(October 24, 2013 at 6:39 am)Psykhronic Wrote: What about churches that are neither in Australia nor Anglican?

Well I can only speak for Baptist churches, but I suspect that most protestant churches are the same In the U.S. Most small churches 300 or less membership struggle every year to meet their needs and give to missions and help the poor. Most people would be astounded at the amount of money it takes to keep the doors of a small church open.
Larger churches 1000 or more active members probably do better because of the number of people tithing and giving to the church, the more people the better chance a church has for people that are wealthy in attendance. I know that one of the larger churches in the area looked to build a larger building because they had out grown the older building, to obtain the money the wealthy in the church had to pledge financial backing to get a loan to borrow the money from a bank, good faith money if you will. So even churches that have plenty of money coming in each month they still have to stretch their money to meet all the things they have committed to plus do the extras such as buildings and sound equipment and ect.

GC

(October 25, 2013 at 12:06 am)Drich Wrote: I was trying to get you some actual numbers here but my search gave me a range between 66 and 80% of all charities are Christian affiliated. I'd say the major export of all churches is benevolence in some form or fashion. You guys like to complain about god and the church, but without either those starving babies you guys like to post would be a lot easier to come by.

Great, so an organization that misrepresents its main product and wields its reputation like a fist decides that its "profits," in actuality ill gotten gains, read: other people's money, should go to charity. We still don't know how much- and given the obscene wealth of your religion, I doubt it's a significant amount- but the fact remains: what the church is giving away isn't anything they've earned legitimately. If a conman gives to charity, he's still conning people.

The major export of the church is the illusion of benevolence.

(October 24, 2013 at 12:09 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Churches do "charity" as a marketing ploy: A spoonful of soup and a spoonful of jesus. Fuck 'em.

Get it through your thick head already. Charity is never offered with "strings attached". People approach our church office off the streets, with needs which my particular church "can not" meet, oh and also with needs which we can meet.

(October 25, 2013 at 4:45 am)Aractus Wrote: Get it through your thick head already. Charity is never offered with "strings attached". People approach our church office off the streets, with needs which my particular church "can not" meet, oh and also with needs which we can meet.

Is there a free sermon with all the needs-meeting? There are churches that do that, enough that we've all gotten the picture from it. If your church doesn't, then that's great, but let's not pretend that you can speak for every religious organization.

Here's a good string; wanna volunteer at a soup kitchen run by a church? Better be a part of the religion to do it!

I wonder why it would matter so much to this group that they maintain total control of the ideological discourse going on inside?

Look I'm on record as saying I do not believe that it's the right of Christian schools not to employ atheist teachers, or teachers of another religion, and I firmly believe they should be employed on their teaching credentials/expertise and not on their religion. That isn't to say that there aren't limits and rules that could be imposed upon employees - for instance in a Christian school you would obviously expect all teachers to 1. not say negative things about Christianity in general, 2. not promote conflicting lifestyles, etc.

(October 25, 2013 at 7:00 am)Aractus Wrote: Look I'm on record as saying I do not believe that it's the right of Christian schools not to employ atheist teachers, or teachers of another religion, and I firmly believe they should be employed on their teaching credentials/expertise and not on their religion. That isn't to say that there aren't limits and rules that could be imposed upon employees - for instance in a Christian school you would obviously expect all teachers to 1. not say negative things about Christianity in general, 2. not promote conflicting lifestyles, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you're against discrimination, and this isn't exactly a shot against anything but your inaccurate claim; to say that these charities do only good without attaching conditions to it is simply wrong.

(October 25, 2013 at 7:00 am)Aractus Wrote: Look I'm on record as saying I do not believe that it's the right of Christian schools not to employ atheist teachers, or teachers of another religion, and I firmly believe they should be employed on their teaching credentials/expertise and not on their religion. That isn't to say that there aren't limits and rules that could be imposed upon employees - for instance in a Christian school you would obviously expect all teachers to 1. not say negative things about Christianity in general, 2. not promote conflicting lifestyles, etc.

All this^, and no recanting/admittal that your 'never' qualifier was wrong. Sad fact is, regardless of institutional position, the individuals overseeing charity are often working with an ulterior motive. Expressed or implied, it often happens.

Yes, but if the motive is "they will see our charitable works and be favorably inclined to us" I don't see the problem. I think a lot of our charitable actions are driven by some degree to a selfish need to feel good about ourselves.

(October 24, 2013 at 1:51 pm)Esquilax Wrote:

(October 24, 2013 at 1:47 pm)Doubting Thomas Wrote: You've got that backwards. They never feed 'em until after the sermon.

Maybe they think they'll turn into gremlins if they do?

No, because if you feed them before the sermon, they might excuse themselves and leave before hearing the "good news" that they've probably heard dozens of times before and aren't interested in in the first place.

(October 25, 2013 at 12:09 am)Godschild Wrote: ...
Most people would be astounded at the amount of money it takes to keep the doors of a small church open.
...

I have a solution ...

... but I don't think you're going to like it.