Since I was a little kid, I haven’t liked going to church. Since my teen years, I also haven’t believed much of what was preached to me there. For the time that I’ve been an active atheist, I’ve been disgusted about what’s taught at church and its effect on the world. But somehow it wasn’t until just recently that everything fell into place and I realized why church is the perfect formula to be a man-made money-making scheme. Church, to me, means traditional, doctrinally structured services within the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, but a lot of my apostate readers will relate, whether you were Catholic, Pentecostal, Methodist, or probably any other denomination, even nondenominational.
Because of my extreme disdain for the Lutheran church, for reasons such as this and this, I was recently Googling how to officially revoke my membership. I became a member through being baptized against my will as an infant and through being forced to attend confirmation classes and partake in a confirmation ceremony against my will as a teen. I know I can just stop going, and I will, but I want it to be official. When I looked up how to terminate my membership, I found no instructions on how to do so; all I found were articles on the tragic decline in LCMS membership in recent years. Taking their decline into consideration made me want to personally make their numbers fall by at least one more person, but I also looked further at the articles I found.
I found this article, “Harrison Blames Women for Declining Membership“, particularly appalling. I know there are a lot of things I complain about on here, like creationism, and apologetics, and Grove City College, but this is legitimately disturbing. Most of the article discusses the claims of the LCMS president Matthew Harrison that his salary of $252,573 is too small because the LCMS membership rate is declining. And Harrison believes that the decline in membership is due to women having fewer babies who will grow up and put their offering in the plate every week. He blames this on what could be considered any religious leader’s nightmare: women getting educations. In a 2016 LCMS National Convention Workbook, Harrison wrote in regards to the LCMS’s decline,
The third demographic study really honed in on the landscape of the US with respect to the birth rate. Americans, and particularly European-descent Americans (95 percent of the LCMS), are not having children at even the replacement rate of 2.1 per family. The year 1959 saw the largest number of LCMS births and Baptisms. Last year’s number of LCMS births was down some 70 percent from 1959. Society has changed. Marriage is delayed. Education comes first. Debt affects marriage and families. Delaying marriage and child rearing means far fewer children. Children are very expensive.
Matthew C. Harrison, LCMS 2016 National Convention Workbook, p. 2
The problem is that this all makes sense. Women get educations, then they get jobs, then they lead fulfilling lives without religion and/or without children, and they stop coming to church. And this means that Matthew Harrison has less money in his pocket, so he’s mad.
And everyone who contributes to the Sunday offering, and in turn, President Matthew Harrison’s paycheck, is convinced that it’s the “right thing to do.” The entire religion is set up perfectly to make pastors and other clergymen rich. It’s why apostates like myself are demonized and threatened with hell for deciding to liberate ourselves and stop attending. It’s why the pastor has to work so hard to tell everyone that coming to church and contributing money will be a ticket to heaven. And it’s why the persecution complex and self pity is such a central theme of the LCMS and religion at large. They can convince you that everyone is out to get you and then offer their house of worship as a place of solace from all of the perceived attacks.
And that is how churches get rich. It’s also why I’m proud to be done with them and never offer my church a penny of my own money. I’m ready to be a part of the reason that the LCMS withers away until there are no members left. It will be sooner than we think.
Without high fertility rates all denominations would be in decline. Islam is the fastest growing religion because they have the most babies. Convert rates are very low, and without babies they would be shrinking. More fear needs to be preached to keep the dollars coming. It’s still a best seller.
Not only do they need the babies, but it’s vitally important the parents indoctrinate their children as they are growing up so they too will one day add $$ to the offering plate.
The reason why I’m a problem for them is because although I was, in fact, born, and indoctrinated, I lost my faith before I got the chance to offer them any money.
👍😁
Is Islam the fastest growing religion by birth rates? I would think that would be Mormonism. Almost every Mormon family I know averages about 5 kids per mother, with some mothers having more than 10 kids. How many children some father’s have… we won’t even grt into that!
