Detroit megachurch prays over SUVs at the altar for industry bailout

[ccharles000]

WTF? If God cannot answer the call of those in more desperate straits, then these folks worshipping at the altar of Big Auto are in for a sore disappointment. Don't expect any humility from the execs when they screw over the worker to save their own hides.

With sport-utility vehicles at the altar and auto workers in the pews, one of Detroit's largest churches on Sunday offered up prayers for Congress to bail out the struggling auto industry.

"We have never seen as midnight an hour as we face this week," the Rev. Charles Ellis told several thousand congregants at a rousing service at Detroit's Greater Grace Temple. "This week, lives are hanging above an abyss of uncertainty as both houses of Congress decide whether to extend a helping hand."

Local car dealerships donated three hybrid SUVs to be displayed during the service, one from each of the Big Three. A Ford Escape, Chevy Tahoe from GM and a Chrysler Aspen were parked just in front of the choir and behind the pulpit.

The ministers' plan is to fast and pray for the industry.


http://www.pamshouseblend.com/

[Donnachaidh]

1. wonder if that MEGA-church is going to give some cash BACK to the community?

These Mega-Churches are JACKALS. There should be monopoly laws applied to THEM as well. Especially in poor areas.

[CTyankee]

2. I thought that photo had a "golden calf" look to it!

I wonder about a church putting SUV's on its altar. While I understand and feel terrible about the suffering of the people of Detroit, this image is quite disturbing. If it was meant to highlight the economic crisis that Detroit is in, it failed. The only thing it did was to make people question the judgment used...

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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[tanyev]

4. So God needs visual aids to understand the problem?

[LeftHander]

5. God Hates SUVs

Don't pray for equality. Pray for a hunk of metal that provides the income for your congregants to keep the good minister in diamonds, Armani and a shiny new escalade every year.

[DainBramaged]

12. God doesn't hate. Shows what you know.

[AngryAmish]

13. How do you know?

[DainBramaged]

14. Faith.

[AngryAmish]

16. So if someone has faith that God does hate,...

their views are equally valid, yes?

[DainBramaged]

18. Cya, I'm not here to debate God, because if I believed he hated and didn't love

a lot of people here would have been hit by lightning a long time ago.


(spelling)

[sarcasmo]

23. Fred Phelps says god Hates fags so it must be true, god does Hate.

[DainBramaged]

38. If God hates, Fred Phelps is at the top of his list.

God is love. That's all I know. Hate is from man, imperfect man. We are the experiment gone wrong.

[dysfunctional press]

17. god has all sorts of human failings- jealousy, vengefulness, anger- to name a few...

at least the god described in the bible that all the christoids like to hold in awe.

[LeftHander]

21. it is called sarcasm....incase you couldn't figure that out....

[Obamanaut]

28. You're right. What with jealosy, greed, vengefulness, etc there

is no room for hate. Even in the OT we read that god is jealous and vengeful. We know about greed because everyone is supposed to give him one tenth of everything. So actually, god is impossible.

http://www.evilbible.com/Impossible.htm

All-good God Knowingly Creates Future Suffering
God is omniscient. When he created the universe, he saw the sufferings which humans would endure as a result of the sin of those original humans. He heard the screams of the damned. Surely he would have known that it would have been better for those humans to never have been born (in fact, the Bible says this very thing), and surely this all-compassionate deity would have foregone the creation of a universe destined to imperfection in which many of the humans were doomed to eternal suffering. A perfectly compassionate being who creates beings which he knows are doomed to suffer is impossible.

Infinite Punishment for Finite Sins
God is perfectly just, and yet he sentences the imperfect humans he created to infinite suffering in hell for finite sins. Clearly, a limited offense does not warrant unlimited punishment. God's sentencing of the imperfect humans to an eternity in hell for a mere mortal lifetime of sin is infinitely more unjust than this punishment. The absurd injustice of this infinite punishment is even greater when we consider that the ultimate source of human imperfection is the God who created them. A perfectly just God who sentences his imperfect creation to infinite punishment for finite sins is impossible.

