There was a great comment on the False Prophet Ron Weinland: Don't Drink the Flavor Aid site on Sunday. The blog has several people commenting who have left Roin Weinland's cult. This person has a great remedy on what to do with your money if you decided to tithe or give.
I feel so peaceful and happy when a former COG member says they will no longer allow another human being to dictate how they shall follow, or believe in God. If you are going to be “religious”, follow the written words of Jesus, because those plain English words do not change and cannot be twisted to mean anything other than what is written in black and white. Jesus summarized the entire Bible into three words: Love thy neighbor. That means be nice to others. You don’t have to give money or time to ANYONE. All you have to do is be a good person. You don’t have to PROVE that you are a good person, just be a good person whenever you can. Most especially to your loved ones because if you give something to someone that should have been given to a wife or child or neighbor just to show that you are a ” holy” person, then you are actually being evil because that money should have gone to someone who needs it instead of a false prophet. A false prophet needs money to buy things and live a lifestyle of the rich and famous. A child needs it because it is your duty to provide a life better than you had.
Not just the COGs, but ALL so called “churches” should be concerned with doing good instead of doing the “work”, because the “work” has already been done almost 2000 years ago and is manifest by the written words that came out of Jesus’ mouth and anyone can read it for themselves and understand it without a con artist “explaining” it because they could never understand it for themselves without an enlightened one telling them what it really means. All preachers lead us away from the New Testament by chaining us to the Old Testament with lies. You have absolutely no reason to read the Old Testament when you have any one of the 4 gospels to read and discover that you are free to be a good person without jumping through hoops.
Any person that preaches the word of God and asks or expects money is a con artist that does not believe in God. If you have a need to give away 10% of your money, don’t give it to a preacher, give it to a food bank, or a fund for the family 2 blocks away that lost their home in a fire, or a relative that was laid off, or a homeless soup kitchen, or some good cause you can see with your own eyes close to home. But don’t give to a con artist who needs it to keep the work going, or an organization that will feed the poor 12,000 miles away. There are plenty of people in need very close to our own homes. We don’t need to give our money to whoever puts on the best show. And we definitely don’t need to let another person who calls himself a preacher to direct every aspect of our lives and finances.
10 comments:
Jesus said that whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me. So, if you want to give to God, give it to someone who is hungry, needs clothing, rent, etc. James 1:27 makes it clear.
Money and Power must always be separated. Nowhere does it work together for good, in any type of institution, ... religious, civil, or corporate.
Don't know if anyone has time to look up the exact chapter / location for us, but when I read Herbert's autobiography just one more time before casting it from my home, I noticed something for the first time.
During the early Oregon days, he tells of a time when he could either feed his family, or get his latest co-worker mailing out. There wasn't money for both. He made his family go hungry. I yelled, "You insensitive son-of-a-bitch!"
ANY story Herbert told has a good chance of being completely made up, but this one does ring true, given what we now know, and what is expressed here.
Tithing is not a requirement for salvation, it isn't a Christians responsibility to tithe, and tithing shouldn't even be suggested by Christian ministers because it is nothing but old covenant legalism. Tithing is nothing but a scam!!!
Any person that preaches the word of God and asks or expects money is a con artist that does not believe in God. If you have a need to give away 10% of your money, don’t give it to a preacher, give it to a food bank, or a fund for the family 2 blocks away that lost their home in a fire, or a relative that was laid off, or a homeless soup kitchen, or some good cause you can see with your own eyes close to home. But don’t give to a con artist who needs it to keep the work going, or an organization that will feed the poor 12,000 miles away. There are plenty of people in need very close to our own homes. We don’t need to give our money to whoever puts on the best show. And we definitely don’t need to let another person who calls himself a preacher to direct every aspect of our lives and finances. -
This soooo true. What selfish narcissistic people those COG False Prophets/minister's are.
The Philadelphia Church of God did not believe in helping their own members much less anyone outside the congregation. All money was to be sent to >Headquarters<.
I remember an article written by a PCG writer after the last Moore, OK. disaster. In the article the writer was repeating the words of BRIAN DAVIS, a PCG Regional Director. BRAIN and his wife had come upon the devastation right after the storm. Brain Davis, (I mean BRIAN DAVIS) was telling the writer that him and his wife came upon a woman working at a store and the woman was frantically trying to call the school in Moore, OK. where her daughter attended. Brian said that..."the woman's phone was not working", (probably had something cheap she could afford), and afterwards he and his wife journeyed on towards >PCG HEADQUARTERS, EDMOND, OK<). BRIAN DAVIS said..."And we don't know what happened to her daughter"....(as if he gave a flip).
