Imagine if all the money donated to churches was used to help feed the poor?

Question

Instead of paying for the cadillac the minister drives

Answer 1

Where does this idea come from that chruches are better off broke and ministers especially should be poor? It's really a very childish idea. Churches and ministers are only effective when they have access to financial resources.

Churches and Christians run more soup kitchens and provide aid locally and worldwide than any other group.

The purpose of Churches and Christianity is not to feed the poor but to save the lost. Sure, we feed the poor in the process and that is a very good thing--but Christ did not come to earth to feed the poor, He came to save the lost.

Imagine if all the time you spend on the internet was instead spent working at a job and you donated that money to the poor.

Answer 2

Ironically, the data would likely show they would be worse off. This insults and shocks people, but there is significant data implying that the poor would be worse off.

I will provide two case studies to illustrate the issue.

The first comes from another eleemosynary organization, the American Red Cross. The American Red Cross provides a wide range of free services that are also provided by commercial firms. The Red Cross provides them for free because all money goes for the service and the people volunteer their time. No one gets paid. A good example of this is lifeguard, first aid and CPR training. It turns out, lifeguards trained and certified by the Red Cross are inferior to those commercially trained. When you are paid for something, you do a better job.

The second comes from the famines of Africa. An African economist has been doing research on the causes of the famines and the economic failures in Africa. He traced them back to their roots. It turns out it comes from all the charity. What is happening is that because things are being given for free, local farmers cannot compete with free, so in the next planting season they plant crops they can sell for export OR they sell the crops to neighboring economies. In either case, the local food markets are empty. Famine starts and people call for food. The other problem occuring is inflation. When you dump money without a purpose in an economy, to feed and house the poor but not for productive work, you create inflation making the poor poorer in relative terms. Uganda a few years ago reached a point where it was forced to start refusing aid because of the damage to its economy.

Be glad the minister drives a cadillac, it is a sufficient reward to induce him to do a good job. It seems that that is enough for a degree of quality assurance.

Also, why are you jealous of their cadilac?

Answer 3

As a preacher's kid I know several ministers. Only one drives a cadillac and that person had the cadillac donated to him by a church member who wanted to bless that person.

The ones on TV are the exception rather than the rule.

Unless you live in an unusual community, I bet if you checked most churches, the ministers drive a car similar to the cars of most of the people in their congregations.

yes there is abuse in the church, especially in the televangelists and the larger churches. But most ministers make very little money.

Answer 4

I, in part, agree with the point you are getting at.

Many times churches get so focused on spreading the word of God during their missions that they forget that people need other things to survive as well.

In a debate I was involved in a few years ago, I asked the question, "Can you honestly tell me that if someone is starving or freezing, they need the word of God more than food and clothing?"

The response I got was "Yes, because the love of God can solve all problems."

If there is a God, and he wants people to love one another, I'm sure he would rather have his "children" care for the poor, sick and hungry instead of just ministering to them.

I was shocked the first time I found out that ministers were paid. I had always assumed that if you devote your life to God or any other religious ministering, you do it because it is in your heart, not because of a profit.

In my opinion, it wouldn't be so bad if ministers had "a day job" to make money so that the church funds could be used for something better, such as feeding the poor.

Answer 5

Most churches use a portion of the money to feed poor people. A few churches in my area have open pantries or whatever they call it where they donate and buy food, the memebers of the congregation, and people can come in during daytime hours and sort of grocery shop. you give what you can to keep it going and if you have nothing then you don't worry about it. Well hes gotta earn a living too I guess. If you could earn a really good living working only so many days a week and having people adore you and respect you then you would do it to, I know I would.

Answer 6

Then the churches would have to close their doors. They wouldn't be receiving any money and no more money would go to the poor. Bad idea.

Instead, use the money to help the poor within your community first. You can't help others if you can't support yourself. BTW, how many ministers do you know drive Cadillacs?

Answer 7

Imagine what the poor can do for themselves to not be poor anymore. Churches and Cadillacs didn't cause poor people.

Imagine all the money we give to teachers given to the poor instead. Does that help anything?

Answer 8

The Cadillac is only in Methodist and Pentecostal churches. Many churches collectively give billions each year to feed the poor.

Answer 9

My pastor doesn't drive anything fancy. In fact he hardly gets paid at all. We have a large community pantry that feeds, clothes, provides toys, furniture and appliances for the poor. We have tens of thousands of dollars being poured into our community by our church every month! All from a congregation of about 350 people (including the children). I live in a small town of 5,000 people in a semi-rural area and we are able to do this.

We've also banded together with several other churches in our area and sent tractor trailers full of supplies to hurricane victims. And while most everyone else has forgotten about Katrina, we STILL have monthly mission trips down there to help them rebuild and teach them about God's love. We have families from down there living up here because they have been so moved by what God has done for us and how that has been shown to them.

Please don't ask inflammatory questions like that. If you have a specific complaint about a specific church, take it up with them, but not all churches misappropriate funds as you assume.

Answer 10

In my church we have a monthly fast where everyone (who medically can) skips two meals. We then take that money that we would have spent on that food and donate to a fund which is directly used to aid the poor and the needy. (we also don't have a paid clergy, they all have normal jobs too BTW).

I've heard it said that if everyone practiced this, there would be no more hunger or starvation in the world. Isn't that a lovely thought?