| Woah woah woah let’s not give megachurches extra points for things they didn’t lead in. Tax breaks yes, more dishonestly, no. If you don’t think every business that makes it, and even more so for those that make it big, don’t have shady dealings to thank for getting them there, you should join one of these megachurches. Also, Amazon isn’t a church with tax exempt status but I remember headlines a few years back something along the lines of they paid a whopping 0 dollars in federal tax or something just as unbelievable yet actually true. If anything, churches are looked at harder because they have the tax exempt status, so people are looking for abuses of that, yet we have corporate entities that can sway the global economy skirting taxes in the open and even legally, somehow. But I get taxed when I make my money, and then again when I spend that money, which was already taxed. There’s no difference between a FANG and a megachurch. They are both for profit machines that bleed people dry. When the church pamphlet has bar charts on the back with quarterly projections, and the pastor/whomever lets everyone know that they are a few million behind their target, before discussing the scripture, their priorities are very clear. The screens, coffee bars, childcare, and well produced music and video, are all there to make you feel special, part of something, relaxed, and wanting to come back, next week, after you get paid again. The same way in Mad Man the account execs would take clients out to dinner and then to strip clubs to make them feel special and relaxed, so they’d later associate good feelings when asked to hand over their wallets, megachurches have what I listed above. If bowls of cocaine could be legally laid out, you’d be handed one while walking in. Gotta spend money to make money, but they know the high rollers and if you pay attention, they don’t pay any attention to anyone not forking over cash. Edit: if you want more signal that megachurches are not about God, look at how many of the 7 deadly sins they proudly embody. Greed. Gluttony. Pride. Those are obvious. Sloth probably also obvious. That’s gotta mean something right? These complexes are tiny cities that sit vacant most of the week. |
I was a contractor for one, so I had an insider look at the donation page optimization, dating apps, marriage counselling (90% of which involved a pastor in some way, including the stereotypical), seeing how people were pressured into donations, what interns were picked for, grandma being pressured into living her last $10 so that the IT team mostly there through connections could have $50-100/person lunches, etc.
And no - there is still a difference of outright misleading the most vulnerable, and I say this regardless of your views on religion.