Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
An evangelical church already under investigation for luring foreign believers to the U.S., where they were kept as virtual slaves, has been accused of encouraging parishioners to file fraudulent unemployment claims so they could keep tithing.
According to an Associated Press investigation, the founder of the Word of Faith Fellowship reportedly encouraged church members to defraud the government so that they could keep filling her coffers at Sunday services, saying it was “God’s plan.”
In an interview, contractor Randy Fields related how he appealed to church founder Jane Whaley to allow him to scale back his tithing because his business was faltering, only to have the religious leader encourage him to file fraudulent unemployment claims in the names of his employees.
According to the report, Fields was not alone, with multiple other church members — and fellowship employees – also admitting they committed fraud in the name of the church. The report goes on to note that the allegations are being investigated by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Detailing years of fraud, former church adherents estimated that the fake claims — including “some filed by the business owners’ wives and other family members” — would have diverted hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to the church over a six-year period.
Tax fraud AND slavery?
Damn!
You know I love it when people try to convince me that we cannot be moral without religion.
I personally think that being truly moral can only be accomplished by ignoring religion.
A televangelist whose church closed its doors during Hurricane Harvey claims that he is the victim of “misinformation” and told flood victims not to have a “poor me” attitude.
In his Sunday sermon, multimillionaire pastor Joel Osteen addressed the criticism that has been directed at him after his 16,000 seat Houston megachurch initially closed its doors during the storm, in which thousands of people were left homeless and 40 were killed.
Pictures and video posted on social media showed the church apparently undamaged by the storm, and Osteen initially claimed he had not opened its doors because he had not been asked to by the state. The church re-opened Tuesday, as floodwaters began to recede.
“You know I really believe in these times of difficulty it's, for me, certainly not the time to question your faith but to turn to your faith because God is the one that gives you the strength to make it through the difficult times," he said in a video of Sunday's sermon posted on YouTube.
“We are not going to understand everything that happens but, you know, having a 'poor old me' mentality or 'look what I lost' or 'why did this happen', that's just going to pull you down. Like we've been talking about all night, you just got to turn it over and say 'God you're still on the throne'.”
Yeah don't get a "poor old me" attitude just because your home was swept away by the flood and you lost everything. After all on the bright side Joel Osteen's church was completely untouched and he is still a very, very wealthy man.
However as bad as this completely out of touch sentiment was, it was not the worst of it.
On Saturday, the day before Osteen made his comments, his sister led a service.
In a video from a Saturday service at Lakewood Church, his sister Lisa Osteen Comes asks for the Hurricane Harvey survivors to stand up so that people could “touch” and “lay hands” on them. Before she does that though, she sends the ushers into the auditorium to start passing around collection plates. As they do, she throws out false words of comfort and carefully avoids ever telling these poor people that the church would help them. Instead, she keeps saying that God will.
“All these people who stood tonight, they have needs, and financial needs, and you know, I just feel like we should pray for them that God is going to bless them with unprecedented favor in the next coming days and the next coming weeks and the next coming months because you know they have a lot of calls to make, they have a lot of work to get done, and their lives were so interrupted, but you know what we can trust God that it will go smoother than anyone could ever imagine.”
Comes then called for the congregation to “touch them, hold hands with them…let’s touch them, let’s just let them know we’re praying for them and let’s believe right now that God is going to move supernaturally in their favor.”
So yes this woman actually sent out ushers to ask for donations from the people who had just lost EVERYTHING.
Comes actually went a little further than that and suggested that the flooding might turn out to be a good thing as God will likely reward them with better homes and more prosperity.
That is the trick that these people use to convince morons to give them their last nickle in the belief that God will reward their generosity with great wealth, health, and happiness.
It's really too bad that I don't believe in Hell, because if ever there were people who deserved a standing reservation in that place it is these slimy pieces of shit.
A Florida church sent a delinquency notice to a new member reminding her that worshipers were expected to pay $1,000 in required fees or face possible removal.
Candace Petterson said she started attending the Greater Mount Moriah Primitive Baptist Church about six months ago after moving to a new home in the Tampa area, but she received a troubling letter last week from the church, reported WFTS-TV.
The single mother said she received what amounted to a delinquency notice from her new church asking her to contribute $50 a month, along with other assorted fees, to remain a member in good standing and vote on church matters.
The predominantly black church, which has operated for more than a century, asked her to pay a yearly $250 anniversary fee and another $150 for Mount Moriah Day – amounting to $1,000, some of which would be set aside to pay off church debt.
“What church charges you to help pay off what they’re going through?” Petterson said. “I’m not there for that.”
Actually that's exactly what she is there for, to provide the church with cash flow.
What, did she think church was about spreading the Gospel or something?
I know the man is a fossil and that some attribute these more scandalous responses to dementia, but I disagree. What Robertson is espousing is essentially faith healing, which states in an authoritarian fashion that the advancements made in medical research by man are inspired by Satan and the only way to true healing and salvation is by reaching out to God.
And for a televangelist like Pat Robertson that reaching out takes the form of demanding that they give him their money.
In my opinion this kind of scam should be against the law, and it would be, if it were not cloaked in the camouflage of Christianity.
