Helping The Homeless

[Angel]

Someone that I know that is a full blown christian, I just want to slap!

 

He had mentioned that when he got off of work, he ran into one of the local homeless people. He called the guy to him and started talking to him, then brought up god and how his son died, blah blah blah.....then led the guy to christ. (UGH) The guy is looking for a job, but no one will hire him because of his clothes, he is unable to shower, and has no place to live. He was kicked out of one church. The pastor told him that he needed to get a job and shower before coming to the house of god. (assholes) But the xian was soooooooo tickled that the person accepted his lord. The only thing he gave the homeless guy was info on his church and other churches in his area for the guy to attend....that was it.

Can you believe that?????? Like that REALLY helped his situation at all???????

 

I know one time my husband and I saw a homeless guy sleeping on a church's steps. It was really cold out (snowing) and I felt really bad for him. We went a block or so up the road, got him chili and a hot beverage. We went back to where he was sleeping, without a sound, sat the stuff next to him and left. (did not want to startle him or anything) Later on, we drove by and he and the items we left were gone. It made me feel really good just doing that little bit. (would have done more if I had more $, but you know how that is). It may not be a lot, but we do try to do kind things for people in need when we are able. I am certain that chili was better for him than the gospel story! What good is it to "save" them and not HELP them in some way????????

Reminds me of the story that was on theonion.com, about passing out bibles to people starving.

Sorry that I am going on and on and on, but DAMN!!! This really irritates me! Am I the only one that feels this way??????

[jrmarlin]

He was kicked out of one church. The pastor told him that he needed to get a job and shower before coming to the house of god. (assholes) But the xian was soooooooo tickled that the person accepted his lord.

Angel, please tell me you understand that this is the way christians operate. Their charity is only for folks like themselves. You know -- average folks in the world that are god-fearin', go to church xians! They aren't concerned with homeless people. In fact, they are so repelled by them, they will go out of their way to avoid walking next to them on the street - much less than inviting them into their "houses of god." This only shows that the hypocrisy goes deeper and depper with every inspection of their despicable religions. Xians don't walk the walk....they talk. It's just the way they are. A homeless person is out to get more help from a non-xian than an xian. Xians are into appearances and, let's be honest, most homeless people are not very pretty. In fact they drag the joint down both mentally and physically because Xians hate to see that there is true poverty and suffering in this country. If people really gave it the focus they should, the xians would lose their persecution cross... and their persecution would be something that is purely out of fad not out of any legitimate ill behavior going on.

 

Xians are an "all-about-me" mentality. In that all-about-me, there's no room for anyone else -- much less for a homeless person!

[All Gods Fail]

Sorry that I am going on and on and on, but DAMN!!! This really irritates me! Am I the only one that feels this way??????

 

Nope. I'm in full agreement with ya, Angel baby. It's not only hypocritical, it's anti-biblical. I don't think Jesus ever said to only help the poor with bibles and directions to church. Wasn't there something about giving everything to them and then following Christ?

 

It's amazing that us godless heretics can see the hypocrisy so clearly, but the true believers really think they're getting heavenly brownie points for dumping the gospel on people who really need a helping hand.

 

Good job, christians!

[Toxic]

Sorry that I am going on and on and on, but DAMN!!! This really irritates me! Am I the only one that feels this way??????

 

Nope. I'm in full agreement with ya, Angel baby. It's not only hypocritical, it's anti-biblical. I don't think Jesus ever said to only help the poor with bibles and directions to church. Wasn't there something about giving everything to them and then following Christ?

 

Yeah, it's funny how all the christians I know have NOT given up everything they have to follow christ. I also have a pretty good idea what they're reaction would be if they had homeless, unwashed smelly people in their churches. Also a christian is supposed to give anything thagt's asked of them, but I think I know how tall the christians I know would react if I asked them for the money to pay my car loan.

[jrmarlin]

Toxic, what... are you kidding... an xian to give up one of their fancy vehicles or one of their homes or their boats or their planes? Now we're talking a travesty.