Mormon is stagnant compared to before. Mormon church is about 15million. Barely on the register compared to 1.5 billion. But traditionally Mormonism has a lot of converts. Thanks to the internet that has slowed considerably. I was one of the ones that left it behind.
Plus Muslims are allowed 4 wives in many countries
Is there a limit on how many wives a man can have in orthodox mormonism?
No, but it’s illegal and pretty rare now. They hide in various communities but it’s a small fraction of Mormonism. I know my brother knows some in Utah whee he lives, and for the most part the fundies are tolerated but outside the sanctioned church. Do you have a blog link?
Is there a limit on how many wives it takes to drive a man bat-S***t crazy? Who would want more than one? or any?
If that is what you think of women, I do hope you are not married, or have any children. I really hope you are joking, but it does not sound like it.
I am married with two children, boy 37 and girl 34. 4 grandchildren. I was joking, but on second thought, why in the world would any man want to be responsible, dedicated, legally tied to more than one woman. Sounds like a nightmare to me, but to each his own. Have you ever sat a a table full of women and you’re the only guy? If not, try it. Interesting experience.
I’ve spent my whole adult life with a table full of women, with me the only guy. I prefer it that way. All guys talk about in a group are beer (I do not drink), sports, cars, and chauvanistic talk about women–even as you are talking right now. With women, there are a myriad of discussion topics. You just have to participate to learn how intelligent women really are.
I’ll take female friends over male friends every day of the week.
You must teach me, Obewan. I plead ignorance to the wily ways of quick-witted women.
There is not much to teach, even if you are having me on. Acceptance of women as at least our equals. Do not fear them, do not try to rule them. Definitely do not abuse them. Be unto them as you would allow them to be unto you. Respect them, allow them their dignity, share with them.
Do not talk stupidly about them when they are not present. Do not make crass jokes. They are not sexual objects. They are sexual beings, just like yourself. Do not conquer, share. Do not be greedy, satidfy their needs howevr you can, howevr they will allow.
Stand beside them, do not try to defend them. Leave them to solve their own problems, but be there if they ask, and listen to what they are asking. Never dive in head first, wait for them to inform you what they need.
And do all those things in reverse. Earn their respect. Show them your dignity. And so on. Never raise your voice, and should they raise their voice to you, speak calmly and respectfully in return. Teach ghem who you are. Lrt them teach you who they are.
Life is a two-way street. Live it in both directions.
And tell me to shut up. I tought I could say all that in a few words. But I guess I love the sound of my voice too much. That is not a good thing.
Those are darn good teachings. I could probably apply them to all sentient beings…dogs, cats, giraffes, and humans. I found a beetle crawling across the floor the other day. I took a tissue, picked it up and let it outside and watched it fly away. This insect has just as much a right to life as I do.
I do get down on women from time to time. Mostly because 90% of the issues I’ve had in life came at that hands of a woman. Back in the days of dating I never ‘dumped’ a girlfriend. I was always the dumpee. But..who’s fault is that? Mine. I take responsibility for my life and the people I allow in.
Yup..laughter is important and especially these days. Ya, important not to take yourself too seriously. Good points. Thanks for sharing. I’m on it.
I apologize for asking, Eric, but is life really this bad for you? Are you in need of a non-judgmental friend? I’m never really sure if you are just leading me on, or being truly interested to learn.
Now, may I thank you for for letting the beetle go. It definitely appreciated that you did not play god with it, and end its life abruptly, as so many would have done.
And, yes, the words I gave you can be used for all living beings. It takes a special person to understand that. I am very happy to have met you.
At the moment I have some challenges, but over all life has been pretty good. I’m 67. Used to be a Catholic, Scientologist, yoga, Zen Buddist. At the moment I’m a non-believer in spiritual world. Everything you’ve said I’ve heard and read a ton of times. Buddha, Thich Nhat Hann, Alan Watts, Chopra, some philosophers and yadda yadda. As far as women, my fault is that I’ve placed my trust in them (or the ones I’ve known) way too easily. I tend to believe what people tell me and then I get surprised when I get knocked down. Hahaha. My mistake. But, no more.
