I think with the doom and gloom of the last post…and the seemingly continuation of that in my follow up to it, I should lighten the mood. I figured I’d try to provide respite from this idiotic administration, however brief. More is coming though. For now, I’ll play with a different controversial topic again.
I used to know this guy in high school that always had designer stuff, but no money. The latest shoes, clothes, accessories like belts and watches, but ALWAYS wanted to borrow some money. Lucky for him, I never really had money to loan like that so I wouldn’t have given him shit anyway. However, if I did and loaned it to him, I probably would’ve gotten expelled for what I would’ve done to him. A lot of other people “loaned” him money though. He was “cool” so folks wanted to be liked by the cool guys in our school. In addition to never getting their money back, they never got anything of value from the guy either. What he did provide were a bunch of empty promises he’d pay them back, and sappy ass excuses as to why he couldn’t do it at the time.
Coincidentally, I was doom scrolling through YouTube shorts and saw this dude standing in front of a Rolls Royce. Now, I’m a car guy through and through, so I decided to stop and watch. Turns out, this guy was a pastor standing in front of the fruits of the tithes and offerings over an unspecified period of time. I immediately thought “people are stupid” but then I thought “religion is evil”. Granted, I believe most religions are just commodified science or pseudo-science, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism being the biggest culprits in my humble opinion. I find more redeeming qualities in the Vedic religions, but that’s just me.
Are You Good?
I’ve always wanted to ask someone crazy enough to be doing bad financially, what compels them to give what they have to a guy driving a car with leather seats and no job. I’ve probably heard enough sermons near the passing of the collection basket to freestyle my own “cheerful giver” speech. I’ve heard what “God tells” people to do, and all kinds of shit the “Bible says”, but NONE of that bullshit makes sense to me. I would be in those services thinking all kinds of blasphemous stuff to myself. “God gone have to say that again, I don’t trust their comprehension skills” or “how God gone be begging humans for shit he can’t even use”. I ain’t ever seen an angel at the mall with a fistful of $5’s and $10’s trying to buy stuff. God neither for that matter.
Don’t get me wrong, I am perfectly cool with everyone having their own spiritual journey, but the person leading can’t be tapping my pockets and “close” the doors when I’m ready to go. If God ain’t enriching yo broke ass directly, I fail to see how it’s my problem to add you to my monthly spending allowance…let the reader say amen. Look to yo neighbor on the left and say “Pastor”, now turn to yo neighbor on the right and say “get a fuckin job”, amen. You gotta pardon me, I’m working through the buffoonery that is Trump supporters still supporting after all the evidence that he’s a pedophile and criminally corrupt. To me, it is equivalent to dropping a dub in the church that ain’t doing jack shit for the community besides existing.
There are churches out there doing some positive stuff with “some” of the money, but the vast majority are just hustling their congregations. There are also too many preachers that basically have their own religion, since it is them just up there interpreting shit on the fly. There are even a few that seem solid, that want to keep you latched on for obvious reasons. I often wonder if folks realize that what they believe to be building them up, is really just a hustle to consolidate wealth.
Wishful Thinking
Maybe if we had more charity and philanthropy or just made those two things mandatory for every church, then we’d see better results. If the IRS capped the tax breaks at $75K for any pastor, and ANY amount spent above that on personal items is then taxed as income, then maybe we would see some real change around these parts. Although, you’d see a few violators, there would be more improvement amongst more of the congregants. If people went to churches in which they primarily gave back to the community, opposed to being associated with the cool kid, maybe there would be more prosperity in general. I don’t know, maybe I’m just tripping or hating on religion…again.
Maybe I’m not though. Religion should be free, and I mean free of pressure, free of financial obligation, free of exploitation for the gain of an individual or greater institution. We should approach it only slightly different than a history class in which we learn what was believed however many thousands of years ago without the devotional shit. Seeing as God hasn’t really been vocal about, well, anything at any point, we should probably focus on building ourselves and each other up. Not to mention (though I’m mentioning) If we are to believe the story about the tower of Babel, the Abrahamic God doesn’t want the best for mankind anyway and doesn’t deserve to be praised if I’m being brutally honest.
“You’re basically killing each other to see who’s got the better imaginary friend.” ~ Blaise Pascal
False Equivalence?
It is what it is though. People will continue picking and choosing which part of religion applies to them, and which church they attend based on whatever superficial or semi decent rationale they conjure up. As long as an image of faith is being sold, there will be folks willing to buy it to prove they are more faith filled than the next person…while simultaneously being morally bankrupt. Maybe that’s harsh, but sometimes you gotta ask if you’re willing to believe the narrative or your lying eyes? If you’re good with the narrative as is, then you can probably better understand the attachment Trump supporters have to him than you originally thought. Just saying.