Promises Pt. 03

"Sure Boss." Bill looked at the list, his eyebrows shot up as he read it. "Shouldn't be a problem." He got up and walked out.

They finished their meal and walked back to the courthouse.

There was a buzz about the courtroom as the protagonists resumed their pre-lunch positions. Henderson exuded an air of confidence while in contrast Mayotte had the look of someone preparing for his execution.

"We shall resume where we left off before the adjournment, shall we? Pastor Mayotte, the next Scripture I would have you read comes from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 16 starting from verse 1."

Mayotte picked up the Bible and quickly found the place. 'Jesus told his disciples; 'there was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.' The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg - I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.' So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil.' he replied. The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.' Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?' 'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied. He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.' The master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with real riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.' The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, 'You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.'."

"What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight. The Pentecostal church should be shaking in its collective boots at this passage but, instead it uses it to justify its collection of money. It sees itself as shrewd managers who manipulate others to acquire more money for the church. But in doing so it is serving the two masters that Jesus tells them that they cannot do, its love of money, its quest for more money and power takes precedence over its love of God. Think about it; if the church actually loved God, would it still be focused on the acquisition of wealth and power?"

"We love God but need money to do God's work!"

"Have you ever compared your church with, say the Uniting Church? It uses a large percentage of its budget for the care of those people for which the tithe laws were originally introduced, yet it doesn't insist on its followers tithing, it asks for a 'free will offering', enough to meet its needs. You, on the other hand, demand, demand a tithe, while the highest percentage of your budget is used on the expansion of your church. Now which church would you say was doing God's work? We have looked briefly at the teachings of Jesus on the subject of money and I think that even you would have to admit that using parables to justify an agenda is open to abuse but the teachings of Paul on the other hand, are more straight forward. Would you be so kind as to turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 verses 1 through 15. Could you read that out to the court please, Pastor Mayotte?"

Mayotte turned to the passage and began to read. 'And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will. So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But just as you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us - see that you also excel in this grace for giving. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: 'He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little." Mayotte looked at Henderson, there was an excitement in his eyes and his confidence was renewed, what was wrong with this passage, didn't it support what he believed? "What is your problem with that? Paul says that they gave beyond their ability, so why shouldn't we expect the same?"

"But do you and your church do the same thing? No, you expect your followers to tithe even if that places them under hardship, but you do not do the same thing. The church at Macedonia gave first to the Lord and then to Paul so that he could do the work of God. That is different to your church, the giving is first to you and then to God, and only after you have taken your slice of the pie, and there are only crumbs left for God. This message from Paul is about equality, not about one church taking the giving of others and, while building up their own wealth, leaving the other church poor and unable to complete the task that it has begun. The whole passage doesn't fit with your interpretation of a small section of it, does it?"

"But in Malachi it tells us that if we don't pay our tithe to the church we are stealing from God!"

"But you have no problem with taking more than your fair share of what is given, stealing from those who God wanted you to help, just to become richer yourself?"

"I don't personally take more than my fair share."

"You are paid a wage?"

"Yes."

"I won't embarrass you by asking how much you get paid. Your house, is it adequate for your needs or is it more than adequate?"

"It is comfortable."

"I have here a photograph of your house. It fits the term 'MacMansion' quite nicely." Henderson held it up for Mayotte to see. "I would hazard a guess that there is enough room in this house for a large family, but there are only the two of you living here. Don't you think that it's something of an overkill to have a house this big for just two people?"

"We have to entertain visiting church people from time to time and we have family that come and stay."

"I won't ask you how big a mortgage you have on this house because I already know, and I would hazard a guess that you would have to have a very substantial salary to service that mortgage, but then there are the perks. The church gives you a car for your personal use?"

"Yes I have to go to meetings with other churches and undertake pastoral duties."

"Again I won't embarrass you buy asking you to give us examples of those 'pastoral duties' that you need a 7 Series, the top of the range, BMW costing in excess of $300,000 to get to. While you're at work, do you take a packed lunch from home, or maybe you go out for lunch, or maybe even, your lunch is provided along with morning and afternoon tea or coffee."

"I have to eat, and yes the church provides."

"And when you have visiting Pastors and you wish to entertain them, do you entertain at home with your wife doing the catering, is the catering 'in house' with your staff and volunteers doing the catering, or do you go to a fancy restaurant at church expense?"

"It depends on who we have to entertain."

