Boctor Beth

Another story is of my former pastor who had a man walk into church after the service and ask for money for food. The pastor said he’d take him to lunch at the MacDonalds down the block, and they could talk about what was going on in this guy’s life, and how the pastor and church could help. The pastor got a phone call at the door, so he handed the guy a twenty dollar bill and told him he could go order. After his phone call, he went into the restaurant and the man was nowhere to be seen. He’s taken his whole $20 and skedaddled.

Another story of a pastor who invited a man who had come to the church asking for money for food to his house for dinner. Later that night, the man broke into the pastor’s house, stole a bunch of stuff, and stole his car.

I think your father (not you though. You’re saying your father told you about this man. You never met him to have him tell you in person 🤔) just had an experience with a pastor who was doing his job and dealt with shitty people instead of understanding how the system is broken, especially if this is in response to backlash the church is receiving after that woman went viral.

We who are not on TikTok did not see the whole system showing its hand.

She never asked for money she asked for food. None of the churches that didn’t offer immediate help never asked to meet up to discuss what’s going on and how they can help. They just said no we cannot help.

Many of these churches were mega churches where the pastor has a sports car and you get communion in a lil snack pack. Others were fairly financially well off. They no said to even discussing how help can be done. The only ones to say yes were churches that had no money to give away anyways.

It was even worse when a woman in the UK try doing the exact same call. No one was surprised because this issue is systemic and has been an issue since the start of Christianity as a ruling power.

I’m sorry to your one singular pastor (while you never met by the way) who dealt with humans where literally starving who thought they could go to the church to receive assistance and only got treated as a new number to the “flock”. The way your are so subtle putting how these people are the bad guys and your fathers pastor is the good guy tells me enough about your Christianity.

Anyways!

What I and like-minded people in the notes ARE saying ✅

Churches of all sizes are regularly approached by 1) people in legitimate need, and 2) scammers.

These two kinds of people often appear identical. Scammers are pretty good at what they do.

Scammers may or may not be in need, but that need does not give them the right to lie, cheat, and steal. Honesty is a virtue,

The church has a responsibility to help those in need. Drug addicts count as needy, and deserve to be fed and cared for as well. They do not have a right to have their drug addiction funded by others, however.

Scammers take money and resources that should be going to those who truly need it. This is not good.

Anyone who comes to a church for help should be treated as a person with a complex life who is approaching in good faith and deserves to be met with dignity, friendship, and aid, not as a problem to be gotten rid of as soon as possible, nor should it be automatically assumed that they are a lying drug addict. No one's problems go as deep as their need for immediate food/shelter/clothing.

Churches are families, they are relational, and no one should be surprised or offended when a Christian attempts to form at least a casual relationship with someone who enters their doors. We are not government programs who receive our impetus from the secular world, but families and centres of worship. Get used to it. If this offends you, then prepare to be offended because a whole religion ain't changing their fundamental nature to make you feel better.

This forming of a casual relationship does NOT equal treating them as one of the flock, or forcing them to join the church. If you think that, then you don't know how what is actually involved in joining a church and becoming one of the flock. It’s making a new friend.

Churches have differing levels of ability to spread resources. Some are megachurches, but most churches are small, and their bank account is filled by member's donations.

Churches have many financial responsibilities. They must pay for and maintain their building if they want to continue to have a presence in their community (house churches are a thing too). They must, according to the Bible, pay their pastor (1 Tim. 5:18). They have a responsibility to care for the needs of their own first, as well as those outside the church, as they have the opportunity (Gal. 6:10). They give to local and international charities/organizations/missions that can reach farther than they can.

Christians are called to radical, even "foolish" generosity, and individuals can and should practice this, including pastors and leaders. This should not be something that we leave to the ones in charge, we are all called to it.

The radical generosity that Christians are called to can and often does involve voluntarily being taken advantage of, with cheerfulness even (Matt. 5:38-42).

Christians are also called to stewardship, to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Matt. 10:16), and to wisely and widely invest what has been given to us for the good of God's kingdom (Matt. 24). These things must be balanced.

Churches, and I don't mean institutions, but people, are regularly victimized by scams, large and small. Pastors and leaders have a responsibility to protect their flock from this.

Many charities, religious and non-religious, employ vetting processes to avoid this.

For lots of churches, this vetting process is short, simple, and should be painless: one conversation, one meal, some cursory questions about a person's life and what they're going through. That's often all it takes. For each person who has been revealed to be a liar, there are more that are in legitimate need, and the church can and will find ways to help them.

