The following is the first of what will be a series of commentary on trips to church. With any luck, they won't all be completely terrible or boring reads for the tens of people who eventually read them.
I had never heard of Frank Schaeffer when someone posted about going to see him speak at a local church here in Omaha. I had decided to attend because his apparent notion of what it means to be atheist appeared to be a false, but all too common, one. It's something that interests me and I figured it would make for something fun to write about.
In the discussion we had about whether or not to attend, it was generally agreed upon that we would not be participating in the "suggested donation", for the same reasons most other atheists do not like to contribute to religious organizations. For example, I've known for years that Chick-fil-A is run by Christians who keep their restaurant closed on Sundays. But I was never opposed to spending my money there until I learned of their anti-gay agenda.
Along those lines, I was not opposed to donating $10, but my intent was to make that decision after I heard him speak. If he was a reasonable person, he'd get my money. If not, I would save it for elsewhere. I never got that far.
We had suspected the "suggested donation" was not as optional as they were clearly implying, but as someone who understands that words have meaning, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and shoved my (probably biased) suspicions to the side. Then I actually got there.
The shear size of the place made me wonder why they'd be asking for donations at all. They are clearly not in need of money. It was a multi-building complex, rivaling in the amount land used with the Fortune 500 company I had just left work from. When I walked in, it was clear within less than a second that the "suggested donation" was a ticket price. In other words, a lie. The doors into the sanctuary where the talk was being held was flanked by a couple women taking the tickets & a nearby desk had a line where people were taking the tickets.
I was still there when someone went up to say a few words before introducing the speaker. I wish I had been surprised when his first words were about the donations followed by a plea to the online viewers to click the donate button they had up. They pushed the donations as being for funding the speaker. He was there because it was a book signing event.
Before leaving, I commented to them that the website had suggested the donation was optional and got a line about that being for people watching online. I briefly voiced my displeasure with the deception and turned to leave. Because I have decent hearing & glass has reflections, I saw & heard the woman whispering to another woman about me in a derogatory manner.
My problem with tonight's events isn't how the woman treated me or that I was deceived. I have a very thick skin & was prepared for the deception. My problem is also not with spending the money, and to prove it (mostly to myself), I doubled (from $50 to $100) the investment into Kiva I was already planning to make tonight. Purposely picking a Muslim country & entrepreneurial women (two things I suspect the people at this church would hate) was just something to make myself feel better.
My problem is with what most intelligent people have figured out about this church by now, and many have noticed themselves with other such places. The entire thing reaks of a money making enterprise. So many of these churches exist in this country, and they're not properly challenged on the pure scam they're running on so many American citizens.
If you think otherwise, ask yourself what they would do with one homeless man who came in asking for help. How many millions of dollars do these mega churches have nationwide? How much good could that money do if it were actually used as Jesus preached it should be?
I wish good, hard working people would stop giving their money to these scams and send it toward places that do actual good instead of lining the pockets of hucksters. To be clear, I'm not calling all religion, or all of Christianity, a scam. Many good Christians do many good things, and some of them do accept money in the process. But they're actually using that money to do good, not to build massive mega churches, purchase extravagant personal homes, or to pay off the families of children who had been abused by people "of God" who never get the criminal punishments they deserve.
