Archive for the 'emerging church' Category

Christianity: The True Ponzi Scheme

christian beliefs

I’ve got a question for you. Let’s say you’ve got a very important event coming up, such as a job interview, a presentation at work or a family reunion. Catching a glimpse in the mirror, you realize you are in desperate need for a hair cut. What do you do?

A)    Call your hair stylist and make an appointment
B)    Find a pair of scissors and start trimming
C)    Go to church and ask your pastor to cut your hair

I think it’s very likely that most of you picked A, maybe a few of you impatient ones picked B, but I doubt anyone picked C.

Why is that? You wouldn’t trust your pastor to cut your hair because he’s not trained to do that? Yet, how many times have you been subject to a pastor giving you advice on much more important issues like health or finances?

Yesterday added one more for me as I went to an emergent church and heard a christian sermon about money.

The message was about the difficult financial times and what to do about it. Which, at first, I thought would be great! Here’s a pastor who is going to take the opportunity of having a congregation of people who rely on him for advice and guidance, and do good by giving them necessary information during hard times.

Unfortunately, for his congregation, it was terrible advice.

There were several fatal flaws in this attempt of relaying christian beliefs, church history and today’s economic market.

Essentially, the advice was,

1) be more generous

2) do not focus on getting your self-worth from your salary.

Obviously this horrible christian sermon was based on the prosperity gospel that’s become so popular on Sunday morning TV.  

I left the sermon with a question – how can you be financially generous (and give more to the church), if you don’t have enough money to pay your mortgage, or save for your kids education? Because it sounded like he was promoting to be irresponsible and hope that your generosity will come back around when you are broke. This logic contradicts every other bit of information I’ve ever received about financial planning, and belongs right up there with banking on winning the lottery for your retirement fund.

Second, it minimizes the virtue of making money. I can hear the evangelical christian chant, “store up treasures in heaven.” This common christian belief denies us of placing proper value to all the things we have in life that are not spiritual and intangible, but still significant and meaningful to us. If it is not a treasure in heaven, but an actual treasure here on earth, does that make it bad, or evil?

I love making money.

Making money is a spiritual act for me because I pour my time, energy, creative spirit and enthusiasm into my work. But, also, I know that my financial success can be a gift to those around me. And for my investment, I’d rather be with people who understand the value of that and are inspiring to be around.

Also, people who make lots of money are the ones that start charities, give to the poor and inspire others to success. If no one was driving the latest Audi R8 or living in that sweet mountain cottage, what incentive would we have to succeed and make this world a better place for all people?

The real rub is this: adopting the modern Christian mindset about money gives you every excuse to be poor, with out ambition and lazy towards working hard and making sacrifices.

If God is going to be faithful to your generosity and take care of you, as the pastor told me yesterday, what reason would you have to work? Why not work the system?

Maybe you shouldn’t take any advice from your pastor, because all of these prosperity gospel sermons make christianity seem like a new twist on the ponzi scheme.

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July 13 2009 | Christianity and Jesus and christian humanism and emerging church and spirituality | No Comments »

The Church is full of Losers

There are a few basic truths that are central to many major religions, including Christianity, and are also moral beliefs adopted by society.

Be kind. Respect others. Take responsibility for your actions.

Along with “share your toys”, these truths are taught to us by our parents and school teachers. And, because of their world-wide adoption, the consequence for disregarding any of these is fierce judgment.

For example, fathers who abandon their children are called dead-beats. And, unemployed 35-year olds still mooching off their parents are the butt of many jokes. Society has deemed them losers because they failed at owning their basic responsibilities as a human being (be kind, respectful and responsible).

I’ve got another one to add to the list: egotistical Christians who excuse their pretentious behavior as a service to God.

Let me start at the top of the chain with ego-driven pastors, like Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church, who excuse their actions as their duty for the Lord.

These overbearing, self-righteous, vain, scripture-quoting oafs are losers. They fail at owning up to their own ego, instead, they blame it on the God that died for their sins. Each Sunday they step into the pulpit and feed their own ego at the expense of other fellow human beings, for Jesus. They are praised by their colleagues for their bold and brazen sermons that show a lack of sensitivity or respect for other human beings.

Who needs logic, common courtesy and moral and legal rights when you are on Team Jesus?

They don’t. And neither do their follows that fall prey to transforming their vices caused by ignorance, prejudice, insecurity and lack of self-awareness into virtues. The power of the Unholy Trinity is strong as people who step into the church wanting love and acceptance, quickly become a bully on the playground to those who don’t “fit in”.

I’m sure most of you have been waiting in the check-out line at a store and seen a person ahead of you start to belittle the store employee for something that is out of their control. Then you step up to the counter feeling sorry for the employee and say something like, “Whoa! What was wrong with that guy?” Oh, compassion! A character trait that defines humanity. Yet, how often do you hear compassion from the pulpit of a church? I rarely do, because they have lost their own humanity by using God as a scapegoat for their ego and actions.

I’m calling them all losers. They have failed to discover their own self, and own their own ego. Maybe it was laziness or fear, but they haven’t put forth the effort to express their beliefs in a respectful, kind and logical manner.

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July 10 2009 | Christianity and Jesus and emerging church and spirituality | No Comments »