If churches are non-profit and all giving..then why?

Question

Why and how are many churches very large and elaborate buildings, some including expensive stained glass windows and solid gold fixtures. May churches are on many acres of land.

This money has to come from somewhere.
Getting tax breaks surely saves money.
Donations also is the main income for these churches.

But why are these donations used to build these elaborate churches rather than to help people in need?

Surely all you need is 4 walls and a roof to stand under as you hold your religious ceramonies and prayers.

What does a church costing millions has to do with religion?

Non-profit ? Who are we kidding? Profit goes into the church and some goes into the pockets of those who run it with a small percentage going to the needy.

Answer 1

You have tunnel vision 95% of churches struggle just to keep the lights on

Answer 2

I agree that there are corrupt churches who spend too much money on things that aren't important but I think maybe you're missing the main point of christianity.



We are called to help the poor, widows and orphans and we do. But our primary commandment is to preach the gospel, to bring truth to those who don't know it. Right or wrong, people are more attracted to come somewhere that is nicely decorated, has air conditioning, etc.



Our church buildings are attractive so when I invite my neighbor who doesn't believe in God, they won't be so turned off by the dark, grimy, 4 walls and a roof place we meet to worship God that they won't hear the truth we're trying to share with them. For that we do need a sound system, comfortable seating, etc. I know it doesn't sound right and I would rather have the money be spent on the poor as well, but the reality is that you need a nice place to meet or people won't come. If people don't come then people don't hear about God and won't be saved.

Answer 3

Churches have gained more riches than anyone else they have untold riches invested in foreign countries.They demand the 10th when that was under the law and no longer is to be observed according to the Bible.Jesus never had anything,how can you say you dollow his footsteps when all you do are amassing wealth.What do you think would happen if the Government in such a bad economic condition would tax the churches?Do you think they would or could pay? What about all the lawsuits,many of them they have never paid?(John 10:11-15) I am the fine shepherd; the fine shepherd surrenders his soul in behalf of the sheep. 12 The hired man, who is no shepherd and to whom the sheep do not belong as his own, beholds the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them— 13 because he is a hired man and does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the fine shepherd, and I know my sheep and my sheep know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I surrender my soul in behalf of the sheep.

(Revelation 18:19) And they threw dust upon their heads and cried out, weeping and mourning, and said, ‘Too bad, too bad—the great city, in which all those having boats at sea became rich by reason of her costliness, because in one hour she has been devastated!’



The whole chapter depicts false religion today

To learn what does the bible really teach go to www.jw.org

Answer 4

They also make money renting out space in those luxurious buildings to whoever will pay, with the only stipulation being that they should also be not for profit. And that money is also tax-free. A friend of mine used to work in a cathedral, and some of these events were so rowdy that people were stabbed and beaten. I thought churches were supposed to be for worship, not making income!

Answer 5

I agree with you up to a point. Churches receive donations only, so if you don't donate to a church, then it doesn't affect you. Many churches regardless of size and being elaborate, do make its contributions. Not all churches are the same.



Edit: Also, donate to the needy yourself-straight to the source if you want to make a difference.

Answer 6

I am a Christian, and I couldn't agree more. I always get irritated when I see these swanky churches, with their choir suspended "in the heavenlies" in a plexiglass choir box, and pastors flashing more bling than a rapper. I always want to ask, for the same amount of money, how many vaccines could we buy for children in third-world countries? How many starving people could we feed world-wide? And most importantly, wouldn't Jesus be disappointed in how millions of dollars were spent on unnecessary, prideful things?? Such waste. If Christians spent more time beyond the church walls doing what they should be doing (according to Jesus), they wouldn't need to build such lavish places to host their members-only social clubs.

Answer 7

"Who are we kidding?"



You're kidding yourself because you obviously do not understand the term and concept of "non-profit." Ever seen the buildings for such non-profits as "The Red Cross," "The United Way," or the ACLU? Why do you separate the church from these? A bit hypocritcal aren't you? Or just angry?



