Online Ministry "Friends" and "Followers"

When you run an online business, you do so hoping that your bottom line, your profit, grows exponentially.  It is, after all, a business.  Spirituality, religious belief, and faith, however, are not a business.  Some televangelists have tried very hard to make it one, a business, without admitting to their flock the hidden agenda behind their ministries - profits.

I think televangelists, for the most part, prey on the weak minded among us, those without hope, and those looking for salvation in all the wrong places.  There are priests, ministers, and pastors, which also fall prey, through their own choice or that of the parent church, to asking for money from those that can barely afford to give or would be better off receiving.  How sad for their congregation and for the ministers that they, although their heart may have started in the right place, will face judgment for their greed, usury, and/or hypocrisy.  My golden rule is, if they ask for money - run!  I think, once they take the lion's portion for "costs," very little good will be accomplished from what's left.  Better to directly affect change than to rely on some organization to do what people would be better off, in the eyes of their God, doing themselves.  

Online entrepreneur and blogger, Gary Vaynerchuk, made a statement that has stuck in my mind.  I know he is addressing online business but, I think, it really speaks to the mindset behind organized religion:

"It’s not the number of followers you have or “likes” you get, it’s the strength of your bond with your followers that indicates how much anyone cares about what you have to say. In this game, the one with the most real relationships wins."

-- Gary Vaynerchuk, Entrepreneur

The difference between business and religion is the proffered product and desired outcome.  Business offers a product for sale.  Competing businesses hope their product is better than others so their business will grow, and if it isn't better they will lower their price to entice the consumer to buy from them.  This is part of the "game" Gary speaks to.

Faith in God should never be a business, nor should it be looked upon as a game.  There is no better product than God, and giving money will not purchase the product.  You cannot get a second one for free if you just pay additional shipping and handling.  Doesn't it bother anyone that Holy Scripture is for sale at your local bookstore?  God has been relegated to a product on a bookstore shelf.  There are Christian stores aimed specifically at bilking billions of dollars out of your faith in God.  And every one of these profit mongers will compound their sin by lying to you about the intent, while we continue to have poor and homeless.  Have you seen the mansions the evangelists live in?  Seen the car they drive, or are driven in?  Seen the size of the "church" that has been built for the greater glory?  Seen the Vatican, and the countless works of art therein?  And yet the poor are still poor, the sick still sick, and the hungry and homeless, well... you get the idea.

Gary's quote speaks to spirituality, or faith, and not religion (aka, business) in one aspect:  "It’s not the number of followers you have or “likes” you get, it’s the strength of your bond with your followers that indicates how much anyone cares about what you have to say."  The rest of his quote I leave for business entrepreneurs, churches, and the evangelists to argue over, since faith isn't a game and everyone's a winner, if they just pay attention.  Christ spoke to people about what God wanted them to hear.  Christ didn't give them what they wanted to hear; He gave them what they needed to hear.  He spoke a truth to form a bond with those that would follow, and then He left it up to them to care about what He had to say.  How much they cared, about what he had to say, determined the strength of the bond, not a church, not a synagogue, not a temple or mosque, and not money.

God said to Isaiah: “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed” 

-- Isaiah 6:9-10

I started down my path with several precepts in mind.  Accept no money, as this would make me no better than the religious carpet baggers that surround me.  Do not preach, because no one can be certain which message is right.  And, since everyone seems to think they have the "answer," be tolerant of other spiritual philosophies and faiths.

Many have asked about donating to my ministry, and my answer is to ask them, "Why?"  If you have the desire to do good things, then do good things.  These are the acts of kindness God wants you to do, not me.  I cannot do the task God has set before you.  Many have also commented at how I have a way of "speaking" to them.  Where this might play to a person's ego, I find it humbling to know I have touched some lives in a constructive way.

Unfortunately, there are still some, my League of the Perpetually Offended, that find it necessary to try baiting me into arguments instead of constructive conversation.  These I have learned to ignore for the simple reason that there is nothing I can say to change the thorny path their heart travels, this is a change they must initiate, for it is only through their own conscientious efforts they will find their true path to our final destination.  Tolerance is a word they recognize, don't fully understand, and rarely, if ever, exercise as a tangible gift to others around them.

When folks are on this path, they remain in a state of denial.  They constantly shift blame because everything is always someone else's fault.  They don't want to hear the truth because that means they will have to accept some responsibility for their own failures.  And God, if they acknowledge one, is the product of their own twisted desires to be in a constant state of forgiveness for any ill they may do unto others.  They are truly sadomasochists that enjoy inflicting themselves on others as much as they enjoy the agony of their own lives.  Their goal is to drag the rest of us into their world, just so they can expel us... for whatever reason suits them at any given time.

People can offer advice, people can offer a hand up, but if someone doesn't do their own works they will never understand, enjoy the fruits of their own labors, or truly find their path to salvation.  It is a path they can only find through a personal relationship with their spirituality.  No other can earn passage into heaven for them.  No priest, imam, minister, rabbi, or other can pave the path you must travel.  The path they offer is paved with good intentions, and we all know where that path leads.

Friends and followers; are they truly?  Is it only through the strength of our bond that they pay any attention to what is said?  I guess I would have to ask why a bond has to be so strong in order to understand a message that is so simple; why people must give money, payment, to excuse themselves from doing the work God wants from them; why they think a church is any substitution for a personal relationship with their supreme deity; why they let other sinners damn them to hell for all eternity when those sinners judge because they don't even understand the philosophy and teachings in their own scripture.  To these "interpreters," scripture issues an "I'm right and you're wrong" card, to wit:

"So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit. The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

-- 1 Corinthians 2:11-14

In other words, the way I read this, all you have to say is you must be believed.  People must believe you because you are taught by the Spirit which makes you infallible in "interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit."  Sounds like radical terrorist Islam, to me.  If you don't believe that I am God's messenger, then... off with your head!

The problem I see with these, seemingly egotistical, "interpreters," is the simplicity of God's message to us.  If you already have the spirit, why would you need to have the words interpreted to begin with?  As is stated, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God."  If this is true then any need for interpreters is unfounded since it is only the unspiritual man that does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God "and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."  So, why would one find the need to impart spiritual truths to those who already possess the spirit?  To think one can interpret any better for me what God meant when He gave all of us the Spirit, would seem a tad egotistical, or would they have us believe God misspoke only to us?  "What God really meant to say was..."  God made a mistake?

The strength of the bond any interpreter has with you, should be tempered by the moral righteousness within the interpretation you have asked for.  If the interpreter, the priest, or other religious or spiritual leader, interprets something to mean you must follow an immoral path, like raping women, killing children, and setting living, caged, captives on fire as a message, it is time to look for another path.  When you come before God you cannot use the excuse that you were just following insane, sociopathic orders of someone who said they spoke for God. 

Again, the message really isn't that difficult. 

I'd like to rewrite the quote by Gary Vaynerchuk to read for the spiritual of us, as well:

"It’s not the number of followers Jesus has or “likes” He gets, it’s the strength of His bond with His followers that indicates how much anyone cares about what He has to say. In this "game" for salvation or damnation, the people with the most real, personal relationship with their God wins."

Editor's Note 

(re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card) 

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so.

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion and debate in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth. After over twenty years as a military intelligence analyst, planner, and briefer, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we do afterward, and what we learn from the experience.

Frank Anthony Villari (aka, Pastor Tony)

Pastor Tony is founder of the Congregation for Religious Tolerance and author/editor of the Congregation's official blog site, "The Path."