Denver Pastor Says ‘the Lord Told Him’ to Steal $1.3 M from Christians to Remodel Home

ylai@lemmy.ml to Not The Onion@lemmy.world – 473 points –
Denver Pastor Says ‘the Lord Told Him’ to Steal $1.3 M from Christians to Remodel Home
people.com
31

And that is pretty much how everything goes in the church. Everything you do is because The Lord told you to. So glad I freed myself from that circus.

Hahahahahahahahaahahahahahaahahaahahahhhhhhhahahahaha

Out of the $1.3 [million], half a million dollars went to the IRS [Internal Revenue Services],

Yeah, so like, don't be so upset because it wasn't really 1.3 million I stole. The g o v e r n m e n t stole a half million of your hard earned money you invested.

Holy men (and women) should stick to the tried-and-true grift of their profession.

If you're doing business with a religious son of a bitch, get ... it ... in ... writing. His word isn't worth shit, not with The Good Lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal.

-William S. Burroughs, Advice for Young People

A long time personal mantra of mine is "never trust anyone with a 'Jesus fish' or a cross on their business card." People who feel the need to advertise how religious they are are often the least trustworthy, in my experience.

Also, churches are often horrible clients. Years ago, I did consulting work and dealt with lots of churches. Most of them were really shitty and don't like to pay their bills. We had exactly two churches, out of probably dozens, that were good clients.

I'm a Christian and this is been my experience so I totally get why some people feel like the church, as a whole, is shit. A lot of times it's a well deserved reputation unfortunately.

It’s the same argument of why some Christians are terrified of atheists.

To them, the only thing that stops someone from raping, murdering, and stealing their way through life is the book they had shoved down their throat in Sunday school. They can’t envision a world where people just have morals all on their own, it has to come from an external source like religion. So someone without that external moral compass must be deranged and dangerous in their eyes.

Of course, to a normal person, this view itself is utterly deranged, and speaks more about the religious person’s complete lack of inherent morals. If the only thing stopping you from raping, murdering, and pillaging your way through life is some old book and some stories about a cool dude, then you’re not really a good or trustworthy person. Especially since that same book says you can do all those terrible things, and as long as you go “sorry teehee” right before you kick the bucket, you get to go to the McDonald playplace in the sky anyway.

And we've got people saying that churches shouldn't be taxed because they're like charities...

It’s not wrong. I used to freelance full time. I quickly learned to never trust any company that claimed to be religious. Most companies I worked with were fine. But if I saw a jesus fish on the owner’s car, or a cross on their business card, I knew they were going to try to fleece me. Everything from exceeding contract scope, to just outright refusing to pay after services have been rendered. If you have convinced yourself that God is on your side no matter what, it becomes very easy to justify your shitty actions to yourself.

Even better:

The pastor and his wife marketed their “practically worthless” cryptocurrency, INDXcoin, to Christian communities in Denver, telling them that “God told him people would become wealthy” if they invested, the Colorado Division of Securities said.

Lets be honest, is his story any less believable than the contents of the Bible?

The lord tells me he should be penniless rotting in prison.

Christ called that Lord Mammon, you heathen.. you're gonna burn in Hell for lying with his name in your mouth..

You cant prove he didn’t and we don’t doubt the word of God in our new christofacist wonderland.

Given what I know about Republican God and Supply Side Jesus, I'd say that he's just doing his lord's work as intended.

Agreed. How what he did is illegal, but the prosperity gospel megachurch pastors, flying around in private jets and living in McEstates the size of castles; is perfectly fine and dandy. Is beyond me.

Apparently it is easier getting in the heavenly kingdom on a private jet than on a camel's back.