Thursday, February 9, 2012

Van Robison On "The Real Purpose of Churches"



The Real Purpose of Churches


There is no "pastor" who identifies himself or herself with that label, who does not seek personal followers.  Some "pastors" are very successful at gathering a great crowd of people at their feet.  We live in the age of the mega-church and there are many of them.  Herbert W. Armstrong was among those who amassed a considerable number of human sheep.  The front put forth to the world and the public is always the same, which is to "preach the Gospel" to the world.  Without personal followers no "pastor" (unless independently wealthy), could ever build a church building, a "Christian" school, a "Christian" college or fund ministerial homes, luxuries, jet airplanes, trips around the world, glossy magazines and so forth.

Although always hotly denied the real basis for churchianity is money.  Most likely the world of churches will never disappear from life on earth.  Most all parents will forever teach their children to believe as they do in
regard to religious beliefs and so the many belief systems perpetuate endlessly.  The Mormon Church has staggering wealth, as does the Roman Catholic Church.  The Worldwide Church of God during the life time of Herbert W. Armstrong, although nothing to sneeze at in terms of their bank vault, paled into insignificance compared to the Mormon and Catholic churches and even the Jehovah Witnesses.  The Southern Baptist Conference and other groups are also vast religious empires.  In fact the combined wealth of all the churches together is nothing short of countless billions in assets and revenues.  Was God/Jesus Christ ever really just a business enterprise?  Apparently those who founded churchianity think so, as do those who perpetuate this vast money making industry.

Why do men and women aspire to wanting to be "ordained?"  In my opinion it is because of human vanity.  People love to be thought of as being "important", "special", "above others" and "gifted" more than "common" people. I have a friend I have known for many years, who was "ordained" and although he has no following or church, he refers to himself as "Reverend _____."  He has learned that by using the term "reverend", he often receives favors from other people, who deem him as "special."  It is sheer vanity and fraud on his part, and in my opinion borders on blasphemy.  My sister-in-law and my brother-in-law use to attend a very large Baptist Church in a major city and when the older "Senior Pastor", retired, they imported another preacher from clear across the country.  The new "pastor" was so vain and haughty that our in-laws, took an exit.  The man was intolerable.  Young people often run off to "Bible College" thinking they want to "serve" others, and what it really turns out to be is that they become self-serving, at the expense of the tithe payers.

Many churches now have "Youth Pastors", "Children's Pastors", "Music or Worship Pastors" and every type of "pastor" coming and going that are supposed to serve the "needs" of others.  When my two daughters were teenagers, long ago they were bossed around by the youth pastor of the church we attended, and I had a few choice words with this man, that my children were not his property and that he was not their parent.  When the "Christian" school my daughters attended, gave the students so much home work that they had to stay up until midnight or later with "homework", I knew then that we were being robbed of our own family time and so we pulled our daughters out and home schooled them.  Many churches think they are God to those who attend and to their children.

I can't really say that everything about church life is totally bad and that is because human beings are social creatures and they are able to have good times, in spite of the control and financial drain upon their pocket books.  I can remember we use to have volleyball teams at Ambassador College and as employees we had great fun playing that sport.  We attended concerts, had beach outings, campouts and did some fun things.  We had some good friends and many good times at Shakey's Pizza, which included a crowd of our people, guzzling mugs of beer.  We all learned from those experiences.  Some of us simply could not endure the authoritarian hierarchy, the "God-status" of the self-appointed "pastor-kings" or their endless rants and so took an out, never to return.

I still know people that I went to church with many years ago, who still dutifully attend church services every weekend, pay their tithes and seem to be clueless.  Some of us just don't understand how these people think.  Every pastor of every church will defend himself and his church tenaciously.  I have no doubt that many pastors are very sincere and zealous about their beliefs, but sincerity and zeal does not necessarily spell "truth."  People can be sincerely wrong.  For many church goers, those of us who use to attend and now do not, seem to have "spiritual leprosy."  Not all church goers have the same attitude, because some will be friendly and ask no questions, while others treat you as if you have a contagious disease.  I have even found that atheists are generally thinkers, where the clueless sheeplike church attenders are not.  I have read a great deal from atheists and believe there are many legitimate issues.  Some atheists are friendly and likeable and some are hostile and drive people away.  I have no problem having friendship with people who present themselves with a humble attitude, no matter what they believe. I have a friend who grew up in India, although lives in Canada and he is Caucasian and he leans toward Buddhism.  We have some things in common aside from religious beliefs.

Churches will always deny that they exist as business enterprises for the purpose of money, but men have always loved control and power over their fellow human beings, and like all human governments, churches are tools of control and free money.    Churches treat their members as if they are nursing infants and must be bottle fed for life.  Those who sit in pews are insulted as if they are mere spiritual children and must be taught what to think and what to do and what to believe, because without their human "Pastor-God", they cannot function.

Is there an optional way to live and learn without being dominated by men and women who stand in pulpits and think they have a "right" to your pocketbook?


Van Robison

8 comments:

DennisCDiehl said...

Excellent Van. While I don't question the motives of a youthful and idealistic person who believes he/she wants to do the right thing and perhaps what they perceive to be a most if not THE most important thing with their lives, the end result is as noted.

I am sure that only certain Jewish family names could be priests simply because the flood of priests to be would have been overwhelming. It would sure seem to be the most secure and safe thing going in a cultic society.

My own original motives were right to me. I really wished to be of help and teach the most important things. Goodness..I thought God wanted me to be a minister to finally anoint and heal my brother of his blindness, deafness and inability to speak and relieve the burden on my parents. Ummm..well, he's still that way ha.

