Why I Don’t Go To Church: Part I

I have a relative who is very religious and each time that I speak to her, she uses our time together to proselytize and preach the Gospel.  She is always inviting me to her church and I usually come up with an excuse for why I can’t go.  I’ve even told her flat out of the many reasons that I don’t attend church services.  She remains persistent in her quest to recruit  new members.

It’s not that there is anything wrong with someone being deeply passionate about Christ or their religion.  Everyone is free to worship, believe or not believe in whatever they choose to.  I was actually raised up in the Christian faith and respect people’s right to worship.  At the same, I don’t see myself as very religious and I rarely go to religious services, and am rather reluctant to call myself a Christian.  I am not against the idea of settling into a church home and attending regular services.  However, at the present time I choose to read my Bible and pray in private, rather than having fellowship with other so-called Christians. 

There are a few main reasons why I have chosen this path.  The first being that most churches that I have visited seem to have the greater agenda of raising money over saving souls and spreading the Gospel.  The other major reason is that there is so much hypocrisy and foolishness within the Christian church, that it makes fellowship nearly unbearable.  The last reason has more to do with the actual conflicts and things that don’t make sense in the written text of the Holy Bible.

Now, let me get into a little detail on my thoughts about the money aspect of the church, more specifically the Black church in America.  Most Black churches in America seem to have a common thread, which is the commercialization of Christianity.  Now, I am certain that there are White run churches that engage in the same activities (just watch some of the programming on TBN) but I can only speak more to what goes on in some Black churches.  By the way, I am NOT saying that all churches or Black churches are like this- just some of the ones that I’ve encountered.

It is a widespread and common tactic for many pastors of Black run churches to implement the “Prosperity Gospel” for their own financial gain.  What they do is interpret the words of the Bible in such a way to manipulate the feeble and vulnerable minds of people who can‘t use their brains in a logical manner.  These types of preachers/ false prophets appeal to people’s emotions when they are up there in the pulpit shouting the words from the scripture and do it in a very theatrical manner. 

Many people catch the Holy Ghost, start falling out, dancing, doing cartwheels and running all over the church like they’ve lost their cotton-picking minds.  The music, the setting, the hand clapping (mostly in those “charismatic” and “evangelical” churches) have the effect of putting the congregation into a hypnotic state.  Some of the stuff is real.  And there are documented cases of people getting healed in church.  But, sometimes it is a big farce.

Before you know it, you’re all teary-eyed, feeling like the Holy Ghost is in the house and you’re reaching for your wallet or check book.  Hey, if you fell for those deceptions, don’t be down on yourself.  It has happened to the best of us.

I can recount many occasions where I have gone to different churches and the pastor of the church solicited money several times during the course one service.  I have been to quite a number of revivals where the pastor stated that God told him or her (liar!) that there were a certain number of people who could sow a faith seed of specific amounts of money.  Now, they have things planned down to an art where they actually have envelopes pre-made up with the dollar amounts written on them (for example, $50, $100, $1000, $5,000 denominations).  Many of these churches have their systems setup to where they not only accept cash and checks but also debit and credit cards.  I find this particularly disturbing because it encourages people to go into debt in order to support the church and receive “their blessing“. 

Before I get too far ahead of myself, let me make something very clear:  There is absolutely nothing wrong with a church collecting donations in order to maintain the church and pay its administrative expenses.  Some people disagree but depending on how the money is allocated, I don’t see anything wrong with parishioners paying tithes, either.  I don’t pay tithes to a church, since I am not a regular member of a church.  If people feel that paying tithes is biblically correct, then that is their business. 

There is nothing wrong with a pastor and church employees taking a modest salary for their work.  If they are devoting their entire lives to spreading the Gospel and don’t have a job, then they need a way to support their families. I definitely don’t see anything wrong with the pastor of a church being wealthy, provided that his wealth came from business outside of the church itself. 

There is something very wrong with a church accepting money from the public without making a full accounting of what the funds are being used for.  There is definitely something remiss about funds being used for unnecessary, lofty building renovations and pomp, while there are people in the local community whom are suffering both spiritually and economically.   It is very sick and twisted for a Christian to even want to exploit and take from someone who needs it the most, only for their own financial gain.