“I’m a professional Christian,” – said N., who preaches sometimes at the local Baptist Student unit. “Smells” like money to me. So this guy is actually being paid to talk to us about spiritual issues (issues with no monetary value attached). Those are the issues that you cannot really talk about unless you have passion and strong desire, otherwise, your lesson will go nowhere. Does that mean his inspiration to talk to us is not true, not motivated by his believes, but motivated by check that he’ll get at the end of month? Might be. A lot depends on a person here.
I guess it is ok to have paid staff in the church, but those should be people who really can deliver a message and truly believe in certain things. Screening for job in such a place should be very strict. The guy I'm talking about does a terrible job. He really needs to work on his delivery more… Maybe he needs more money to get motivated to improve??
Now what that is supposed to be?
Does that mean the message you come up to talk about are paid? Do those who pay tell you what to talk about and how to interpret certain things in the Bible (And yes, Bibles here come with interpretation. Probably different churches have different interpretations. That’s interesting… Meaning creation? Why not to let people understand things for themselves? I always though of Bible as a book with personal interpretations. It is different for everyone and its lessons are different for everyone).
Is Christianity a profession? I always though of it as a true devotion to God, no monetary value attached. But Religion and churches here are huge business. It’s getting the same way back home now too with more people going to churches.
2 comments:
Foxy one,
You raise an interesting point about a "holy trinity" of sorts- god, church and religion. You are right, they are not necessarily the same things. There are some religions with NO GOD(s). I'm reminded of the Ghandi quote- "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians."
Religion can be manipulated and abused. You're right a "professional Christian" seems like a strange label. I would be wary of that. But you also can't separate money from religion, etc. If you're a Christian, the Bible commands that Christians tithe, that is give 1/10th of earnings back to God. Most people interpret this giving back to God for the blessings he has bestowed upon us as giving back to the church. So, biblically speaking, Christians are commanded to GIVE at least 10 percent of income. But that's just the bare mininum. If you go to more churches, you'll see that the bureacracy of church leads to lots of layers of missions so there are all sorts of causes that members are asked to contribute money or time to. Most of these are definitely worthwhile causes. It just seems that churches at every turn are asking for money. Which can be offputting to some.
remember the question from 8010 about Bible? it is a word of God or word of people?
I would say the second.
as for asking for money. That's the thing that I really don't like about American Churches. Asking for money is kinda more humble back home. You buy candles in the church or put money in donation box. There are no plates passed in the raws. No peer pressure, nothing of that kind.
And I don't know how it is now in big cities, but preachers do not get any salary in the small cities, they live on what community gives them. And it is not always money, usually just food. There are not so many wealthy or even middle class people among the preachers. Usually they have very humble living.
But of course there are those who are asking for money for every little thing they do for you. They are not spiritual "leaders" anymore. But this is a new thing for my country.
Foxy one??
Post a Comment