{"id":821,"date":"2009-12-07T11:52:02","date_gmt":"2009-12-07T17:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/?p=821"},"modified":"2009-12-07T11:52:02","modified_gmt":"2009-12-07T17:52:02","slug":"the-masturbating-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/2009\/12\/07\/the-masturbating-church\/","title":{"rendered":"The Masturbating Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Masturbation is the epitome of selfishness and represents the degradation and perversion of something selfless and beautiful.\u00a0 Unfortunately the church (especially in America) can, and often does, display this same behavior.<\/p>\n<p>However you look at it, masturbation is completely self-pleasing.\u00a0 There is no consideration of others; all actions are based on selfish desires that are fulfilled in the easiest way possible.\u00a0 It is often based in fantasies that are degrading and show fictive dominance.\u00a0 It replaces relationships with internal transactions.\u00a0 What is most troubling is that masturbation is based on something that is sacred and special: the sexual relationship between two people who love each other.\u00a0 Sex provides intimate depth to relationships and has the potential to be an amazing example of self-less mutual pleasure.\u00a0 Masturbation short-circuits all of this.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/megachurch.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-825\" title=\"megachurch\" src=\"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/megachurch-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"megachurch\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/megachurch-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/megachurch.jpg 396w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I have been in too many situations where local churches also short-circuit a beautiful design and replace it with something self-seeking. \u00a0The church is called to be the bride of Christ, the very hands and feet of an incarnate God. \u00a0The church is God&#8217;s agent of\u00a0reconciliation\u00a0in this hurting world. \u00a0The church is called to see a a better world and to partner with God to bring that about. \u00a0The church should be an outpost of hope by being a collection of broken people who find hope and direction in the promise of something more. \u00a0<span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">Yet all of this can get traded for a structure that is self-pleasing, lacks consideration for others, seeks easy\u00a0fulfillment\u00a0for selfish desires, can be degrading and dominant, and replaces relationships with internal transactions. \u00a0The existence\u00a0of many churches is nothing more than a source of masturbatory fulfillment for its members.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">This critique is most evident when one explores the finances of most churches. \u00a0Members &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/tag\/tithe\/\">tithe<\/a>&#8221; and &#8220;give their money to God&#8221; yet if you follow the paper trail, most of that money comes back to the members. \u00a0It is like a pay-as-you-can country club. \u00a0 \u00a0Consider this:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In the United States roughly 1\/3 of all tax-deductible\u00a0donations went to houses of worship.<\/li>\n<li>That amounts to over 103 BILLION dollars ($130,000,000,000.00)<\/li>\n<li>Of that, \u201c85 percent of all church activity and funds are directed toward the internal operations of the congregation\u201d<\/li>\n<li>That means &#8220;Christians&#8221; spend over 87 BILLION dollars, money that was supposedly &#8220;given to God,&#8221; to benefit themselves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>According to a recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2008\/december\/10.24.html?start=3\">Christianity Today<\/a> article:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The money given by the people in the pews, it turns out, is largely spent on the people in the pews. Only about 3 percent of money donated to churches and ministries went to aiding or ministering to non-Christians.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Talk about self-pleasuring!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">It is troubling enough to see how selfish church budgets actually are. But, what is most\u00a0devastating\u00a0and deceptive is the fact that we do this in the name of God and think we are fulfilling his will. \u00a0We take the image of being faithful and stroke our own desires and needs with it. \u00a0We convince ourselves we are being self-sacrificing, but at the end of the day we are only meeting our own needs (not only within the church, but our need to feel we have contributed).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<dl id=\"attachment_826\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; background-color: #f3f3f3; padding-top: 4px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; width: 310px; border: 1px solid #dddddd;\">\n<dt><a href=\"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/budgets.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px none initial;\" title=\"budgets\" src=\"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/budgets-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Lifeway Research presents similar findings.\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/dt>\n<dd style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: 17px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 4px; margin: 0px;\">Lifeway Research presents similar findings.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<p>It goes beyond just money. \u00a0Think about volunteer work within the church. \u00a0In your congregation what percent of opportunities to serve are simply tasks that are necessary\u00a0to perpetuate the current structure. \u00a0Are these things actually furthering the Kingdom of God, or are they simply making sure we can enjoy the worship services and opportunities we have come to expect.