A word of explanation because I realize many of you have never heard of PumabyDesign 001. She is one of my oldest blogfriends, who I met nearly a year before this blog even started. I have always found her posts to be well researched, and more to the point, true. In this one, she gores the oxen of all of those who act like our organized churches, and their corporate outreach. I’ve done a bit of research, and what I found corroborates what she says. Mind, this is US based, but I suspect that you would find much the same in the UK. Here’s byDesign…
Social justice evangelicals and church leaders across the United [States] wrote a letter to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence asking that the executive order implementing extreme vetting of individuals traveling from jihadist breeding nations and the 90-day moratorium on Syria be rescinded.
More than 500 evangelical leaders from all 50 states signed a letter to President Trump asking him to reconsider his controversial executive order. The letter included the likes of Ann Voskamp, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary President Daniel Akin, and Open Doors USA President and CEO David Curry.
While they acknowledged the order could prevent bloodshed on American soil, America should still be a nation of compassion….
The letter points out that thousands of churches have welcomed and sheltered suffering refugees through the Refugee Resettlement Program[…]
“thousands of churches….”
Pope Francis once said that many Christians are Christians in name only, “People who go to church on Sundays, but spend the rest of the week cultivating their attachment to money, power and pride are pagan Christians…“
For obvious reasons, the social justice warrior in the Vatican who has labeled the rejection of refugees “an act of war” overlooks those organizations under the umbrella of Christianity receiving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from the refugee resettlement program beginning with his own U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The USCCB received $80,733,062 in federal grants (2015) and $79,590,512 in federal grants (2014) which accounts for more than 90& of their revenue stream but they’re not alone.
Many of the organizations who partake in the refugee resettlement programs are Christian in name only and for the love of financial gain have no problem quoting parables from the Bible and demanding compassion for refugees whose sole agenda is to convert infidels and/or chop off the hands that feed it.
The letter/petition signed by Tim Breene, CEO, and Scott Arbeiter, new President of World Relief and supporters starts off ironically enough with these two paragraphs:
As Christian pastors and leaders, we are deeply concerned by the recently announced moratorium on refugee resettlement. Our care for the oppressed and suffering is rooted in the call of Jesus to “love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” In the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus makes it clear that our “neighbor” includes the stranger and anyone fleeing persecution and violence, regardless of their faith or country.
As Christians, we have a historic call expressed over two thousand years, to serve the suffering. We cannot abandon this call now. We live in a dangerous world and affirm the crucial role of government in protecting us from harm and in setting the terms on refugee admissions. However, compassion and security can coexist, as they have for decades. For the persecuted and suffering, every day matters; every delay is a crushing blow to hope….
World Relief (full name: World Relief Corp. of National Association of Evangelicals) is a social justice
organizationcorporation whose survival and existence is SOLELY dependent upon a steady revenue stream of taxpayer dollars.For the year ending 2015, World Relief’s “most recent Form 990 …had a total gift/grants income of $58,487,081 and $42,589,050 was provided by you, the US taxpayer, making their federally-funded share of their budget 73% taxpayer funded….” See: Ann Corcoran’s post entitled, “Federal Refugee contractor World Relief (Evangelicals!) has a new Prez.”
As confirmed by the chart below from Charity Navigator:
Notice the lack of fundraising in the graph above? Namely, that tiny slither of orange in the second graph under “Expenditures Breakdown 2015.” Theirs is a sense of entitlement.
Private foundation supporters include the Vanguard Charitable Foundation, Mustard Seed Foundation, Soros Fund Charitable Foundation, Pfizer Foundation, Global Impact and many others. [Source: CapitalResearch.org]
In addition to World Relief Corporation and US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) mentioned above, below are the major refugee resettlement businesses who receives tens (if not hundreds) of millions of taxpayer dollars for their doing their part in the Hijra with the blessings of Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama and Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan.
- Lutheran Immigrant Aid Society (LIRS) [Total revenue for 2015 was $59,862,898. $55,341,275 of the revenue comes from federal grants]
- International Rescue Committee (IRC), [FYE 2015 total revenue was $688,920,920. 66.5% of that sum, i.e., $453,916,856 was obtained through federal grants] See chart below of the contribution and expenditure breakdown courtesy of Charity Navigator:
Again, notice the lack of fundraising in the graph above? Namely, that tiny slither of orange in the second graph under “Expenditures Breakdown 2015.” Simply put, theirs is a sense of entitlement
If you know me at all, you know that I have a properly developed sense of compassion and charity for those caught in a war, or simply down on their luck. So do most Christians. I have little compassion for so-called Christian organizations who bleed the people of a country, of tax money to presumably resettle people in our countries. I agree with this, though,
Washington, DC – U.S. Rep. Brian Babin (TX-36), who has been a leading critic of America’s United Nations (UN)-led refugee resettlement program, issued the following statement today in support of President Trump’s executive order on extreme vetting:
“I commend President Trump for delivering on his campaign pledge to put a common-sense pause on a broken refugee program and immigration system that has serious national security gaps and is in desperate need of repair….