First study "profit" and perhaps you'll see the false premise of your question. Or do you like the double standard of your criticism of the church? I have found that ALL atheists on R&A must alter facts in order to support their vain conclusions. If one must ignore or change the facts, then one's philosphy must be errent.

Answer 8

if the people who pay taxes are christians and visit churchs every sunday, so why not spend the payers taxes on a place where they visit reguraly

what is the problem of having big and expensive buildings to pray in?

and by the way, the church does not take the money and puts it in the hands of clergy, but help poor people, especially in the third world countries.

Answer 9

ask to see a church budget. They are required by Non profit law to show you. I've seen my church's budget and spending. It costs a lot of money to have a T.V. program to reach people, to feed people in other countries, and to have social programs. Our church uses it's property for AA meeting, Grief support groups, Alzheimers groups, etc. etc.



We also help the children of prisoners, feed the hungry and too much to mention.



Where do people go when they need help??? The church.

Answer 10

Honestly, I believe that it happens because some see it as a business. The bigger the building the more people can come in and the more money they get. Their main goal is to win souls for Christ though.

Answer 11

many of those older buildings were built by wealthy patrons who donated the money specifically for that purpose, and many of them are a nightmare to maintain, also many of them cant be pulled down as they are listed buildings, the one in our village (which I don't attend) is 10th century and needed a new roof a few years ago and the congregation had to raise £600,000+ without any help from those who want it preserved, and so congregations like that are stuck with them.

Answer 12

Just because the building is elaborate does not mean that they are making money..

I do agree with you about elaborate buildings..

I am in the process of building a church and someone volunteered to donate a stained glass window and another a huge painting to go inside. People just do it without anyone asking..

Answer 13

Some will argue that the Temple was elaborate and had gold.. but, what they do NOT realize is that God himself dwelled in that Temple, it was built FOR God..... these *church houses * today will answer for their misdeeds, sorry, just the way I feel here... You are correct, God did not and does NOT direct such elaborate housing for His saints to gather into for worship.... It is called arrogance and PRIDE..... two big ole NO NO's ....... but alas, they keep on their false path.... go in peace..... God bless

Answer 14

Di you know that this was the exact attitude that Judas when and it was what caused him to sell Jesus out for thirty pieces of silver?



It is also known that Judas wasn't the least bit interested in the poor, but he was angry that he could not get his little grubbies on the money.



Is that the case with you?

Answer 15

you are right. if only churches would be more interested in building people instead. all we need is the Word of God being preached, especially in these times. We do need walls, just a tent, heck we don't even need a roof where God's Word is being preached

Answer 16

Well, a church is a place to glorify God. I'm sure people believe that it makes sense to do that architecturally as well as spiritually.

Answer 17

So easy to side track the sinners, satan points at everyone else, so you don't have to look at yourself good luck with that!

Answer 18

I have personally looked at the records of where my churches money goes. You are ignorant.

Answer 19

NOW you have discovered one of the ugliest plot in the history of man





With Metta and Karuna

_/\_

dragon/loong

Answer 20

Don't get me started on how many bad people use religion as a tax shield and to adopt a following to gain wealth.

Answer 21

Yeah as the late George Carlin said: God is always needing money.



"The greatest BS story ever told" LMAO!

Answer 22

Non-Profit?

Where did you get that silly notion? Churches are not FOR profit. But they make a LOT of profit (remember, their expenses are tax-deductible).

And they keep claiming that they are poor. Yeah, right...

Fleecing the gullible sheep has always been good for the pocketbook.

Answer 23

Totally agree with you.

Answer 24

If you have a large building it makes it harder to hear the rape from the basement.

Answer 25

I wants me gold!

Answer 26

Right again.

Answer 27

Churches are parasites in our society. They don't serve any useful purpose. They need to borrow from secular morality to function... and even so the morality that they promote is as corrupt as the whole idea of Christianity!





