Lord tells pastor to steal $1 mil. to remodel home....

[older]

What can I say? Here's the headline:

 

‘The Lord told us to’: US pastor says he stole $1m from Christians to remodel home

 

 

Now if God told him to do it, then that's part of the pastor's religious freedom, isn't it? So under that principle, he can't be charged, right? 

 

And here's a bit from the story:

 

A Colorado pastor who is charged with stealing more than $1m from his Christian community in a cryptocurrency scheme has admitted to the fraud but argued that God instructed him to carry it out.
....

Regalado added: “A few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel the Lord told us to do.

“We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit.”

Regalado added that the couple still believes that God will “work a miracle in the financial sector”.

....

The Regalados also pocketed at least $290,000 for their online-only church, Victorious Grace church, despite there being no physical location for it, BusinessDen reported.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/23/us-pastor-1m-cryptocurrency-scheme-christians-denver?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

 

[mwc]

     Is this really wrong?  Hear me out.

 

     If we were to ask if it were right to commit a genocide in order to take someone else's land and live there most believers would likely answer 'no.'

 

     However, if The Lord were to make this command, as he supposedly did in the OT, then the answer tends to change to 'yes.'  In fact, justifications are often provided as to why this is necessary and good.  And these orders aren't heard by the group by a single leader and the group just has to accept it.

 

     So, here we have a case where someone did something that would normally be wrong but since this singular leader is claiming The Lord gave the order is it still wrong?  Or do the believers simply have to accept it like the believers of old?  I'm also not saying whether or not they deserve to get ripped-off but simply accept it as a part of the system they've agreed to take part in?  How can anyone know whether the instruction to kill is any more or less valid than one to do home improvement?

 

     As an outsider I would judge it all wrong but I'm talking about the believers who are to accept marching orders from The Lord.

 

          mwc

 

[☆ moxieflux66 ☆]

I would argue that power to tell people what god wants has been decentralized into individual church pastors, who really hold all of the power, as he is the interpreter of 'god's word'. What pastor says, the congregation has to comply with. 

 

Look where that got us. Anyone remember the Guayana tale of the poisoned kool aid?