“As I have been saying for nearly two years, the refugee resettlement program poses a clear and present danger to the American people. We were told by President Obama’s own DHS, FBI and DNI Directors that U.S. intelligence officials cannot properly vet or screen refugees coming from Syria and other terrorist hot spots. We have seen the deadly consequences in Europe as ISIS has already successfully infiltrated its refugee population. Why repeat the same mistakes here?
“As a compassionate Christian, I believe we can and should help displaced refugees by caring for them in safe zones near their own countries. In fact, for the cost of bringing one refugee into America, we can help at least twelve refugees in safe zones….
From: That Sense of Entitlement: Social Justice Evangelicals, Church Leaders, Refugee Resettlement Biz. By permission, and do read the whole thing.
This is, of course, what Britain was originally doing, but it seems that it has succumbed to pressure (from what I read) to concentrate on resettling the unfortunate people from their home countries to the UK, as our church organizations here in the US have. I don’t think this is good for either our countries (especially since no vetting is really possible) nor is it good for the refugees (if many of them are, in fact, refugees, and not merely economic immigrants).
I hate to sound like Bosco, but our friend has a point about how our churches can easily be corrupted, by the fool’s gold of the Second Kingdom.
In short, we are commanded to be charitable, but we are not entitled to steal (and government funding for other than the proper purposes of government is just that) from others to fund our charity.
And that doesn’t even start to address the problems of the introduction of immigrants culturally incompatible with our culture into our countries. I note that Chancellor Merkel is now hoping to bribe her immigrants to go away, I doubt that will work since it is not in their best interest. And who will guarantee that they will not return, perhaps with another name, since many have no reliable documentation anyway, directly thereafter.
I love how these ‘righteous’ groups and leaders start pulling quotes from the Bible while rendering an all too convenient interpretation that is supposed to move our counscience to do that which is logically and rationally non-sensical.
In this instance in Luke 10:25-37 the parable is stretched to fit the situation. If I were to calmly look at this parable I might more logically compare the Inn where this person was lodged and taken care of as a ‘safe zone’ as proposed by many. The good samaritan did not take him to his home and feed him with the food meant for his own family and then build him a house next door to his own. He simply did what anyone would reasonably do who has a conscience for an unforntunate who was unable to do anything for himself. There are logical limits and putting one’s life, culture or faith on the line for persecution or annihilation is not within such a boundary.
It is rather hard for us to look at the facts when we see favoritism for causes which are linked either to money or political causes and ideologies. And to use our money, whether we are of the same mind or not, are labeled non-believers, unChristian, or every other evil that might reign in our hearts. Mercy means what they say mercy is and we are told and made to feel guilt though it seems that the magicians are operating from a different set of ‘moral’ principles; namely money, power, politics etc.
Best be aware of how satan uses the ‘good’ and slightly corrupts that good as a way to entice those who are feebleminded and think that every magic trick is true and has not the ability to understand that there is a perfectly logical explanation [like watching the other hand] which will bring all into perspective. Any Catholic, for instance, who has not understood that USCCB has pushed a liberal, political agenda for the past 50 years is not paying attention . . . and, of course, most people who go to Church once a week would never know. Lets face it, most Catholics, and I assume other Christians as well, probably have never read anything more than a Church bulletin during their lifetime. They trust their leadership, like some trust their media, thinking that they wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. This is Christianity read through the hermeneutic of gullibility. And this hermeneutic is the only one which they want you to adopt and to accept as True and Good.
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Very well said. Yes, I’ve known for years that the USCCB did, and I also know that my ELCA is, if anything, worse still. That’s the thing, isn’t it? Our average parishioners, for the most part, have little idea what our synods and such promote. If they did, I suspect things would be considerably different.
I especially like how you compare the inn to a local safe zone, it’s a perfect analogy, in my mind.
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Good post NEO . . . now if only the message could be read by the multitudes out there it might have an effect. Sadly, the children are following their Pied Piper out the gates, gleefully skipping along to the tune he plays.
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Yep, and we learned as children where that road leads, but the old fairy tales are bad. Wonder why?
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Exposure . . . I fear. Keep them in the dark. Teach nothing that has a true moral underpinning to it. Today a fairy tale is about Heather and her two mommies or daddies for that matter.
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I never really wanted to live as a mushroom. Wonder why anybody would.
Likely so.
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Education went downhill after they retired the McGuffey Readers I’m afraid. I was rased on stories like The Little Old Woman Who Used Her Head.
“Their feathers are growing thicker and thicker. They will make me a fine feather bed when winter comes. By and by the nights began to grow cold. The red flannel blanket was so full of holes that it did not keep the =LittleOldWoman warm. She shivered all night long. Winter will soon he here, she thought. It is high time I plucked the geese and made my feather bed. The next morning she went out to pluck the geese. How warm and contented they look, said the =LittleOldWoman. They will be cold if I pluck their feathers. Maybe if I cut the holes out of the red blanket, it will be warm enough for me. But when she fetched her scissors and cut the holes out of the red blanket, the holes were still there. In fact, they were bigger than ever.”
