Why so many poor and helpless people whilst leaders of churches are adorned in gold?

Question

From my point of view its a money making scheme and mythology plays a good part in religion.

Answer 1

Do you know that when Mary anointed Jesus with expensive oil the disciples asked the same thing. Jesus answered,"You always have the poor with you...." I am not rich, technically I am among the poor if you go by statistics. But I do my part as well as I am able to give to the poor and I support my parish Church. We Christians are all supposed to give to the poor and to our churches. "Whatever you do for the least of these you do for Me." As for gold in the church I believe that Christ deserves the best possible. Also I haven't personally seen any leader in the Catholic Church or any other walking around wearing large amounts of gold or precious jewelry.

Answer 2

Hi Danica-

Good question. Of course there will always be unscrupulous people that will take advantage of situations and use the good nature of others for their own gain.

To my knowledge, however, many places of worship are built in dedication to God, and are therefore expressed through beauty. Priests, pastors and the like generally aren't supposed to financially benefit financially from their position.

Certainly your question could be posed to pertain to anyone of wealth-celebrities, politicians, business owners, etc.

You are certainly free to make your own judgements and have your own opinions on the validity of religion. However, if this is your only reason for not believing in some sort of religion, I would probably look for something a little more concrete than the example you have given. Hope this helps!

Best wishes.

Edit:

Please also keep in the mind the millions of dollars donated annually by people of faith. But of course, you are right. I personally believe that assistance should go to the poor and hungry first.

Answer 3

Not to judge though, but to be frank, its funny. The old testament talk about the temple being in shamples and that of the people in riches, and in the new testament, Jesus deny all the riches by saying to the rich man, "go sell all you have got and give to the poor then come follow me"
But, looking closely to the christain life, it is more on our personal relation to God than our outward side.
Recall, in the bible when Mary Magdalene was anointing the feet of Jesus with an expensive oil while the disciples and pharisee were grumbling. Jesus said " let her bcos you will always have the poor among u to take care of..........."

Answer 4

Bravo!! You are asked the question the world should be asking but many don't have the guts to ask. Questioning is just a beginning. Its the way to solution and change. Religion are no more what they were originally intended to be. Now it is about power, a mass hypnosis to enslave people and yes a grand money making scheme. This has got to stop. We can make it stop.

Answer 5

well, all religions tell the same thing, how to b a better person than you already are now. but its sad how the people trusted to carry the message is 'abusing' the goodness we already have.

on the other hand we have at least 3 meals a day + snacks + desserts + etc. people are dying without eating a single grain of rice around the world and maybe right in our neighborhood. so are we justified in judging another?

Answer 6

The poor can go kiss the Pope's Prada shoes!

Whilst he refuses to allow Catholics to use condoms for protection against unwanted pregnancies and Aids, causing the unnecessary deaths of millions of poor Africans and leaving millions of children orphaned...

Whilst he condemns Gay marriages in Spain and defames and vilify's every gay person on the face of this planet..

Is this a Pope or a monster?

Answer 7

The Bible is clear. Beneficiaries of the tithe are primarily the Levite (priest or pastor). Other athorised beneficiaries are widows, the fatherless and the alien. Some churches today teach that the tithe is solely for the levite for selfish reasons.

Answer 8

You do rightly divine the problem the befalls many religions when they get caught up in the pomp of their religious ceremonies and lose sight of what they are supposed to be about in our lives.

And many feel in necessary to adorn themselves with a label of what denomination they are without thinking of the mistakes that have been made in their churches governance.

I also just notices it odd that whether referring to what religious tenets you follow or what value currency you are holding, they are both referred to as "denomination".

Answer 9

being a priest is the ultimate hustle. they all do it too. from the pope to benny hinn to creflo dollar to kirk franklin to the pastor and priests of smaller churches. these guys are pimps and they use God to pimp the masses. they ask people to tithe (give donations to God) of at least 10% and in some religions it's less. but have you ever seen a pastor or priest do any tithing? hell no. because it looks stupid for you to give money to yourself.

the pope is the head pimp of them all. the guy has a whole city to himself. he's practically a king for the rest of his life. they've been pimping christianity for centuries.

it's no problem to believe in God or have religion. it's no problem to congregate to discuss your beliefs with others. but it's a mega problem when the priest or pastor of a church is riding around in $50,000 cars, wearing thousand dollar business suits, and staying $500 a night hotels, when the people he's supposed to guide are all living in the gutter.

this is why i don't go to church anymore. my relationship with God is NOT through some priest or pastor who is more interested in my bank account than me. if God needs a five spot, he'll let me know.

Answer 10

Its all about money! Those ppl arent any better than our world leaders. They all want to get rich and dont care about the poor and starving!