Promises Pt. 03

"No."

"Congratulations Pastor Mayotte, you have just stolen from God! When you appear as a guest 'Awesome man of God' at another church and they take up a 'love offering' for you, do you factor that money into your tithe?"

"No."

"Congratulations again! You have once more stolen from God."

"The value of the meals provided by your church for you and any guests that you have, that would have cost you and your church a lot of money, do you factor the value of those meals into your tithe?"

"No."

"Congratulations once again! You have once more stolen from God. Now, Pastor Mayotte, your church doesn't pay local government or state taxes because it is a church, isn't that true?"

"Yes."

"And that saves you a considerable amount of money that could have been spent helping the needy, doing the work of God, but where did it go, to the maintenance of your 'blessed by God' façade, isn't that true, Pastor Mayotte?"

"Yes."

"So you are stealing from the taxpayer, monies that could be used for social welfare programs to help the needy that you should have been helping if you were truly doing the work of God. And you don't see anything wrong with this, Pastor Mayotte?"

Silence.

"There is one other thing, the land that your church sits on, is it owned by the church?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's a simple enough question, is it owned by the church, or does the church lease the land and its buildings from a private company? And is that company solely owned by you?"

"It is owned by me, but that is a purely financial arrangement."

"So you don't profit from this at all?"

"The monies received go towards repaying the mortgage."

"And while your company owns the buildings, any maintenance, any improvements, modifications and development of the site, are paid for by your church, is this not correct?"

"Yes."

"I'm sure that you had no ulterior motive to enter into this financial arrangement, like, if you should lose this case and have to pay damages to my client, your church will immediately declare itself bankrupt, but, because it doesn't own the land or buildings, it can start another church the following week under a new name, and with the same personnel and same infrastructure, without the usual set-up costs. A win-win situation wouldn't you think Pastor Mayotte?"

Silence.

"And then there is the situation of council rates and taxes. Your company, the one that owns the property and buildings, does it pay rates and taxes, or does it also claim an exemption based on it being a 'Christian charity or church?"

Silence.

"And you see nothing wrong in all of this?"

"How much did your suit cost you?" It was a desperate attempt to deflect the focus from himself to Henderson.

"This one? Twenty dollars at the Sally Army Op Shop. I don't believe in flaunting any success that I might have, unlike you. If I were to front up to some of my clients in a suit like yours I would lose all of the credibility that I have worked so long and hard for. You see I work with some of the people that you wouldn't be seen dead with, because unlike you, I'm not a big fan of appearances. To be seen with someone who is not successful, does not give the appearance of success, is part and parcel of my work, and it gives me great satisfaction."

"I suppose that you finance your good works with cases like this one. How much do you hope to be paid in fees for this case?"

"Have you forgotten my statement at the beginning of this trial? Nothing. I have undertaken this case pro bono, a term that you would not be familiar with, that means unpaid. I am doing this because it is a cause that I can identify with, the helping people who have been, are being, ripped off by the greedy, the avaricious, people in our greedy and avaricious society, like you and your greedy avaricious church."

"Do you remember yesterday in one of the 'woes' we talked about, it mentioned the effort expended in gaining new members? Tell me Pastor Mayotte, is it not true that new people in your church are feted, after the service, in a special lounge where they can meet your Pastors and drink espresso coffee from your commercial espresso machine and eat cakes from your commercial kitchen while the older members are treated to cheap tea and coffee and cheap supermarket biscuits or, if they want proper coffee they can buy it from your franchised coffee outlet in the foyer? Jesus preached a classless society where all are equal while your church is an example of the opposite is it not, Pastor Mayotte?"

Silence.

"No answer as expected. Just out of curiosity, the coffee franchise you have in your foyer, do you pay franchise fees for it?"

"No, that was a part of the deal with the franchisor."

"And the people that make the coffee, do they get a paid wage?"

"No, they are all volunteers, they are proud to serve."

