I just want to climb up on the roof and scream with every ounce of my strength. The frustration level has reached a point where I want to pull what remains of my hair out of my scalp. I simply cannot believe the insensitivity, the calloused indifference and flat out apathy which has hijacked much of Christianity and rendered it a useless religion void of compassion and any true expression of love.
Numerous attempts have been made by some of us to alert believers scattered around this nation to the ever increasing suffering being thrust upon our brothers and sisters through economic hard times and natural disasters. Instead of Christians rallying to help each other, there is more and more finger pointing, shifting the responsibility to others and hiding taking place. This attitude must stop or the consequences will be horrible.
Christianity if more than dressing up in nice clothes and sitting in a building singing songs and listening to yet another sermon. This is nothing but religion and flies in the face of what our Lord Jesus Christ taught regarding compassionately reaching out to others. Churches and groups who are only interested in themselves are guilty of selfishness and that self serving attitude will in due time render them a spiritual wasteland.
Wealthy Christians seem to have enough money to buy yet more and more “things”, yet they barely give enough to qualify as charitable giving. These same people will talk about how much they gave to the United Way and other secular charities but never consider giving a penny to a small Christian charities trying to carry out the Lord’s commands.
Christians think nothing of giving hundreds of dollars per week to their church, not having a clue where the money goes, yet will turn the other way when asked to help a grass roots Christian charity honestly helping people. Christians will drop a thousand dollar check in the building fund offering and a one dollar bill in the food drive offering.
Where is the love in all this? It seems to me that Christianity has turned into just another “look at me” religion instead of the “it’s all about you” ministry it is supposed to be. Christians would rather sit around discussing theology than ever get out and lift a finger to help someone in a desperate situation. The attitude of “let someone else do it” has infiltrated and taken hold among Christian groups to the point charitable giving is almost non-existent.
I have heard all the excuses about “being especially good to the household of faith” and how gifts and offerings are to go to pay the salaries of the leaders and the bills of the church etc. What happened to the heart of giving? What happened to the giving of alms? What happened to diverting some of the finances to something outside of the local needs of the church?
“Oh, but we give to worldwide missionary outreach”. Do you have a clue where the money goes? “We give to a consortium of groups”. Do you have a clue where the money goes? “We don’t care where it goes, we are only responsible to give”. Where does that fit with being good stewards and where is that in the Bible?
I think it is high time for Christians to wake up and realize that their personal giving is just that. GIVING, with no strings attached to whoever is doing the Lord’s work and will. Christianity is more than just church services and meetings, and more meetings and everything else that drains the budgets of most groups. Unless Christian groups start giving outside of themselves to others in need, their group will stagnate and fail. The same holds true for individuals; giving is to whoever is doing the Lord’s work, not simply to a church or group.
I cannot believe what I have heard, read and seen the past two weeks as I have attempted to find funds to help groups helping in disaster relief down south. NO ONE has any spare money to give. Every single person has every single penny spoken for already. The honest truth is no one wants to sacrifice one Coke per day or anything else to find the extra few dollars to help someone else. Funny how people always find the money to eat out at expensive restaurants, go to expensive movies or sporting events, buy new plasma televisions, go on vacations and million and one other things which feed the “its all about me” monster; yet cannot find a few dollars to help those helping people devastated by natural storms or personal disasters.
As I said at the beginning, I am ready to explode. I have worked my tail off the past two weeks doing research, communicating with associates and writing blogs all over the internet about the three hurricanes we have seen in September. I have just spent the past three days working with others trying to get the news out that Ike IS the storm of the century and to not underestimate it. We are all very frustrated because people don’t want to hear about anything that isn’t going to “bless them”.
Hey, sometimes there are things that come up in this life that don’t “bless us”. The event we remembered yesterday that took place in 2001 was not a “blessing”. Bad things happen to everyone sooner or later and when they do, everyone needs support and help to make it through. If Christians close up their wallets and shut up their bowels of compassion, then people are going to suffer and end up turning to the government or unbelievers for help. That is not how God wants things to be.
I am fully aware that people like me get under the skin of many Christians with my constant harping on the need to give to those who are suffering. I have been called the “hemorrhoid” on the Body of Christ among other things. I don’t care what people call me, I only want to do whatever I can to reach out and help others in their time of need. That is what true Christianity is supposed to be about. Christianity was never supposed to be a selfish “Me, Me” religion. It is supposed to be all about “what can I do for you?” and “how can I help YOU”.