I’m going to a therapist who is a woman, non-judgemental woman, and she’s amazing. We’ve done some great work to raise me out of a depression I settled in to.
With my initial comment, yes, I was joking around, but now you’ve dug deeper and touched upon some ‘stuff’ regarding women. At 67 and on hormone therapy for prostate cancer, which is called chemical castration and leaves me with zero interest in the opposite sex (mentally or physically) and actually probably a neutered human, I almost wish I had started these hormones in my 20’s. Would have saved me a lot of anguish. I’m actually in a good place mentally in regards to women. Shrug….I can take’m or leave’m. I don’t treat them any better or worse than I treat anyone else…even a beetle. Thanks for the dialog. Ya..nice meeting you.
Thank you for your synopsis. It pains me in some ways, but as long as you are feeling good about yourself I will not interfere.
My only suggestion where your beliefs or non-beliefs are concerned, have you ever looked inside yourself to see what YOU believe on your own?
That question makes no sense to me. “Look inside myself”?? Yes, yes, I’ve heard it a million times. In the Zen tradition I practiced for 12 years ‘looking for our true nature’ (or inside) was one of the main teachings. I’ve sat meditation retreats for 10 hours a day for weeks, weekends and on my own at home daily. My personal experience has shown me that the only thing ‘inside’ is what I put there or what my observation of the world shows me. The mind is a tricky place. Alan Watts tells of how we sit in meditation attempting to find the higher self. So, we identify with the higher self and think maybe we’ve found it. But the higher self is itself a thought just as the one attempting to identify the higher self is also a thought. Just as God or spirit or soul is a thought. Humans are great thinkers and love to attach meaning and make up stories to what we can’t explain. So, looking inside I will find and conjecture that which I put there and then I’ll act surprised and delighted because…oooo..look…I found myself…my TRUE Nature!! LOL. What you’ve found is ‘the thought’ that you’ve found it. Then you’ll convince yourself to believe this thought. You’ll make it as real as this keyboard and you’ll hold on with a death grip until your fingernails turn white and no one can convince you otherwise. Nice! It’s harmless until you start expecting others to believe your thinking. That’s when the trouble starts. ooops..sorry..got wordy here.
No worries about being wordy, the more you say the more you give me a chance to see who you are, and who you want to be.
What if I told you I have never meditated an hour in my life. I’ve thought alot, looked deep inside my being, but I have never meditated according to what I am told how one must meditate. There is no must.
No, what I did was question every belief I have inside of me (mostly “had” inside me, now long gone) and asked myself one question, over and over and over. Who told me to believe this? If it wasn’t me, out the window it goes. When it came right down to it, most everything I thought was me was tossed. It was not an easy exercice, but it was a necessary one. Your whole childhood is spent having others tell you what to think, what to do, what to believe. They even tell you how to think, what is important, what you should throw out the window.
I will not lie, I reached out the window, and brought some of those things back, not because I needed them, but because they held truths I could find inside me on my own. So, not everything is worthless, but most of it is.
Once you have gotten rid of the clutter, the detritus, then you have room to open yourself up, and see what is there. You virtually have an empty field in which to sow the seeds YOU want to plant. But be careful, this is a scary process at first. When you find yourself without many of the security blankets you were once given, you think you need to replace them. That is up to you.
What I found was not a need to replace them, but the strength to never need them again.
You have been beaten down, Eric, made to fear so many many things. But don’t lose sight of yourself, the person inside the person. This is where YOU start, and THEY end. I can almost guarantee the person you find will be a person you can love, and live with the rest of your life, YOU. You probably won’t be perfect, but you will be you, and then you can work on perfection. But you need to do it alone. You cannot let anyone, especially not me, help you discover who you are. That is your task, and yours alone. However YOU want to do it.
It seems that all of life is a game of trying things and discarding what doesn’t apply anymore. I was Catholic until I realized it wasn’t working for me. I was Buddhist until I realized it wasn’t working for me. That’s life, eh? Try this, try that and keep what works…until it doesn’t anymore.
