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Ya know, Arch, it seems to me that is EXACTLY the opposite not only of what a church is supposed to do...and fortunately I've never been part of a church where the people had that kind of attitude. But then...in both of the non-Catholic churches I've been a member of as an adult...the pastor also had a JOB. At Victory Baptist the pastor was also a maintenance man, at the Church of Daniel's Band the pastor was also a farmer and still actively working despite being old enough to retire...and in the Catholic church priests make a little money, yeah, but they take a vow of poverty. I don't think I've ever known a person who 'tithed' to a Catholic church for any reason other then a tax deduction and while the offering plates at St. Cecilia's and St. Pauls (Catholic churches in CA and MI that I went to long-term) were usually pretty full...I don't think anybody was ever actually asked to give anything.

Now granted...aside from the churches I've mentioned I've been to quite a few others once or twice or a few times...and a LOT of those have been Pentecostal. Funny, for people who claim to followa a guy who said you can't serve both God and money the Pentecostals sure love their money.
I don't think I've ever been to a Pentecostal church no matter how small, where the "worship team" had anything less then an impressive sound system to work with. I don't think I've ever known a Pentecostal pastor who didn't have a nice car...and I'm not sure I've ever known a Pentecostal pastor who had a job outside of the church.

Ya know...the only time I've ever been told I couldn't afford not to give I was told this by a very large, well dressed Pentecostal female with very, very well styled hair. I suspect it'd been a long time since she'd missed a meal and as I'd just paid bills the Friday before I had precisely enough left for cigarettes, food and gas for my car for a week...accounting for the fact that I worked in a college cafeteria and the food was free for me there...and in a grocery store where I got an employee discount. This church was a few towns over from where I actually lived too so it wasn't like I didn't need the gas money.

I told her it looked like she could afford to give up a few things for God herself, like maybe eat a few less meals at McDonalds or spend a little less on hairspray, and walked out.

I might add...the pastor of this particular church was an older lady who claimed to be able to speak with God's own voice...I mean God spoke through her, yeah, that's it...or however they try to say it.

Whatever.

I might add, the friend who invited me to this place got wrote up at work a couple weeks later for attempting (without permission of the manager) to take all the Maxim magazines off the shelf because they were "pornographic." Walmart had just stopped carrying Maxim and he thought the grocery store should too. Unfortunately he took it upon himself instead of asking, and well the union reps ended up agreeing with his boss.

walkawayarchie wrote:

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I've got a rule: If a church is not Pentecostal/Dominionist, the Pentecostal/Dominionist church you belong to MUST find a way to claim it (sneak in) and witness to Christ (convert it); after all, it's a false church and you're saving souls from hell!!! Never mind that they preach Jesus and read from the Bible!!!

(Spoken from a pentecostal perspective.)

Also: If a non-pentecostal person seems to be at peace and is serene or even happy, a pentecostal MUST do what they can to shake or destroy that peace/serenity/happiness, because it means the person hasn't accepted the pentecostal fear of hell.

I never understood that...why Pentecostals are so obbsessed with the idea that they are the only "real" Christians out there.

Also for people who fear hell so much, they seem to avoid the sort of actions that might lead one to heaven while engaging in the ones that
Jesus condemned.

It's like they think if you're not completely miserable inside, you're not really religious.