 

I just can't even relay how disgusted I am to hear your story, Angel. I think is just despicable the way some xians act towards their fellow man. So much for preaching brotherly love. They have a lot of "Ifs" in their Love Thy Neighbor mantra... don't they?

[Angel]

Toxic, what... are you kidding... an xian to give up one of their fancy vehicles or one of their homes or their boats or their planes? Now we're talking a travesty.

 

I just can't even relay how disgusted I am to hear your story, Angel. I think is just despicable the way some xians act towards their fellow man. So much for preaching brotherly love. They have a lot of "Ifs" in their Love Thy Neighbor mantra... don't they?

 

It is sickning, isn't it? I remember being in the church I was in last...there was a stinky, smelling guy in there... (he had problems, didn't know better) and people wanted him out of the church. I was like, "What is the matter with you people?" I soon realized they are interested in people that can suppost the ministry with the dollars, instead of people needing assistance with the dollars. Gotta get that mega-church you know. Have to buy those trendy clothes for the ministers you know. UGH. Makes one want to vomit more than any smell a homeless person could ever have. It makes me SICK how much money we have invested in the church when it could have gone to someone that could have used it, instead of someone using us for their personal gain.

And it is true, a homeless person is more likely to get help from someone that is non-xian then xian, because in the xian's eyes, GOD is more important to them then anything....gotta get that brownie point for getting a soul for god.....but who cares if that person is in need of something like food, clothes.....

Just like I got a gooooooood look at this scripture.............

James 2:14-17 What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled;” and yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.

 

This says a "brother or sister", would that not mean a xian? To be considered a brother or sister would mean you would have to be in the family of god (xians) if I am not mistaken, not a non-believer. (correct me if I am taking this wrong) I am starting to see more and more why I walked away.

[Ex-COG]

He had mentioned that when he got off of work, he ran into one of the local homeless people. He called the guy to him and started talking to him, then brought up god and how his son died, blah blah blah.....then led the guy to christ. (UGH) The guy is looking for a job, but no one will hire him because of his clothes, he is unable to shower, and has no place to live. He was kicked out of one church. The pastor told him that he needed to get a job and shower before coming to the house of god. (assholes) But the xian was soooooooo tickled that the person accepted his lord. The only thing he gave the homeless guy was info on his church and other churches in his area for the guy to attend....that was it.

Wow, this sort of thing would have upset me even back when I was a Christian! Some of the people in my former church did attempt to give "real" help to those in trouble. I wouldn't have attended a church if they treated homeless people like in your example, "get a job and shower first". I was always bothered by the fact that most Christians didn't "walk their talk". As if that were possible anyway!

 

I have a story kind of similar to this, in that it shows how some Christians treat those they supposedly are to be helping. It also comes from my former church, and happened about 10 years ago. One Sunday before the morning service, the pastor and a few other people were in the sanctuary getting things ready, when a stranger came to the door. A lady who was there told me later that she had never seen anyone so skinny. It turns out that he was dying of AIDS, and the doctors had given up on him. He was now going to South America for alternative treatment he couldn't get here, and stopped to request that the church would pray for him. He didn't want to stay for the service, I guess he just wanted to know that someone, somewhere was thinking about him and wishing good for him. The shocking part was when he informed the pastor that he had already stopped at two other area churches before ours, but the minute he said "I have AIDS" they told him to leave. WTF, were they afraid he'd start bleeding on them, or figured he was gay and catching????

 

I recognize that there are those liberal Christians who help the poor without any attempt at conversion or control, but I still think they'd be more effective if they dropped the belief system entirely and concentrated on the social assistance. Without their bushel basket of dogma, they really would be a light to the world.

[chefranden]

It's amazing that us godless heretics can see the hypocrisy so clearly, but the true believers really think they're getting heavenly brownie points for dumping the gospel on people who really need a helping hand.

 

It's not amazing at all. It is always easier to see that guy's hypocrisy than my own.

