It gets me angry when I see how easy some community members are on relatives, churchies, and systemites in general, with regard to financial matters, and yet how unfair they can be in their criticisms of us with regard to the same issues.
Go to any church bookshop and have a look at the kind of prices that they charge for even the most insignificant, boring little tract, and worse still, at what they charge for a 200-page book. No one criticises them for that, and people gladly pay their prices. But we start getting condemned as soon as we ask for even a few cents for our publications. Why?
Isn't it because the god of this world has blinded us to the truth of the matter? The truth is that our tracts promote the teachings of Jesus and theirs do not. The truth is that they don't even believe their own waffle about virtues, prayer, faith, grace, etc. but we do believe deeply what we are saying. The truth is that the churchies are greedy and we are not.
And that's a pretty important difference. We need to remind ourselves of it occasionally.
They have no shame about charging you for almost anything. Look at what happened when Andrew left the community for a while and tried to apply to do missionary work through various church organisations. They all require that people pay, and that they pay BIG before they will even consider letting them work as volunteers (on a short-term temporary basis, like Andrew was asking about).
The most amazing thing is that this is happening in a system where there is almost unlimited wealth. The annual income of the membership of the average church congregation would run into millions of dollars. They could well afford to pay award wages to anyone who would be so good as to volunteer to go and work for them. Their money would be enough to buy a huge army of volunteers, with which they could make a really powerful impact on the non-Christian world. But because they are not really interested in helping the poor, their so-called charity work becomes yet another way to make money for themselves. And if it doesn't bring in more wealth, then they just don't do it. It's as simple as that.
By their reasoning, why should they fork out thousands of dollars to hire Christian workers to travel to the mission field when there is nothing to be made for themselves personally from such work? On the other hand, if they were to charge people for the privilege of doing social work, then they could brag to the world that they were doing social work (for which they would receive more donations from the people to whom they brag), and they could actually bring money into the local coffers from the "social workers" themselves as well. And so that is exactly what they do. Such is their greed.
And, of course, others support such a program (even when they must sense that it is a bit of a scam), because the overall values of the program are those of their supporters... greed, pride, respectability, and a dishonest show of generosity. But will those people who support the churchy aid programs support us? No way! They see us as the total antithesis of what they stand for... and so we are! What we stand for is totally opposite to what the churches stand for. We are against greed.
I find it hard to be patient with members of our own community who cannot bring themselves to see the diabolical difference between ourselves and the churchies. There is a double-think that says we and they are doing the same thing, and this double-think goes further, to suggest that it is understandable that they should hate us (as they all do), while it is un-christian for us to even criticise them for their attitude.
There have been a few people wanting to join us, but they said that FIRST they wanted to give their wealth away to some of these churchy charities. Bear in mind that these churchy charities almost all oppose us.
Some of our so-called friends try to sit on the fence and pretend that we (and the churches) are both right in our own way. But at the same time, they stab us in the back, report us to the authorities, tell lies about us, sic the media on us, etc. Look at what happened in the U.K. with regard to Bobby Kelly. If you have any doubts about whether or not the churchies who supported that whole campaign against us were motivated by a deep and sincere faith in God, then you need to wake up and smell the roses... or in this case, smell the dung heap that the churches represented in their stand against us during that nationwide attack on us.
I'm not saying that we have to be rude or unloving toward systemites; but we do need to be clear about their deceptions. If you think they are sincerely deceived, then, for Christ's sake, set them straight, so they can embrace us and what we stand for. But if, after giving it your best shot, they continue to fight the truth, then the deception is most likely not in them as much as it is in you. They know which side they are on; but you do not.
We need to be clear about where we stand. If we use religious jargon or talk vaguely about faith, love, prayer, etc. it can be confusing, because they talk about all of these things too. But when we talk about the teachings of Jesus it all becomes clear. That is why Jesus says that his teachings are the cornerstone that will sort it all out. The teachings of Jesus will sort out the double think in them as well as in ourselves.
Jesus said, whoever is ashamed of him and of his teachings, he will be ashamed of them when he returns. (Mark 8:38) Are you afraid to confront your friends, relatives, and church associates with the teachings of Jesus? Could it be because you are ashamed to wear some of the reproach that Jesus wore because of his stand for the truth?
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