Protestant ministers driving Mercedes-Benz

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I love to travel, and I love art and architecture. I don’t think spending money on a Mercedes can be equated with money spent on beautiful art and architecture meant to glorify God.

True, God isn’t impressed by it, but people who enter these Cathedrals can be inspired. Thank goodness for the Catholic church who gave DaVinci and Michaelangelo so many commissions. Our world would be so much poorer without these masterpieces.

Anybody who has ever been to Notre Dame, or Chartres, could never question the money spent for these amazing edifices which have stood for hundreds of years.
 
In defense of Pat Robertson, he has done a tremendous job of helping to feed the poor over the years. I believe its called Operation Blessing. He has relieved a lot of suffering in the world.

I do agree with original post. I am uncomfortable with Chrisitan ministers driving Mercedez Benz.
 
Most parish priests are not paid that much, and lately they are now responsible for providing for their own pensions, as well as contributing to one or two charities that the archdiocese recommends.

One of our priests drives a mini van than someone donated to him, another does not have his own vehicle, and our pastor has a car, but I’m not sure what it is. It is definitely not a benz or lexus.

Some denominations of priests take vows of proverty in addition to their other vows. The regular priest do not take this, but they are not wealthy by any stretch.

The bishops or cardinals on the other hand, usually have a chaffeur. It may be a perk that comes along with the position. I suspect their stipends and expense accounts are much better than an ordinary priest or monsignor.

My former pastor used to play off every week. We live in a fairly wealthy parish so I suppose that would not be out of line for the lifestyles of the overall congregation. It may be that someone paid for his fees. There are always some folks of means who are willing to pay the way for a clergyman.

Even though we have a lot of rich parishes in our area, I have never seen any of our priests driving an expensive vehicle. I have seen them shopping at the super markets just like the rest of us.
 
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Della:
God comes first no matter what because feeding the soul by creating a proper atmosphere for worship is more important than feeding the body which will pass away, while the soul will live forever in heaven or in hell.
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Be carfeul, you’re treading close to some dangerous waters here.

And don’t forget our human nature is both a soul and a body, and both will forever in heaven or hell.

Remember the Creed:

We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come?

or

the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting?
 
I think that we really need to put things in prosective here, yes there are some very greedy ministers just like ther are greedy people everywhere. We need to judge all protestants in such a light, there are some really great ministers out there that do great jobs for the poor while remaining poor themselves. I think as a catholic we should be careful not to be to quick to judge those who love to judge us.

Just a thought.😉
 
I think J. Olsteen in my opinion is a money hungry guy. Here in Hawaii we have a couple of “mega-churches” and the people who run them live in the richest parts of the island. To me it’s funny how they build a church so they can gain tax exempt status, but live in big houses and drive expensive cars. Why would you need millions of dollars when God himself will provide us with all our daily needs, not wants, He said needs. These ministers are greedy point blank and period. All you prots. on this forum will defend them and that’s cool, but think about it the disciples were told, “Without cost you have recieved and without cost you are to give.” Ministering is free and they should not be profiting from their ministry. They should only recieve enough to keep the church operational. But then again it must cost millions of dollars a year to keep a 16,000 seat church going. Can you emagine how much they make a year, tax free, mind you? Boy, the Olsteen’s are getting rich from the parish, while the parishiners go home to their 3 bedroom homes and have to go to work the next day. I know i’m singling them out but there are a lot of them out there.

Check out Matt 6:24. “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to on and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

I wonder if J. Olsteen has ever read Matt 6:19-21 to the congregation. I hope not, cause he would have to do some explianing.
 
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cheddarsox:
When I was growing up, a priest in our parish drove a black cadillac, and he had the only vanity plate in town. He got a new black caddy every three years from a local dealer.

It is not a sin to enjoy the good things in life that come to us. Some people see it as a way of showing how good their God is to those who trust in him.

cheddar
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I agree completely. Financial prosperity is a blessing and I believe those who are fortunate enough to have it should not apologize or feel bad.

