At What Cost?

I have heard that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I would offer that the road to enlightenment or the straight and narrow path is littered with toll booths. Because of my writings, I have been asked if I have a problem with God? I do not have a problem with God but I do have many issues with his front men. I believe that access to God is free and easy, if you choose to believe in a God figure. It seems as though there are myriads of people that try to copyright God and claim to have exclusive access to him. If you will only pay a fee, you too can enjoy full access to all that is God. I can speak from a Christian background. We have often been taught that you can come to God as you are and that salvation is free but of course the free part is for a limited time only. Once we join forces with a church, the fees begin. We are expected to pay tithes and offerings or we are guilty of robbing God. If you are not a faithful tithe payer, then you cannot hold any office in church and you are no longer on the good list. It is amazing how we can go from free access to fee requirements to being a thief.
Christianity is not the only religion that ask for fees. Pretty much all cult set ups ask that you give up all of your material goods and give them to the leader who either is God or has access to God. It is ironic that the person that ask you to give up your possessions and money will then keep your treasure and live like a ruler or a king. Sounds familiar to the prosperity gospel that I have heard on television by what I call the superstar preachers. These folks will tell you that it is God’s will for you to be rich and to have fat bank accounts. This leads to all sorts of problems. An end result is that we now have “Christians” that are against helping the poor directly as well as the vile mixing of politics and religion that breeds hate and contempt for anyone that is not just like you. We transfer the beliefs that all other religions are wrong and we now believe that it is not possible to be a Democrat and a Christian and that all Democrats, Catholics, Muslims, Hindu, Mormans , Jehovah Witness, Atheist, Deist and any other non approved church or political party is wrong and headed for a Hellish end.
The fees for all religions are not always limited to monetary. Inherent in pretty much every religion is the belief that there is only one God and that only that specific faith has the access and that makes all other religions and even all other sects of that faith wrong. The fees can range from submission to the power establishment in the faith to working for free to even laying you life down in the hopes of obtaining a harem is the afterlife. In the current economic times, we are beginning to see the emphasis being placed upon the church member to give till it hurts. To give even at the risk of shorting the needs of your family is the mantra and cannot be supported by biblical scripture or by common sense. The leaders of the churches are concerned first with preserving their current lifestyle. Most pastors are given housing, have their expenses paid, including cars, insurance, utilities and any other expenses that are deemed worthy. This is a pretty sweet system and would be easy to get use to and hard to live without once you are in the system. I recently heard a Pastor state that he could not wait to get back to Church from a vacation so that he could give his tithes. This is a funny statement because it would be easy to give back a small portion as a rebate of what the Church just gave you. I promise that if you will give me $100 right now, I will gladly give you $10 back and we can repeat the process over and over as long as you like. I would sign up for that gig but the positions are few and the aspect of living with yourself and the inherent greed would be more than an honest person could stand.
If you step away from your bias and consider the big picture, each faith is built upon having a God. Most all require living by a moral code and most are based upon eventually reaching an afterlife destination or being punished in the afterlife in a hell or equivalent bad place. The purpose of hell seems to be a threat to keep subjects in line and to maintain the law order and fees required to keep the doors open on buildings required and to support the chosen ones with salaries and all expenses. The threat of hell leads to a guilt complex and makes even the most moral people question their motives and live under a weight and fear of an image of a God with a sledge hammer that is waiting to swing down on the heads of the guilty.
The churches and religions will seem to always demand an almost all voluntary support army. These are the people that out of obligation, guilt or kind heartedness run most all labor functions of the church. Teaching of Sunday school, collection of offerings, cleaning of the church, landscaping, etc. are some of the many examples of free labor demanded so that the upper management that is paid, can enjoy the power and Lordship that they have come to expect. The larger churches seem to have developed a system by which the higher up clergy as well as many chosen business people can profit. The good old boy system is alive and well in the church, especially in the more prosperous ones. There are contracts awarded for lawn maintenance, construction jobs and upkeep of facilities. The purpose of any church or religion should be to serve “God” and provide support and assistance to all who are in need. The purpose should never be to get rich or prosperous at the expense of the less educated and guilt ridden sheep that place their trust in you. If you truly follow the gospels, you would realize that ministry has nothing to do with a payment system, salaries or hording up money to pay for large buildings and political functions. Capitalism should not be welcome in church or in any religion and until we are free to take an honest look at the cost that we are paying and the fees that are being demanded, we can never be free to assist the ones that are in real need.