I predict this will be a long rant, with no particular logic. Religious talk will be involved. No footnotes will be provided, so read it or shove it.
People are all the same, it would seem. I mean that in a very negative way. I've tried to convince people over and over that us Christians are better than the rest. I've tried to convince MYSELF that us Christians are better people, more helpful, less willing to take advantage of others, and overall better Samaritans. It would seem I could not be farther from the truth.
Why does a person go to church? The technically correct answer would be to fellowship and meet with others that may share the same religious views, and to get fed spiritually. Bullshit. People go to church because that's the only place where their pathetic lives can and will have any significance. They can't make the board of directors of their company, so they get into the church's committee. They are on the lowest rung at their job and their home, so they come to church to satisfy a bit of their power trips. They are too uncultured to go to the opera or any other classical msuic concerts, and they can't wear their good clothes at work, so they use church as an excuse to show off their new wardrobe. ****ing hypocrites, every last one of them. They drive a POS 89 Accord day to day, but they drive up to the church parking lot in their Hummers and Porsches. Not to mention our parking lot is anyway small, and that blasted Hummer takes up two spots because the owner is afraid it will be scratched.
The pastor, instead of taking the time to read and learn the Bible and teach us something useful, will sit there and tell us why tithes are important (tithes = 10% tax for the church). Is this a sermon, or a goddamn fundraiser?!?! He expects the best, and also expects that it will cost him nothing. I have never met a man with more pride than him. He expects the best music, and expects me to be there 24/7 to work with all the groups - all for nothing. Nothing in my pocket for what my parents and I paid more than $100,000, collectively, over the course of my life, to learn. Nothing in my brother-in-law's pocket for being there 7 days a week to work the sound for all the groups - something he just spent $60,000 to learn.
He orders a car from my father-in-law, who owns a used car dealership. My F-I-L buys a lightly damaged car with a clean title, fixes it up, and charges $5,000, well below the 6K KBB value for PP, not even retail, even though he's a dealer. The pastor picks up the car, says he'll pay later. My gullible F-I-L agrees, then gets a 3K check in the mail. The pastor says he made the calculations and that's how much the car cost him including parts. My F-I-L's like, "Well, what about the two weeks I spent to put it together? What about my labor? What about the money I paid my employees?" The pastor tells him to "Do it for God." ASSHOLE. Using God's name for personal gain. Then he turns around and rips off some poor FOB Romo (Fresh-off-the-boat Romanian) who has sold all his assets in Romania for $20,000 to comet o the states... tells him the 5K car is work 9K so he could negotiate it down to 5K, get his money's worth, and look like a real great guy in front of the FOB Romo. Well, the Romo just fronts the cash and pays ALL 9G up front! And the pastor takes it all. Makes a 6K profit on my F-I-L's back, all for the Glory of God.
He does a $300,000 renovation to our church... he is filled with money, both in the church's account and in his personal (comingling, anyone?), yet he has the audacity to fire my good friend in the church and tell him he can't afford him. He's a piano player, and he was only paid $500/month.
He's relatively new to the church. And every year there are three conventions. A pastor's convention, a youth convention, and a main convention with everyone. This year, he took all three. What else other than pride would drive him to do that? I can see the look in his eyes, how he is gloating because of all the people that surround him, because of how much power he has. He controls the most powerful Romanian church in the U.S. And he doesn't have money to pay people who paid to learn what they do in his church.
For my wedding, I wanted to spend a couple of hundred on ink for my printer and just print my programs at home. He told me to wait until the last day just in case there are changes to the program and to not worry about printing on my own, that I could use the church's color copier (laser), for a small fee. I said ok, it was cheaper than buying cartridges. The night before, I ask him where he is, because the copier is locked in his office. He tells me to drive over to his house and get the key. He lives far away. My wedding tomorrow, lazy ass! So I go anyway and get the key. It's now midnight. I get to the copier, and it doesn't work. I call him to ask, and he's like, "Yeah, I forgot to tell you, it's broken." IT"S BROKEN! And you couldn't tell me when I picked up the key from your house an hour ago?! I try fixing it, but to no avail. It's dead. Now it's 2:30AM, the day before my wedding. I call around, no one's open. I find a Kinko's and they charge me $500!!! (I had a LOT of programs for a lot of guests at the wedding... 600 guests). I ask him to reimburse me for the costs, since it was his fault that I just didn't go with buying my stupid cartriges, and he says he won't do it, that it was my fault I waited so long. But he told me to do it!
Then a church employee tells me to park somewhere for a church service and I get ticketed... this is a few weeks later. He doesn't want to cover that either, even though it's his organization's fault. He says he's gotten tickets too and paid them. Then I find out later from the treasurer that the church pays ALL his parking tickets.
I'm so sick of everything. Why the hell can't there be a good church with good people around? It's no wonder God tells us in the Revelations that He would spew us from his mouth because we would be neither hot nor cold.
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