Doesn’t that expose how we spend our way out of debt and believe that this will actually work? . . . and other foolish practices of government and religion who want us to do more of the same that is causing such a mess? People have become absolutely insane and will listen to the most foolesh advice from people who are the self-proclaimed smart ones.
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Yep, and that’s the problem with so many of the self-proclaimed experts. There are real experts about, but far too often they simply get drowned out by all the charlatans.
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Indeed so. They are old fashioned men and women who still hold to the out of fashion copybook headings of the past. New and improved copybook headings are presented to us now on almost a daily basis. I don’t think the wider populace even knows what the old headings were and are having trouble keeping up with the new ones.
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I can’t keep up with the new ones, but then I tend to believe things that work. One of those is NOT
“Robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul.” The result is always:
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
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It seems that our two countries have descended to a gross abnegation of human rights. I detest nationalisms, isms in general. I might be too idealistic, but I do believe in a global village, not just the fluidity of human migration, but also the needs of all life as necessary and life as valued.
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I’m not overly fond of “Blood and Nation” nationalism, myself. But our countries are much more about the idea of each human flourishing, an idea, if you will.
In the last analysis, the nation state is the clan, writ large. Life started with the individual grew to the family, then the church, but the clan was necessary to defend the family. Unfortunately, Evil has always lived in the forests, and must be defended against. To value life is to defend life against those that would take it for their own purposes.
Perhaps some day the nation state can be supplanted by the global village, but this is not that day, and frankly I doubt it ever will be.
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Well I am an idealist. It is certainly a long way off but I hope nonetheless.
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Nothing at all wrong with that. Just be aware that Pollyanna died. In truth, to be an American (or a Brit) is to be an idealist. It’s what has always driven our societies. Others, sadly, not so much.
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Same here in Oz.
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Yep, sure is. We don’t mean to leave you guys (and the Kiwis and Canucks) out, but it gets unwieldy to mention all of us, everytime. But we do mean you too.
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PV, I can think of a few ‘isms’ that I hold to: Catholicism, Thomism, patriotism (rightly understood) and if I put my mind to it I’m sure I could come up with a few more.
It also seems, if we are to read between the lines, that you might have a penchant for idealism and globalism unless I read you wrongly.
To me an ‘ism’ is a core principle. It is either set in eternal values and truths or it is set upon principles whose foundational truth is flawed. If the foundation is flawed then what follows is flawed. If the foundation is objectively true then the rest which follows has at least a smidgeon of a chance to be true as well. Just like there is a healthy skepticism and an unhealthy one as well. We just need to know which is which. What is objective and what is subjective truth is also a good thing to know in advance of our embracing a particular ism or rejecting it.
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True, but for me most isms are problematic at some level. I have a love hate relationship with the positive ones too.
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Too much skepticism perhaps? Or are you critical, not of the foundation, but what has been built upon that foundation? In such a case I would agree that we must be vigilant to rid poor workmanship and rebuild it with workmanship worthy of the principle foundation.
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The latter. And yes, critical.
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Agreed. That is why we must keep faithful to the original intent and foundational truths in life and criticize and rebuild if appropriate. But we do not tear down for the sake of tearing down unless the principle itself is sand . . . for nothing that is good springs from a flawed premise.
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Absolutely
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Thank you, Neo for the re-post.
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No problem Bydesign, glad to. A very good article indeed, that I thought would reach a better audience here than it would on NEO, which is why it is here.
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People who go to church on Sundays, but spend the rest of the week cultivating their attachment to money, power and pride are pagan Christians…“
Cardinal George Pell – has been accused of spending half a million euros (AU$740,000) of church money on lavish personal expenditures including business class flights, a personal assistant and luxury furniture for his Rome apartment.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2973251/Cardinal-Pell-accused-spending-thousands-lavish-lifestyle.html
The Vatican’s former secretary of state has reportedly angered Pope Francis with his plans to move into a luxury 6,500 square foot apartment as the pope urges clergy to adopt a more modest lifestyle.
Last month he accepted the resignation of German bishop, Franz-Peter Terbartz-van Elst, dubbed the “bishop of bling” by the media for spending 31 million euro (£25 million) to renovate his plush residence.
American archbishop Wilton Gregory recently apologised for a lapse in judgement after he built a $2.2 million (£1.3 million ) mansion for himself in an upscale Atlanta neighbourhood and has now pledged to sell it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10777482/Cardinals-vast-luxury-apartment-in-Vatican-angers-Pope.html
Archbishop Gregorys lapse in judgment……”Oooops, did I buy that mansion?”
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Shock horror, sinners commit sin. What next Bosco? You, being without sin get to cast the first stone, perhaps?
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Can Tom Wright save Christianity?
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There are two kinds of Christians: those who are comfortable with some version of traditional orthodoxy, and those who worry that their religion has gone off the rails.
Bishop N.T. Wright (“Tom” to his friends) belongs in the second category. And it is American-style evangelicalism, with its “Left Behind” eschatology and its heaven-hell soteriology, that concerns him the most.
A good read. https://baptistnews.com/article/can-tom-wright-save-christianity/#.WKllU1UrLIX
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