[Lycorth]

As I've always said, the Prime Directive of Xianity will always kick in, ie, spread the cult at all costs. Human suffering is meaningless to a believer in an ascetic cult who devalues the material world and lives for a world-to-come. All that matters is "winning souls" for Jesus™.

 

No wonder human suffering is still in existence after 200 years of Xianity, when you would've thought such a perfect system of living would've erased all our problems by now

[jrmarlin]

Xianity's hypocrisy always seems to rear it's ugly head when people need genuine help. They (the xians) are too busy doing their coverdish suppers to be worried with any homeless people.

[chefranden]

And it is true, a homeless person is more likely to get help from someone that is non-xian then xian, because in the xian's eyes, GOD is more important to them then anything....gotta get that brownie point for getting a soul for god.....but who cares if that person is in need of something like food, clothes.....

Just like I got a gooooooood look at this scripture.............

 

Yah, I know that this is the rant place and strictly speaking there is a lower bar in the reasoning department than else where, but that has never stopped me before.

 

Let us take the high ground and not make such absolute generalizations, because they are not very likely to be true. It would be closer to the truth of the matter that a homeless person is as likely to recieve help from a non-Christian, as from a Christian. All other things being equal human behavior will mean that a percentage of people will act compassionatly accross the board.

 

Things not being equal I would make the hypothesis that a homeless person is more likely to be helped by another homeless person, or poor person than by anyone from the middle class Christian or not, because:

 

1. A poor and/or homeless person, Christian or not, is more likely to recognize the distress and feel the pain and thus be motivated to act.

 

2. A middle class person, Christian or not, is less likely to recognize the distress and to assign the person's appearence to sloth or lack of character rather than lack of resources. Thus feeling repugnance rather than compassion they will be motivated not to act.

 

3. Unless well trained most people will act according to feeling rather than reason.

[jrmarlin]

And it is true, a homeless person is more likely to get help from someone that is non-xian then xian, because in the xian's eyes, GOD is more important to them then anything....gotta get that brownie point for getting a soul for god.....but who cares if that person is in need of something like food, clothes.....

Just like I got a gooooooood look at this scripture.............

 

Yah, I know that this is the rant place and strictly speaking there is a lower bar in the reasoning department than else where, but that has never stopped me before.

 

Let us take the high ground and not make such absolute generalizations, because they are not very likely to be true. It would be closer to the truth of the matter that a homeless person is as likely to recieve help from a non-Christian, as from a Christian.

It's in the bible that they are supposed to help others - yet they don't on the whole. How is that an absolute generalization? Most churches do not help the homeless, claiming they don't have money, yet miraculously they have enough money to build new churches. Two Baptist churches here in my town have started building new churches - one even bought a whole fucking shopping center and are renting to K-mart, yet none of these churches have lifted one hand to help the homeless in this town or any of the towns that were harmed by catastrophes like Katrina. Neither church even offered to let the newly homeless of New Orleans come stay with any of the families of their congrugations. Now if this isn't irony I don't know what is......I will tell you the people that did go down and help out -- and did sacrifice guest rooms and couches... it was not the people going to church. If a church had helped out, it would have been in our newspapers because all the churches in this town are publicity whores.

[Guest thebiblesquitesilly]

It would be unfair to say that ALL christians would behave like that though, i know from when i was homeless that alot of christians will feed you or provide you with clothing or blankets or help you get housing. Basically although christianity is false not all of it's followers are the sort who would give someone starving a bible instead of food. But yeah one thing that did piss me off when me and my best mate were talking about the death of his 8 month old baby and my mother deemed it necessary to tell him that he needs jesus. Christians do piss me off when they have to bring jesus into a conversation at really annoying moments. Me and my older brother can't really talk about anything because if it is about depression or problems he will ALWAYS see it as an oppirtunity to get me "saved" he offerd one of my friends a lift home when he came round my house but i wasn't in, he used it as an oppitunity to talk crap for the whole journey abut jesus, that is just being oppirtunistic i think.

[chefranden]

It's in the bible that they are supposed to help others - yet they don't on the whole. How is that an absolute generalization?

