This is the thirty-fifth installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section. Let’s have some fun!
Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a clip from a sermon preached by Robert Morris, pastor of Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas.
One of the last times I was in a church, I heard a similar sermon about demons and/or satan being able to attack you for not tithing. Despite being a christian at the time, this sermon just sounded like scare tactics. Not to mention isnt the holy spirit supposed to protect you from demons regarldless. Oh well.
I tried to watch the video 40 minutes after Trenton posted and got this– “Playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner”. I refuse to give these lizards the clicks to go to YouTube to watch it, just as I refused long ago to tithe instead of paying the light bill or eating. In fact, it’s big reason I quit going to church. I couldn’t make ends meet, but the church wanted money to “send to starving children in Africa”. How about helping the hungry in our own congregations and communities? But no, they think hungry Americans are hungry because they are lazy, not because they are poor. Assholes.
Bruce, you (and others like you) are clearly having an effect, if preachers are restricting their videos. I hope you find as much encouragement in that fact as I do. Blessings* and peace.
* I’m not using this in a religious sense. I simply wish Bruce and Polly all the good things life offers.
Here’s how to tithe. Take all your money and throw it up in the air. Beseech the omnipotent LORD to take all money that the LORD needs up to heaven, and that money the LORD wants you to keep to fall back to Earth. No need to worry about demons, you’ve done the LORD’s will.
That’s a good one 🙂 makes me think of this song Defying Gravity 😉
Yes, there are all sort of tricks to get people to pay more. Having an offering plate instead of a bag, playing convicting music during the money collecting etc. But fearmongering will work as well 🙂
Hi Bruce,
This is another “crackpot” for Jesus. I am not surprised that so many Pentecostals are so gullible. I often wonder how many actually read the bible. I cannot find anywhere in the bible where it says or implies that failure to tithe “opens the door to demons”.
Robert Morris knows full well that there is nothing in the bible to support his view, but puts the fear of demons into the minds and hearts of church members so that they can bankroll his lavish lifestyle.
Shalom,
John Arthur
Oh yes, how well I remember the manipulation used to squeeze money out of the the congregation. Threats,tears,etc. I also remember hearing conflicting opinions about this subject. Some say ten percent no longer applies. Some claim the minimum is 20 or 30 percent. No wonder Christians are often nuts. Fear begets crazymaking. People have their sense of humor and other good traits beaten out of them weekly. I saw a lot of mean,humorless church goers. The only time they were happy was when a kid got a beating or someone went through a misfortune. Life is better without church. It’s too bad,really. No one should have to feel that way.