As far as meditation goes, I got stuck on Zen, which is hard…very hard. There are other kinds of meditation, which might suit me, such as Vipasana or guided meditation or chanting..etc. But I believed the Zen teachings of this is how Buddha sat meditation, so, if it was good for him then it’s good for me. That’s very closed minded. Anyway, if you try meditation make sure you dabble in various methods to find one that suits you. In the end they’re all trying to accomplish the same thing. It’s the techniques that vary.
Yup..life is discovery and it’s up to me to discover. Sounds like sound advice.
Hi Eric. I have no intentions of trying meditation of the quiet kind, though I see you put in chanting as a type of meditation, so maybe I have meditated in my lifetime, though it did not feel like it. I spent a number of years chanting with a group of Tibetan Buddhists, and it did wonders for my consciousness level, though I never figured out how. The chants were in Sanskrit, with an English translation attached, but we never said anything real other than asking past masters to help us along our way, which seemed pretty innocuous to me. Yet somehow I changed.
But there came a time I had to leave the group. One of the chants talked about helping certain living beings along their way, but denied a spirit to other living beings. In my philosophy all living beings have spirit, so I could not do that chant. This was my end of studying TiBu, but I am not going to diss those whose journey takes them there. As I said, chanting helped me along my way, particularly since I needed help understanding certain concepts and mental constructs. Nothing was ever said about them, yet underdtanding came. But as with all religions, they put you in boxes, and when I broke out of that box it was a very spirit-changing time. I love my ex master for how he helped me, but I could never understand why he remained trapped in that box. It was a natural progression for me. But he never called chanting a meditation, so I never thought of it that way.
Yup, life is definitely about discovery, and I have discovered so much this lifetime it almost blows my mind. Sometimes I wonder if I am just “re-discovering” some lessons, but it does not feel like it. Anyways, i wish you well on your journey. If you may ask, though, is there a place I can read about your learning in your lifetime? I’ve looked you up on wordpress, but found nothing here.
Oops, a little late here.
I used to have a blog on WordPress, but I deleted it.
The type of Zen I studied or practiced was Korean Zen by Zen Master Seung Sahn. He created the Kwan Um School of Zen.
The type of yoga I practiced was by Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, and many others of the Vinyasa type yoga.
I dipped into Christian Science for a short term.
And of course Catholic through my childhood. And a year or two of Scientology. Scientology is not the evil cult it’s made out to be. So long as you keep it on a low key and not dump all your money into it, which they encourage you to do. The basic theories seemed to be pretty sound and it helped me through a rough spot when my wife of 10 months decided I wasn’t ‘the one’.
Meditation can be anything you want it to be. Running and exercising is very meditative. Biking. If you like to paint…even houses. I used to love to paint my house. I would get completely lost in being outside and methodically running a brush along the house. Any activity that absorbs you in the moment. Music! Hard work! Chanting or singing!
I went through all these things and one day I decided that had not changed one iota. All these rituals are fun to practice and it’s a good social outlet, but for me I still had a temper and anger issues. I have never hit another person or animal, but the temper would flare up once in a while. Meditation, yoga, and all did nothing for me. So, one day I quit trying to change myself. I said, screw it, this is who I am and I’m just going to have to learn to live with it. I guess, like you say, I broke out of the boxes I kept putting myself in. Funny, eh?
I used to believe in spirit, soul but I’ve found no evidence of it. Perhaps my limited 5 senses keep me from seeing spirit?
I’ll check out your rawgod and see if you have a blog. Thanks for asking.
rawgodsspiritualatheism.wordpress.com
I have a very large philosophy built over 50 some years of searching, finding some answers, understanding those answers, and then searching for the answers that those understandings gave rise to.
But there is one thing I insist on, and only one (kinda): Never believe anything I say unless it works for you, and even if it works for you make sure it harmonizes to the life you want to live. (This is actually the first time I ever added that stipulation in that way. Is my meaning clear, do you think? Or is it cryptic?)
