What a ex-Mega Church goers have to say...

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I read with interest the comments of 1 ex-mega church goer named Takumi who commented in an online article. This is what Takumi has to says:

"It is not the amount of money collected that should be under scrutiny, rather the way it is collected. Being from an ex mega-church member, I’ve seen firsthand the methods they employed to achieve their aims.

1) Admonish members who do not tithe as lacking faith, often implying that God is watching and displeased. Works wonders with regards to the faithful and devout.

2) Conduct regular campaigns on top of monthly tithing which ‘encourages’ members to donate beyond their means as a ‘test of faith’. The more you donate beyond your means, the ‘greater’ your faith. You get to go up on stage and be praised and congratulated by the senior pastors and the audience. Works wonders for people with low self esteem.

3) Implying (implicitly or otherwise) that God will repay(in monetary riches or equivalent) manifolds your sacrifice. This is essentially lying as nowhere in the bible does it state that God will financially reward those who donate to the church. The verse that has any remote resemblance goes like this: “for those who have, more will be given.” Those who do not know the true meaning of that verse should leave the church immediately. Craving for monetary riches is completely opposite to what the bible teaches. Anyway this works well for members who are there for the ‘prosperity’ aspect.

4)Using appropriate smoothing music (violins and pianos work best), hypnotic chanting and silent introspective prayers (indoctrination in effect) in harmony with the above tactics can create the essential feel good, faithfulness or guilt associated emotions that can make these members emotionally or psychologically vulnerable to persuasion and/or coercion.
Works well with everyone. It has been proven experimentally that , when we are exposed to certain auditory/visual stimuli, our emotions can be manipulated subconsciously. This method has been routinely employed by politicians, salesmen, hypnotists and of course church pastors.

Add in mass indoctrination, force of habit and peer pressure, you can understand why their members willingly hand out their hard earned money to these pastors without bothering about how it will be spent.

It is a pity that none of these tactics has any legal implications simply because their claims (of god and rewards) are not based on evidence and therefore cannot be challenged."

Takumi commented in an article regarding the investment of City Harvest Church which you can read about Here

Woman who sued church is bankrupt

Remember Madam Amutha Valli Krishnan?

THE woman who lost her suit against the Novena Church over what she claimed was a botched exorcism, is now a bankrupt after she failed to pay three churchgoers over $150,000 in legal bills.

Read the whole story Woman who sued church is bankrupt

Prelude to Triumph and Glory

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This Sunday which commemorates the Passion of our Lord is a prelude to the three holiest days of the year during which we celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. As a prelude is meant to introduce us to what is to follow, it offers us an overview of what we are about to experience. Hence our liturgy today must lead us into the celebration of Holy Week with renewed faith in and gratitude to God for his salvation for all mankind.

As palms are blessed and the Gospel story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is proclaimed, Jesus is likened to a saviour-king figure and greeted with blessings and praise. As we listen to the enthusiastic welcome of Jesus of the people, we can’t help feeling the sense of eager anticipation of great things to come. At the same time, there is a sense of foreboding as we behold the envy of the enemies of Jesus who see in the tumultuous welcome of Jesus by the people of a signal for them to act quickly against Jesus. They are not caught up with the popular enthusiasm for they fume with jealousy and milk their beards as they bid Jesus to silence the vociferous multitudes. The readings and the psalm fit well into this pattern of the prelude. They each move from joy to sadness, from well-being to suffering, from glory to ignominy. They both highlight the saviour image of Jesus. In Isaiah’s Third Servant Song (First Reading), the servant who has been proclaimed in the earlier songs as beloved, gifted with the Spirit of God, consecrated, a light to the nations and a gentle minister of the Lord’s justice, is now shown the truly faithful servant.

This Servant has always been seen as a model for all disciples and for the people of Israel itself. They knew from their history that prophets were not listened to. They were ridiculed, rejected and even killed. This reality is manifestly acknowledged in the Third Servant Song. On Good Friday, as we walk the Way of the Cross and venerate the Cross, we will listen to, be touched by, and appreciate with profound gratitude to the Servant’s complete self-giving, bearing our sins for us and loving us to the point of being a “man of sorrows”, dying on the Cross.
This theme is then taken up in the anguish and pathos of the Responsorial Psalm 22, opening with the heart-rending, desperate prayer-cry of Jesus, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” This is Jesus’ prayer of complete abandonment to his Father – a prayer of utter self-giving to the Father – a fitting prelude to the Father’s glory.

Then in the Letter of Paul to the Philippians, we are also led through the abandonment to God accepting his Son’s sacrifice, receiving him with love and loving him into new, risen, glorious life. To prepare for the Holy Week by focusing solely on the suffering Jesus is not to prepare fully. The suffering is no end in itself. It is Jesus’ gift, received by the Father who transforms it into new life for all of us.

The Gospel reading dramatizes the roles of many of Jesus’ disciples: the warning to Peter about his impending unfaithfulness and his subsequent denial of Jesus, the sleeping disciples in Gethsemane, Judas' kiss of betrayal, the grieving women of Jerusalem, the conscripted Simon of Cyrene, the repentant thief, and Joseph of Arimathea who buried Jesus. And there is Jesus himself, God-made-man, the Master, the Servant, the Lord, sweating and betrayed, humiliated, scorned, bearing the weight of our sinfulness on his back and crucified.

But this is the Father’s plan of love. It’s the Father’s prelude to his Son’s glory.

This passage is taken from the bulletin of The Church Of St Francis Xavier.

City Harvest Church or City Harvest Inc?

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They are back in the news....for the wrong reasons as usual.

City Harvest Church announced recently that they have purchased a stake in Suntec City for S$310 million.

The church was recently asked by the Commissioner of Charities about this business venture.

City Harvest did not create a separate business entity for the purchase.

There are concerns regarding this arrangement because the church's income as a registered charity is non-taxable.

It seems like there is a loop hole whereby one can strive towards one's own ambitions by building a business empire using tax free money. By their teaching of tithing, they get regular and steady income streams which are tax free.

As the church's collection are registered as charity and thus tax free, shouldn't the money be used for helping the poor and needy?

Well, in the case of some so called mega churches, it seems like this is the best way to enrich themselves and thus the need to turn the church into a business enterprise........with returns to justify more money to be paid to it's leaders.

Certainly, these people need to reflect on themselves and people who goes to such churches, stop giving yourself excuses and no it's not God's grace that made the leader's rich...it's you and your money.

This brings to mind the story just before Jesus started His ministry and was lead into fasting and prayer for 40 days in the desert. Jesus was tempted when shown all the riches and kingdom He would receive in return for worshipping the devil....

Well Jesus made His choice......how about you?