THE MYTH OF THE CHURCH

Organized Religion Preys on Weak-Minded People

Mentally Strong Folks Don’t Fall For the Hypocrisy of Religion

Last Sunday morning, I woke up late, went downstairs to get my coffee, and returned to our bedroom. My Bride likes to put a show on after I finally wake up a few hours after she does. She’s a morning person, and I admittedly, am not.

Often, she’ll land on a true crime documentary or some religious scandal expose. Fantastic. Just what I need on a Sunday morning, a reminder of how I wasted the first 21 years of my life waking up early and getting ready for church.

That morning’s gem of a religious documentary was about the Hillsong Megachurch. Oh boy, how I love megachurches. You know, the ones that meet inside of a mini-stadium, collect millions of dollars a year from their parishioners, and pay nothing in taxes on that money.

They have the most charismatic leaders who convince their congregations that they are the most enlightened, amazing human beings ever, since Jesus Christ himself. They get these people to volunteer to work at their megachurches by the dozens, sometimes even hundreds.

And although they don’t pay taxes and make millions of dollars in profits, they often don’t pay these volunteers. Why is that? Besides the obvious answer of greed and self-enrichment, there’s another simple, more disturbing answer:

People want to be noticed and acknowledged. They want to feel special, and that they matter to the church.

Megachurch pastors know this and use this to further their profitability and agendas. They preach the prosperity angle and tell their followers that by working for the church voluntarily, they are going to reap big rewards from Jesus, in the Kingdom of Heaven. And people gladly fall for that nonsense.

A couple of months ago, I wrote about how easy it would be to start my own megachurch and fleece people for millions of dollars a year. Of course, I’d do it in Texas. That’s just a given:

Carl Lentz was a young, hip preacher that many idolized and worshipped in the New York City area. He catered to the Millennial crowd of NYC with his modern looks, fancy haircut and beard, tattoos, and fashion sense. He modeled himself to look like the people following him and used charisma and intelligence to build a megachurch and multi-million dollar-a-year business.

Don’t doubt for a minute that running a large church or a megachurch isn’t a business. It 100% is that, and it’s a damn good ruse, too. Did I mention, “TAX-FREE”?

When I see clips of Carl preaching and observe his style of delivery of his messages, I have to chuckle. As a party to around 3000 sermons I’ve heard live, in person, he knows what he’s doing. But he was doing it in a far more relatable, friendly way than many pastors.

When people see a man who’s polished, put-together well, and who dresses like they do, they’re into it. He’s funny, interesting, tattooed up like many of them, and makes it seem to his followers that he’s just like they are. Other than you know, being wealthy and smarter than most of them.

He knows how this works. By gathering a huge following in NYC and on social media, he was able to grow his idea of the “everyday common man turned preacher” into a multi-million dollar-a-year business. Instagram launched on October 6th, 2010.

Hillsong Church’s Instagram account was launched on October 7th, 2010.

One day after Instagram debuted, so did Hillsong’s first Insta account. I doubt this was a mere coincidence. Mainly because operating a church or religious organization is big business. Ask their bookkeepers about that one.

How do people fall for the ruse that is organized religion? With the total number of active Christians who attend church weekly plummeting over the past decade or so, we might wonder how these megachurches fill their pews. How do they rake in millions of dollars yearly? Who are these people supporting these charismatic “Men of God”?

That’s easy. It’s the weak-minded segment of our society.

And not all of these people are created equally. Though the pastors will preach that, it’s simply not the case. The first set of gullible, most giving, volunteering people are the ones born into Christianity.

These are the folks who never doubt the message that these pastors are preaching from the pulpit. Even those involved in churches who spew hate, ignorance, racism, and bigotry against the LGBTQ community would never dare disagree with the pastor or other members of the church. It’s been drilled into their heads since childhood that doubting their sermons is doubting the Lord Himself.

Nobody wants to burn in Hell for eternity. These people are scared to death of a fictional fairy tale.

For anyone to be 100% controlled and convinced that there is a hot place in the afterlife is almost laughable. The idea of you being sent there and tortured for eternity for not choosing to believe in a supposedly loving, kind-hearted god is ridiculous.

The idea that you can be a caring, kind, accepting person of all people regardless of their religious beliefs or sexual orientation, and still burn in this hell because you don’t accept Jesus is hypocritical and ignorant. But that is the demographic of people that organized religion appeals to the most, the undereducated and ignorant.

Religion is a bandaid for the hurt souls of those who suffer. You see a lot of addicts turn to religion to soothe the past and current hurt they go through in their struggles with equality. And let’s face it, there are a lot of damaged, hurt human beings in our country and all over the planet.

Religion is also appealing to those who are at the tail end of their lives on Earth. When you aren’t convinced what happens once you pass on, the idea of Heaven is a pretty favorable one. Many believe that they are headed to paradise and will still live beyond this life, as unlikely as that is.

Religion is also a justification for many people’s ignorance, racism, and bigotry. Using a thousands-of-years old book to weaponize your beliefs against people you don’t like or hate is one of the oldest plays in the playbook. So many go completely against what Jesus actually preached, and feel justified being total garbage human beings toward others because of this.

I honestly see what people like Carl Lentz and the original founder of the Hillsong Church in Australia, Brian Houston are thinking in their cold, calculating building of these megachurches. They’re thinking one thing the entire time:

“Jesus Christ, this is easy. People are so dumb. Keep on putting money in that collection plate.”

It was easy for Carl and Brian to enrich themselves. It was easy to be admired and respected for decades. It was easy to fool thousands of people who attended their churches and believed their messages of prosperity and an afterlife in Heaven.

What wasn’t easy for them was refraining from sinning. They both were dismissed from Hillside for having extra-marital affairs. Jesus sells, but money and ass will always be #1 to men in power.

Because these “Men of God” are simply men. They are not gods. They are no more righteous than most of the people who are attending their megachurches and working for free. They’re simply better businessmen than their followers. &:^)

© 2023 Jason Provencio. All rights reserved.