Fuck Churches

[Drich]

You have no idea what any of that money is allocated for. If it is already spent, being held to fund a mission, or if it is being held to secure a bond or anything else along those lines. Churches have to operate like businesses in order to make it in a business driven world, which means a insolary glance at a bank statement has nothing to do with their ablity to access their money and or even use it. They can not run like you run your house hold, where if there is money in your account it is avaible to spend.

[Zazzy]

How easy is it to determine the amount of money and time spent by a given church on particular charities? Are those records generally publicly available?

The charitable work of many churches is necessary and wonderful. I just wish it wasn't tied to their dogma.

[Doubting Thomas]

I think any non-profit charitable organization should have their records made publicly available. If they're getting tax breaks then they should be accountable. And if they are a non-profit tax-exempt organization, they shouldn't be allowed to keep millions in their bank accounts. That sounds like for-profit to me.

[pineapplebunnybounce]

Charity is one thing. But if you really want to help you'd get the people you're helping to a stage where they do not need charities, in other words, making systemic changes that will make people's lives better. Sure people have immediate needs and charity solves that, but if you don't champion for systemic changes ... Sometimes I feel like large scale charities are ways for people to look good and keep others oppressed, then apply for things like tax breaks. Not saying that it isn't helping, but with that much resources they could do solve the core problems, and I'm sure the individuals are in it to help, but maybe if they knew more about why people come to need charity in the first place, they would realize that the money could be put to better use and maybe many wouldn't get to the stage where they'll need charity. Poor nations/peoples are poor for a reason, and that reason is often because we are rich.

[Bob Kelso]

My absolute favorite quote concerning this matter in particular from George Carlin;

When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

But He loves you.

He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!

[Doubting Thomas]

I thought this thread was going to be about sexual organizations of a religious nature.

Now that's a church I'd actually want to go to.

[Minimalist]

Reality check: The Anglican church does more charitable work in Australia than any other NPO, including all other churches. We do more than the RCC, even though the RCC is larger. We do more than the Salvation Army church, even though they clearly have a passion for supporting people in need, which is great. We do more than any secular organization.

The church is indeed "doing its job".

Churches do "charity" as a marketing ploy: A spoonful of soup and a spoonful of jesus. Fuck 'em.

[Something completely different]

Someone here ever tried or had sex in a church? Sounds cold.

[Mister Agenda]

Hey,

I have a friend who works for an IT Company. One of their clients is the largest church in their area pulling down over £2,000,000 per year. He told me that the Church were looking to get servers installed that sounded 'OK' to me a large church needs servers to keep staff and everything else ticking over.

But the told me that the Church had applied as a Charity for a super large subsidy to get servers and licence keys for Microsoft Software.

Stuff like this even when I was a Christian made me sick, There are people starving / businesses going bust yet the Church with the most money tries again to play the 'We are poor card'. This church has over £10,000,000 in their savings yet want a subsidy on a few hundred pounds because they claim they are a 'Charity'.

To me a Charity means giving not Hoarding. I think if the Church did its Job and gave its riches away they would actually help the world as a whole. Take the Vatican it has billions upon billions you have to remember its pretty much the oldest Private Country in the world so they are bound to have loads of coin in the coffer's that no-one knows about.

I'm just so pissed off

And understandably so. Especially understandable when it comes to the Vatican.

But there are millions of churches though, and their mileage (and theology) differs. They're not all rich, and they're not all less charitable than they should be.

[Esquilax]

Someone here ever tried or had sex in a church? Sounds cold.

It's on mine and Luckie's to-do list. Ever since she got off the Jesus wagon, sacrilege seems to have become a kink for her. We'll probably take a blanket, though.