I grew up in the baptist church. My grandmother used to take me along with her to most of the services when I was younger. The pastor at that time had a job. He did not feel it a crime to do repairs on the church himself, with his own hands. He did not hold service all day and beg for money as the pastors do now.
This pastor died when I was about 6 years old. The new pastor that came in was a native of Jacksonville, but moved from New Jersey to uphold his new position.
With him came lots of changes. He is more of a flashy person with the expensive vehicles, the big rings, and fancy house. He has no other job besides his church job.
Whereas the people of the congragation that are giving their hard earned money are/were not so fortunate as to have a better living (some living in projects, cannot even afford tires for their vehicle, etc.).
From reading the bible and from my understandings Jesus did not have the finest things that life could have offered at that time. He went around doing good deeds without looking for money for the services that were preformed.
In my opinion, the pastors of today, mostly money hungry and seeing the church as a business, are ruining things for people that want to be a christian. I have a major problem not only with church but with the money hungry pastors.
My grandmother who live off social security was in process of having her house foreclosed. My family and I have done all we could to help her and also provide for our families too. I asked her recently why she did not go to the church for assistance (since she has been a member before I was born and I am now 25 years old and also she has paid her tithes faithfully out of her social security money when she had rx's to purchase), she told me that she did not want to because this supposed "to be" trusted pastor would and have been known to spread gossip within the church.
Amoung other wrongdoings of this pastor he is thriving better then anyone I know.
I have grown to not trust the people that God has supposed to have been lead to "teach" the word.
I might overcome this but I don't see it anywhere in my near future.
from Nameless Baptist
These letters were published between January 2001 and February 2010. To view recent posts, go to The Main Blog at ExChristian.Net
4 comments:
Dear Nameless,
I feel for you and especially your grandmother, and applaud your courage to try to see the world beyond your church, if indeed you can still call it that. It's rare to hear from someone from your corner. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you are black. I live in Brooklyn (I am white) and have lived in New York City for my entire adult life. The depth to which the black community is involved in its church is extraordinary; indeed it seems that it revolves around the church. Every morning I walk past those silent ladies holding out their phamphlets for Christianity, forbidden to speak because it's un-Christian to solicit. I see crosses on necks, gorgeous dresses in shops only meant for Sunday, lots of talk praising the lord. If I may truncate history and perhaps butcher it a little, and speak for the african-american experience without being a part of it, my understanding is that spirituality has been the saving grace of slavery; without that faith the crushing power of slavery would have destroyed people. I plagarize and I'm using cliches but I don't know any other way to discuss this. To this day the black community relies on its church to tolerate racism, social injustice, poverty, deception and lies. But in the end it won't work. And perversely, it keeps people from knowing the real truth and keeps them impoverished and in a vicious cycle of failure. This country has a huge stake in keeping racism in place. Religion perpetuates it.
I can imagine it would be an extremely difficult place to convince people there is no god.
Please forgive me if I have presumed too much, but this is a discussion begging to be had. I hope you will post more.
Naomi
Nameless Baptist wrote:
From reading the bible and from my understandings Jesus did not have the finest things that life could have offered at that time. He went around doing good deeds without looking for money for the services that were preformed.
Lorena responds:
Exactly my thoughts! Do you picture Jesus ever leading a mega church? During my last days as a christian, I used to say, isn't it Jesus who didn't own anything?
I used to tell chritians, to their dismay, that Jesus wouldn't be preaching in mega churches, in fact, he would be too untidy and lowly to have even been spoken to in such places. Jesus, if he existed as portrayed in the gospels, would have been preaching in the red light districts and under bridges where the the homeless live.
Nameless, I am so sorry for the abuse you have seen inflicted upon the poor of your community/church. I was a frequent attendent of one of the largest churches in the Tampa Bay area. I would see the pastor and his wife living in a mansion and driving Hummers and Mercedes. My ex-husband and I would get knots in our stomach everytime we would attend, because we could count on the pastor asking for money many times throughout the service. My best friend quit her job and worked for their homeless ministry and recieved virtually no salary and when she herself became homeless as a result, she was offered NOTHING...no compensation, no roof over her head....This church would have services where they actually danced on money! If you were poor...well, DUH, it was because you weren't tithing enough! You can be black, white, or purple for all I care, I have seen churches like this take advantage of EVERYONE. Their equal opportunists. If you have a dollar they'll take it no matter what color you are!
I wish that I could say that it gets better, but this is bound to be only the beginning of a lifetime of disillusionment with the church and with Christianity. I wish that I could offer you Christian comfort, but you've entered the domain of EX-christians who no longer embrace the belief that Jesus is the only way to salvation, that the Bible is inerrant, or that most of humanity that has ever lived is going to burn forever in a fiery pit. I can however, offer you human comfort, because I am made up of the same stuff that you are which is humanity, and I know how it feels to suffer spiritual abuse and disappointment with it's leaders and it's followers. I hope that you find the answers you are looking for.
Hello Nameless. Sorry I can't help you either. IMHO, the blacks have traded being slaves to the rich to being slaves to the church. They fool themselves this time. They are slaves to the idea of a god, just like the whites. I became a free man several years ago and have never looked back. Jesus does not offer freedom. That is a crock. Jesus offers nothing. However, the pastors offer the idea of freedom thru Jesus and most fall for it, red and yellow, black and white. Too bad. True freedom's reserved for those who are not afaid to think for themselves. We are a growing number and we have truth on our side. Why don't you take a closer look?
Post a Comment