Scientology in a nutshell

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Scientology is a pyramid scheme, much like any other organized religion.

TerryRC wrote:Scientology is a pyramid scheme, much like any other organized religion.

Pyramid scheme? Do you mean like the worship of Amun-Ra by the Egyptians?

TerryRC wrote:Scientology is a pyramid scheme, much like any other organized religion.

Some no doubt are, but I can tell you that my church's pastor is far from well off, sacrificing for the good of others and the glory of God. When my wife was pregnant, he came over and cleaned out an absolutely disgusting freezer so we could store her breastmilk. My church pays the poor guy subsistence wages at best and he has to carry another job to make ends meet. We don't send terribly much money "on up the ladder," either.

The man ain't profiting in the worldly sense, Terry. I'm sorry that you have seen so many phonies, and that you feel that this is how everyone acts.

SheikBen wrote:

TerryRC wrote:Scientology is a pyramid scheme, much like any other organized religion.

Some no doubt are, but I can tell you that my church's pastor is far from well off, sacrificing for the good of others and the glory of God. When my wife was pregnant, he came over and cleaned out an absolutely disgusting freezer so we could store her breastmilk. My church pays the poor guy subsistence wages at best and he has to carry another job to make ends meet. We don't send terribly much money "on up the ladder," either.

The man ain't profiting in the worldly sense, Terry. I'm sorry that you have seen so many phonies, and that you feel that this is how everyone acts.

He is probably thinking of me and my vast oil wells and diamond mines.

"Diamond Terry" H, they call you!

That or H-dawg fashizzle, for when you hold your blingiest bashes.

He is probably thinking of me and my vast oil wells and diamond mines.

Biggest land owner in the world - Catholic Church.

Look at the Oral Roberts, and the Swaggarts, and the Bakkers and the Olstens... the megachurches.

All of these guys started in a small church, also, Sheik...

Hi Terry,

As for Olsteen and Roberts, I am not impressed with either of them, and I doubt very much that Keli is impressed by them, either.

Perhaps they started off in a better spiritual condition than they are in now. Success can be bad for the soul. As for Swaggart, his favorite game is to say "I don't mean it unkindly..." and then follow it by saying something unkind.

As far as the Catholic church being the largest land owner, I have much in great disagreement with the Catholic church, and I find "recovering Catholics" to be among the most antagonistic toward the gospel. I fear that the Catholic church has done an awful lot of harm to many a soul. However, what, there are a billion of them? Of course an institution with a billion people is going to be the world's largest land owner. That's like noting that China has the most people.

SheikBen wrote:
As far as the Catholic church being the largest land owner, .....

Mike, don't be paying much attention to such silly claims.

I am pretty sure that the Reformationed Christian churches own just as much or more property than does the Catholic Church.



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I am pretty sure that the Reformationed Christian churches own just as much or more property than does the Catholic Church.

I'm not so sure about that. I mean, they may own as many buildings and as much land and so forth, but the Catholic Church owns some of the greatest works of art in the world. I don't think if a dollar value were assigned to the holdings of the Roman Catholic Church and to the "Reformed Christian" churches the latter would dwarf in comparison. At least that's what I think, but I really don't know.

Did you think about adding up the value of these and others?

http://www.oru.edu/
http://church-of-christ.org/universities/united_states/u_united_states.htm
http://www.college-scholarships.com/christian_colleges.htm
http://www.baptistschools.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Universities_and_colleges_affiliated_with_the_United_Methodist_Church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Jones_University

I don't know, Sam. I need to get outside and start preparing my flower beds. I'm waiting for my husband to come home with supplies or I'd be out there already.

There are all of those cathedrals and basilicas and countless churches, hospitals, schools of every sort. There are monastaries and convents galore.

Some of their holdings are priceless. Works by Michelangelo, da Vinci, and my favorite Raphael. They own priceless books, jewels, tapestries. I don't think a dollar value can be assigned to many of the treasures the Roman Catholic Church owns. I sure wouldn't know how.

I just don't see the relevance. I have no problem "hatin' on" the Catholic church, but that they own so much strikes me as a function of both the gross number of members and a couple thousand years of history.

That they own so much is not news; it would be news if they didn't. It is in and of itself no proof of malfeasance or religion as a pyramid scheme that they own as much as they do.