In defense of "gold candlesticks"?

[kid a]

At a local production of The Crucible last night, I struck up a conversation with a parent of the student playing Rev. Parris during intermission.

I remarked that Rev. Parris' "golden candlesticks" materialism might be good discussion point for comparing religious sects that spend money on bigger, better, techno-rich pulpits and spiraling crystal palaces and community service programs that unite people and give aid and funding back to the community in social necessities.

In the back of my mind, I was thinking about the new $25,000,000 glass and steel, mega-structure the local Harvest church has erected right next to a local, public high school.

She shut down the conversation quickly with, "If "those people" would spend a little time in OUR new church, maybe jesus would bless them with a life without the need for handouts - our doors are always open."

OK - that's one way to look at it.
I don't think her son did much thinking about his role.

edit: SP

[unpossibles]

1. Harvest as in Rod Parsley?

or however it's spelled...

That guy scares the crap out of me. I used to live in Columbus and World Harvest (such a scary name too... are we being harvested like cattle?) strikes me as just plain wrong. I thought the money lenders were thrown out of the temple.

[kid a]

6. I'm not sure if this is the same guy

[mntleo2]

2. Yeah Like The Poor Laboring In Robertson's Diamond Mine

are getting so much of these churches and christianity. Maybe if they pray a little more God will give them a new house too...

Hey I find what she said VERY offensive. These people live off the backs of people like "the little children" in Saipan who are forced into prostitution and made to work 12 hour days so American right wingnuts can have their cheap clothes, shop at the local bible store and drive their gas guzzling SUVs. They support people like Bu$h and pretend that he is so holy when all his religious friends think about is the REAL god they worship: power, *not* God. These idiots think a big glitzy building is where God is, yeah their god is there, and his name is Money.

Like God will give you abundance if you just go and put your hard earned money in this gaudy church's jingling coffers so people like Robertson can have his private jet, while people right under their noses are starving. Oh that's right, they are starving because they do not pray enough or they are drug addicts or they are immoral in some other way. Forget that these so-called religeous people passed the beggar by in their hurry to go pray in that abomination, that golden calf they call a church!

Let me tell you something...the greatest sin is not abortion or being gay. Their Jesus did not even mention those things, but he did speak of wealth and how no one who was rich could even approach heaven because the rich and so-called "moral" ones, already had their rewards here on earth. From what I see, the greatest immorality and the most terrible sin against God is greed. Greed causes famine and war. Greed takes from people who have little and gives to the ones who already have too much. Greed is the scourge of the earth, it is polluting our communities, it is making prostitutes out of innocents, it is spreading disease, it is desecrating this world.

I am sick of people who think that all you have to do is go into one of those churches and forget that the "golden candlesticks" mean nothing to God, but that loving one's enemy and taking care of one's neighbor is what has meaning to God and what is being Godly. It is right there in their scripture and they continually ignore it.

My 2 cents worth and my rant

Cat In Seattle

Edited for clarity

[tjdee]

5. There are 2,103 references to the poor in the scriptures, and only one

to judgment, according to Bono (and I believe him, LOL).

So really, these evangelicals and fundamentalists need to wake up.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

3. "The love of money is the root of all evil"......

Yeah, I guess the Apostle Paul was a dumbshit. Throw that part of the Bible out, will you? The glory of God requires crystal chandeliers.

What a pantload.

[hedgehog]

4. The Prayer of Jabez makes me more than a little queezy

This is just a latter day version of Calvinism. I know too many hard working charitable people who've had terrible tragedies to believe that wealth is a sign that you're right with God. What's odd is that some atheists as well as fundies seem to hold the belief (as in , "if God is so powerful, why does he allow..."). "My ways are not your ways"

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. It's a very old testament attitude - showy sacrifices to please God

It's the same idea as slaughtering a lamb on the altar - give something that costs you, make a big show of it in front of everyone, and your god will see you alright in your material needs. Judaism managed to move on from the idea of a god that needed to be placated with material things, and so have some Christians, but it seems some still think God is impressed by baubles, and directs his help accordingly.