For What Is A Man Profited

This summer, we have seen avarice at its worst as billionaires have spent millions to basically have small rides into space.

To say Jeff Bezos is one of the most hated men in America, if not the world, is an understatement. The money Bezos spent to ride what looked like the Statue of Liberty’s vibrator into the space was hardly much considering how much money has made since the Covid-19 pandemic started.

And here we are with wealth inequality at an all-time high and people refusing to go to work for little money and benefits, Amazon’s work environment seems to be what people used to say living in a world of Communism would be like.

It’s been almost 30 years since the fall of the Cold War in Europe and many people in the work force have lived in a post-Cold War era or were so young when it was still going on, they barely remember it.

I think it was because Communism at least in The Soviet Union and Red China had such an aversion to organized religion, people were able to use Capitalism as a pro-religion, and more important pro-Christian, ideology.

The irony is the Bible, especially the New Testament, teaches so much against avarice and greed. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the world, but lose his soul.” – Matthew 16:26 KJV

Apparently, that’s become so misconstrued over the years as Joyce Meyers, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen, and many more are trying to get as much money from you but telling you that having too much money is a sin.

Money is meant to be spent, not horded. Yes, you should save for a rainy day, but people nowadays are living paycheck to paycheck. And they being forced to work in unsafe conditions, often doing more for less.

This was what they told us in the 1980s, the world would be like under Communism. It’s ironic how corporate America in the early part of 20th Century used anti-Communist propaganda to go after union workers and delegates. They always present a hypothetical ne’er do well person who is getting paid the same as you or more but not doing as much work.

Ironically, they are describing corporate execs and supervisors who do less than the workers, but make more money. I fail to see how a phone call or meeting presentation can be harder than working in a factory with little to no air conditioning eight hours a day.

And that’s why I don’t see what many pastors do as hard work. I do know a few pastors who work regular 9-5 Monday through Friday jobs and felt a calling to be a pastor on Sunday. They give up their free time for spiritual guidance for others. And they don’t make a lot of money. I heard a pastor only made $9,000 a year. And you can’t do much on $9,000 a year alone.

But that’s where the greed takes over. A former co-worker of mine once worked for a church and said that “tithing” was taken out of her paychecks. And she didn’t attend the church. Another church in my hometown hired a family friend as their secretary, but she didn’t attend church service there either. The reasoning is they didn’t want a secretary who was a member because they would be privy to information, aka church gossip, that they didn’t want members knowing about.

The Baptist church in the town I went to college had a buzzer system. You had to be buzzed in and had to have an appointment. Apparently, eternal salvation was now on a schedule. I must’ve not gotten that memo.

To paraphrase President Calvin Coolidge, “The business of organized religion is business.”

And even though you’ve turned over your eternal soul to a religion, they still want you to spend more money between now and the day you die toward their cause. If you don’t write big checks or put big bills in the collection plates, they will shun you.

I think maybe a reason many people are not associating with any organized religion is it’s becoming too expensive to be a Christian nowadays. I never understood having to wear nice clothes, suits and ties and dresses to a building, even though you don’t normally wear these items.

Out here in Oklahoma, they have cowboy churches for people who work on ranches and farms but don’t have time to take a shower or get dressed up. And to some degree, I think they’re getting the idea but they’re not fully there.

It’s not about what the decor, but about the way we treat people. Cowboy Church is the equivalent of having Hawaiian Shirt Day one Friday a month and adding extra granola bars in the break room. It’s a gimmick but it’s not going to increase morale.

To me, a church service should be about spreading the word of God and Christ through actions. Anybody can sit in a pew for two-three hours and listen to a sermon and sing hymns.

What if the church members allowed everyone in and I do mean, everyone? People who couldn’t afford it brought their laundry. People were given haircuts. They got to use the shower facilities. They are served a meal, breakfast and/or lunch. You take the tithing to give people groceries or needed toiletries.

A pastor can still deliver their sermon. And the choir can still sing hymns. But that is doing the true work by helping others.

I used to work retail in my teens and Sunday afternoons are the worst with all the church people coming in treating everyone like they’re lower because they didn’t go to church. I’m sure those in the food service industry have endured this abuse too.

For those who praise Chick-Fil-A for closing on Sundays, many more would be using it and criticizing the people who worked there.

I remember a clerk at a JC Penny’s or Dillard’s was taken aback because an elderly couple handed her some Christian themed card because she was working on a Sunday.

She said, “What makes them think I didn’t go to church today?”

And I was like, yeah, what makes them think that?

You think the same people who would be so glad that Capitalism was fighting Communism would be so proud the businesses stayed open on Sundays.

Christians aren’t mad because “No one is going to church anymore.” They’re mad because people aren’t coming to their churches anymore. Or since we’re in a pandemic, people are tuning in to Internet broadcasts.

A church is four walls and a ceiling. It doesn’t matter if there’s greed and animosity swirling around, that it encourages people to hostile to others.

They tell workers they should go above and beyond for the companies they work for, but we should be telling Christians to go above and beyond for those around them. The true Christians are those who will continue to pray and care about the atheists and agnostic people out there.