"My Perfect church"

In my ideal church, everyone would be welcome; help would be offered to all. The church would not pressure or guilt anyone into making donations, or make people feel they need to give more, to get more. Our church wouldn’t be built on money like so many others are today; we would seek to build a nice simple church that would make people feel comfort and at ease when they enter, and full of joy and hope when they leave. Our mission is to give the hope, guidance, and unending support needed to all we meet, inside or outside of the church.

My belief is that God does not want to be feared or worshiped as so many religions would have us believe. I have to believe that God is like a father watching over his children, and all he really wants from us is love and respect, as well as our being as morally pure as we can. The most important thing we can do for him is to be the best we can be, and to help our fellow man to be their best.

There are too many churches out there that offer their help with one hand while asking for money with the other. Too many televangelists on television who put on a huge theatrical production of what god wants us do, only to manipulate us into sending them money. Do you really think the so called blessed jewelry they offer (for a small donation of course) will really help you? These people use religion to get to you, and to your wallet.

We then have the big churches, the ones who receive massive amounts of donations. Why is it they feel the need to spend so much of these donations on making the church so extravagantly beautiful? Is it vanity, greed, or is it because they think it will bring in more parishioners? Maybe it will, but I would rather all that wasted money be used to help the people in need. And of course many of these preachers need a big fancy house, an expensive vehicle, and even an RV, in order to better help others.

All the big extravagant displays of how well their church is doing does nothing to help the needy. These are selfish, vain, and greedy displays as well as a misuse of donations, bordering on criminal acts. They give religion a bad name. A large number of people stay away from religion due to these misguided and sometimes even corrupt individuals or organizations. The news is full of church misuse of funds, cover-ups, and other negative instances.

The children and young adults of today are receiving mixed signals about religion, they are told to believe in god and to follow his beliefs, yet they see that so many of these religious leaders are not practicing what they are preaching. Could this be one of the reasons for the deterioration of society? People need guidance, and they need positive role models. We need to bring religion back to respectability and hold our religious leaders to a higher standard.

Religion shouldn’t be something we dread, it should offer a fun, enlightening, joyful time where people from all walks of life can come together to learn of gods ways and of each other. There should be no pressure placed on anyone to do or say anything. Going to church should be a time of ease, where we can relax and be ourselves without fear of judgment. What good is church if you are putting up a front and are not truly honest about who you really are inside. You shouldn’t be afraid to go to church because you can’t afford to make a donation or your clothes aren’t nice enough. Church shouldn’t cater to the privileged, everyone, no matter their race or circumstance should feel welcome and embraced. Let’s take the fear and embarrassment out of going to church and replace it with a spirit of hopefulness, and excitement of learning more about ourselves and forming new friendships with others.

We all need help and support sometimes in our lives, the church should be one of our greatest sources for both. People do need people, and everyone needs something to believe in. Let’s help give god and the church the chance to offer both.