Notice BRIAN DAVIS just couldn't bring himself to offer HIS phone. And obviously, BRAIN did not call or try to find out anything about this woman and her daughter.
You see, in BRIAN'S mind the woman was getting punished from God for HER sins. And obviously BRAIN and his family were not because...HE is one of the GREAT GODS at >PCG HEADQUARTERS< and he and his are being protected because, well...they just are more special than everyone else! THE END.
I agree with this 99%. The leftover 1% is just because it's really hard to know sometimes what the right or optimal choice is in any given situation. Unfortunately the crap in the bible doesn't help you to get any wiser about this either. If anything it just muddies the water. One thing is for sure, giving money to a preacher is never going to be the optimal use of that money. Never.
I believe in giving money to good causes, like Doctors Without Borders. Unfortunately, no charitable organization is perfect. I think you're best off helping people directly if you can. Organizations always use your money to take care of themselves first, and often very little of the money contributed to them goes to accomplishing what the organization says it is trying to accomplish. It's very hard to know what the optimal thing to do is. I think the COGs are pretty notorious for misusing money earmarked as 3T, and there's no accountability that I'm aware of in any of them.
One thing I do is, instead of giving this money to a charity, I help to support a single mom who I happen to know personally who lives in a third world country and has a hard time finding enough work. She needs help more desperately than most any hard luck case you will meet in the US. Sometimes her children stay home from school because she does not have enough money to pay the bus fare to get them there. The beginning of the school year is difficult because there is the extra expense of textbooks and uniforms. She made some mistakes in life and is now trying to finish her high school education. I'm working with her to try to help her get into a better position to be able to take care of her family. With her diploma and a hotel work certificate, she can get seasonal work in Canada or the US as a hotel maid earning better wages than she could hope to expect in her home country. Without someone to give her a foothold though, she might never be able to afford the education she needs to ever start earning sufficient money.
I'll never give money to a preacher ever again, especially since while there are other people literally going hungry, giving it to a preacher to spread a false religion seems criminal.
Do any of the ACOGs teach the dedication/consecration of the firstborn? Old Covenant law required this, but there was also a provision for "buying back" the firstborn. Humans and animals were affected alike by this principle.
And, of course, it was all part of the same law as the self-serving portions which HWA retained.
There surely is an abundance of material on the internet related to tithing, both pro and con. It is probably one of the most abused and exploited doctrines being taught today. Personally, I had never heard the word until my parents got suckered into Armstrongism. It did not seem to be part if the greater lexicon until the Jesus movement of the 1970s. Mainstream Christian churches do not seem to make it a selfish practice to the extent that Armstrongism always did.
BB
Bullshitting and guilt-tripping members about "tithing" is how most mainstream Christian churches suck money to keep their scams going.
The false prophet needs to have FAITH that God will provide and take no scrip nor have any anxious thought for the morrow. All needs will be supplied. Just rely on God and He will take care of you.
- OR -
Serve Satan, demand money from those you were supposed to serve, extort everything you can get, life high on the hog in sumptuous accommodations, Feast it up in your Condo at the Feast, oppress the poor and demand the very last farthing (or what ever mammon denomination) and you too can be rich and increased in goods, have many high level friends and ignore the oppressed and downtrodden with abundant bread in your idleness, just as those in Sodom did as New Covenant Pharisees, laying heavy burdens on those you dominate without lifting a finger to help them. Drink the finest alcohol you can buy (like Herbert Armstrong did), get yourself nice autos, such as BMWs for yourself and your immediate family, betray confidences of trusting naïve people and don't involve yourself with the sick and dying, lest you catch something from them (you might lower yourself to have one of your lackies send an anointed cloth through the mail -- you should be safe) and ignore any correspondence from all those irritating needy people who claim to need help. They are losers.
Stick with the winner.
And in today's world, that would be Satan (most of you already have a mighty fine head start on this already).
The wannabe prophets of Armstrongism behave like Gehazi! That is the spiritual equivalent of throwing out the baby and keeping the placenta!
BB
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