Then I have a corollary, or addition, to the above insistence: All the answers are locked within you. You just need to find the right questions to ask. But look for the answers inside you, they work best when you discover them for yourself.
If I may ask, and if you feel like answering, what are the things that make you angry, that you lose your temper over? And how much of that was learned from someone else? A parent? A priest? A teacher of some kind? A friend? Or from a childhood bully? Anyone who wasn’t you?
Your philosophy of “Never believe anything I say unless it works for you” was the Buddha’s teaching 2,600 years ago; “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who say it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense”.— Buddha Quote (@BuddhaQuote)
My source of irritation is usually focused on myself. I have never hit and rarely yell at any person in anger, but I sure can beat myself up pretty good. LOL. Maybe it’s inherited. I’m told my grandfather had quite a temper. ???
I guess Buddha was pretty smart, and defintely ahead of his time. But I’m ahead of my time too. But no problem, we are where we are, or were.LoL.
Did you know your gandfather, or watch him losing his temper? Despite what many people want to believe, anger is not an emotion. It is a learned behaviour, and I’ve never known anyone who didn’t have someone in their past that unintentionally (or intentionally, sometimes) lost their temper. My own father lost his temper so often it weas liuke his natural state of being. If he did something nice for us kids, none of us trusted him, we were always waiting for the hand to swing.
If you can think of anyone in your life, sport coach, teacher, a friend’s father, anyone at all who constantly lost their temper, I can try to help you help yourself. Chances arte you are the 1st person I have ever met that is naturally an angry person, but it does not fit in with my philosophy. UNLESS you were physically abused as a child.
Here is my email address if you need to talk privately: gewcolo@gmail.com
Jerry
I don’t believe I’m a naturally angry person. I have little fits that pass every so often, but It’s not my natural state. Unless you’ve spotted something in our discussions that make you think I am. Hmm..interesting.
I started seeing a therapist twice a month for the last 6 months and she’s been amazing. I see her tomorrow. I’ve never done therapy so this has been a great experience. She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which is different than talk therapy and the time commitment is not 10 years…much shorter.
Did you delete your blog?
Thanks for your email address. Maybe pop you a note one day. Thanks
No, I didn’t delete my blog, and I wish I knew how to do that. I couldn’t get onto my blog one day, and fooled around trying to find it. Inadvertently I started another blog site, but never used it. I asked Word Press to destroy it for me, but it never got done. That was rawgodsrantings.
My original blog, watch out for the double esses, is rawgodsspiritualatheism.wordpress.com
If this does not get you there then I have a problem. Maybe search for therealrawgod
They wouldn’t let me just use rawgod at first, because I had an old tripod site that I had lost all connection to when Tripod got bought out and then that company got bought out and I thought I lost everything and gave up on it. Then one day it showed back up, but it wasn’t “mine” anymore. I hate computers as much as I love them. The same goes for ther internet.
Anyways, by the time I got back online there were at leasat 3 oither rawgods around, so at first I went with therealrawgod, then one day I got my “rawgod” back too. Go figure!
Nope, I haven’t spotted anythging to really stand out about you and anger, or frustration, I go by what you tell me, trying not to read too much between the lines.
I’m just a person who is very sensitive to people who are hurting, and from your first message I could feel pain, with a certain amount of not liking yourself too much, at least in certain situations. So, I’m trying to be a friend. You sound like you can use one, and so can I.
I eventually found your blog by clicking on your name here.
I had my last session with my therapist on Friday. Honestly, she was amazing. She wasn’t afraid to slap me upside the head every so often and not use those kid-gloves. As I get older it’s nice to have someone call me out on my shit. I say it was my last session because I’m moving to Mexico tomorrow!! See if i can get something started or finished there. Why not.
Moving to Mexicoi was always one of my dreams, but that was before all the drug cartel shit. Good luck, and please let me know how it goes. Thanks.
Oh, yeah, and laugh at yourself, but laugh with a woman. The more laughter, the better.
“Our women get too educated…” and that leads to a decline in membership. Wow! They said it, not you. That mentality is exactly what I had in mind when I wrote my recent “news article” about the deacon opposing critical thinking being taught at the local high school.
