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Grifter “Christians.” What could go wrong?
1 Timothy 6:10 "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."
Fake “Good News”!
When it comes to right wing Xtian Pulpit Pimps it’s all about fleecing the marks for every last tax-exempt penny they can get their hands on!
In today’s world of Venmo, and other money payment apps why would anyone send their money monthly to a place, Christian or not? If you feel the spirit calls you to help other’s then all you need is website to list who needs money for what. Otherwise you keep your money under your control, and the you’re not allowing parts of your monthly monetary payment to enrich others with the service fees.
Do people not know how to budget any more?
The solution here is really quite simple: apply the “duck” principle1 to these “ministries2.” They take in periodic payments from subscribers, they set rates for those payments, they negotiate payments to health care providers and pay them (at least when the ministry is being conscientious about fulfilling its promises). Everyone of those things is something insurance companies do: in fact, those are the critical functions of insurance companies.
By the duck principle then, these ministries are (functionally) insurance companies. They need to be regulated and overseen like any other insurance company.
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1 The “duck” principle says, if creature looks like a duck, waddles like duck, and quacks like a duck, it is a duck.
2 “Ministry” is used here in its XXI Century sense of scam or long con.
Grifting and grubbing for filthy lucre in health care is not, or should not be, the Christian way. Jesus never asked for payment when he healed someone.
Lots of people make monthly contributions to causes they like. Reduces cognitive load. Imagine the paralysis of actually having to decide which worthy people among thousands or tens of thousands deserved your money most. (I don’t have to imagine – I used to contribute to kiva, which was a donor-directly microlending/microgrant program, and it was just too much of a pain to keep making those decisions.) So I can totally see the attraction of something like this, especially if it has a faith-based veneer on the grift.
But without regulation and oversight it’s just an obvious set of disasters waiting to happen.
The church is the rightist business model for literally EVERY form of organized capital. No taxes. No regulation. Do anything they want and nothing they don’t want in the name of bullshit religious freedom.
But at the end of the day, religious freedom is like vacation. They damn sure want theirs but guess who’s first in line to bitch if another person, especially the wrong kind of person, gets a turn at it.
The right to bear arms kind of works that way too, doesn’t it.
Faith-based health care is a euphemism for:
Superstition.
And how is it that under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act [sic] as applied to Obamacare, etc., a healthcare- or charity-based 501 ©3 allows a Catholic group to discriminate against non-Catholics in employment, even when the organization is receiving federal dollars, yet the reverse is blatant discrimination? In other words, if a private employer who isn’t even receiving federal money discriminates in hiring Catholics, it’s considered bigotry.
Obviously, SCOTUS has read the Establishment Clause out of the First Amendment in the same manner that it has eliminated the Militia Clause from the Second Amendment.
I see your point, but where you are looking to help people, I was more about taking care of myself.
I was the child that saved my allowance, and my sister was the one who always wanted me to lend her some of mine.
Paul MM Cooper of “Fall of Civilizations” fame has strongly suggested that the formerly successful Bagan Empire of medieval Myanmar was ultimately impoverished and extinguished by the tax exempt status of the Buddhist Church.
Elmer Gantry as Health Insurance Executive. Will the rubes never learn? Was their hatred of a black President worth all of this corruption and abuse, not to mention bankruptcy of sick religious marks?
It must be so nice to live in a fantasy world where an invisible spirit makes all your decisions for you. This guy is just another lying grifter.
I’m writing from Daytona Bike Week where I swear I’m the only liberal in the whole damn rally. It occurred to me this morning there should be about a 20% excise tax on cash dispensed from a festival ATM.
To reflect the fact that none of the big savings from the taxes that owners of cash-only bars and vendors don’t pay, are being passed on to the consumer. Damn pulled pork sandwich with no side no drink starts at 13 bucks.
I donate my weekend time for a senior assistance outfit. Among other things we take veggies and fruit and sometimes other holiday suprises to seniors in need. It is not charity but rather, assistance. I’m retired and i feel the need to give back to where I live… This food delivery happens every two weeks and it is top shelf stuff from a local grocery store. One time I built a wood ramp so a guy newly restricted to a wheelchair could access his house on his own. You should have seen the smiles. And that’s my pay.
Considering the size and complexity of the Universe and the trillions of worlds, billions and billions of stars and galaxies and the whole thing still expanding from “the big bang” some 15 or 20 billion years ago it is hard to imagine such a creative spirit would have the time or inclination to worry about decisions to be made for individual humans inhabiting a mostly water covered planet circling a star in a forgotten galaxy.
geez…DAYTONA bike week.!!! in Florida!
I guess (for those who think about it seriously and still have some kind of faith) that’s the wonder of omnipotence and omniscience. Of course, that implies that a fully empowered deity is also giving similar levels of attention to every other dust mote, and has been since forever…
These medical cost-sharing schemes get by by doing stringent screenings of pre-existing conditions. They are–just like insurance companies–doing risk assessment. Like a duck indeed.