Re: The institutionalized church?

Well, I am pretty untraditional in my beliefs, and I agree with what you are saying. As per tithing, I honestly think it was simply a moral directive to open your heart and give what you can to those less fortunate than you, and at the time of the writing of the bible, that help would have been orchestrated throught the church much more than it is today. Thus, I don't believe tithing was ever meant to support (or grow) the church, per se, but rather the people who had fallen on hard times. When I give to Care or United Way, I consider that to be tithing. When I give money to the man who asks me for spare change on the street, i consider that tithing as well.

In the institutionalized church, I see the push to influence politics, and the attempt to divide people based on their political beliefs, as if one party could be the "good" party, and one party the "bad" or "unrighteous" party, as ungodly. I think that people who do believe that are in and of themselves acting in an ungodly manner, simply by promoting that division.

I think that central to "most" churches, especially the smaller ones that don't get so much spotlight, is a good and honest desire to bring people closer to God. And I find that quite godly. When it grows into an evangelistic 3-ring circus, such as the new Christian megaplexes, I find that both ungodly and distasteful, because it becomes more about show than about faith. And it also becomes about who gets snubbed at the local market on Monday because they were not seen in church that weekend. And that person who was not in chruch may have been home having a personal conversation with God while the churchgoer showed up at church just so he can say he did, taking nothing away from it except a new list of who to snub next week.

Religion is definitely one of those areas in life where people generally can't seem to focuns more on the forest than the trees. Tweet