ThatParticularBaptist

@Spartles369 @TheSkepticWiz Oh so now you want to group every Catholic church in existence together? The Vatican got most its money before the Americas were even discovered.

@PartBaptist1689 @TheSkepticWiz The Catholic Church is not a single church you complete idiot. Where do you think the Vatican gets it's money from?

@Spartles369 @TheSkepticWiz No singular church in America is a billion dollar organization. Name one please.

@PartBaptist1689 @TheSkepticWiz If that was true, the church wouldn't be a billion dollar organisation. You're in denial, or detached from reality.

@Spartles369 @TheSkepticWiz Church's finances are open to the public (at least the SBC's are). You're welcome to look but you will notice that after the pastor is paid, property insurance, basic upkeep, and charity. There is no money left.

@PartBaptist1689 @TheSkepticWiz The church income, not just the pastor. This isn't rocket science.

@Spartles369 @TheSkepticWiz I'm confused on what income you are talking about? Pastors pay income tax

@PartBaptist1689 @TheSkepticWiz Irrelevant. They should still be taxed to their level of income. Simple as.

@ServantSavio @How2BeChristian @redeemed_zoomer Yeah sure, but your university system sucks compared to the protestant system. Plus protestants educated everyone not just clergy and royals.

@PartBaptist1689 @How2BeChristian @redeemed_zoomer Catholics invented the university system. So, why would Catholics be "anti-intellectual"? I think Ferris' point is that true Christian education is Catholic education.

It would be great if @redeemed_zoomer got an education in Christianity.

@UncleShitty @TheSkepticWiz @JoelOsteen 99.9999% of churches do not take in any money at the level of Joel Osteen

@PartBaptist1689 @TheSkepticWiz Great question for @JoelOsteen. How about let’s start with his 70,000sqft “parsonage”…

@soaringdemonz @TheSkepticWiz Joel Osteen's mega church does not represent 99.999% of churches. I've personally gone over multiple churches' finance and I can tell none of it goes to benefit one person

@PartBaptist1689 @TheSkepticWiz Tell that to the pastors who are pastors full time driving a Lexus Cadillac or Mercedes Benz. Look at joel osteen. They’re not non profits. They pocket most if not all the money.

@TheSkepticWiz They don't have commercial revenue. Nobody "owns" a church. It doesn't pay a dividend

Nonprofit status isn’t a magic shield. The IRS already taxes churches on business income, bookstores, rental properties, coffee shops. What’s exempt is genuine charity. But churches get an automatic exemption other nonprofits must apply for, and they risk losing it if they campaign politically. So if religion enters public schools, it’s only fair churches enter the tax system. Charity wouldn’t be taxed, commercial-like revenue and political activity would.

@Spartles369 @TheSkepticWiz 99.9999% of churches do not take in any money at the level of Joel Osteen

@PartBaptist1689 @TheSkepticWiz learn how "non-profits" work. They can't take profits AFTER expenses are paid. They can label virtually ANYTHING as an expense. Does Joel Osteen need to be paid several million a year from his "non-profit" organization for "speaking engagements"? (literally his televised sermons)

@elijah_energy @redeemed_zoomer Yeah but all of this is basically annulled because the funding for the seminaries are legally tied to the SBC as well as their endowments. Crazy legal structure but needed in a lawsuit heavy America

Each seminary operates as its own distinct nonprofit corporation under the laws of its respective state, with its own charter, board of trustees, and legal identity. While it is true that the board of trustees is elected by the messengers, this by no means implies that they are "completely owned" by the SBC. Ironic that the "southern" Baptists that are largely from those same Southern states that attempted to secede from the Union embrace this structure. 😂

Saying "Protestantism is shrinking" as a way to "own" Protestants is ridiculous In 2010s, Christianity overall was rapidly shrinking, atheism was rising, and the new atheists sounded EXACTLY like modern RC/EOs with their demographic chest-thumping If a shrinking group isn't worth being in, then Christianity in 2010 was not worth being in

@BiblicalBeauty Probably not because because that's not the pope's liberal agenda

Just curious, does the pope believe that God rejects the prayers of every Christian involved in combat?

@AustinSchulz13 @How2BeChristian @redeemed_zoomer Being fundamentally anti-intellectual is bad for society. People should go to college.

@PartBaptist1689 @How2BeChristian @redeemed_zoomer When you educate people in heresy your "education" isn't worth much.

@elijah_energy @redeemed_zoomer Maybe I'm not being clear. The seminaries are completely owned in their entirety by the SBC. They could never split.

Again, we are talking past each other. The seminaries maintain independence to manage their own affairs, but they are accountable to the messengers and the EC regarding doctrinal faithfulness and financial integrity. I wouldn't call that being "directly controlled"....but maybe you do?

@elijah_energy @redeemed_zoomer I don't see how they could be more directly controlled? The board of trustees are elected by the messengers which control everything at the seminaries

@elijah_energy @redeemed_zoomer I see what you are saying, but the official SBC seminaries affiliated with the convention are directly controlled by the SBC. The mainlines never lost this ability, liberals just used it to destroy the church.

I think we are talking past each other a bit, tbh. My point is that institutional power matters. The SBC doesn't control its seminaries, at least in a traditional sense. This decentralization within a highly democratic structure limits the ability of the church to throw its weight around. The Mormon church-on the other hand-has much more institutional power. Real estate, resources, and a visible hierarchy that can unilaterally make decisions and mobilize the whole membership in a direction. This has political and cultural ramifications. Traditionally mainline Protestant denominations also hold this ability but it has waned considerably through fracturing and massive decline. For example, the PCUSA lost 75% of its membership in 60 years during the same period that the US population doubled in size!!

I think we forget how bad the world was before Christianity. Pedophilia, sexual immorality, and general crime were rampant before Christian society took over. The rejection of these things makes us stand out.

@elijah_energy @redeemed_zoomer I think you doubt the power of the seminaries. They are logistically the most important institution a church can hold. Whoever controls the seminaries controls the church. If the Catholic Church is so powerful, how come they can't take back the protestant and EO churches?

I don't think you understand my point. Kicking out Rick Warren's (Saddleback) church for having female clergy has no effect, other than cutting off a potential pipeline of funding and people from tangential associations with missions or seminaries. It is an association of independent churches, there is no *meaningful* institutional power outside of the soft power generated by lifeway and its publishing/curriculum wing or the Seminaries. The recent history of the association reveals how little power the executive committee actually has to enforce anything downhill in the org; likewise those churches in the minority have very little power to assert their designs on the executive committee.

@poperespecter1 So God heard no prayers of any of the popes during the entirety of the crusades?

A lot of protestants need to read their bibles. “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!” (Isaiah 1:15)

@How2BeChristian @redeemed_zoomer You literally said education has nothing to do with knowing the truth. Catholics flat out are beat in education by protestants

@PartBaptist1689 @redeemed_zoomer Who said anything about “anti-intellectual”?