"But aren't you supposed to treat all people equally? What line of demarcation determines who gets the fancy restaurant and who has to make do with your wife's cooking?"

"I don't have to answer that question."

"Fine, we'll leave it to everyone to come to their own conclusions." Before Mayotte had a chance to interject Henderson continued. "Tell me Pastor Mayotte, when Jesus turned over the trading tables in the temple, what was he on about, why do you think he did that?"

"I believe that he was saying that the temple was a house of prayer and the traders had defiled it."

"But under Jewish law of the time they had every right to be there. You see, the Jews were not allowed to give coins to the church that had a human image on it, as the Roman coins did, so there were traders there who changed the Roman coins for temple coins. They were offering a service to the worshippers, why would Jesus have any problem with that?"

"If you have a better answer I would like to hear it."

"I believe that what he was railing against was the commercialization of the whole process. Here was a spiritual place, a temple of God, and it had been turned into a place where the material had taken over, where the money changers had a nice little scam happening. I've been giving this a little thought and the question that I had to ask was; what happens to the temple coins once the Priests have them? They can't go down to the corner shop and buy stuff with them, they weren't any good anywhere other than as a tithe. What I think was happening was that the Priests and temple officials would sell them back to the money traders who would use them the following Sabbath. Chances were that both the temple officials and the traders were taking a cut from the transactions, as well as the traders paying for the right to trade. So you see the focus of the Pharisees and Priests was on money and power."

"You could be right."

"Now tell me, Pastor Mayotte, in the foyer of your church, apart from the franchised coffee outlet that you must make a large profit from, do you have merchandising tables and stalls where you sell books, CD's, DVD's and videos?"

"Yes."

"The CD's that you sell, do you have music CD's produced by your music team?"

"Yes. We are proud of our Worship Team, they really produce a high standard of music."

"And do you sell these at current market rates for CD's?"

"Yes. Where is this leading?"

"Bear with me, we're almost there. Before we get into the financial side of these CD's, I would like you to look at something." Henderson placed a DVD into his computer and the screen came alive to the sound and vision of Chuck Mayotte playing his guitar solo. "Pretty impressive isn't it Pastor Mayotte, I bet that you are proud of your son's musical prowess?"

"Yes, he's become a very competent guitarist."

"I'll stop the DVD here and call on Billy Browning, a renowned guitarist." Browning came forward and plugged his guitar into an amp.

"Objection!" Johansson rose to his feet. "What possible relevance can this have to these proceedings?"

"Mister Henderson?" Judge Foley was himself curious.

"If you will bear with me for just a moment all will be revealed." He started the DVD again, this time with the sound muted. "If you will observe, Billy here is fingering and picking his guitar exactly as Chuck is." The sound that emerged from Billy's amp was a discordant mishmash of noises, nothing like what had been heard on the DVD. "Now if you look to the back of the stage you will notice another guitarist is also playing. Billy, if you will." Again the fingering matched that on the screen, only this time it was that of the other guitarist, the one at the rear of the stage. This time the music exactly matched that on the DVD.

"Pastor Mayotte, what we have seen here is nothing short of musical deception. Chuck is the 'Milli Vanilli' of the Christian music scene. Oh I admit that he has the moves down pat, and the Presleyesque upper lip is impressive, but the music isn't his, is it? This is all a part of the deception that you are perpetrating on your congregation, it's all about appearances isn't it Pastor Mayotte. Your son is on the Shining Light payroll for his contribution to the music, to the pre-meeting concert, yet it is not him playing is it? He is accepting a wage under false pretences, yet you obviously don't see anything wrong with this, do you?"

"While we are discussing your family, how's the book deal going?"

"What are you talking about, what book deal?"

"Your older son, Matthew Junior, he's not really sick is he Pastor Mayotte?" This question caught Mayotte completely off guard. No-one was supposed to know about this and yet Henderson had found out.

"What!" He was visibly shaken by this question. It took him several seconds to regain some sort of composure. "How dare you! My son is suffering from a particularly aggressive form of cancer and has been given only a short time to live. We, of course, are praying for a miracle healing to save his life." He grasped the railing in front of him for support and tears welled up in his eyes.

