Once again, I am offended to see how the priests confuse Christianity… with masochism.
The old testament was not that of a fan of generosity. Even Talleyrand (who was a bishop) was not a fan of generosity too.
Throwing away your money to go where ?
If you listen to the priests (just don’t), according to them, you have to be excessively generous. And guess what, where all your money will goes ? In their pocket obviously…
Same for the selected texts they picked from the Bible.
Same for their interpretations of those texts.
Look at the Vatican. They are very rich. But what do they do with this money ? Did they helped to cure any disease ? No…
Those priests are a disease. Same like many so-called Christians who are always ready to give you a lesson.
Being Christian is a matter of heart. It is intimate.
In my opinion it should be forbidden to preach. Because preaching is lying for 99% of the time (this is what politicians do no ?). You cannot preach to an audience because every person on it have a different life and a different curse in this planet.
Preaching is not humble. Preaching is trying to convince. A good priest is a priest who takes care of each Christian he have the responsibility by caring to each one.
Preaching craps like that is preaching an ideology like excessive generosity, excessive forgiveness, excessive in every matters.
Guys, return to the monk mindset and obey to the Divine discipline. Stop trying to be a celebrity.
Being poor is a curse. That’s it
Showing off with your money or with any of your luck : is a sin. No problem with that.
It is the fact of being pretentious, if you look at it, who is a sin. Not the fact that having something.
You can be proud of the merit you had to obtain something (like the credit to win a competition). But you cannot show off. Because everything we have in life is a matter of luck, help from the Divine and hard work.
You can only be proud about your hard work.
Since the beginning of the mankind, the humanity have searched some ways to improve the awful curse to live on this planet (hell ?). By using the witchcrafts or the religions.
And if you look closer, winning, have always be the purpose. Winning love (affection and sex) and money for the main prayers.
Do you think the jews worship the fact of being poor ? No.
Same with the ultra-catholics in France, trust me, they worship money above almost all !
So please, stop being a masochist.
Alpha Centauri