Does the Church play Tennis?

Why, you ask, would I pose such a ridiculous question? Well, it’s quite simple, because all I see when I look at the Church, is a racket.

Today, your own Pastor Kiki will prove, with Biblical support, that all the church is after is your money, and they want to use scare tactics to get it.

Please open your Bibles to Acts 4:32, we will be finishing chapter 4 and then going to 5:11. (I’ll pull specific quotes, here’s a link to the passage if you want to make sure that I’m legit. )

To sum it up for you, this passage is after the death and “resurrection” of Jesus. The church is functioning well, they are “gellin’ ” if you get my drift. A man is described who sells his land and gives all his money to the apostles, everybody loves him. Then another man and his wife are described who sell their land and only give part of the money to the apostles. One thing leads to another, and at the end of the passage, both the man and his wife are dead.

What, you ask? I’ll explain.

32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had…34There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

Ok, well first of all, may I point out how pseudo-communistic this sounds? Anyway, off topic. This point is that, at the get go, they want to establish that the money is being given back to the people. They want to redeem themselves, because the story they go on to recount is just plain scary.

36Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), 37sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.

My question is: How do the people live after they sell this land? Was Joseph independently wealthy? What about Ananias (we’ll get to him in a minute.)? He may not have had the means that Joseph had, yet he is reprimanded.

1Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. 3Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”

Does this not scream RACKET??? I mean, fuck, Ananias is being punished for giving some of his own money to the apostles. Talk about the apostles being selfish, it’s not enough that Ananias gives some money, they want it ALL, even though they don’t deserve any of it. We could question his motives, but the common idea is that he gave the money so that he could benefit his own reputation. That falls apart, because, if he really was worried about his reputation, he would have given all the money, but he didn’t. Everybody is too caught up with the fact that Ananias has a brain and realises that he cannot live without money, to see Joseph, over there, who gave everything he owned.

5When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.

WTF?? Ok, I won’t go into ways he could have died, though tempting. But now, the apostles have everyone exactly where they want them. Everyone is scared to death because of this, which is going to put major money in the Apostles pockets.

7About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”
“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
9Peter said to her, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?…10At that moment she fell down at his feet and died.

So, what is the moral of this story of Ananias and Sapphira? It is simple: It is never enough. The church always wants more, even more than you have to give. They don’t want you to live comfortably, or have money enough to educate yourself in the way of the world, because then you would have knowledge enough to look at their doctrine and their dogma and say, “Oh my God (no pun intended) this is complete $%#^”

Education is the biggest fear of the church, or at least secular education. Why do you think there are so many Christian schools? Why do you think that small children are sent to Sunday School from the time they are old enough to be away from their parents? Because the Church believes that if they can get to these children at a young age, they can brainwash them into believing whatever they put in front of them. Unfortunately, this is true.

11Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

Everyone was scared, and what do you think they did in their fear? They gave money to the apostles, to the Church. It’s irrelevant whether these events with Ananias and Sapphira really happened or not. The point is that the people believed it, and they acted in fear of them. The Church does not care why people give, as long as they do.

I’m not saying that the Church does not need money. Everyone in this world does. It’s a common denominator. What I have a problem with is how they motivate people to give, and what they claim they do with the money. If they honestly came out and said, we need the money to pay our staff, our pastors and all that jazz, then I would be like, fine. But they cloak it in the ideas that it all goes back to the community, when it really doesn’t.

They take advantage of people’s ignorance, and innocence, and it’s sickening.

So I say, “Love-Love” to this game of Tennis.

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~ by yellowdancerkikki on 15 April 2007.