Christians still have the option in the New Testament era which is today to buy a suitable slave and do with him/her anything that their naughty heart desires with all of God's blessings like they did in Colonial America up to the 1860s!!! The only obstacle now is the secular government laws NOT THE WORD OF GOD! If you had a slave you can use him/her even for the kinkiest gay, bizarre or straight sex imaginable! In spite of any Biblical interpretation, there are plenty of arguments in the Bible to justify ANY KIND OF KINKY SEX OR FETISH especially with slaves!!! Believe it or not, pedophilia in all its extreme forms is CONDONED and totally unregulated in the Bible, Old and New Testaments nothing has changed because GOD NEVER CHANGES!!! If a man likes to have a little girl for a while for whatever pleasure HE DOESN’T NEED TO DATE HER! He can buy her as a slave from a set of some God fearing parents IN NEED OF MONEY! Sometimes you don’t even need to buy her you can trick her! God the Holy Ghost sent the Archangel Saint Gabriel to sweet talk the very young and naive Virgin Mary so he could have her pregnant without any problem. The Blessed Virgin Mary was very horny. She didn’t hesitate one moment to go along to be laid with a perfect stranger. She didn’t tell her fiancé Saint Joseph until 6 months later and only because he noticed that she was getting big around her slender belly…



Titus 2:9 (NIV) (Saint Paul commands!) Teach slaves* (*including young little boy and girl slaves) to be subject to their masters in everything* (*EVERYTHING without restrictions no matter how kinky!), to try to please them, not to talk back to them,* (*Hallelujah! Praise the LORD! Sweet Jesus! Amen? --Please don’t judge me wrong here… I’m being sarcastic just to make a point! The day that the extremist Christian Fundies will rule America, Biblical slavery will be reinstated!)



Exodus 21:20-21 NIV “If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod* (*i.e. for lack of submission!) and the slave dies as a DIRECT RESULT* (*not for any pre-existing condition! Especially if the master is drunk or plain abusive!), he must be punished* (*but how? will the master get a slap on the wrist?), but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is HIS PROPERTY* (*The Infallible KJV says, “his money”… a slave is not even a human being, but property or money! That is why Christian America up to the 1860’s justified Biblical slavery including all forms of imaginable pedophilia with the black and white slaves… we had white Irish slaves, too that nobody talks about!)



So you can keep beating your male or female slave to a pulp every third day or so and as long as he/she recovers you are a HOLY and RIGHTEOUS person before this Loving God and Heavenly Father! God’s Law is SOOOO GOOD for the wanking Christians…!!! The whole Bible is decisively pro-slavery of the kinkiest sort! In the New Testament, escaping slaves were ALWAYS TOLD TO RETURN to their masters and to go free only if allowed! The whole book of PHILEMON in the New Testament is dedicated to teach Christian escaped slaves anywhere in the world to return to their masters! Modern day Preachers are shrewd enough to ignore any unfavorable rap in the New Testament!



1 Peter 2:18 (NIV) (Saint Peter, the First Pope commands!) Slaves* (*including young little slave girls!), submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, NOT ONLY to those who are good and considerate, BUT ALSO TO THOSE WHO ARE HARSH.* (*Hey…! hey…! hey…! how kinky can the Christians get even today? As kinky as the clergy and the militant Christians allow and the secular arm of the law won’t catch them! Smart preachers do it in their closets! Christians have no moral standards to draw from the Bible! They borrow from our real secular world!)



Exodus 21:7-8 (NIV) "If a MAN SELLS* (*for whatever reason like for being short of money) his DAUGHTER* (*NOT HIS SON, but his daughter! Can you sense the sexual innuendo in “God’s Holy Law”?) as a SLAVE, SHE IS NOT TO GO FREE as male slaves do. If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself* (*by then she must be all worn out, sexually speaking, of course!), he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her.