"And the cakes that are sold in this coffee outlet, are they purchased commercially, or are they donated?"

"They are donated. They are cooked by volunteers."

"So let me get this straight, you have a commercial coffee machine provided free of charge, the coffee beans are probably provided by the franchisor at cost, you have volunteer workers serving the customers, cakes that cost you nothing, the water and electricity I would hazard a guess are paid for as part of the church general account, which leaves the ingredients such as milk and sugar as the only expense. Correct me if I'm wrong here but you charge full commercial prices for the coffee and cakes that you serve, is this true, Pastor Mayotte?"

"Yes."

"And before you acquired this coffee franchise, you and your fellow 'awesome men of God' used to frequent a local coffee lounge, is this not true?"

"Yes."

"So not only are you making a large profit from this enterprise but you are operating at a distinct commercial advantage over the other coffee shops in your area, you are taking away a large part of their livelihood. Do you think that this is fair trade, Pastor Mayotte? Don't you think that if the other coffee lounges in your area were to complain to the relevant authority they would have some justification?"

Mayotte sat in silence unlike the public gallery that was abuzz with conversation and CC Jones who was disturbed by the tenor of those conversations. Things were not going well. He was going to have to whip up some sort of support for his man or the outcome could be disastrous not only for Mayotte but for the whole Pentecostal movement. This man Henderson really had a bee in his bonnet about the church and its ideology and unless he could be stopped their world would come crashing down, like the tower of Babel.

"Answer me Pastor Mayotte, isn't it true that your church uses the predatory pricing practices that I have just mentioned?"

"Yes. But when someone new comes we want them to feel that they are special to us."

"And after they have been there for a while they are no longer special?"

"No! That is not the case at all! Everyone is special to us!"

"Then how come not everyone can partake, free of charge, of your culinary largesse?"

"That would cost too much money and we have to be good stewards of our money."

"So you lavish gifts on the new and take the old for granted in the hope that, among the new there will be someone that you can exploit?"

"That is not true!"

"There is little evidence to support your assertion. So, much of what you do in your church is about the appearance of wealth and success, so that your followers and new people to your church can feel good about being a part of that wealth and success. It is nothing about God or the Spirit of God at all! You have created a vortex that sucks people into it, and when they have been stripped bare it spits them out, their usefulness to you depleted. Are you familiar with the Golden Orb Weaver spider, Pastor Mayotte?"

"I know of them but not a lot about them, where are we going with this?"

"Where we are going is that when I look at you and your church I am reminded very much of that spider. It builds this magnificent web, it really is spectacular, and its location is for maximum effect, and then it sits in the centre of that web and waits. It doesn't need to go out into the world looking for something to trap, no it's an ambush predator, it sits there and waits for this something to blunder into its web. And then do you know what it does? I'll tell you, it sucks that poor trapped thing dry until there is only a hollow shell where once there was a living, breathing creature. Do you see the analogy, Pastor Mayotte?"

There was a mumbled affirmation.

"Unfortunately, this is a reflection of the acquisitive society that has been spawned by the same marketing principles you use. Relationships exist while you can gain from them, but as soon as there is nothing more to be gained, the relationship ceases. Friendships exist while one of the parties can gain something from it, but as soon as there is nothing more to gain, the friend has been sucked dry, the friendship ends."

"People come and go in the Pentecostal church. They stay while they can gain something from it and then move on. They stay until you have gained all that you can from them, and the hollow shell is allowed to fall to the ground, like the sucked dry husks of the victim of the golden orb weaver spider. The hollow husk is allowed to drop to the ground, because it is of no further use to you."

"You view those people that leave as failures, but not your failure, oh no, you are perfection personified, so the failure cannot be yours. But you don't think about those who leave because they have failed, their faith has failed them, they are losers and there is no place in your church for losers."