“And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (matt 19:24).
These people simply do not understand the Christianity that they claim to represent.
Not only that, but since when did preaching become such a well-paid job? When I was visiting Poland in 1986, I actually stayed with a Orthodox Catholic priest. He could barely afford the beer and whiskey he used to drink himself to sleep every night. His major problem: His father “FORCED” him to become a preacher, even though he was an atheist.
To be fair, the guy isn’t a preacher; he is an administrator. And maybe there are good reasons for paying an administrator more.
Nevertheless, in my opinion, he should not be complaining that his pay is too low. He should be embarrassed that it is so high, and he should be using some of that high salary to help people in need.
Yeah I knew something was fundamentally wrong about Catholicism when I was eight years old. Took seven more years and confirmation or CCD classes. This was in ADDITION to my school work.
Made me so mad I told my father I didn’t want to be confirmed. He threw in with would would the grandparents think etc. So a few hundred dollars into my pocket and I went through with it. Of course I even told the priest in the final interview that I had a hard time reconciling faith with what I knew of science and reason. They confirmed me anyhow.
Been an atheist ever since.
But doesn’t this mean in the eyes of Catholicism, you’re forgiven … and thus you will make it to heaven? Or at least purgatory!?! 😉
Catholicism states that one’s beliefs and one’s actions are the surest path to Heaven. (i.e., Just saying “Jesus Christ is lord!” is not enough to pass through the pearly gates.)
But: The fate souls is ultimately known to God alone.
“‘Sell what you have to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven.’ When the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” (Matthew 19:21, 22)
“…the persecution complex and self pity is such a central theme of the LCMS and religion at large.”
All of Jesus’ apostles except one died for their faith. And Jesus made it clear that only through denying oneself could one follow him (Matthew 16:24). persecution and Christianity tend to go hand in hand.
What you call self pity, I call humility.
When I was still a christian, I learned a completely different bible, I think. The verse in Mathews read “give your possessions to the needy” or something like that. “Sell what you have to the poor…?” What a difference!
“What a difference!”
I don’t see how.
Just in case you really are not seeing the difference, one bible says to give your possessions away, while the other is saying to sell them. Giving your possessions to the poor helps them in a lot of ways. Selling your possessions to the poor means, were any of them actually able to pay for them, either they aren’t really that poor, or they are using money that most likely could be used better elsewhere.
“Just in case you really are not seeing the difference…”
What a condescending choice of words.
What a condescending reply.
In your earlier post, your quote reads “Sell what you have to the poor, …”
But surely that should have been “Sell what you have and give to the poor”. And rawgod is correct that you have not been seeing the difference, even though it should have been obvious.
“What a condescending reply.”
Looking back, I see that rawgod and I were doing the same thing: Being honest with our thoughts. Something I failed to be aware of.
For example: Rawgod’s words came across as condescending, and so I told him/her.
“…you have not been seeing the difference, even though it should have been obvious.”
It was not obvious to me.
I have addressed your points. And so, if you have nothing further to say to me, this conversation between you and I is at an end.
Not condescending, merely trying to establish if you do not see the difference between “give” and “sell.” When I first read your comment I thought you were being sarcastic, but then I came to think maybe you were being genuine. That was my undestanding problem.
Starting a conversation with a new person is always hard when they do not see eye-to-eye. Different words mean different things. So, if you and I are going to have a conversation, I have to take everything you say at face value, without interpretation. And I hope everything I say you can take at face value, without interpretation.
Otherwise, there is no conversation.
I’m currently in no mood for conversation.
Have a good day.
Since you are in no mood for conversation, though you say you are lonely, why did you contact me in the first place, if I may ask?
“…why did you contact me in the first place, if I may ask?”
I consider it a common courtesy that, when a person writes a reply to your words, you write a reply of your own.
This conversation you and I are currently having? It started when you replied to my comment on the CA’s post.