And no, I am not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination but I look forward to the day I am. I spend a lot of time on spiritual matters and believe that God wants all of us to prosper financially as well spiritually. He wants to meet all of our needs.

I don’t see any glory in poverty. Look at all of the poor people in New Orleans who would have been so much better off if they’d had the financial resources to leave.

Amie
 
I can only speak for pastors I know of.

The baptist church I grew up in (from 0-16 or so) I remember our youth pastor walked to church until a well off church member finally gave him a car!

As with anything, you can’t just make blanket statements towards a large group of people (priests and pastors both). I think we can all agree to that.
 
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bapcathluth:
I love to travel, and I love art and architecture. I don’t think spending money on a Mercedes can be equated with money spent on beautiful art and architecture meant to glorify God.

True, God isn’t impressed by it, but people who enter these Cathedrals can be inspired. Thank goodness for the Catholic church who gave DaVinci and Michaelangelo so many commissions. Our world would be so much poorer without these masterpieces.

Anybody who has ever been to Notre Dame, or Chartres, could never question the money spent for these amazing edifices which have stood for hundreds of years.
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I am not disagreeing with your post, just using you as a jumping off point. In the Old Testament, God gives pretty explicit instructions for creating a beautiful temple to worship him in. So, although it is the holiness of the worshippers that matter more, there is nothing wrong in creating a beautiful church or cathedral.

I have known Protestant ministers that have to take a second job to support their families. I have always admired their zeal for God. I don’t think that there is anything wrong in Protestants making certain that their clergy men have decent wages and can afford things like insurance, decent cars and college for their children.

I do think that it is wrong for a pastor to get rich off his congregation, though.(most don’t) Some people here have mentioned Joel Olsteen. I have listened to his sermons and he seems to revel in the fact that he is wealthy. This seems strange to me.
 
Hello austinbound,

Sometimes I slow down for a minuet or two on the TV evangelist channels when I am surfing with my tv clicker.

There was a TV evangelist boasting about his new jet airplane. He was saying how he didn’t want the plane but God insisted that he have it. He was saying how he would have just gone with the clothe interior but God wanted him to have the leather apholstry. Then he turned around and said have you seen my wife? The tv turned and focused in on this beautiful, model type woman about 25 years younger than him.

One time my roomate was watching the TV evangalist channel. He stopped me and said watch this. He looked at his watch and started counting down to 0 and then pointed at the screen. The minister immediately dropped everything and started talking about donations. My roomate said he did this every seven minuetes to the second.

The Bakers were collecting money for a mansion for handicaped children to be run by her mother. It had stairs only?

How can people not see through all this corruption.
 
Funny thing happened this weekend. I was flipping between football games and stopped on a commercial which was for one of the big protestant churches we have in our area. What got me was that it was a Federal Credit Union. The kicker was that it was owned and operated by the Word of Life Church. :confused: How does a church run and operate a credit union. Talk about cooruption. The commercial said that they are there to help the community. Yeah right. They get tax exempt status from the government because they are a Church, but yet provide banking services to people. Talk aout GREED. Loan people money for a house and charge them maybe 5 1/4%. I wonder if God is looking down on them and shaking His head. Donations and Interest, what a combo. :mad:
 
Many Catholic Churches have credit unions, too. Unlike banks, credit unions are owned by the depositors, that’s why credit unions accounts are called “share accounts”. There’s generally less fees and better rates than one would find at a bank. They are more like co-ops, there to serve its members.

Many people would not be able to afford banking services if they didn’t have their credit union. Federal Law restricts who a credit union is allowed to have as a member. They must be a member of the group their charter specifies they serve (ie, Firefighters, teachers, citizens of XYZville, members of ABC Church,).

For many people, their Church credit union is the only one they qualify to join.
 
the OP house near my university own a mercades or 2. The priory owns about 5 cars for use by the friars.
 
