This is how some theist organizations operate?

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That this xtian group has pushed this case all the way up to the SCOTUS is appalling! That the SCOTUS is actually hearing it is even worse!

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This is beyond awful. I have worked with the homeless, and weaponizing homelessness and mental illness to further a religious agenda is extremely despicable. It is the definition of bullying.

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Religion shits on man again. Funny how most of these religious idiots want to “judge” the homeless but they won’t make mega shelters instead of mega churches. A majority of the religious only want money from their followers to “tip” the preachers for their lies and dumb ass speeches or renovate their buildings. A lot of that money that they get from abusing the tithe system would be more than enough to help people struggling out on the streets.

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This is really fucked up.

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Here’s Ken Copeland’s house:

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And here’s Joel Osteen’s:

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Here are some other homes…

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This is what I have seen all over the world. The most amazing buildings are constructed by religious organizations and they build these buildings on the death of the poor.

Let’s pretend I am a minister or priest and I want to build a church, hospital, or school, in any poor country in the world.

Step One: Meet with other pastors or priests and get them on board with the idea of building something.

Step Two: Convince your congregations to begin donating money.

Step Three: Pocket most of the money and do not tell the congregation that you have an alliance that has been agreed upon with other institutions.

Step Four: Get all the material donated. Get the transportation donated. Get the design and labor donated. (Don’t forget to keep passing that collection plate.)

Step five: Share your progress with the congregation. Keep pocketing 90% of the donations and shipping 10% to assist with the build along with your partners. Each partner and their congregation are being told they are responsible for the new building.

Now you need books, medical supplies, furnishings, and more. Keep those donations coming in and don’t forget to tell the congregation what loving people they are, as you continue to pocket 90% of the donations.

There is a huge benefit in starting one’s own church. Especially if you have just a bit of charisma and are capable of fucking over your fellow man with bullshit.

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L. Ron Hubbard recognized that and succeeded even with a crazy scheme like dianetics/scientology.

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Decades ago, now, I subscribed to Asimov’s SciFi magazine. One month I saw an ad in it for Dianetics. This was long before email, so I wrote Asimov a letter saying that I knew they had been friends at one time but i thought L Ron was a thief and a liar. Asimov wrote me back. I still have the letter. He said that the ad to which I objected would not re-appear…that it was a matter of the editorial side being on opposite sides of a wall from the business side too thick for good communication.
In his autobiography, Asimov said how sad he was that his former friend invented Scientology.

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It’s a shame the people involved in creating the other major religions are not around to express remorse or shame, you know how theists love an “eyewitness”. :smirk:

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Priests and members of the clergy are nothing more than human vultures. There is a reason they hang out in hospital rooms waiting for their congregation members to die.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we receive from being included in their wills.”

If a pastor needs a new bus, all he needs to do is pray for someone in his congregation to die. Hell, you don’t even have to be rich to have small enough savings for a down payment, and of course, god will provide. Someone else will drop dead soon. This is the real way to make money in a church.

Those weekly donations that are tossed into the basket pay the bills, the real cheese is when a congregation member kicks the bucket. That’s just “FREE MONEY.” “PRAISE THE LORD!”

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A lot of Christians like to state that there are helpful and charitable Christian organizations helping the poor and the homeless. But like you, I fail to see evidence of that. As many churches as there are claiming to be helpful, why are we not seeing it?

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Well, I think there are some decent organizations that claim a religious foundation. For instance, although it’s not a church, Habitat for Humanity is xtian. They do a lot of good. They also welcome everyone of any faith or no faith. But I agree that given the amount of money going in to churches, not a lot is coming back out.

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So this is the scam…

  1. First and foremost the target. The criteria of the target has to be someone who is of low income. 2. Another criterion is that the potential homeowner must make a certain amount of money. If you’re on social assistance they won’t help you. 3. nd they also tend of approve newcomers to Canada. People who fled their country of origin, who don’t understand Canadian laws, and who don’t understand contracts. 4. And the last criteria. They must have at least one kid. The more kids the better.

People who don’t ask questions, trust this “Christian charity,” believe everything the board members tell them, and follow instructions step by step would find themselves with a new home. And then the nightmare begins.

When a Habitat, chooses to a group of families, they apply for government grants. These grants can be up to $50,000 for each unit. So in the case on my street, there are ten units. That equals $500,000.00. That money is supposed to go directly into building the homes. Instead, they obtain city land at a cost due to their charity status. This means they get plots from old city land like community centers or schools for cheap and build on them. Next, they get companies like Home Depot to donate materials to build the homes. They get volunteers from the families of the homeowners, and the homeowners themselves to put in the “sweat equity” into the home. They must donate up to 500 hours. Behind the scenes, the homeowners are signing mortgage agreements, not with a legitimate bank, but with, you guessed it, Habitat for Humanity.

