Local church gives away Starbucks gift cards to lure people to services.

[karlrschneider]

:eyes:

:eyes:

http://www.kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=116917

I guess I'd rather have 30 pieces of silver...:eyes:

[MountainLaurel]

1. 30 pieces of silver, indeed

:wow:

[beam me up scottie]

2. TEN THOUSAND $5 gift certificates?

How many homeless people would that have fed?

[hedgehog]

3. If you read the article, it was at least partly an outreach to people

who might be lonely. There's more than one way to feed people.

[beam me up scottie]

5. Really? So people won't starve to death if they have God?

I'll let them know, they'll be so relieved. :eyes:

[mrreowwr_kittty]

21. No shit

You can't eat a bible or a sermon.

[DRoseDARs]

4. 10 thousand postcards were sent; the $5 giftcards were given at the door and far fewer in number...

...but that's irrelevant. Should have spent all that money on helping the homeless.

[beam me up scottie]

9. That was my point, thanks.

I guess for some people, saving a person's soul is more important than feeding their stomach.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. No guess. They're pretty explicit about that.

And that's where the evil is. Have you read that Chick tract about the missionary couple in the airplane?

[The Straight Story]

6. Actually, it could be a wise move in helping feed others

Get more people into the church, more donations, more money to feed the poor.

You often have to spend money to make it ;)

[beam me up scottie]

8. Sure it is...

Trickle down charity is just what * recommends.

It's also why he thinks he can spend my tax money on "faith-based" organizations that prey on people who are disadvantaged.

[kath]

16. Eh. What percentage of church donations actually goes to helping the poor,

versus paying off the mortgage of the huge church complex, buying a fancy car for the overpaid minister, etc, etc.??

Methinks many churches (not all, certainly) are mostly tax-exempt social clubs.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

20. "tax-exempt social clubs"

That is brilliantly apt. Will file in my memory for future use. I live in a fairly affluent community with several of those megachurch monstrosities nearby. Their massive parking lots overflow with expensive SUVs on Sundays. They have coffee shops, childcare, summer camps, and sports and entertainment facilities. It burns me up to think about the tax breaks they get. I doubt any of them do a damn thing for poor people besides send them some bibles.

[kath]

26. Yep - many of these megachurches have MULTI-million-dollar complexes of

buildings (only a small part of which is actually for WORSHIP) and sit on large tracts of land - all tax exempt. And in many cases, they're all about "religio-tainment" (my spin-off of "edu-tainment" etc.), paying big bucks for musicians,etc at the entertainments (er, "services") and not at all (or very little) about that "whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers" stuff. Why on earth should money contributed to such an enterprise be tax-exempt in the same way that my contributions to Doctors Without Borders, CARE, Habitat,etc. are???? And why should they not be taxed on their millions and millions of dollars of buildings and land??

Tax the bastards.

[Sherman A1]

7. Interesting

A fancy bit of marketing, now how much do they expect to go into the collection plate???? Thanks I will happily pay for my own cup of coffee.....

[Bunny]

10. If the church would just install a Starbucks at the back of the sanctuary,

they'd probably get a lot of people to come to services. Enter the church, bless yourself with holy water (if you're Catholic) take a few steps to the Starbucks, get your mocha half-caf, and head to the pew!

[Ken Burch]

11. If they have to give away coupons for lattes and mochas

The minister probably doesn't do the world's most electrifying sermons.

[KatyaR]

12. So the true meaning of Christmas is coffee?

Wow, I would have never known. :crazy:

Obviously the "good news" has taken a turn for the worse.

They could have taken that money and donated it to a worthwhile charity--fed some people and gave some gifts to children who needed it--what a waste . . . .

[karlrschneider]

13. I don't really know much about them, just drove past it a few times.

They claim to be 'evangelical Presbyterian' which sounds a little weird to me. I just thought the story was a bit odd...

By the way, I have never -seen- let alone been inside a Starbucks. That probably sounds nuts but I swear it's true...:eyes:

[KatyaR]

28. They're sprouting up all over OKC lately.

Between the new "SuperTargets" that have a small shop inside and the standalones (with drivethrus!), they're getting to be pretty common. There's one at Penn and Memorial, and now they're building another one less than a mile and a half away--and that's with a Barnes & Noble in between. And I think there's another one about two miles west of that, so that's five within five miles of each other.

I'm adding Starbucks to my "gotta have one on every corner" development plan that OKC proper seems to use--convenience store, liquor store, dry cleaners, and Starbucks. Oh, and a bank.

[lies and propaganda]

14. thats the only damn way you could get me to a Tulsa sermon.

(not even that actually)

[kineneb]

15. gee, they don't have coffee hour after services?

they need to copy the Methodists... where I play services they believe in feeding the soul and the body... have a cookie with that coffee?

...and potluck lunches on every 4th Sunday...

[kath]

17. I wonder if this is one of those mega-churches that doesn't have services on

Christmas day? Note that the story only mentions Christmas EVE services. It seems very, very strange to me to not have services on Christmas itself. But that is exactly the situation at at least one of the megachurches here in OKC.

[hlthe2b]

18. Snarf.... Feed my addiction....! I"m there...!

(at least they might be able to stay awake through the service)

[hlthe2b]

19. Maybe they should just put a Starbucks barista bar on the altar...

:rofl:

[MountainLaurel]

25. A venti mochaccino communion wine?

Plus the biscotti wafer to go with it.

[htuttle]

22. Let me know if they start giving away dishware and towel sets

Hey, filling stations used to do it -- you never know...

[mahatmakanejeeves]

24. Not LDS, I'm thinking.

Just a guess.

[MindMatter]

27. I head this was more successful than last year's promotion

which was "Come to church and we'll have sex with your children while you aren't looking"

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

29. Ehhhh, Non-Issue For Me. Pretty Creative Actually. Definitely The First I've Heard Of Such Things.

Sounds like their hearts were in the right place though and were just trying to draw more people into what they consider the beauty and heart of a church service on Christmas. No biggie really, from where I sit.

[NashVegas]

30. At Age 12, I Was Saved in Exchange for a McDonald's Hamburger

I was fully aware of the ridiculousness of it.