Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Quit Asking Me for Money - Problems with Religious Organizations

I don't even belong to any religious organization and I doubt if I ever will, but I know so many people, and have known so many people, that really can't afford to give their money away, but are often made to feel guilty, and continue to give money, that they really can't afford to give, to these religious organizations and it's starting to make me sick.

I can only say this once, if you don't have the money to give, don't give it away. You don't need to feel guilty, you are not obligated in any way, so why do you keep doing it. It's not hard to imagine, why the Old Testament made rules and laws to direct financial support to their temple.

This was obviously a place where they believed God lived. Their God needed to be taken care of, so they needed to bring him food and animals to sacrifice and feast on. This might not make a lot of sense today, but it obviously made sense to a large group of Jewish followers, 2500 years ago.

Jesus makes reference to an old woman, giving very little to the temple, and makes her out to be a hero, simply because she gave all that she had to her church or temple. This kind of stuff sounds good in fairy tales, but doesn't make a lot of sense today.

There are other ways in which you can support your religious organization, if you can. If you can't, focus on your family and not your church or other religious organizations. I can't stress this enough, when you run out of money or don't have a place to live or can't put your kids through college, is your church going to help you solve your problems.

If the answer is yes, and you sincerely believe this to be true, continue to support your church. If you have any doubts, you might want to rethink your financial obligations to your religious organization.

Before you can take care of others, you need to be able to take care of yourself.

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