 

Yes it is in the bible to help strangers. It is also in the bible to keep away from strangers, and even to kill strangers. Knowing that the bible is not a magic book, why be surprized that it does not produce improved human behavior? I don't know of any human institution that lives up to it's stated ideals. Therefore I do not expect the church to be different, what ever it says.

 

Considering that non-believers make up only 14% of the U.S. population and that most U.S. believers are some sort of Christian, the likelyhood that anyone helping a homeless person is a Christian is quite high. Since joining a chruch affects no radical change in a person, a church going believer that does not help a homeless person as a Christian probably did not help the homeless before s/he became a church/Christian person.

 

To imply that most people because they are Christians will not help a homeless person is a gross exageration. Most people whether they are Christian or not will not help a homeless person. I have helped homeless people as a believer and have passed them by as a believer. I have helped homeless people as a non-believer and have passed them by as a non-believer. If you wish to point your finger at a reason for this, point it at the culture you live under rather than the Church which is a mere artifact of that culture.

 

... Now if this isn't irony I don't know what is...

 

Well of course it is irony, but I don't see how irony advances your argument.

 

...I will tell you the people that did go down and help out -- and did sacrifice guest rooms and couches... it was not the people going to church. If a church had helped out, it would have been in our newspapers because all the churches in this town are publicity whores.

 

1. Have you actually been around to the churches and asked them what they did for Katrina people?

 

2. Just because I'm a publicity whore does not mean that the news paper is going to print what I do.

 

3. The Churches here abouts have helped about a million dollars worth for Katrina, and have sent helpers down there. I don't know about taking people in though. Churches here abouts are mostly Lutheran and Catholic, but I don't know if that has any bearing.

[jrmarlin]

1. Have you actually been around to the churches and asked them what they did for Katrina people?

 

2. Just because I'm a publicity whore does not mean that the news paper is going to print what I do.

 

3. The Churches here abouts have helped about a million dollars worth for Katrina, and have sent helpers down there. I don't know about taking people in though. Churches here abouts are mostly Lutheran and Catholic, but I don't know if that has any bearing.

 

Good for you on line 1, but there are a lot of churches that have not helped those people. None in the little hamlett I am currently living in.

 

2. There are more publicity whores than you think and the newspaper here doesn't have much news so any news will help them fill up their little rag they call a newspaper.

 

3. Considering that churches are not taxes and a lot take in well over a million that is light. For instance, Jerry Falwells little establishment nets abou 4-6 million a year alone. That's not even including Pat Robinson or Joyce Meyer who lives in a house which the church paid for that is double than that million -- so what is one to think? Most christians don't help other people out. It's pretty fucking obvious and to whitewash and try to placate it with a few examples does not by any means off set the others that have been so gravely negligant in helping the poor people in this country.

[Guest isis]

This reminds me of the attitude that the fudies had when I went on a mission’s trip with YWAM a few years ago. We went to several churches and at each one we put money in the basket. But when we were traveling around Bangkok there was less charity. We would pass by this mall everyday to go to lunch and there was this little girl about 6 begging for money. You could tell she was malnourished and was unkempt. The leaders of the group did not encourage us to give to those poor and if we did it should be very little. I remember I just could not go pass that girl like that. I gave her 2 dollars American which is a very fine sum in Thailand. The leaders promptly looked at me with disgust and told me as we walked to the mall that was too much money for that girl and her parents would blow it on booze ect...

 

I know it may have been much but it was worth it. I knew the girl needed it. And the look the girl gave me was reward enough. To be quite honest it was the best thing I did on that trip. I gave the girl money to feed her for a week or more and that is much better than building a church. Would you not agree?

 

Organizations like YWAM and Robertson's project blessing are so hypocritical. The only way they give you food or aid is if you hear their xain garage. At YWAM we gave food to slums etc but that was only during trips when we witnessed to them. It is shameful trying to turn a human being into a horse running after a carrot...