"Then there are the failures that stay, that live in the hope that you will still be willing and able to help them, never realizing that you no longer have an interest in helping them, the people that are most in need of your help. The rich don't need your help, but you fawn over them. The poor need your help but you ignore them, acknowledge them only in passing. The healthy don't need your help, but you ask them how they are. The sick need your help, but you have no help to give them other than offering them prayer support, knowing that this will not help as much as the medical intervention that they are being denied because they cannot afford it, but you still demand that they tithe. Where is your Christian compassion, Pastor Mayotte, where is it?"

"You don't tell the faithful about all of those who have prayed for healing but who have not received it, but you highlight any success, even if it is one written about by someone else. You highlight it when someone comes into money, and claim that it was because they tithed, not because they earned it, or a rich relative had died and left it to them. But you will make no mention of all of those people who have tithed diligently for years, and received no additional income, nothing."

"The one thing that you do not highlight about those successes is that there is absolutely no evidence to support your assertion that they were as a direct consequence of tithing and or prayer. And that is because no such evidence exists."

"No loser rates a mention, they are consigned to oblivion. It is then left for those organizations that actually do the work of God, and these are not necessarily churches, to pick up the pieces, to help those whose lives have been stripped bare by organizations like your church of Greed. When will you and your church actually begin doing the work of God, Pastor Mayotte?"

"Where do you get off telling me how to run the church of God! My church, our church is doing God's work! We bring joy into people's lives! We bring them closer to God!"

"You entertain them for a couple of hours on Sunday so that they can forget, for that short time, their problems, their cares. And when they realize just what your church is like, they leave. When the expensive veneer is stripped off they find a church constructed of chip-board, and they leave God because they feel betrayed by you and your betrayal of God. Greed is not God, but greed is central to your worship."

"We have a few people who move on as a part of their Spiritual walk, not because they are discouraged."

"So you are telling us that the appearance of wealth is not an integral part of your ideology, the ideology of the Pentecostal church?"

"No."

"Are you aware of an organization known as HTTV?"

"No."

"Come now Pastor Mayotte, tell me you aren't suffering memory loss. I bet your friend, Pastor Calvin Coolidge Jones, who is seated right behind you, and who has flown all the way from the US to support you, at your church's expense, he knows all about HTTV, the Holy Trinity Television, from whose studio in America pours a never ending stream of 'Christian' shows, including his own, designed to entice people to donate monies that will enable them to keep going?"

"Oh, them. Yes I know of them and the great work that they do."

"That 'great work' as you put it, costs many people their last dollar, some were even encouraged to go into debt to donate, to what? So that they can do the work of God? No! It is so that the Directors on this organization can live a life of obscene decadence and luxury! And what is given in return for this lifestyle? More requests for money! The faithful are continually bombarded with request for money, they are told that even if they can't afford it they should take the 'leap of faith' and give it any way! Put it on your credit card, write a check, take out a loan! Give! Give! And give some more to an organization that doesn't actually need it. An organization that has millions and millions, close to two hundred and fifty million at last count, of dollars in US Government Bonds, over thirty million dollars in cash assets, its own corporate jet at the personal disposal of the Directors, huge number of houses, paid for in cash so there is no paper trail leading to HTTV. Condominiums and mansions around the countryside at the disposal of the directors. Have you heard of Robin Hood, Pastor Mayotte?"

"The legendary outlaw who lived in Sherwood Forest?"

"That's the man. He and his band of outlaws were closer to doing God's work than the directors of the HTTV. Robin Hood saw the way the poor were being robbed blind by the evil money grabbing Sheriff of Nottingham, and decided to do something about it. So they stole the money from the Sherriff and his rich cronies, and gave it back to the poor from whom it was stolen in the first place, sort of evening the balances. But HTTV is doing the opposite! It is stealing from the poor, the people who can least afford to give, with promises of a hundred-fold return on their Seed, did you know that 70 percent of donations to one of the so-called Praise-a-thons were of less than fifty dollars, and this money went to the rich, the obscenely wealthy just so they can show the world that they are 'being blessed by God'. It makes me want to throw up, it makes me want to resign my membership of the Christian faith."

