It’s not mandatory to give donations, and it’s only something well off people should do according to the bible.
Corinthians 9:7 (ESV)
“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
But the entire idea of literate people needing a pastor to read them the Bible is already going against their beleifs.
Timothy 2:5 (ESV)
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
Churches are scams that Christians have internalized. They were needed back when nobody could read.
Orginized religion is a control mechanism from old times that we have left lying around for any old con man to take advantage of. Modern Protestant movements have been coopted by grifters.
“1-877-Kunts-4-Kriste, K-U-N-T Kunts for Kriste, 1-877-Kunts-4-Kriste, Donate your kash today!”
Read up on The Great Awakening in the USA.
You had large parts of the USA without an established church and a lot of religious freedom. So, you had pastors able to preach whatever they wanted without government intervention. This free market Jesus produced a lot of religious diversity. Some pastors used this as an opportunity to turn religion into a business.
It’s always been a business. Even in biblical times. The only time Jesus got violent in the Bible, was when he beat the shit out of the money lenders doing business in the temple.
Crazy how the only thing to cause the son of God to fly into a violent rage was unfettered capitalism
The question was kind of vague in terms of what part of Christianity he was questioning, but it seems to be focused on how churches currently function. At that point, I figured I’d focus on prosperity gospel for some US churches, which is a uniquely American phenomenon.
To just say “religion has always been like that” may bury understanding on how the current form came into being.
I think that a shiny golden calf will always trick the good into becoming the bad. Trump splashing that gilded gold shit everywhere made him quite successful. /s
They pick and choose what they want to follow. Treating everyone kindly, and with humanity? Nah, no way. Slavery? Sure, have at it.
Plus, most of them didn’t even read the bible anyway.
Because there are three forms of power in this world: politics, violence, and money. Every monolithic entity worth its salt tries to get their serving of all three, and money is often the easiest to obtain.
Religions a grift, this fits that ethos.
Because religion, particularly Catholicism/Christianity, are giant grifting operations who promise you better positions in heaven by giving money.
when televengicals/megachurchs became a thing. think Joel osteen, kennith copeland. Joel is probably the richest one, because hes been televised for decades.
Literal centuries before that, there were indulgences.
For me the explanation is simple: there is no logic within religion. Note that the bible says to love one another but also says that slavery is OK and that gay men should be stoned. These things conflict with one-another; you cannot be kind if you have slaves and stone other people, and you cannot have slaves and stone people if you are kind. It is physically impossible to follow all the rules in the bible. Many of its followers do not realize this, so their critical thinking skills are either lacking or damaged from all the BibLe gOoD thumping that they received from a young age. And because their critical thinking skills are damaged, many do not realize the obvious problem with giving money when jesus was, according to the book, not condoning this.
There are several passages that suggest money & Christianity aren’t aligned. Several passages in Acts talk about the disciples selling everything after Jesus passes and living as a commune with no private property. It says they sold & shared everything together.
There’s the camel & needle proverb. There’s Matthew 25:32. There’s multiple passages that speak of selling what you own and giving it to the poor. There’s Jesus throwing the merchants out in the temple.
When did Christianity become like this? Probably when power saw it could abuse faith, so hundreds/thousands of years ago. Your instinct is great, and you should challenge Christians. I mentioned Matthew 25:32 because it seems so diametrically opposed to what many Christians in power say. We’re supposed to care for the homeless, the immigrant, the prisoner—that’s what this book says.
James 2:15 states that belief is not enough. Belief without works of faith is empty, the same as no faith at all. People telling you they are a Christian while behaving otherwise should be made aware of this passage.
I say this as a Unitarian Universalist. I study the Bible to inform my beliefs, but they are not defined by them. I do think Jesus has been commodified and warped, and the people in power who tell us we’re a Christian nation in the US have lost sight of scripture. They quote the Old Testament and ignore John 13:34.
I also studied all this so when ICE / this government comes for me, I’ll have my receipts. Maybe it won’t matter, but speaking truth to power is important. If so many people believe this book, why do we act like we do? It’s power’s fault, not religion.
Note, I was an atheist for 20 years. I know all about the ills of religion. UU is not like my Catholic Church growing up. If you haven’t been to UU or a Quaker org, it’s worth your time.
It’s power’s fault, not religion.
I was with you until this.
Religion is a set of beliefs, typically in things beyond what we can falsify (hence faith). It’s not inherently powerful to believe people should be treated with respect. A belief in democracy is a belief in giving others equal power to our own (part of my UU faith).
Unitarian Universalism holds very little power in the world. It’s a beautiful faith tradition. Sure, there are powerful religions, but again, that’s power, not religion.
I appreciate seeing the Quaker love on Lemmy! (UUs are awesome too, in my experience!)
It’s a great community and shares a lot with us. More people should know about faith communities doing the good work in the world, rather than swindling their congregations for mega churches with elaborate shows, while telling people “empathy is not Christian.” It’s absurd what’s happening in those congregations right now.
it became a thing because the catholic church was (still is) actually the leftovers of the roman empire, and acted like an empire as a result (the only reason they dont today is because they no longer have the power to crush nations). this lends false legitimacy to others trying to use Christianity as a platform for personal gain.
It’s not like the church wants to point those parts out and the followers sure aren’t reading the thing.
I mean all churches need funding to run and it comes from their members. Mega churches are another thing, run for money
One of the proposed reasons the Romans adopted Christianity was because the church would help collect taxes. For all of the middle ages the church would be one of 3 instances that “run” a state (estates). Taxes were a big part of that job.
That means the answer to your question was just roughly 1700 years ago.
