re: #86 Quoth the raven, Covfefe.

Somewhere along the line, churches became less about “giving to those who have need” and more about “fuck those guys, they’re the government’s problem”. I used to say that in my ideal world, the churches would provide the social safety net out of Christian generosity; I’ve been disabused of that notion by several arguments, but I still believe they should be donating the excess of their wealth and not spending it all on upgrades and bling. You can’t convince me that Jesus wants your pastoral leadership to fly in a private jet. There’s arguments to be made for technology upgrades to churches to keep up with the cyber world, but anything beyond that is frivolous.

I never bought into the private/religious social safety net because it always came with strings attached. We have been seeing that lately with adoption/foster care groups arguing that they shouldn’t have to send kids to homes of non-believers (which, soon enough will become not devout enough believers, which I’m sure will eventually become “we need better tithing). People in need shouldn’t have to pretend they believe something just to get help.

As for how churches spend their money, as a non-believer, I don’t care - that’ll be between them and their god of choice.