"But the miracle hasn't come quickly enough has it Pastor Mayotte?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that there is a whistle-blower in your camp who is about to go public with this deception, this lie. Your crocodile tears can't disguise the fact that your son does not have cancer at all, never has had, and you know it. You know it because of the fact that, if he had this form of cancer for as long as he claims, his body would be showing signs of it, his body would be showing signs of the treatment he claims to have been receiving, the hair loss from chemo, the affects of radio therapy, but there is none of that is there?"

"You took his word for the fact that he was ill, at least I hope that's the case," This brought a sharp glare from Mayotte, "This must be a case of placing your faith in a miracle because the person that it happened to was an awesome man of God and couldn't possibly lie to you. Can't you see the danger in relying only on faith, and not hard and fast evidence?"

The faithful in the gallery exchanged glances and the thoughts that went through their minds were identical; was it true? Did Mayotte know about this, this act where Matt would sing in a voice shaking with emotion, his prayer for a healing miracle? And those tears, really.

"One thing that I find difficult to understand Pastor Mayotte is this, on a number of occasions, such as when you announced recently that your church was moving onwards and upwards, you stated that, what were your words again? 'I was humbled when the powerful presence of God came to me', you have claimed a direct communication with God. Now, surely God, during one of your many conversations with Him, would have told you of this deception, but no, He failed to do that, didn't he? Does this mean that God was supporting this deception, Pastor Mayotte? Because if He is, that would mean that he is in on this con. I don't think so."

"You were going to wait an appropriate length of time and then announce to your congregation, and the world at large, that your prayers had been answered. And that your son was the recipient of a miracle healing. And that the new tests have shown, not just that the cancer is in remission, but that it has completely disappeared. Praise God for a miracle!" Henderson held both arms up mimicking the stance used by many preachers when proclaiming a miracle. "Think of the invitations to speak to other churches, at their expense of course, and with a love offering thrown in for good measure, you would have been laughing all the way to the bank."

"Your son, a Pastor in a church that you have affiliations with, has exploited his supposed illness to generate sympathy to his plight, has received substantial donations to help him in his plight. Money that was gained by false pretences, by deception, he was living a lie. And you knew that it was a lie, Didn't you Pastor Mayotte? You don't have to answer that."

"But God had other plans didn't He, Pastor Mayotte? The God that chose you to birth your church, who chose you for this work that you do, is punishing you. God placed an honest person, a Jeremiah, in your midst, one who was prepared to expose this lie, this deception. Is that not true Pastor Mayotte?" Henderson turned his back on Mayotte. "You don't have to answer that either." He said as he walked back to his desk.

Mayotte's mind began to immediately search for who it was that could have told Henderson about Matt. His mind, distorted by this exposure, thought of only one person, Janine. Had she betrayed him when she spent the night with Henderson?

"Back to the matter at hand." Mayotte's attention was brought back into focus. "Can you tell me, Pastor Mayotte, what is the unit cost to your church of those CD's?" Another quick change of subject.

"I don't know off the top of my head."

"It wouldn't cost your church as much to produce as a commercial CD, would it?"

"I don't know."

"And I bet you've never asked. Do you pay composer's royalties for songs written by your music team?"

"No. That is their gift to us."

"Do you pay management and agent fees for any of the artistes on the CD's?"

"No."

"Do you pay any fees to the artistes themselves?"

"No, our Worship Team are volunteers, they give their time and talents freely."

"Do you pay the sound and recording engineers?"

"No. Again they are volunteers."

"Do you pay for the hire of the recording studio?"

"No. We have our own facilities."

"The reproduction of the CD's, is that done using church equipment?"

"Yes."

"The energy, the electricity, used in the production of these CD's, is that accounted for separately from the church's general accounts, or as part of those accounts?"

"They are included in the general account."

"So the energy costs are not factored into the production costs of the CD's?"

"No."

"So these costs are paid for from the concessions you enjoy as a church?"

"Yes."

"The liner notes, they are designed by someone in the church?"

"Yes."

"Is that person paid for this service?"

"No. Again he is a volunteer."

"So the unit costs for each CD amounts to the physical cost of the blank CD itself, and the case, all of which can be bought at any discount store for less than a dollar each. The printing costs of the CD liners and the printing of the CD itself, probably using your own equipment at a unit cost of between fifty cents and a dollar. Would I be correct in this assumption, Pastor Mayotte?"

"Yes."

"So we have a CD that cost less than two dollars to produce, and you sell it for the same price as one that has been commercially produced, with all the associated costs and profit margins added in. Is this true, Pastor Mayotte?"