converting the helpless or shearing the sheep that can't run away

[mordesmortes]

@barbnoon1 I remember being a child in church and getting slapped for a question I asked, I'm presuming it was about what I was being taught but I suppose it could have been about if they were real or something like that. But that is besides the point... the simplest questions seem to be the ones that are the hardest for preachers to answer... like Why doesn't god just show itself? Why do bad things happen to good people... and the like.

[Nhurm]

The truth is that the modern evangelical preacher, regardless of the size of the church, is a scam artist. The tradition goes back about 200 years to tent revivals in rural parts of the country. The practitioner was always in reality an entertainer making his living by providing a peculiar form of show with audience participation. The well being of the audience is of no concern. If it were he would simply leave them and their money alone

[mordesmortes]

@Nhurm I agree but I find it interesting that we allow this certain type of snake oil to spread unabated when there are preachers doing nothing but exploiting people. I suppose the trick here is to ask how often the collection plate gets passed and to who the collection goes. Basically I agree with George Carlin "Tax the shit out of churches" I would be a little more charitable and say tax the shit out of anything that stays in the church and that isn't re-directed to a legitimate charity.

[Nhurm]

@mordesmortes Agreed. Taxing all entities of a 'religious nature' is a good idea, and the taxes should be punitive as for any income not redirected for socially beneficial efforts. My personal favourite approach though would be to prosecute them for fraud along with homoeopaths, astrologers and whoever else markets things blatantly false and harmful for the sole purpose of extracting funds from the vulnerable. To me this is no different than regulating harmful food additives or pesticides.

[mordesmortes]

@Nhurm The thing is to treat them fairly and use the same rules that apply to everything else in the world... they are selling a product and can´t prove the claims made... it at least deserves warning labels

[BobChaos23]

Perhaps they think it is an easy sell? O_o

[SiriusMined]

Well, I can explain the ignoring....they didn't want the mentally handicapped person to speak, and be revealed as the smarter person! ;-)

[mordesmortes]

@SiriusMined Well I think the type of simple questions that the mentally handi-capped tend to ask might be the issue to be honest. As simple questions seem to be the best questions to ask to get to the truth.