Can you imagine the slave girl’s fate if her God fearing daddy doesn't want her back and her master is a sadistic sexual pervert? Another more subtle way of getting a GIRL for a wife in the Bible is to be a predator at a PURITY BALL watching the virgin girls dancing and grab for yourself anyone that you wish to have for a wife… The Law of God allows MEN this pleasure! No silly dating necessary! That's about how the Blessed Virgin Mary got pregnant, too! She was talked into it and she agreed on the spot! At least she was not kidnapped!



Judges 21:23 * So that is what the Benjamites did. While the girls were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his wife… (Praise the LORD! Sweet Jesus!)



In the Holy Bible days women had no noticeable rights and were worth much less than men! As long as the master follows the Bible injunctions he is always a Holy man of God, like RIGHTEOUS LOT who shortly after his wife’s death was getting drunk and was having sex with his young virgin daughters until he got them pregnant, or even the Levite priest of God in Judges 19-21 who pleasured himself carving up his gang raped concubine in 12 pieces. He sent the chunks of her body by messengers to all Israel to get the Benjamin clan exterminated in a Holy Vendetta! (Amen? Praise the LORD! Sweet Jesus!) Can you imagine the heads of the other 11 tribes in Israel getting a bloody body part of a Priest’s horny lover in the mail with a message saying that it was the Benjamites who raped and killed her? Can you still believe that this low ranking PRIEST OF GOD got ALL the tribes in Israel to agree with him on the spot to go to war against the Benjamin tribe without any question asked!? Anything like this doesn’t happen even among the most barbarian people anywhere in the world, but you can enjoy reading all about it in God’s Holy Word the Bible! The Bible writers were very smart to insist that they “wrote as they were led by the Spirit of God”! In fact they claim that they didn’t know what they were writing until they read what they wrote (2 Pet 1:21)! That’s how HOLY STORIES WERE WRITTEN IN THE BIBLE. No Christian would dare to question the Bible because it is THE WORD OF GOD! The Hustler Magazine comes far too short to measure up to the Bible script!



Luke 16:17 (NIV) (Jesus said) It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law* (*the Old Testament Bible).



According to God the Son Jesus Christ the Law of God is valid even today! When some Colonies in America were ruled by the Puritan Christians (Right wing Fundies!) a lot of innocent “witches” were hung from tree branches with a rope tied around their neck! The first criminals to be sentenced to death here in Christian America were witches! Hundreds more were in jail on suspicion of being witches and warlocks! BTW, I am not taking ANYTHING out of any Biblical or historical CONTEXT! Today Christians need to comply with our secular morality, not the way around! In due course, the validity and morality of same sex marriages everywhere will be determined by the secular law, too! The Christian clergy will still have an opportunity to make money regulating the morality of same sex couples according to the Bible. There is plenty of flip-flopping room in the Bible to accommodate any lifestyle and Christianity is here to stay for a long while because some humans still need a “spiritual” crutch to function in this world. Up to the 1860s Holy Bible slavery was perfectly legal here in America, but COMMON SENSE PREVAILED OVER BIBLE DOGMAS! Everything changes with time thanks to liberal non religious governments!



There is hardly a page in the Bible that is not full of some compromising positions that theologians need to reinterpret so Christianity in the 21st Century can believe in a more reasonable “God”! If you are an honest human being in spite of your Christian background how can you possibly justify the Bible God’s immorality and his nearsightedness not to mention that someday his fond Biblical slavery fetish will be outlawed by the United Nations? There is not a whisper of hope in the Bible that slaves will be freed someday, but all the opposite! It says that outright Biblical slavery will continue on to the end of the world! The Bible writers were not spiritually speaking they were making factual statements! The crap that they were “led by the Holy Ghost to write something that they didn’t know doesn’t fit here! The Bible writers never imagined in their primitive mind any form of democracy with liberty and freedom for all! Please, don’t hesitate to share this notes with the spiritual leader of your choice! Make them EARN your money!