The only money that is spent towards the home is the land purchase itself. What’s worse? The labor is done by unskilled workers who have never built a home in their lives. They just follow the instructions of someone who supposedly has. Habitat almost always uses the number $160,000 for the value of these newly built homes.

So I asked myself how much of the money are they getting. So I will list out the money.

  1. $50.000 x 10 = $500,000.00

  2. 10 mortgages for $160,000 = 1,600,000.00

Now the above amounts total over $2,100,000.00. (Two Million, One Hundred Thousand dollars). And because they are a charity, they pay less tax.

OKAY: I got all this from an article I found online that professed to expose the scam Habitat for Humanity was perpetrating. I can not account for the legitimacy of the article. Here is what I can say. I worked for non-profits for the majority of my life. They all had scams. Group homes going through the trashcans of stores, looking for clothing and food receipts to claim they had purchased items for kids. Churches stealing from congregation members, (in a manner previously mentioned). Counseling agencies fudging their contract hours and reporting unrealistic success rates. The wanton spending of cash on completely unnecessary items to that the agency can run out and beg for more in the next fiscal year. Non-profits are businesses and as such, they are subject to all the same slimy stuff that any business does. There is no non-profit in a non-profit. If they do not make a profit, they do not stay in business. And under the illusion of helping others, big money can be made. Another name for sympathetic souls, in many cases, is ‘mark.’

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Oh, Cog, I hope you didn’t think I’d not looked into this organization before I mentioned it as decent. You pulled a review from the web that you admit you did not vet. Hmmm….

Of course. The goal is to provide affordable housing. The houses aren’t free. They aren’t ’advertised’ as such. An income is required because they want folks to be able to keep and maintain the house.

From the www, “An important concept re: H4H is “sweat equity.” Habitat doesn’t give people houses. Habitat helps people build homes and become homeowners. I think to become a homeowner, you’re required to spend to give 500 hours of sweat equity, whether that’s by working on your own home or other means. Low-income people are unlikely to be able to save up to make a down payment on a home so sweat equity is the down payment. So sure, it’s not going to help everyone but few things do.”

You seem to have sited a quote from someone in Canada. H4H operates in a lot of countries. The local groups of large orgs like this may vary in their effectiveness. Additionally, an individual’s experience or opinion may be a one-off.

Are you conflating revenue with profit? Of course many non-profits have revenue! How do you think they fund the operation?

Here’s their 2023 Annual Report. It provides info on all the different sorts of assistance (like pouring a concrete floor where only a dirt floor existed) the org provides and where.

I’ve paid hundreds of thousands in interest to the bank holding my mortgage. (Edited to add: and the interest I’ve forked over to the bank is many times more than the equity I now have.). I’ve hit hard times and had to re-fi a couple of times, resulting in even higher interest rates. H4H does not charge interest. A recipient’s payments go towards equity, not the bankers. So, yay! Good on ‘em!

Do they work with local governments and businesses and get volunteer workers? Absolutely. Is that a bad thing? I think providing livable, affordable housing should be a community effort. H4H is just one, of many necessary paths to get there.

Are they perfect? Without flaw? I doubt it. After all, humans are involved. :woozy_face:

Your experiences with the non-profits with whom you’ve been associated is, I would hope you’ll admit, limited. And from my perspective, your post seems to lump them all in a bucket of waste.
I think there’s a scale of decent to rotten with non-profit orgs. And I think H4H is a decent one. I think there are decent groups of people in the world doing decent things.

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you are citing a lunatic

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Yes, limited… The bulk of the money spent on non-profits goes to the business. They report 60% and up to the government but this isn’t the case in my experience. So, yes, I am only speaking from personal experience and things I have read. I have a negative view of all non-profit help organizations and tend to place them alongside churches.

I’ve been working in the “helping industry” a long time. I don’t trust it… and the fundraisers… don’t get me started on the sleaze ball fundraisers. They take as much as 50% of the donations right off the top. Companies that pay flat rates will terminate the employment of any fundraiser failing to meet company-set quotas. (It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there in the non-profit industry.) Yes, my experience is limited.

I think I merely want to point out, things are not always what they seem. Like churches, the non-profit industry cons good people who want to help. (that is just my opinion).

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Okay. I get that. Might I suggest, though, that you discover if that is the case before saying it is the case.

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I think it is just my pedantic tone. Too many years in front of a classroom.

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Thank you Jesus!

Truth and Light in a Dark Place!