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The main problem with our world is man.
In the Information Technology world there is saying that goes; "A database and it's data would be 100% stable and secure if it weren't for the users." The same analogy hold true for man's relationship to everything, especially religion. Religion would remain 100% pure if it were for man shitting all over it, nay all over everything in the name of God.
I am of the belief that religious institutions are a business. Yes I said it. A church is no different than a business like Hewlett Packard or Nestle. On the other hand, religious institutions are not God.
Warning. What I'm about to say is generalized opinions and do not apply to each and every church, church member nor each and every religion.
Churches have to make money to support efforts in ministry, both foreign and domestic, just like a business has to market it's products to attract new customers. In a world that runs on money, this is just a simple fact. Ministry is about drawing in new members to the religion the church is affiliated with. New members equals more money in tithing. So my analogy between a church's ministry and a business' marketing is really spot on. The only difference is that a church masks this money making effort in the name of saving souls and giving to God.
Churches have to make money to pay preachers and other staff like accountants. Most preachers, pastors and bishops do not take a vow of poverty. Many of these hold men do not live like monks, in poverty, but rather get paid a modest, and sometimes outrageous salary. As proof, Joel Osteen, one of today's most popular preachers no longer takes his $200,000 a year salary from the church, but still makes millions every year off book deals, speaking engagements, CDs and digital downloads, DVDs and other sources. Osteen lives in a 17,000 square foot mansion that costs roughly $10.5 million dollars. This is just an example of my point. Preachers are paid and in some cases paid very well. And that pay is based on the size of the membership of their church.
Now I'm not saying that a preacher doesn't deserve to make money or doesn't deserve to live like a movie star. I could care less. But what I am saying is that anything that threatens their ability to make a living is something that they will try to admonish their membership from. It would be a motivation is all I am saying.
Let's take a church membership base of 2000 people, a moderate sized church. If just 25% of those 2000 people each spent $19.99 on a book to play a role playing game, like Dungeons and Dragons, rather than give it to the church that would equate to $9995 from the churches annual income. Then if 25% bought the newest pop album at $15.99 that would equate to $7995. Then if the same portion of the members of the church purchased a secular movie, say a DVD, not blu-ray, at $19.99 rather than donate it to the church, that would be another $9995. If they went to secular movie theater once a month as a family of four, rather than donate to the church, that's another $26,000 a year. If they did each of these activities each month of the year, that's $647,820 per year from the church's coffers. If the pastor is paid 10% of churches income, that would be $64,782 taken away from this preacher's annual income.
Now, I'm not saying that preachers get 10% of a churches income as their own salary, because the fact of the matter is that I don't know that information. But typically the way it works in business is the larger an organization that a manager manages, the more said manager gets paid, as an example. I would believe that churches work the same way. The preacher of 500 member congregation is not going to be compensated the same as the preacher of a 2000 member congregation.
So based on this wouldn't make sense for preachers to preach about tithing, which happens a lot in churches and then declare things like comics, music, books, movies and even something as benign as D&D sinful, or of low morale, dangerous to kids or degrading of their faith? If they convert even a small amount of that secular dollars back at the church they would benefit from it.
It's not that all preachers are greedy. I am not saying that at all, although some are some that are not only greedy, but sinful as well (Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart). What I am saying is that any money not flowing into the church is a loss of revenue for not only the church, but the pastor and that has to be acknowledged.
So how do many of these pastor's lure their congregation to comply? Through fear. Fear of going to hell. Fear of losing their loved one. Fear of falling out of the grace of god. Fear of looking bad in front of fellow members of the church. Fear of losing it all.
It's the same tactic that drives today's news outlets and marketing; Your not tall enough, short enough, thin enough, fat enough, rich enough, poor enough, man enough, woman enough. The car you drive isn't good enough. The house you live in isn't fancy enough. The neighborhood you live isn't safe enough. You vagina is too brown. Your penis is too small. You boobs are too big. Your but is too small. You too old. Your child isn't doing well enough in school.
Sadly this tactic works and it works because people care too damn much about what others think of them.
Churches are a corrupt institution because they are ran by man and man is corrupt. Man is corrupting God in the minds of people. Churches are a corrupt institution because people put too much trust and faith in the men and women running these organizations. So when anyone says that something is sinful, or morally dangerous I question their motive.
But I didn't always do that. As a child, my parents were always right. I grew up in a christian household. We went to church every Sunday and Wednesday. There were bible studies at our house. I was part of a church-based youth group, actually several of them. So when my mom, my pastor and my youth leaders told me things like, Dungeons and Dragons was a product of Satan, or that bar codes were the marks of the beast, I believed them. And I feared them. I was a kid.
But then I grew up. I started thinking for myself. I joined the military. It wasn't until I learned that my former non-catholic, church-based, youth group leader and another youth group volunteer were imprisoned for child molestation of kids in under their care in the church's programs I began to question everything. These were people I looked up to. People I was put under the unsupervised care of. People I spent time with alone. They were people I trusted. If they could do something like that, and yes they both admitted to doing it, pleading guilty rather than being found guilty, then what else was possible? What else was a lie?
