Stealing money from people in the name of God

I was just reading an article by a minister who says for weddings he charges $750! His article is to “teach” other minister’s how much to charge for their services (weddings, funerals, baptisms, etc.). He says the more you (the minister) add to the “wedding package” (photographers, decorations, etc) the more you can charge the couple! I’m flabbergasted. And, having been a minister myself for many years now, I just wrote him my answer. here it is:

uhm . . . you are supposed to be marrying the couple not acting as their wedding planner! The minister’s job should include the blessing/exchange of vows – no more, no less. It’s not the minister’s job to provide anything for the wedding. The minister only needs to show up on time, marry the couple, than slip away unnoticed.

Being a minister is a sacred calling. It is not a career. It is not a job. It is not a business. It is not a source of income. Remember Jesus and the money chargers? He braided a whip and beat them, and threw their money, and chased them out of the temple saying that by bringing money into a holy building, they had made it a den of thieves.

I don’t believe in charging to marry a couple. I charge nothing as I have another source of income. I am an author by profession and an artist by trade. When it comes to the ministry, I am considered to be a “hieratic prophet”, in other words I preach by “revelation”. As a general rule everything I preach gets written down and published, and than becomes my source of income. I don’t preach out of a church, I’m more of your “John the Baptist style” preacher who just spouts off at any one who will listen, no matter where I go.

Of course after I say all this, people always ask, but what about tithes and offerings? I say, what about them. Did you ever actually READ your Bible? No where does it say to pay your tithes to the church or to church leaders – it also doesn’t say that tithes is money. It says to take one tenth of all you own – specifically mentions food and clothen – and says to give it to the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, and the hungry. Never does it mention money or churches in regards to paying tithes!

My “church” is not registered as a non-profit org, because I do not believe in using God as a money scam. I do not accept tithes, telling people to give to the poor instead.

I do not charge people for any type of ministry service. I believe that ministry services should be available to EVERYONE even people without an income, homeless people, ect. By charging for your services, you are telling these people that they are not as important to God as the guy with enough money to pay for services, and well in my mind, that’s just wrong, wrong, wrong.

If someone wants to pay me for my services, I tell them to take that money and help the homeless with it instead.

You see, I don’t think of my ministry as a job or a career, I think of it as a gift or calling. So I have a job in addition to being a minister. Though I also believe that your job should never come at odds with your calling, so I would never have a job that goes against anything I preach, either.

I gotta ask you: What would Jesus do? Do Jesus ever charge for his services?

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

Stealing money from people in the name of God

I was just reading an article by a minister who says for weddings he charges $750! His article is to “teach” other minister’s how much to charge for their services (weddings, funerals, baptisms, etc.). He says the more you (the minister) add to the “wedding package” (photographers, decorations, etc) the more you can charge the couple! I’m flabbergasted. And, having been a minister myself for many years now, I just wrote him my answer. here it is:

uhm . . . you are supposed to be marrying the couple not acting as their wedding planner! The minister’s job should include the blessing/exchange of vows – no more, no less. It’s not the minister’s job to provide anything for the wedding. The minister only needs to show up on time, marry the couple, than slip away unnoticed.

Being a minister is a sacred calling. It is not a career. It is not a job. It is not a business. It is not a source of income. Remember Jesus and the money chargers? He braided a whip and beat them, and threw their money, and chased them out of the temple saying that by bringing money into a holy building, they had made it a den of thieves.

I don’t believe in charging to marry a couple. I charge nothing as I have another source of income. I am an author by profession and an artist by trade. When it comes to the ministry, I am considered to be a “hieratic prophet”, in other words I preach by “revelation”. As a general rule everything I preach gets written down and published, and than becomes my source of income. I don’t preach out of a church, I’m more of your “John the Baptist style” preacher who just spouts off at any one who will listen, no matter where I go.

Of course after I say all this, people always ask, but what about tithes and offerings? I say, what about them. Did you ever actually READ your Bible? No where does it say to pay your tithes to the church or to church leaders – it also doesn’t say that tithes is money. It says to take one tenth of all you own – specifically mentions food and clothen – and says to give it to the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, and the hungry. Never does it mention money or churches in regards to paying tithes!

My “church” is not registered as a non-profit org, because I do not believe in using God as a money scam. I do not accept tithes, telling people to give to the poor instead.

I do not charge people for any type of ministry service. I believe that ministry services should be available to EVERYONE even people without an income, homeless people, ect. By charging for your services, you are telling these people that they are not as important to God as the guy with enough money to pay for services, and well in my mind, that’s just wrong, wrong, wrong.

If someone wants to pay me for my services, I tell them to take that money and help the homeless with it instead.

You see, I don’t think of my ministry as a job or a career, I think of it as a gift or calling. So I have a job in addition to being a minister. Though I also believe that your job should never come at odds with your calling, so I would never have a job that goes against anything I preach, either.

I gotta ask you: What would Jesus do? Do Jesus ever charge for his services?

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com
http://eelkat.wordpress.com
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/132659
http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/user/132659

Due to the resent rise (yet again) of the demon possession and witchcraft accusations and questions from non church members, asking me what the church members talking about, I have decided to write a book about Etiole, who he is, how I met him, why people started calling me a witch, and what these religion crazed nuts did to me as a result of their unfounded fears of Etiole. This blog will contain the first drafts of it. I’ll be posting them over the next month or so. I’m just plain tired of being called a witch, I’m thinking of renaming this blog to make the accusations, just to spite them. Seeing a UFO and meeting an alien-faerie-angel being DOES NOT MAKE ME A WITCH!!!! Well, anyways, here’s my latest addition into this year’s NaNoWriMo contest, I know I’m supposed to be writing a fiction novel, not a non-fiction autobiography, but whatever, I just need these people to stop accusing me of demon possession and witchcraft and the only way I can see to do that is to tell the world why it is they are saying these things about me, so continueing from where I left on in my last NaNoWriMo post, here is todays NaNoWriMo addition:

UPDATE: February 5, 2010: It’s Published!

The contents of this blog, are taken from the second draft of the book “For Fear of Little Men” by Wendy C. Allen, and reprinted here with permission.

Edit February 17, 2009: Parts of this book can now be seen on a Squidoo lens.

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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