That depends on your point of view, but I am not going to be labour the issue. To me it seems you do want to talk, though maybe not with me…
I do want to talk with you. I just suck at it.
I suck at talking to people in general. But, as with all things worth doing, I try and keep at it.
I am glad to hear that. I find that people love to confide in me, especially in person, and mostly I prove trustworthy. My biggest fault is I sometimes am not so cautious as I should be when in a deep discussion, and my mind comes up with an example that someone trusted me with. At least I never disclose the name of the person concerned, and I used to move around so much there was no chance of one person knowing the other, but I still feel guilty–once I realize my error.
Still, I think I am easy to talk to, and I try not to let my beliefs come in the way of friendship. Though, were you to tell me you were about to throw someone out of your family on a religious precept, then I might get a bit perturbed.
One more thing: I’m sorry if I upset you.
Nope, no upset. You’ve said nothing to upset me, I doubt that you can. Only I can let myself get upset, which is not impossible. Meanwhile, I wish you a nice day, and hope we will be in contact again at some point in time, whether it is today, tomorrow, or a year from now
Thank you.
On another note:
https://nakedsoul678219887.wordpress.com/2018/06/18/thoughts-on-the-closet-atheist/
It’s always a dodgy system when ones paycheck is dependent on church donations. While we weren’t taught that giving was a ticket to heaven, some of the churches definitely taught that giving was sowing a seed and somehow gave you invisible blessings, if not making you rich later. It was especially dodgy at some of the youth conferences, where people were repeatedly hyped up and pressured to donate each night. Some of these teens gave several thousand dollars in total, and most people have little to no money to begin with!
The Rev. Dr. Harrison needs a reality c,heck, or his name changed to Fake News Donnie. The reason his congregation is losing numbers is because he is more interested in his pay-cheque than he is in preaching the gospel according to Martin Luther.
But then again… Maybe that’s a god send… LMAO
I thought of you sitting through your Lutheran services yesterday morning while I was sitting through our local Southern Baptist service. I wonder if we were equally as miserable. I had my arm around my daughter and got to do some people watching, so it wasn’t wasted time, at least. But I do think it raised my blood pressure.
So your mom is is paid by the church. She then gives her tithe to the offering plate and then the tithe in the offering plate is used to pay your mom. Then she gives her tithe to the offering plate and the church pays her from the tithe in the offering plate…..hmmmm
Have you ever pointed this out to her? It might be interesting to figure out how much of her pay from the church is actually paid by herself.
that is about as bizarre as it gets. Your mother is basically taking the money from Pocket A and transferring it to Pocket B without really thinking that all the way through.
I”ve never been truly clear on what a tithe is based on: I know a tithe is a tenth, but is it a yearly amount, or a weekly one?
It is based on your annual income
d. A member who is not responsive to the witness and ministry of the church shall be considered self- excluded.”
https://www.lcms.org/about/leadership/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=3626
Page 5
This means there is no ppwk.
Claiming to efficiently pray for the sick is particularly disgusting on the part of churches.
If you think about it, this Jesus character is depicted as a Gambino – first he gives you a life-threatening condition, then you need to pay his intermediary to intercede for you before him, and then he’ll decide whether you live or die. It’s awful to read about people who quit medication and spend their money in church, hoping for a miracle.
In Romania there is this old saying, “do as the priest says, not as the priest does”. Which says it all, really. Of course there is no celibacy requirement there and the egregious aspect of church-going consists (mostly) of fleecing people of money.
But in western countries, where paedophilia is rife, I wonder how believers can trust another priest, pastor or what have you, after the one they’d been following for years (even decades) turns out to be a paedo without anyone suspecting it. Obviously anything coming out of his mouth had been pure BS and yet they’d lapped it up for so long. I wonder why they don’t consider they might just be gullible in general and clueless about this religious caper.
Yes, don’t you just love it when Christian’s send their thoughts and prayers to help others not as fortunate as they. That does so much. Sure makes the christians feel good about themselves. But having a paedophile preacher, no sweat. God will forgive him. So what if kids lives have been ruined. We’ll pray for them too…