It was only after being ordained, and it only took a couple years to see it was not as I thought. I will spare you the specific dramas of the ministry and WCG but it was constant and a vexation of spirit as we say.

I have to say I could get lost all day studying the actual origins of theology, the why's and wherefore's. I still enjoy that and have learned more in the last ten years than the previous 40. I realize my theological/historical education was simply geared to WCG just as becoming a Priest would be geared to the RCC even though we must at least respect the education, correct or political a RCC priest has to attain to.

Being made a good Bible reader and how to find the appropriate story in the book is not a good theological education.

I have proven or at least come to see that the Bible has many many problems in it and with it. I spare us.

Religion springs in the conscious human to address the fear we have of death and the awareness we have that we will die. My Shih Tzu has never spent a second pondering her mortality.

The reason so many get so angry and so defensive towards those that shake the leaves off the tree is that this fear gets rekindled . When one feels they have the answers that comfort, anyone or any reality that challenges that is a total threat and must be neutralized.

In religion we call it apologetics and crusades. The tools used to enforce it are torture, stoning, genocide, burning and so on.

The intended conclusion is recanting, repenting or kill them all and let God sort them out. Or as we say, "kill the messenger and squash the message."

I am all for meaning and purpose. I am not for wrong meaning and life wasting purposes.

I have had way too many conversations with professing fundamentalist ministers or members to not know they all struggle with what they see versus what they are told by others to see.

DennisCDiehl said...

PS Keep up the "let it out" Van. By now most know what I am going to say before I say it. Nice to have a fresh view of the Old Old Story.

Now...I'd like to ask, challenge, encourage or whatever genuinely former full time, WCG ministers to step out and share your own perspectives, using your ACTUAL NAME.

I'd also encourage those here to stay off their backs and listen should they really chose to share and grow through what I am sure was a very sincere decision gone awry that they made in their own youth now past.

amen

Anonymous said...

An all volunteer ministry.

Allen C. Dexter said...

A good article, Van. It wasn't too long ago that I was in much the same position as you are now. Therefore, I understand exactly where you are coming from.

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

Great article!
I have said it before, and it bears repeating again. You won’t find this in the autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong:

In the very early years of the Great Depression, Herbert Armstrong was selling aluminum siding as one of his many failed ventures. He made a sale to a Seventh Day Adventist minister. Impressed that the Seventh Day Adventist minister had money in very tough economic times, Herbert came home and announced to Loma that he had “found the new family business”. This probably occurred right before Mrs. Runcorn’s Sabbath challenge and Herbert’s six months of intense study in a public library as he pieced together his beliefs for his new brand of religion.

By the way, while I write this, I am reminded of something I mentioned in a telephone conversation I had this week with Dennis. I live about 20 miles from the Seventh Day Adventist world headquarters. Like Pasadena, California was to the Worldwide Church of God, there is a relatively large concentration of Seventh Day Adventist adherents in my area. When I grew up in the Worldwide Church of God attending the local Baltimore/Washington/Annapolis congregations (1968 – 1976), it was common to have what I will call “an anti-Seventh day Adventist” sermonette maybe once every other year. Now I know why – in none of those sermonettes was the knowledge and truth ever revealed that Herbert Armstrong and the WCG was “an offshoot of an offshoot” of the Seventh Day Adventist church. In those early years after Herbert Armstrong pitched aluminum siding to the Seventh Day Adventist minister and took Mrs. Runcorn’s Sabbath challenge, I surmise he then had to differentiate for himself between The Seventh Day Adventist Church and its offshoot Church of God (Seventh Day) .

Richard

Anonymous said...

"I still know people that I went to church with many years ago, who still dutifully attend church services every weekend, pay their tithes and seem to be clueless. Some of us just don't understand how these people think."

It might not be "how they think" but what these people believe is missing from their lives, and how and where they believe they are going to find that missing something.

I have come to realize that there isn't really anything missing from my life, and even if there were, I would not find it at church. Preachers are just people, no different from anybody else, and they have no answers that you couldn't get from your next door neighbor or from a good self-help book. The currency of churches is hope, but unfortunately that currency is not backed up by anything but smoke and mirrors. It is an empty hope they are selling.

People who come to realize that they don't really need the psychological product that churches are selling will leave. Those who continue to need it will stay.

John said...

Richard is there a link to this "unauthorized" biography of HWA as you posted it on the net? The reason I ask is because I remember reading something along the lines of what you posted on a website a while back and have been trying to find it, but to no avail. It was by coincidence (or design!) that you posted this up and I thought to myself, "THANK YOU RICHARD!" otherwise I was beginning to think I had imagined it. Cheers!

Byker Bob said...

I refuse to allow a church, or others, define its purpose for me in my personal relationship with God. I am also far beyond allowing a corporate church group to intrude into my life. That is something which we all should certainly have learned, as at the very least, we should be aware of the potential for denominational bias which results from extra-biblical teachings, personal preferences, theories, or guru-embedded thought patterns!

To me, church does fufill some basic needs common to the Christian. It's nice, as an example, to have an environment for group praise, a place for the regular taking of the Lord's Supper, and a place to hear inspiring or educational messages.
Beyond that, the individual must allow developing trust to dictate further involvement. I personally believe that it is Jesus Christ who paid for, and therefore owns us. Not a man or woman who claim to be the equivalent of that.

One of the secrets of life is that you must be a good steward of the resources with which you are blessed. Church is just such a resource, and must be carefully and prayerfully managed. That's the main freedom which was taken away from us in Armstrongism, yet there is great personal responsibility involved in being Christian.

BB