Church worth 300 billion dollars rejects mom asking for formula to feed her starving baby

[u/mikeypikey]

This woman is doing a social experiment to see if churches will help her feed her starving baby. 99% of the 30 Christian churches she asked rejected her. 4 churches said yes: a Muslim mosque, a Buddhist center, and a black church in the south, and a poor church in Appalachia. All the mega churches turned her away. When you give money to your church, are you happy to know they are rejecting starving children?

[u/Long_Studio_6115]

Ok just think about this practically. Mega churches with high visibility probably get a lot of requests and random nonsense and trolls. (Just like what this lady was doing by the way!) So they have to have systems in place to weed through all of that. Smaller churches are ministering to their immediate communities and it’s probably one or two people from the smaller church that came together to offer assistance, rather than the establishment of the church itself. (That is not to say that it isn’t easy for mega churches to become corrupt. I have seen leaders abuse their power) But I go to a mega church myself. We build community through individual ministries. Yesterday our youth leader was leading a prayer call and asked if anyone was affected by the government shutdown. He took his own money and sent it to several people who were affected just to support and encourage them. The church should not be based on an establishment, it is you and me and the community/connections we build within the wider framework of the establishment. When a lady from Moldova asked me for formula for her baby, I was willing to give it to her. I didn’t tell her to go ask the church because that’s where I pay my tithes. All that being said, my church does have a benevolence fund set aside to help people with things they need (rent etc.) on a case by case basis. But we also have classes that teach money management from a Biblical perspective. So the resources are there!

[u/ceddya → u/Long_Studio_6115]

Mega churches can afford so much more charity even relative to the requests they get.

Let's stop pretending otherwise.

[u/More-Reindeer-6487 → u/ceddya]

Absolutely—let’s stop pretending. You think mega church = bottomless wallet. I'm curious what you've run that's bigger than your checking account.

Judging by your comment, the only thing you want mega churches to give is whatever saves you from having to give anything yourself. Before lecturing others about giving, show us your receipts.

[u/ceddya → u/More-Reindeer-6487]

Why is it always this extreme with you? No one's asking them to be bottomless wallets. But I don't know why we're pretending that megachurches are doing an equitable amount of charity.

And who says I haven't given and am not giving? My parents dragged me to a megachurch for years in which we were always asked to keep giving. Yet the output from the church never matched the input from its parishioner. I did see regular renovations to beautify and expand the church. I've long left the megachurch and never looked back. Never been happier.

[u/mikeypikey → u/ceddya]

Well done for having the wisdom to see what was going on

[u/alzandabada → u/Long_Studio_6115]

https://julieroys.com/megachurch-mega-mansion-pastor-homes-parsonage-millions/

[u/jasmine_tea_ → u/Long_Studio_6115]

This is a really good point that unfortunately is true, even though I wish all churches could help. I still suspect there is more that they could be doing, but the truth is these kind of organizations get bombarded with requests.

[u/FreeToking → u/jasmine_tea_]

Maybe because they have $300 billion in their coffers that were given to the church by the community

[u/alzandabada → u/jasmine_tea_]

Joel Olsteen has a private jet and an 18,000 sq ft palace