The point of the missionaries in the testimony before congress was that any suspicion that missionaries might be working with the cia puts the lives of all missionaries in danger. I have family that were missionaries. It's an obvious policy that you would not want the CIA to be using any missionary or aid worker as an informant, and after it happens once, it could be decades before they're not suspected again. The fact that there needed to be a hearing on this in congress is difficult to comprehend–and this was when the country was far more sympathetic to Christianity. Likewise, it's difficult to comprehend why you'd need a hearing to say that the CIA shouldn't be influencing the press.
JFK doc says the CIA "will have" "no paid or contractual relationship" with journalists or clergy, and will work to bring existing relationships into line with this new policy.
So they can do favors, as long as there's nothing in writing and no money is changing hands.
Clergy anon here. I sincerely doubt the pastor at the methodist church down the street from you is on the payroll of the CIA. Maybe a leader in a denomination, maybe a bishop, maybe a pastor with a big megachurch. Maybe someone with connections overseas? But the rest of us? Going from the pastors I know, I sincerely doubt it.
Did anyone notice in the JFK doc the press report, about how congressman/senator Fauntroy was talking about this one journo they thought was on the payroll of the CIA, but he couldn't come talk to Congress because "he was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack"?
I was noting the way the language left the door standing open.
You might be right. I heard about another pastor who got doxed to his "ecclesiastical supervisor" for following "alt-right" accounts anonymously on social media…and this is in a denomination about as conservative as they get
>>459016
"It is better to live in desert land
Than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman." Prov. 21:19
Maybe the guy making fries at McDonald's while you handle the register is also a clown. Expand your thinking!
The thing is, clergy that "pushes" Romans 13 are good clergy, since it's, like, the Bible. The bad clergy are the ones who tell you stuff they got from a Marxist professor or from the buzzing between their ears.
That's ridiculous. I've preached very plainly about all the things you're not supposed to say. And we're broadcast.
I don't turn the divine service into a political rally and cheapen it. But you can easily do that too. Look at the black churches who invite candidates into their pulpits.
The inclusion of Romans in the bible is certainly not debatable. Whether or not you're a Christian is highly debatable if you call it into question because you don't like what it says in the 13th chapter. That's like the homosexuals claiming the Bible is problematic because it condemns sodomy, but even they don't try to take Romans out. They just abuse the text.
The word in greek is "diakonos", meaning "minister" or "servant", having the sense of "one who acts in the stead of another."
With the way most Americans go to church and give offerings, 75 percent of the churches would be closed tomorrow if churches weren't tax exempt.
Otoh, I agree with you, pretty much. We had a church charity that was doing adoptions since the 19th c. that somewhere along the line started getting public funds to place foster kids. When gay marriage became the law, Catholic Charities stopped doing adoptions. Ours didn't and the denomination cut ties with it. It was all about the tax dollars.
The church that we see with our eyes has always been divided, and it's been being infiltrated since there were only 13 or so people in it.
Since "all men are liars", that's always a safe bet.
It's true for guys like Osteen. Not for the many little churches that still struggle to keep a Sunday School running so that there is some little remnant of kids who don't grow up like kids in communist Russia who never heard anything from the Bible. The only reason we aren't there now is the little handful of old ladies who are still going to church up the street from you and paying some pastor out of seminary or bible school 25000 a year.
Also, we can thank New England congregationalism for the America we have today.
They were going to do that to all the churches that didn't sign up for gay marriage anyway. It was a matter of time. It probably still is.
No, my church's tax exemption has never been an issue. We've lost members because I preached against gay marriage, but we've probably lost more because I didn't let people's relatives receive communion.