Best not to be too judgmental about these things. In the parish I used to attend before we moved here, the parochial vicar always dressed really well, drove a great car, and had the most beautiful chalice I have ever seen. Did you know that a priest usually receives his chalice as a gift upon his ordination?

I found out that he comes from an extremely wealthy family. His grandfather was a very wealthy attorney and businessman, his father was a federal circuit court judge, his mother a Pulitzer Prize-winning author (two of her books were made into movies) and his sister was the Lt. Governor of Arizona.

It impressed me that rather than bask in all that wealth and jet-set luxury, rather than become a playboy, rather than lead a life of dissipation, he became a priest working 80 hour weeks and rarely getting a full night’s sleep. I do not begrudge him fine vestments or a beautiful car if his family wished to give him these things. I’m sure it gives them great joy to do so.
God bless,
Paul
 
i dont really care. i will be shocked and dismayed if a catholic priest owns one or gave his girlfriend a house.
 
Protestant: “The Catholic Church spends too much money on fancy buildings and not enough on the poor!”

Catholic: “Yeah? Well what about those rich television evangelists!?”

This hardly seems like a product line of discussion.

As an aside, none other than Saint Teresa of Avila noted the shame of churchly extravagance existing side-by-side with poverty.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
Semper Fi:
Hi Shlemele,

I believe he was just referring to the protestants who have the “mega churches”.
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you can’t lump all “mega churches” into one group either. i know quite a number of pastors of “mega churches” (churches of 5000 or more regular attendees) and all my friends and acquaintaces who work for or pastor these churches either drive mini-vans or older cars. i have one friend who was given an older (but still very nice) mercedes by his in-laws and he sold it and bought a mini-van and gave the rest of the money away because he wouldn’t want people to get the wrong idea about what he was about. so don’t put all the mega churches together.
 
How funny, I was just talking about this same subject the other day with a friend of mine, she’s very active in her southern Baptist church. Her own pastor has a modest home and car, but they had a visiting preacher/pastor whatever come and give a talk about the wealth and prosperity stuff. He worked with underprivileged kids and he said God wanted him to have his $250,00 dollar home and his BMW because these kids wouldn’t trust him if he seemed “shady”. I thought that was kind of odd, but apparently his system must be working because two of those kids now are “saved” and work for him. (Lucky kids. :rolleyes: )
I guess if he really believes that these things that he has are used for the glory of God than it’s not bad, but…I don’t know, growing up in the Catholic church and assuming that most clergy took vows of poverty and stuff, it just seemed odd. My friend said something like, “it’s not necessarily every minister’s call to live simply” which I guess could be true, but…who knows…I thnk I’ve made a thread on this now that I think about it.
Anyways, just a couple thoughts. It may not be wrong but it makes me uneasy, too, for whatever reason.
 
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Celia:
growing up in the Catholic church and assuming that most clergy took vows of poverty and stuff, it just seemed odd.
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Hi Celia,
That assumption is incorrect. Only members of religious orders take a vow of poverty. Diocesan priests do not. They receive a salary and have to pay their bills and manage their finances just like the rest of us.
God love you,
Paul
 
In my diocese the priests living needs (room and food) are provided (and those without a rectory recieve a stipend for said). on top of that they have a small salary for car payments, gas, what little recreation they get, and what few vacations they get.

There is a priest in my hometown with a very nice car and, if you can imagine, custom tailored clerics (overcoats and jackets with cutouts to see his collar, cassock cut shirts, black “parson” hats, cardinal style cassocs [black sash of course] etc.) Well his father is a rather wealthy car salesman, who gifted the car and bought him the clothes.

Also i remember this one irish priest who used to be my pastor, he never took a vacation even when entitled because his vaction funds (the past he would normally save for that) were used to cover his room and board, as he let a poor family use his rectory in exchange for ushering at masses and doing handiwork. and so he had to rent a house. I loved that guy, so humble, great sense of humor, holiness pouring out of his ears.
 
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