked-out. I mean, really- we don't have to worry about anyone going hungry, or losing everything because of an illness, no sirree, not with these folks on the job, glorifying God with every soul they provide for the needs of. Tireless, really.
Honestly- it's no big deal when a church buys a nearby plot of land that happens to have a successful shopping mall on it, and opens facilities there- it's all in the name of helping others, and who cares if the taxes on some multi-million-dollar property just stop flowing into the government coffers. I'm sure they'll make it up elsewhere- heck- I'll pony up the difference on my own tax bill, cheerfully! It warms my cockles to see how inventive churches have become at generating money for their purposes- I'd never have imagined keeping the tenants in those shopping malls, and charging them rent. It's brilliant, I tell you! Why, the uses for that income are incredible- I'm sure I'll see even more free food, clothing, shelter, and medical care for the needy out of it, just any day, now.
And I don't really even mind that the salaried staff of these glory-filled places don't pay income taxes- they've earned the pensions and college funds the flock gives them. Managing such a complicated, gigantic infrastructure must be stressful. No wonder they need several vacations and getaways per year. And, of course, their children must be educated to the hilt, to ensure that they, too, can continue to build more churches, so that the Divine Calling of Charity (c) is met, all around the world!
Friends and neighbors, we musn't let our own paltry needs weaken our resolve. Our best contribution to the cause, obviously, is our weekly tithes- I daresay none of us would have any idea how to accomplish all these great things for the Almighty! Rejoice! We're serving our fellow man in an awesome way!
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