At 10/21/15 05:02 AM, JBK wrote:
This is true and different pastors are always having different interpretations of scriptures but no one cares. As long as they have a deep rooted hatred of gays and talk about the bible eloquently people will sit their asses down and listen to keep on Gods good side.
It's probably the greatest money-making scheme of all time.
Go around begging on the streets for money? Very few people will give you anything and at that, mostly only reluctantly. You can make quite a bit of money if you're persistent and go around busy enough areas, but people will hate you.
Call yourself a pastor, and spew forth endless platitudes, making vague references to scripture now and again? Suddenly lots of people will flock to you. They will eagerly put money in your collection plate, and quite willingly. You can make a fortune and lots of people will love you.
Most of those religious types would "never give money to a beggar" yet ironically what they don't realize is oftentimes their pastors are just high-class beggars and the collection plate is identical to the beggar's collection jar or hat.
Bonus -- generally it's 100% pure profit, due to religious taxation exemptions, and, unlike a not-for-profit organization, there's generally no requirements to divulge exactly how the money is spent, and a nebulous "It goes toward the ministry of God!" 'answer' generally suffices. Meanwhile majority of the funds can easily go into pastor's personal "make me rich" fund.
Get enough money to fund your own mega-church, sit back, and it basically pays for itself many times over. And all you have to do is dress up nice once a week, shout a few Hallelujahs!, speak in an "authoritative" tone and generally tell your audience what it is they want to hear, while preying on their emotions and superstitions, particularly those who are emotionally weak, and using good ole bandwagon mob effect to your benefit to harass those who get "out of line" by turning your congregation into your very own personal army, willing to do your bidding without question. Bonus - if anyone gets in trouble for any actions, it will most likely be single individuals in the church, which you can easily deny responsibility for, claim they've deviated from your church's teachings, and even excommunicate them from the church if some scandal gets too big and attracts too much heat, placing entirety of the blame squarely on them.
Pass around your collections plate and rake in the dough. If you're feeling extra greedy that week you can pass around the collections plate two or even three times, guilt-tripping your audience into putting more money in "for the ministry of God!"
"The ministry of God", of course, simply means driving more and more people to your church instead of any of the rival churches, so they can give you more and more money to make you rich.
Of course, if you're really smart about it, you'll make sure that either you don't run afoul of any laws, doing extremely sketchy things while taking advantage of local legal loopholes, to maximize control and profits. *Or* you'll be so well-connected that no one will prosecute you for anything anyway, because the local cops and judges all are members of your church (or similar churches, or have biases in favor of Christian organizations) *or* they've all been paid off in the cases of very corrupt areas.
And that's pretty much how most churches operate. Highly effective get-rich-quick scheme.
Poor area where everything's run-down, unemployment runs high, druggies on the streets etc etc??? ... inevitably there will be at least 10, if not 20 or more local churches which all hate each other, but hate people who don't go to any church even more, which operate more-or-less as described above.
Can't afford food for the week? That's okay ... you can still afford to give your weekly $100 to your pastor. You'll find a way to get the money. He could use an upgrade to his mansion. You want your pastor to live well don't you? It's "for the work of God". Or are you a Godless heathen unwelcome in our town?