Isn’t all Christianity exploitative?
That would be the view of many who’ve never had contact with this curious religion but as one who’s been on the inside, I can definitively say there are bright sides and darker sides to Christianity.
Some of the most wonderful people I have met and observed have been Christians, and some of the worst wankers I’ve encountered have also attached the label ‘Christian’ to themselves.
And some complex individuals often display both the best and worst of themselves in a church setting.
Among them, for example, would be Jerry Falwell, the late American Moral Majority leader, who routinely publicly vilified anyone on the political left, but in private was regarded as a jovial prankster, often given to acts of kindness and generosity towards those least deserving.
When Christians display their bright side through selfless love, the community benefits.
But when Christians allow their darker side off the leash, then the community suffers.
No church wishes to admit that the darkness has overcome them and they have transformed from a church of followers of Jesus Christ into a sect skewed by the teachings of influential yet ethically bankrupt men and women who create victims instead of helping them.
But this is a reality that must confronted before people start thinking that having group sects is normal.
If you wish to make contact with me, my email address is geelongboy@bigpond.com
However if you believe your church or Christian organisation is being treated harshly here, then don’t grizzle to me about it. Fix your church, and then I won’t have anything to write about.
Every effort is made at this blog to ensure its content, including comments, complies with all applicable laws in the state of Western Australia.
Should you be a church representative who believes that (baseless) legal threats are a legitimate form of intimidation that can be adopted by a ‘follower of Christ’, then if you submit such a threat to this blog, by comment, email, or any other means, then by submitting the threat, you consent to having that threat published on this blog for critique and review purposes.
However again, I say the best way to silence your critics is to fix your church.
Welcome back – look forward to your dissections. You have been missed. Facelift is hard at work over at Signposts02. Bit of a pente Lance but in an annoying way!
A certain artistic pastor will soon be seen hosting a Benny Hinn programme, discussing his book “Keys to Financial Execllence”. Perhaps viewed soon on the Benny Hinn internet site, down the track on Australian tv. Often wonder why pastors think they can be financial advisors, can’t find it in my Bible.
Finally you’ve come to ‘you’re’ ; ) senses.
Lance! You’re back! Yay! More rants from the depths of Fagdom. You go gurl!
It’s a Korean custom you dumb twat. They’d even ‘bow and scrape’ for you.
In his book, “The Ruin of a Christian”, Dr John R Rice wrote: “All some people ever will know of Christ is what they see in you. And what they see in you, many do not want.” Sadly, to my shame and embarrassment Rice’s words could be applied to me and many others in churches I have been associated with. I do not think that there is an easy answer to the problem but perhaps a genuine fear of the Lord may be a starting point if we realise that there will come a day of judgment where we will ALL be held accountable for every thought, word and deed and especially those that have harmed other Christians or turned the unsaved away from Jesus Christ.
I despair over the state of the Church and many Christians but recognise that just as I sit in judgment on them many of them are staring back in judgment on me. My hypocrisy is to look for “perfection” in them when I am so obviously imperfect myself. So in all honesty I can agree that in the Church we will find the best and worst of people. I think the challenge in the end is not to desert the Church and try to pull it down but to get involved and lead by example. The Bible provides many examples of fallen people who were for all intents and purposes “jerks” transformed by the grace of God. In the final analysis we are all imperfect works in progress. Some, like me just need a lot more work! But remember, the race of life is a marathon and not a sprint and it is how we finish that counts. The task is to stay the course no matter what obstacles or poor examples cross our path.
Nice new look Lance!
I’ve been insanely jealous of the new look at http://seantheblogonaut.com/ but I don’t have the skills to knock up something similar.
WordPress has come to the rescue with a new blog template called ‘De Po Masthead’
I’ve been wanting for a while for this site to look less like a blog and more like a ‘newsy’ site.
However, despite the new ‘respectable’ look, it will retain the same adult themes and coarse language.
I like the new look.
Look forward to reading the posts on this site.Challenging and interesting. I’ll bookmark it for a look up now and again. A great topic
What on this earth, has happened to the message of salvation. On this site all I can see is what A O G is up to-who is A O G in the sight of God. One may think that they are the foundation of Christianity!!! Give it a break-and get on with the gospel-Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures-not A O G-what a DISCRACE this Religious Rubbish is in the eyes of the world. Tom Varney
I AM HOOK ON A AWESOME GOD ALL THE TIME//
“no man puts new wine into old wineskins”We need a new wineskin{priesthood] in which to put the new wine{spirit baptised believer].In the body of christ,all members are ministers of equal importance and all are professional as with our natural body.unlike the old levitical wineskin where only an elite are professional ministers and all tithe to them.This is the root of evil,hanging on to old covenant preisthood for filthy lucres sake.
Lance
Tried to email you but got this message:
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Have you got a new email…?