[greasemonkey]

Not all christians are that bad... I'll throw an exerpt from an old post of mine from another thread when my dad was a minister in southern Louisiana 10 or 12 years ago... (I'm too lazy to write it out again)

 

My dad was always a sucker for hard luck cases. I remember one year at a church he pastored in southern Louisiana (actually, Katrina wiped the town out...), he took in a hard luck couple. Apparently they were good christian folks just looking to move to a bigger city for work. Pops gave them a job & a room at his house (the parsonage), and the church helped the family out in every way imaginable. After a couple of months, they even sold the couple a car for dirt (their car trashing out was what stranded them there in the first place). I met the guy once while visiting (he was there 4 or 5 months), and he seemed like a nice enough sort. Obviously he just wasn't too sharp (the words "ungrateful bastard" comes to mind) as events shortly proved.

 

My mother worked at a fishing outfit as bookkeeper, and every Saturday she tended to bring home really large amounts of money (usually in the 100's of K's range) to take to the bank Monday morning. It was always in a secure bank bag with a lock on it. I guess the couple just couldn't resist the temptation; when my mom & dad went out for dinner one weekend, they came home to find the couple cleared out & the bank bag missing.

 

I guess it was a lesson in karma for all parties. It happened to be almost the lowest amount of money Mom had ever brought home ...about $1500 or thereabouts. I honestly don't recall that they ever actually caught the people; they probably did ...not like the amount they stole was enough to skip country or anything, plus they had the liscense number of the car & the guys social security number. Jeez, but how low do you have to sink to steal the preachers wife's livelihood?!

 

Pops doesn't really have any regrets about the whole thing (he says he'd do it again); but the moral of the whole story in my book was that those "appearances" don't really mean crap. I see those bumper stickers all the time that say "I'm not perfect ...just forgiven" and laugh.

 

...like I said, my dad was always a real sucker for the homeless, etc. He'd never give them money, but he'd often take them out to eat lunch & sometimes even spring for a motel room for them if the weather was bad. Sure, he'd "witness" to them ad nauseum (sometimes sucessfully, sometimes not), but in my entire time living with him, I NEVER saw him turn anyone away.

 

When I was in high school (west TX, before he moved to LA), he even got stabbed something like eight times after stopping off to help a guy who was "broke down" on the side of the road. He'd just finished preaching a funeral, was wearing his "Sunday best" and had a nice looking car; the guy just figured he was rich or something. He got a whole three bucks out of pop's wallet. Dad got a collapsed lung and a shit load of stitches. It never stopped him from doing the same thing again whenever or wherever.

 

I'm not defending self-righteous christian assholes; only showing a flip side of the coin.

[chefranden]

3. Considering that churches are not taxes and a lot take in well over a million that is light. For instance, Jerry Falwells little establishment nets abou 4-6 million a year alone. That's not even including Pat Robinson or Joyce Meyer who lives in a house which the church paid for that is double than that million -- so what is one to think? Most christians don't help other people out. It's pretty fucking obvious and to whitewash and try to placate it with a few examples does not by any means off set the others that have been so gravely negligant in helping the poor people in this country.

 

1. I'm not saying there are no Christian assholes. I'm only saying that being a Christian has little or no bearing on assholedom. Your implied theisis that Christian = Asshole is what is in question. Greasemonkey has given you another example of where it is not the case.

 

2. Christianity is not what fucked up the world. Making it go away will not improve your life.

Christianity is an artifact of your culture. Your culture (and mine) is what has fucked up the world.

 

3. By giving up Christianity you have dug deeper into reality than most, but you have not reached the bottom of the pit yet. Applying the retoric of a Christian, "Look at those evil doers. We are not like them," to Christians may feel like poetic justice. However, it also shows that one has not come out from among them nearly as far as one would like to believe.

[jrmarlin]

I'm not going to argue with you Chef. I know what I know. There is nothing anyone can say that will sway me. I want to see action and so far, there ain't any action that I can see.... Most xians would not walk across the street to help a little old lady much less a homeless person.