<\/p>\n<p>This self-seeking understanding of church and Christianity is deeply ingrained in how we think:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We choose churches where the worship matches our\u00a0preferences\u00a0and the pastors are entertaining.<\/li>\n<li>We expect churches to provide programs that meet our needs.<\/li>\n<li>Welcome gifts are the norm &#8211; we are literally spending money on people so that they are more likely to join our selfish structure. \u00a0Tell me this, if someone comes in church with real hurt and needs redemption, is a coffee cup going to heal them?<\/li>\n<li>We market our churches (intentionally and unintentionally) so that we can appeal to the\u00a0aesthetic\u00a0needs of people and not the spiritual needs of people.<\/li>\n<li>Our sermons tend to focus on feel-good motivation and &#8220;practical application&#8221; and often avoids the difficult reality of who we are and we are called to be. \u00a0There is no expectation of real sacrifice.<\/li>\n<li>Very few churches reflect the diverse tapestry of the communities they serve. \u00a0How often do prostitutes and CEOs find themselves in the same Sunday School class?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We expect churches to meet our needs. \u00a0And by participating we not only personally reap the benefits, but we feel like we are fulfilling our spiritual obligations. \u00a0Instead of spiritual masturbating in private, we flaunt it in public, which makes it all the more disgusting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Church Staff and Porn<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If we are going to explore the nature of the church, we have to be willing to examine how church staffs operate. \u00a0The typical church budget pays out 50% for staff salaries. \u00a0A full half of our giving goes to pay professional spiritual people. \u00a0If churches themselves are examples of auto-erotic hedonism, then I\u00a0believe\u00a0the way we view church staff is not much\u00a0different\u00a0than the way individuals use pornography.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Porn employs professionals to &#8220;do the dirty work&#8221; so actual relationships are not needed.<\/li>\n<li>Porn stimulates you so feel like you are in the\u00a0experience\u00a0when actually you have no real connection to what is going on.<\/li>\n<li>Porn is on demand you can call on it when you need to. \u00a0They work to fulfill your needs.<\/li>\n<li>Porn stars fake it so you get a better show.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Having worked at a church for several years, I know first hand that these are true of how staff are utilized as well.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Parishioners feel like they are connected to &#8220;God&#8217;s Work&#8221; because they pay the salaries of people to actually do the things. \u00a0There is little need connect with actual people. \u00a0We expect the pastor to visit the sick, study the word, pray with the dying, help the needy. \u00a0As long as someone is doing those things we feel fulfilled.<\/li>\n<li>We expect church staff to not only do our spiritual dirty work, but also to meet our needs. \u00a0As long as our kids have good programming, the sermon is not boring and worship is engaging, we are happy. \u00a0We are more likely to\u00a0criticize\u00a0a pastor for not providing us with what we expect than we are to criticize the work they do beyond the walls of the church.<\/li>\n<li>Church staff members know they have to make things look good. \u00a0&#8220;Spiritual&#8221; words are sown into conversations to make things appear to be more important than they are. \u00a0We call mundane upkeep &#8220;ministry&#8221; so that people don&#8217;t realize we are still just reinforcing a selfish structure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Don&#8217;t get me wrong, I know a good number of pastors and staff members who are\u00a0embodying\u00a0and expanding the incarnational love of Christ. \u00a0We can&#8217;t blame staff for the problems of the church &#8212; we are all in this together. \u00a0That being said, we must all acknowledge\u00a0that paying pastors 6 figures while ignoring the plight of the poor and marginalize can be described as nothing short of sin.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a world where 30,000 children die every day of preventable diseases, malnutrition and unclean water, and where the poorest 40 percent of the world\u2019s population accounts for only 5 percent of global income, it is unacceptable for the church to sit around pleasuring itself. \u00a0We can no longer be content with a view of Christianity that encourages selfishness while feeding the illusion of spiritual depth and community impact. \u00a0If the result of our\u00a0involvement\u00a0in church is that we feel better about ourselves, but do not understand how we can participate in the larger redemptive work of a loving God, then we are done nothing more than\u00a0masturbated\u00a0our needs and egos in the name of Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Masturbation is the epitome of selfishness and represents the degradation and perversion of something selfless and beautiful.\u00a0 Unfortunately the church (especially in America) can, and often does, display this same behavior. However you look at it, masturbation is completely self-pleasing.\u00a0 There is no consideration of others; all actions are based on selfish desires that are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21],"tags":[448,447,446,281,31,450,449,279,30],"class_list":["post-821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-thoughts","tag-budgets","tag-church","tag-masturbation","tag-money","tag-poverty","tag-salaries","tag-sin","tag-tithe","tag-wealth"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions\/833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}