The reason that churches can do any amount of charitable work is because, at least in my country (not America, ask an American about American charity law), we have charity status. If we want to retain charitable status, we CANNOT give money to an individual who is not a member, attendee, partner, staff member, eg. someone who has no connection to us, in our function as a charity. We MUST, according to law, never give out cash to an individual (grocery store gift cards that can only be used to buy groceries are acceptable), and we MUST use some kind of vetting process, and it is almost always easier for everyone involved to be directed to a charitable organization better equipped to care for a person's specific needs.

How do you find out what a person's specific needs are? By talking with them and finding out. This conversation does not need to take place over a meal, but generally if someone comes to you saying that they're hungry, it is considered a nice thing to feed them.

Inviting someone to lunch is not forcibly converting them. Why would you think these two are the same thing.

These charity laws are the rules for churches, not for individuals. If an individual (Christian or otherwise) wants to give cash et al to a person in need, there is nothing stopping them! Even the pastor can do this with his own money, but not with money that does not belong to him, but to his church.

I repeat, it is disingenuous to measure the generosity of a church or Christians in general based on whether or not the pastor or church office will hand out money to just anyone.

And when people are like "awe, your boyfriend didn't want to come with you?" I can be like oh no he's right here, check it out, and whip the pocket open and my boyfriend's there staring at them like

At the start of my employment, my boss showed me videos of people stealing, and we both had a chuckle about it. How silly they were! There was a camera overhead, and it’s not to watch the shoppers. See, we can’t actually stop shoplifters. They get away with it maybe nine out of ten times. But we, who are watched and tallied and witnessed? We are always caught.

At first it was hard to hold one hundred dollars bills. An amount I had never seen before. An amount that didn’t exist in my household. It’s normal now. Here is something that is not for me.

“What the hell, I’ll take another,” says the man, pondering our 200 dollar watches. What the hell. Total comes to 580 and not even a flinch in his face. I have been working for 11 hours today and made only 110 dollars. It will go to my rent. Today I work for free, it feels. When I get my check, I will have 35 dollars left for food and saving.

The six hundreds he hands me go into the cash register. For a moment, I imagine having money. Then I put it away, counting out his change.

I know for a fact we sell our products for double what they are worth. That I could be making commission. That they could hand me those 580 dollars and change my life and not even mark the difference in their checkbooks. He’s not the only sale they make today, but I am the reason they made it. He’s not the only one spending 600 dollars, but if I hadn’t spent two hours with him telling me about his life, he wouldn’t have spent any. I go home. I don’t own a watch.

I have watched and rewatched a video on how to make salmon four ways. My shopping list is always the same. Pasta. Rice. Tuna. If I can afford butter it was a good week. I dream of the world I will never walk in, where I can throw the best fish fillet in the cart with a shrug. I hold hundreds in my hand and look up at the camera. I put them under the cash drawer.

I go to work. I scrap together my savings. I eat my bowl of rice slowly. My manager takes a paid week off from work just for his birthday. He owns a yacht. 

i was part of their college program. i moved to the state for it. they legally owned the building i was living in and still charged me rent. i ostensibly was being charged to work for them. it was a 2 bedroom apartment and they placed 6 adult women in it in forced triples.

as many as one in ten disney employees have experienced homelessness while working for the company. despite huge efforts to unionize, strike, or otherwise demand fair treatment; disney has refused to increase employee quality of life.

disney admits publicly that a good portion of their success is because the employees (“cast members”) are dedicated, passionate, and selfless. this is never reflected in pay. even “face” characters (ie those that are princesses etc) make barely above a minimum wage.

at the time that i worked there, i made $8.50 an hour. at one point i was asked to create a human shield around a bag because a bomb dog had alerted to it. for eight fucking dollars an hour.

i now work a very cushy office job. i have bought the salmon and cooked it all four ways.

i go to the store. i am nice to the person behind the counter. she looks up at the camera while she counts out my change. there is nothing fundamentally different about her and i.

THE POINT OF A DEFENSE ATTORNEY ISN'T TO GET THEIR CLIENT OFF. IT'S TO MAKE THE STATE PROVE THEIR CASE AND DO THEIR DUE DILIGENCE.

IT'S TO PROVIDE A CHECK ON THE POWER OF THE STATE TO JUST THROW PEOPLE IN JAIL.