"Let me run some figures past you Pastor Mayotte. Figures quoted in an article on HTTV published in a newspaper a couple of years ago states that during a typical 'Praise-a-thon' some $90,000,000 are pledged. HTBN claims they receive only half of this amount, say $45,000,000. Now HTTV claims that God will repay this amount one hundred times over which means that HTTV is committing God to a debt of $4,500,000,000! If God had that kind of money at his disposal, do you honestly think that He would need organizations such as HTTV or even your church?"

Mayotte remained silent.

"Do you think that is right, do you think it is of God, Pastor Mayotte?"

"You are obviously distorting the facts!"

"A question; if this promise made on behalf of God was honoured by God, don't you think that there would be a huge PR exercise surrounding that amazing event, instead the silence is deafening, not one word of thanks from any of the recipients of God's bounty. These people have got to be either ungrateful, or the promises have not been honoured. Which is it Pastor Mayotte?"

Silence.

"This guy, this so called Pastor is a beauty. He has, through this 'Prosperity Gospel', distorted the purpose of the Christian faith for his own benefit. Using what he calls 'God's economy of giving', this awesome man of God exhorts the people to give even if they can't afford it because 'God is especially generous to those who give who can least afford it.' During one 'Praise-a-thon' he claimed that God could give you thousands, hundreds of thousands, He'll give you millions of dollars.' Do you think that it is really God making those promises, Pastor Mayotte?"

"He is a man of God and if he says that God made those promises then who am I to question that?"

"But you haven't verified that, have you? And some of the other 'awesome men of God' he has on his shows are just as deceitful. One of them claimed that Jesus wore designer clothes, and I quote; 'I mean, you didn't get the stuff he wore off the rack... No, this was custom stuff. It was the kind of garment that kings and rich merchants wore.' This is another example of 'instant coffee theology'. Yes Jesus wore such a robe, but if you look at the cited Scripture, John Chapter 19, you will see that it was the robe that was placed on him when he was being mocked during his trial. He did not swan around the countryside during his ministry on Earth in 'designer' clothes. But this person would have you believe that he did so just so that he could justify his own expensive clothes. Is that something that God would approve of, Pastor Mayotte?"

"I am sure that he has been misquoted."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you there. And do you know what happens when the return on your 'investment' is not forthcoming?"

"No."

"It's all your fault! That's what you'd be told. You didn't have enough faith, your lack of faith blocked God's blessing, probably because you weren't giving enough. That's what you'll be told! Nothing at all to do with the fact that those promises of returns for the 'seed' that you sowed would never bear fruit, your seed will fall on rocky ground and there is no nutrient in that ground to grow your seed, no they won't tell you that."

"One televangelist, and I can't think of his name right now, but it will come to me, once proclaimed that the church shouldn't give to the poor because they (the poor) couldn't repay the loan! If I was a swearing man I'd let out a couple of good ones right about now, in fact I think I will! Bloody Hell how un-Christian can you get! How can anyone have respect for a Christian Preacher who thinks like that? How can you have respect for him, Pastor Mayotte?"

"Have you got your facts right? This sounds like anti-Christian propaganda! It sounds like someone is spreading false rumours because his church isn't getting the same amount in donations."

"If I was a Christian minister, pastor or whatever, and I'd been working my butt off helping the poor, the sick, the homeless, the substance abusers, the marginalized of society, and I'd been financing this work with most of my church income, and living below the poverty line into the bargain, and you moved into my patch with a church such as yours, luring my members with its trappings of wealth being flaunted for the world to see, and who has been soliciting donations and tithes by telling the donors that the money was going to do God's work when almost all of it was being used to finance the trappings of wealth, and dangling the carrot of a seven-fold, or in the case of HTTV, a hundred-fold increase in my finances because of my giving, with little or no likelihood of that happening, wouldn't I, Pastor Mayotte, be justified in being just a little ticked?"

"I suppose you would."