Practicing a religion is like being in love. If it requires you to make any sort of payments or purchase anything, then this isn’t really about religion or love. It’s about you trying to buy what can’t be bought.
Religion, Love, and Money
Opinions, art, debate
Clarissa's Blog 
Payments to whom? To church or a priest? Buying icons of saints? Paying for Sunday school for a child? Donating 1/10 of salary to the poor? All of the above?
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Absolutely any payments whatsoever.
I just saw a TV program with a preacher who was practically bullying parishioners into sending him $1,000 is they wanted to be rich.
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A reasonably well-off congregant/member should support the salary of a full-time or part-time clergyperson and pay for a meeting place. A poor member ought to be able to volunteer time or skills. Guests are guests. These contributions maintain the infrastructure of the congregation. The TV “prosperity preachers” are crooks and do not have a congregation, do not visit the sick, counsel distressed people, or otherwise exercise pastoral functions.
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I believe the operative word in Clarissa’s post is “requires”. If a member of a religion wants to offer their resources to someone he or she is connected to through religious practice, sure thing. If said religious contributions are considered mandatory to properly reap the rewards of that religion, the people contributing haven’t the slightest idea how the intrusion of the sacred in one’s life feels, and their financial contributions will bring them no further.
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(In Russian) The war for (women’s) purity:
http://fakty.ua/167532-hochu-chtoby-ty-mne-sostavila-kompaniyu-300-dollarov-za-noch-konfidencialnost-garantiruyuhttp://fakty.ua/167532-hochu-chtoby-ty-mne-sostavila-kompaniyu-300-dollarov-za-noch-konfidencialnost-garantiruyu
I especially “liked” that this was organized by PUAs (!), who now earn (!!) quite a lot on the thing and do not deal with men, only women:
Поначалу проверяли и парней, у которых есть девушки, но скоро потеряли интерес к мужскому полу: парни без колебаний и практически всегда соглашаются на секс на стороне, причем часто бесплатно. Огорченные своим открытием, вчерашние пикаперы объявили войну за нравственность и перевоплотились в «санитаров прогнившего общества».
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Sounds very romantic. For me however, all religions and “love” relationships demand physical and materialistic sacrifices, be it in the form of money or your work. If you have faith though, it won’t feel like a sacrifice.
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I don’t know, I practice both, and these are the only endeavors where I don’t get to do any shopping. 🙂
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You can get indulgences, time off purgatory after you have been absolved of your sins, by following the new pope’s tweets on the internet. So this is OK because you’re not making any kind of payment?
“attendance at events such as the Catholic World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro, a week-long event starting on 22 July, can also win an indulgence.
Mindful of the faithful who cannot afford to fly to Brazil, the Vatican’s sacred apostolic penitentiary, a court which handles the forgiveness of sins, has also extended the privilege to those following the “rites and pious exercises” of the event on television, radio and through social media.
“That includes following Twitter,” said a source at the penitentiary, referring to Pope Francis’ Twitter account, which has gathered seven million followers. “But you must be following the events live. It is not as if you can get an indulgence by chatting on the internet.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/16/vatican-indulgences-pope-francis-tweets
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You’ve got to give Catholics credit for being so darn hilarious in such a consistent way over so many centuries. 🙂
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