I have added a new page to this website today titled, “Why My Book Is Important”. I encourage you to click on it because it gives a good overview of the problems I’m exposing in the Evangelical Church, as well as a good idea of what you can expect to find in my book. Tomorrow I’ll be writing about “The Right-Wing Israel Conspiracy”.
Yesterday I discussed the “bad purchase” we made in Iraq. I also mentioned that some of President Bush’s most avid supporters for the Iraq war were right wing, Evangelical leaders. I guess this shouldn’t surprise us because they are accustomed to making bad purchases.
They have purchased 1400 mega churches across America costing from $10 million to $100 million each. So, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they average only $25 million per church. That means that they have spent $35 billion building these huge, elaborate, luxurious structures containing restaurants, bookstores, arcade rooms, coffee shops, music stores etc.
If these mega churches had done what many smaller churches and businesses do, and built more modest steel buildings, which can still be finished off to look quite nice, they could literally have built them for half the price. That means they could have saved at least $17 billion.
What could they have bought with their $17 billion savings? They could have built a few thousand steel construction homeless shelters across America with enough capacity to house every homeless person in our nation. They could also have hired the necessary counselors, psychologists, pastors and job training and placement personnel to staff each of these shelters, thus providing the needed help to get America’s homeless population back on their feet.
However, instead of making the purchase I’ve just described, which would still have allowed them to have their own nice church buildings as well, Evangelical mega churches decided to forget the homeless and to purchase luxurious mansions for their houses of worship. As with the Iraq war, I would call that another “bad purchase”.
They also make bad purchases on a regular basis with their annual donated income. They average $5 million per church in annual donations. With this money they purchase new expensive vehicles for church use, the most expensive equipment and furnishings available, and large salaries for their pastoral staff. Some preachers pay themselves seven figure salaries and have their own private jets.
What could they have done? If every mega church in America gave just ten percent of their annual income to feed starving children, there would be enough money to feed every starving child in the world two nutritious meals per day throughout the year. This is based on figures from the “Feed My Starving Children” organization, which states that there are between five and six million children who die from starvation each year, and that it only costs fifteen cents to provide a nourishing meal for a child.
I would like to ask America’s wealthy mega churches a question. Couldn’t you spare just ten percent of your massive annual income to feed starving children? And, wouldn’t the Jesus that we read about in the New Testament have built less elaborate and luxurious structures for His disciples to meet in, so that the homeless could have had a place to stay also?
I encourage you to click on podcasts and listen to “The Gospel For Sale”.
According to the Bible, Jesus had to “clean out” the Church in His day on two different occasions, driving the buyers and sellers out of the temple and telling the religious leaders that they had turned His church into a “den of thieves”. I think it’s fair to say that if Jesus were walking through the Evangelical mega churches in America with their coffee shops, restaurants, bookstores, arcade rooms and gospel dvds marked up as much as 2000%, that He would certainly clean out these luxurious, self-pampering, religious houses today. And, He would also probably call today’s prosperity-preaching, mega church, religious leaders a den of thieves once again, because the Bible says that Jesus does not change.
This website is still under construction, but there will be new blogs and podcasts added frequently bringing you revelations of hypocrisy, dishonesty, sadism, greed and financial abuse within the Evangelical right wing that will amaze and disgust you. Over the next couple months there will be dozens of videos and audio podcasts added to this site, as well as regular blog entries.
I am an Evangelical pastor myself, but I’m blowing the whistle on my right wing colleagues and pulling the veil back to reveal what’s been going on behind closed doors. I also encourage you to check out my book, “Right Wing Politics and Religion: The Unholy Alliance Exposed”, which is filled with “insider” factual evidence that will blow you away. And, there will soon be two podcasts available that you won’t want to miss: “The Gospel For Sale” and “Evangelical Sadism”.
Please register and begin blogging yourself, and let’s get some mutual feedback going. This is an election year, and the kind of information in my book and on this website could help send the Evangelical right wingers home, getting them out of politics and back to ministry.
Pastor Henry Bechthold