[chefranden]

I'm not going to argue with you Chef. I know what I know. There is nothing anyone can say that will sway me. I want to see action and so far, there ain't any action that I can see.... Most xians would not walk across the street to help a little old lady much less a homeless person.

 

 

But I like to argue.

 

I'm not familuar with your Christiand past. But if you were at all in the conservative camp you know then that a Christian knows what a Christian knows too and there is nothing anyone can say that will sway the Christian.

 

Therefore what have you done rid youself of that mindset?

 

A retorical question. You need not answer.

[greasemonkey]

I'm not going to argue with you Chef. I know what I know. There is nothing anyone can say that will sway me. I want to see action and so far, there ain't any action that I can see.... Most xians would not walk across the street to help a little old lady much less a homeless person.

 

Marlin has a point where percentages are concerned.

 

Years ago I was turning wrenches at (the now defunct) Mongomery Wards, we made an observation there that really shows what Marlin is talking about.

 

We had a "bright young evangelical" kid who started as a tire guy, and I was the first honest to god "evil atheist" he had ever met; I was a fairly new deconvert at the time and had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. I don't know if I would handle things much differently now, but I've certainly mellowed on the "venomous" meter. He tried to egg me on every now and then, but gave up in short order once he figured out I knew the bible a little better than he did.

 

Anyway, he had been trying to tell me about how christians were much better people, blahblahblah, and then he got pretty pissed at me when I pointed out something noticed in the years I had been working there. The people who brought in cars that had a KLTY (the local contemporary christian music station) bumper sticker on the back would invariably turn out to be the biggest asshole we would have to deal with all day. He was furious with me, going on and on about how I was just making rash generalizations. I just told him to wait a month, and tell me that again.

 

Like I said before, he gave up on the "witnessing" bit within a week or so of starting. It took nearly two months before he finally admitted that I was correct about the bumper sticker thing. It was a given; hell, I hadn't even been the one who originally made the connection; it was one of the other techs. I still love to use it as an example though.

 

In general though, people who wear their faith on their sleeves tend to be the most smug, self-righteous bastards to ever grace the planet. They are the most likely to threaten to sue over bullshit stuff, and the most likely to complain over nonsense. I've seen it in every shop I have worked in over the years; you can tell a lot about a person just by their car. I bet Nivek could probably weigh in on this subject too.

 

I guess I'm not much of an absolutist, and I don't condemn christianity just for having a really high percentage of utter jerks. I've seen more than enough christians who would give you the shirt off their backs to convince me they aren't all bad. Misguided sheep perhaps; but not all bad. I can say the same thing of Islam (or at least middle eastern culture); middle easterners tend to come off as argumentative jerks in the retail world. It has less to do with the religion than it does the culture they come from; they haggle for everything where they come from, and have a hard time with the concept of fixed pricing here. Every middle easterner I have known on a personal level has been the most generous & gracious of people I've ever known. The US has a "me me me" culture, and christianity probably plays a large part in that; I just quit being pissed about it a long time ago. You just have to learn to separate the culture from the person hidden underneath it.

 

But then, I've also turned into something of an eternal optomist over the last 10 years or so too. I've found that when I expect the best from people, I tend to get it; not all the time, but at least a pretty high percentage of the time. If I look for the worst, I have 100% chance of finding it. Even the kid in the story I was telling about above turned out to be a good kid & a hard worker. He stopped with the preaching, and I shook his world up a little bit on what he thought an "athiest" was. We actually got to be pretty good friends after all was said & done.

[♦ nivek ♦]

Here in OrYgunn gasoline is required to be pumped at retail stations. No self service at all.

 

Live across from a station, went to work there part time when owners needed an adult to ride herd on the kids that were the pump jocks.

 

The owner is a full service ASE certified Master Mechanic, I was a recently certed ASE Mech in half a dozen areas, but not the newer electronic automobile systems.

 

Did a ton of work in the back room, from lube oil and filtering to full component repairs and repleacement.

 

I'll echo greasemonky's findings. Folks with "bumperstickfaith" were most often the most grift-iest, greedy, arguing, pissy assholes Ihad to work with.