I sometimes can’t get into my Bigpond email from remote locations (Thanks Sol – Adios)
God can fix His own churches if indeed they are His. Don’t know if you are saint or satanist; but there IS a living God who is not mocked – by either predatory preacher or carnal critic. So whoever is doing whatever in the name of God, will not go unnoticed. And at His appropriate time, He will deal with it.
So you don’t really need to do His work for Him. But if you want to go criticising people – if that is what you are doing – then it has to be under the admission of self-appointment rather than God-appointment.
Its a hard universal law – so I’ve got to be careful to not enter the Sprit of criticism that I find throughout this website – but I WILL reap what I sow. So if I criticise, even thinking I’m doing God a service, then I;ll reap the rewards of that – part of which are a true poverty in the spirit, and a blindness to the goodness of what God is doing in His children – however many times they may slip and fall.
God looks upon the heart – so just maybe we should let Him do the judging as we obviously can’t see into the heart.
There’s a lot of, shall we say, ‘character assassination’ on the web- especially among christians. And yes it is SICKENING.
And its something we actually CHOOSE to do.
God said to ancient Israel ‘choose life’! If we do choose to criticise (in the negative sense) and/or judge God’s children – then you are NOT choosing life.
The other point is – we all think we are right according to our interpretation of scripture that this minister or that minister/priest/whatever is definitely not of God and therefore is an acceptable target for judgmental criticism. But we always be able to find someone who disagrees with us – and even thinks we are not of God.
So where is the gain in a ‘pull-down’ website – why not have a website that finds something to uplift instead.
So here’s my ‘threat’ –
– GOD IS watching – both me and you – and the inner workings of our hearts are up on His big screen, so Choose life – else all you’ll get is that which is not life!!!
Be blessed – choose life!
Ps Hope I wasn’t too heavy there.
To Paraphrase your post G:
God can fix his own churches = So do nothing.
Coin the term “carnal critic” to infer all criticism is carnal.
Pluck a universal law from thin air:
To criticise = Spiritual poverty = to choose death.
Scriptural truth is open to interpretation = truth from scripture is relative and is therefore of no value = Don’t criticize anyone based on it = leave it to God = Do nothing.
This website is a pull-down website = no gain.
GOD IS WATCHING YOU AND ME = Pull your head in and don’t you dare criticise anything else you are choosing death.
Well you’ve expressed an opinion G. I’ll be the first to agree with you that there are alot of character assassinations in here. Some of them are undeserved. Some of the commentary is pure slander and Some churches / church leaders are unfairly defamed.
But for all my misgivings about this website I still think it often has merit because it scrutinises churches / church leaders, and asks the questions that need to be asked. It can lift a lid on the corruption and deception present that needs to be exposed to the public for all to see. Especially when there are so many cover ups. Have a flick through the pages and see how many corrupt former church leaders and churches there are that have preyed upon people. Seriously we should be learning from this.
Christians can be so hopelessly naive to churches and church leadership out of faithfulness to God and blind loyalty. Its often ripe grounds for the worst kind of exploitation. How can a loving Christian just stand by and do nothing when there is manipulation and exploitation?
Anyway, I’m just expressing an opinion.
Cheers,
Brett
Actually Brett, i think this is the best way to paraphrase G’s illuminating post:
Thank God G we live in a country where we can have freedom of speech. In commmunist countries they try and edit and control media etc. This could easily be a website about politicians and their corrupt ways. We live in a world where hidden things are exposed. Its better than the “good old days” when leaders/authoritarians got away with alot ie: Developers used to bribe local govern officials to build etc
Some Priests/nuns used to abuse children, and the list goes on. Now its harder to get away with it, isn’t that improvement?
the Internet has inverted the dynamics of power in organisations such as Churches.
ten years ago, very few dare question dodgy teaching such as Tithing or challenge financial transparency in churches.
The power lay squarely with the Super Pastor or Group Leader – and anyone who dare ask for finacials was raising a ‘red flag’ that identified a person to be ‘dealt with’ – usually by bullying and/or excommunication then squared off with character assasination once the ‘offender’ had left.
Now people asking hard questions can network with one another, exchange information and lodge their protest on the electroic ‘Wittenburg Door’.
Wow i’d like to talk AOG mess and wonder if you are the one
G at 10 August 2009 at 1pm, what you don’t understand is that there are churches in Australia being run by wolves in sheep’s clothing. These wolves are not beyond criticism. They need to be expelled from the church, just like Gordon Moyes was expelled from the Christian Democratic Party on charges of being a Freemason, among other things.
You are just the kind of unquestioning person, who doesn’t know their Bible properly, who these wolves love. You are just the kind of person to faithfully follow a wolf and defend him from attack by Christians.
Frustrated are you saying that you agree with the expulsion of Gordon Moyes from the CDP?
Hay Lance, they had a segment about Hillsong on ch7 last night, re tithing, etc
Lance, I can’t get an email to you – keeps getting returned. Please email me back to give me an alternative.
Craig