Belief More Important Than Action
Consider all of the people who live in the remote regions of the world who have never even heard the "gospel" of Jesus Christ. Consider the people who have naturally adhered to the religion of their parents and nation as they had been taught to do since birth. If we are to believe the Christians, all of these people will perish in the eternal fire for not believing in Jesus. It does not matter how just, kind, and generous they have been with their fellow humans during their lifetime: if they do not accept the gospel of Jesus, they are condemned. No just God would ever judge a man by his beliefs rather than his actions.

[sufrommich]

6. I knew when I saw this story on the local Detroit news

channels here that some on DU would find reason to mock the desperation of these people.It matters way less that this huge church choose to display SUVs and pray for the auto industry than the symbolism of the abject fear that has taken over the people of Michigan.The lack of compassion from the so called progressives here is stunning.

[DainBramaged]

8. You bet. They got theirs, screw everybody else

Or, as Father Starbucks said, my HondaToyotaNissanSubaru is not a Domestic auto, therefore it is blessed and will never break. May the Biga Threea go to hella.

DU, where the the last bastion of manufacturing is mocked, where the man who uses his hands to make a living is shunned, and where you are considered classless if you have a trade and don't work in an approved job.

[sufrommich]

10. Yep. nt

[Nihil]

39. "the last bastion of manufacturing"?

> DU, where the the last bastion of manufacturing is mocked,
> where the man who uses his hands to make a living is shunned,

You know, you've got a great way with satire at times pal ...
... oh, you were serious?
:wow:


> ... and where you are considered classless if you have a trade and
> don't work in an approved job.

No, you are considered "classless" when you park three vehicles in front
of the altar of a church and then pray over them.

All Hail the Mighty Mammon!

Praise the Lord GM and His Holy Angels Ford & Chrysler!

Don't forget to put your last hard-earned wages in the collection plate
for the bishop of Armani to blow at Vegas while he laughs at the naive
stupidity of his "flock" who swallowed his latest gimmick hook, line
and sinker.

[spoony]

9. Yep.

It's like people are so focused on a type of vehicle, and getting revenge for that vehicle's existence, that everything--including millions of families--are acceptable losses. Or at the best, secondary concerns.

[sufrommich]

11. Well said,Spoony. nt

[JVS]

7. Does this endorsement of the bailout violate their tax free status?

[bertman]

19. I thought God knew everything. So, why would a servant of God want to change God's will??

Just askin'.

[terrya]

20. Wow...2 brand new shiny SUV's. That looks like the set of "Wheel of Fortune"

[sufrommich]

22. There was no game show feel to it. The church was filled

with desperate people who are now looking for any relief for their problems,down to their last hope for a miracle to save them.It was much more reminiscent of a scene that could have been in "They shoot horses,don't they?",which apparently some mistook for a comedy.

[JVS]

24. You're right, much more a golden calf feeling than a gameshow feeling

These people really ought to spend more time listening to Jesus when he exhorts them to consider the lilies of the field than considering the decked out sybaritic luxury of the SUV.

[CTyankee]

25. The problem is that their message is sabotaged by the imagery.

The people who are suffering the most are not the people who designed and decided to build these monster cars. The men and women working on the line are suffering for the sins of the boardroom execs who ignored reality and sent the company into disaster. If the message is these people's desperation, it is undermined greatly by seeming to glorify the manifestation of management's sins. That the the problem with that picture. It is certainly not these poor people's fault that this catastrophe has happened to them. They deserve our compassion and our help. The management needs to be thrown out in the street...

[IDemo]

26. Onionesque

[jazzjunkysue]

27. BRB. Going down to my lotto newsstand to pray. "I have seen the light!"

God-Just grant me one good win and I'll BEE_LEEEVE!!!

[Obamanaut]

29. Of course you saw the light. Look at the time of your post. nt

[Bluebear]

30. It looks like a Showcase from The Price Is Right. nt

[Neshanic]

31. Wow, just wow!

[derby378]

32. Tacky, tacky, tacky

Doesn't sound like any church I'd ever care to set foot in. Being active in the community is one thing, but being a shill is something else.

[Luciferous]

36. Agreed nt

[Vickers]

33. Nothing says "classy" like a truck in a church.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[KamaAina]

34. Our Lady of Perpetual Gas Guzzling?

:shrug:

[KamaAina]

35. Pam's House Blend rules!

Hadn't been over there for a while. Thanks! :hi:

[ccharles000]

37. Pam is great