When it can to taking on a new custstomer, if there was a cross/fish/dove on car, Gary the owner gave them to me..

 

Over the years I worked for the folks know I charged to my account hundreds of gallons of gasoline and quarts of oil. Bought dozens of used tires or tire repairs, did several tow jobs *on the sneak* for folks who had little to no obvious dinero.

 

What amazed me the most is when the folks from houses.of.religion.r.us came down to help someone, the help was the scantest amounts possible, and often done with great fanfare.

 

I dunno.. Seems to me the religious want to appear to be seen as *doing something* but not taking any sweat off brow, or money out of their pocket.

 

Voting with my wallet has always been standard operatin' proceedure..

 

kL

[Angel]

I will say this, that not ALL christians would act in this way, but I do have to say this. The ones that I have had the misfortune to know have given me a bad example of being human.

The one church that I attended, the local soup kitchen wanted to open another site in another part of town to reach more people. They had asked this particular church for the use of their hall, which is a good sized hall with a kitchen, etc. That was the ONLY thing asked of this church. The people running the soup kitchen would have taken care of the rest. Well, they voted that they would not allow the soup kitchen to be in their hall........because it would have been more on the heating and electric bill. Can you believe that?

Another church, there was a woman that came in, obviously in need, crying and telling people that she had to go through dumpsters to get food. Anyway, the church had a stash in the basement of canned goods, but they were never offered to her....nor there was any intention of doing so. My dad got on their asses because it made him mad. They eventually gave her some of the canned goods down there.

One time a family lost everything in a fire...and stuff was donated to the church for the family. Some of the members WENT THROUGH the stuff before giving it away, KEEPING some of the stuff for themselves, THEN giving the rest to the family. That just made my stomach turn!

I could go on and on about the examples I have seen, but there is no need for it.

But, I will say this again, I am sure that not ALL chrsitians are that way. Sorry for not making that clear....I was talking about the christians that I have known personally and what I have seen. There is ONE preacher that I know (not personally) that does try to do things for the people in need here in town, just wished that some people would take his lead.

[greasemonkey]

I'll echo greasemonky's findings. Folks with "bumperstickfaith" were most often the most grift-iest, greedy, arguing, pissy assholes Ihad to work with.

When it can to taking on a new custstomer, if there was a cross/fish/dove on car, Gary the owner gave them to me..

 

Over the years I worked for the folks know I charged to my account hundreds of gallons of gasoline and quarts of oil. Bought dozens of used tires or tire repairs, did several tow jobs *on the sneak* for folks who had little to no obvious dinero.

 

What amazed me the most is when the folks from houses.of.religion.r.us came down to help someone, the help was the scantest amounts possible, and often done with great fanfare.

 

I dunno.. Seems to me the religious want to appear to be seen as *doing something* but not taking any sweat off brow, or money out of their pocket.

 

Voting with my wallet has always been standard operatin' proceedure..

 

kL

 

I gave more away "on the sneak" than I could even remember too... from flat repairs to cutting the hell out of my labor if someone was too broke to afford the repairs.

 

I can only recall one time ever seeing somebody else pay for a complete strangers ticket; but he made quite a production out of it ...even asked to call over people from other departments to "witness his generosity."

 

...made me want to puke, but once in 20 years ain't so bad. I still like to think it may have happened more often minus the theatrics.

 

I will say this, that not ALL christians would act in this way, but I do have to say this. The ones that

<edit>

But, I will say this again, I am sure that not ALL chrsitians are that way. Sorry for not making that clear....I was talking about the christians that I have known personally and what I have seen. There is ONE preacher that I know (not personally) that does try to do things for the people in need here in town, just wished that some people would take his lead.

 

I don't think any of us misunderstood your intent. I can tell some really glowing stories about stuff my dad did as a minister. I can also tell an equally large number of stories about his being a total prick in more situations than I care to recount!

 

The majority are by far totally self-absorbed jerks; you're far from the only one to notice and be pissed about it.

 

...but then you know they saying "They aren't perfect ...just forgiven"