In the military, I didn't have any friends. I had a roommate, but that was all he was. The military was a lot like high school really. Exclusive cliques, snobs, potheads (who usually didn't last long in the military with the frequent pee tests), jocks, nerds, etc. I was invited to a game party one night by someone I didn't know particularly well and just out of sheer curiosity I attended. I finally played that gateway to witchcraft and Satan himself, D&D.
I didn't find spells being cast. I didn't find people plotting to sacrifice a human to Satan. I didn't find people considering suicide, like I had so many times since joining the military.
What I found was a creative outlet. What I found was friendship. What I found was fun. What happened to me was transforming. My ADHD symptoms calmed down both in and out of the game. My behavioral problems stopped. I slept better. My hygiene was better and my social skills were stronger (although I hear that this isn't a common side effect for most gamers; your mileage may vary as they say). My depression went away. D&D was a form of creative therapy that led to other things like photography, writing and getting back into music. D&D was nothing that was described to me by my mom and dad, or church leaders or the news media.
It was fun and therapeutic.
Yes there are problems in everything. A few kids took D&D too far, sometimes killing themselves or others over the results of a game. But these people obviously had serious issues before the game. Lottery players throw money away because they don't know how to do math, not because the Lottery leads them to practicing witchcraft.
But these are individual cases, not a gateway to massive evil doing. But is it a source of fear that can be used to market the values of a belief system and put extra money in the marketers pockets.
In the end we have to use our hearts and our minds to figure out what is right for us. We need to stop letting the mouths of others guide us in our journey. People need to stop trying to control others with their beliefs and people need to stop letting others control them with their beliefs, with their fear. Everyone needs to grow up and start enjoying your life.
Read more comics. Play more games. Listen to more music. Love more people.
Grow up.
So based on this wouldn't make sense for preachers to preach about tithing, which happens a lot in churches and then declare things like comics, music, books, movies and even something as benign as D&D sinful, or of low morale, dangerous to kids or degrading of their faith? If they convert even a small amount of that secular dollars back at the church they would benefit from it.
It's not that all preachers are greedy. I am not saying that at all, although some are some that are not only greedy, but sinful as well (Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart). What I am saying is that any money not flowing into the church is a loss of revenue for not only the church, but the pastor and that has to be acknowledged.
It's the same tactic that drives today's news outlets and marketing; Your not tall enough, short enough, thin enough, fat enough, rich enough, poor enough, man enough, woman enough. The car you drive isn't good enough. The house you live in isn't fancy enough. The neighborhood you live isn't safe enough. You vagina is too brown. Your penis is too small. You boobs are too big. Your but is too small. You too old. Your child isn't doing well enough in school.
Sadly this tactic works and it works because people care too damn much about what others think of them.
Churches are a corrupt institution because they are ran by man and man is corrupt. Man is corrupting God in the minds of people. Churches are a corrupt institution because people put too much trust and faith in the men and women running these organizations. So when anyone says that something is sinful, or morally dangerous I question their motive.
But I didn't always do that. As a child, my parents were always right. I grew up in a christian household. We went to church every Sunday and Wednesday. There were bible studies at our house. I was part of a church-based youth group, actually several of them. So when my mom, my pastor and my youth leaders told me things like, Dungeons and Dragons was a product of Satan, or that bar codes were the marks of the beast, I believed them. And I feared them. I was a kid.
In the military, I didn't have any friends. I had a roommate, but that was all he was. The military was a lot like high school really. Exclusive cliques, snobs, potheads (who usually didn't last long in the military with the frequent pee tests), jocks, nerds, etc. I was invited to a game party one night by someone I didn't know particularly well and just out of sheer curiosity I attended. I finally played that gateway to witchcraft and Satan himself, D&D.
What I found was a creative outlet. What I found was friendship. What I found was fun. What happened to me was transforming. My ADHD symptoms calmed down both in and out of the game. My behavioral problems stopped. I slept better. My hygiene was better and my social skills were stronger (although I hear that this isn't a common side effect for most gamers; your mileage may vary as they say). My depression went away. D&D was a form of creative therapy that led to other things like photography, writing and getting back into music. D&D was nothing that was described to me by my mom and dad, or church leaders or the news media.
It was fun and therapeutic.
But these are individual cases, not a gateway to massive evil doing. But is it a source of fear that can be used to market the values of a belief system and put extra money in the marketers pockets.
In the end we have to use our hearts and our minds to figure out what is right for us. We need to stop letting the mouths of others guide us in our journey. People need to stop trying to control others with their beliefs and people need to stop letting others control them with their beliefs, with their fear. Everyone needs to grow up and start enjoying your life.
Read more comics. Play more games. Listen to more music. Love more people.
Grow up.
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