In reading an article in this week’s Globe and Mail, I perceived a rat; a big rich religious golden rat, one that I simply cannot sit back and say nothing about. In the article the Globe and Mail reported on how the Church of England has some $12-billion worth of investments spread over approximately 2000 companies. Yes, you heard that right … $12 BILLION!
I cannot tell you how many times people have taken exception
to my claims that the institutional church has become little more than a
business, however when one reads stories like this, can one really come up with
any other conclusion? Obviously there are always exceptions, and we really
shouldn’t paint everyone with the same brush, but $12 billion … really?
The article reports that a new church policy states, “Businesses are vehicles for wealth creation,
without which there can be no wealth distribution.” I struggle with that
kind of logic. That’s like saying it’s good to gamble because, if you win it
big, you have a greater ability to give money away to the needy. That’s like
saying that it’s OK to sin, because then grace will increase all the more
(Romans 6:1).
Businesses have shareholders who invest in the business
because they also are interested in wealth creation, and specifically, their
own wealth. If the business makes money, then the shareholder makes money. One
does not invest in something without expecting some measure of return on the
investment. With its $12-billion worth of investments, the Church of England is
an obvious and significant shareholder interested in making money. That fact also
makes it a business and not a “church” (ie., the Body of Christ). But then
again, apparently I have a different definition of the word “church” than many
today do.
While the article speaks primarily to how bonuses are
handled among executives in the businesses in which the church has placed it’s
investments, my issue has more to do with the fact a “church” should even have
such disposable monies to invest in secular business in the first place. Having
said that, where else but from the backs of the faithful whom it claims to
serve, did it acquire such wealth? How ironic that the “church” should get rich
from the poor folks that it presumably was sent to serve.
If you ask me, I think this “church” has gotten itself a
little confused. What about investing the monies in people (other than bonuses
of business executives)? What about investing in the poor and needy? What about
investing in the homeless and unemployed? What about investing in young single
mother struggling to feed her children and the elderly couple unable to pay
their heating bills? What about investing in foodbanks? What about investing in
drug and alcohol abuse treatment programs? What about investing in orphanages
and finding ways to get child prostitutes of the streets? But, no, in the
interest of getting rich, it invests in corporate business giants instead.
Am I missing something here?
Jesus said that whatever we fail to do for the “least of these” we fail to do for Him
(Matthew 25:45). Now I am not suggesting that this “church” doesn’t do “something”
for the poor and needy of society, but the image I have in my mind here is that
of Jesus observing the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury while
the poor widow gave 100%, even though it was only two small coins that she gave (Luke 21:
1-4). Imagine what they could do with a $12-billion budget/investment into the
lives of the “least of these” as
opposed to lining the pockets of a handful of already overpaid business
executives? Hmm.
Perhaps the cure for cancer or the solution to global hunger
is already here. Maybe it’s just locked away in the coffers of the Church of
England, the Church of Rome, the Mormons, and other institutional churches. Maybe
it’s time for the faithful to stop financially investing in the institutional
church and to consider investing directly into the lives of those around them
instead. Maybe investing $10 into buying a meal for a homeless man instead of
putting it into an offering plate is being a little more like Jesus.
And many church leaders wonder why the world mocks them and
wants nothing to do with their form of institutional pseudo-Christianity. God
forgive us.
Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons
Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons
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