I was having a casual conversation with one of my elders (won't say who, they might get offended) about church. She started on about the dilapidated condition of the Catholic Church back in our hometown. I have not been in it in a few years, unless someone gets married or passes away. I was paying attention for the and or the but to react properly. Her conclusion was that the church is in the condition it is because the congregation is not giving enough funds for upkeep of the church. I felt like throwing up in my mouth, as the Catholic Church has to be one of the richest tax free enterprises on the planet. This wasn't bad enough for me to spin out, but then she added that they go to church and make sure and give more than a couple of nickels and dimes because well (the equivalent of "he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been good or bad so be good for goodness sake) He knows what you give and if it is a sacrifice when you give. The best part was the end of the statement was followed by we aren't able to go all the time, but we still send our money in via envelope. She just wants to make sure she does not upset Him.
I had to stop her there, and say what? Stop doing that, it is one thing if you give when you go, think of it as payment for a little entertainment, but to just send money, that is really the same as burning the money, as far as I am concerned. There is no way, if there is a god, that he gives two shits about how shiny a church is. I told her if you really want to impress God, give the money to some poor people, at least they really do need it. These churches do not need more money, it is a little blasphemous the way they parade their riches to the world when so many people starve every day.
There is no way that her theory is correct. The more you give a church, the better your standing with god. God is supposed to be everywhere, why do we need churches anyway? Upon disagreeing with her and asking questions that made her uncomfortable, she said I should stop, lest I be punished for speaking ill of the man upstairs. She said just stop and thank god for all that you have. I said no, I thank Mando (pointing at my chest) because I am the one working hard on night shift. This made her uncomfortable and she said careful, He might make you lose your job to teach you a lesson. So I added you mean people that get laid off did something wrong and so they were punished by God, it was never about the economy collapsing? The food started coming at this point, so I backed off. I wanted to ask if all those Zyka babies being born are punishments somehow? Apparently god appears to work this way. There were idiots on TV when Katrina hit saying New Orleans deserved what happened to it.
I know some people need faith to get by. Even Wife has started saying she needs the belief in a higher power, we cannot be it. But He cannot be monitoring every single little thing we do. There is no way that we are on a scale of justice and depending on what good or bad we do day in and day out, someone is keeping tabs.
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