Lacking the words

Before I start, yes, ok, Christian aid is a UK charity but I think what I’m about to say is about a general problem.

This week is Christian aid week. I know because I saw a sign outside one of my local churches, they tend to have varying signs telling me to read the bible or whatever and they are usually pretty cheesy. When I saw this one I couldn’t help thinking about the irony of Christian aid, surely without taking from poor people over hundreds of years these churches would never have come into being. Surely these grand buildings are no more than a tribute to hundreds of years of theft not to mention all the other crap that Christianity has been a part of.

Ok, so, maybe they have changed their ways (which I do believe is the case) and now they are trying to make up for the mistakes of the past by doing something really good, which is commendable and…well…Jesus would be proud I’m sure. But having just read this post on God is for suckers I really can’t help thinking that this is really just a really half arsed attempt.

“According to our estimates, annual giving to U.S. protestant churches is $93 billion.” (Source)

$93 billion. That is a lot of money full stop but that’s every single year. According to wikipedia “War on Want estimates that US$45.7 billion would be required for 62 countries to meet the Millennium Development Goals“. Mega church construction currently stands at $28 billion annually and that is set to rise by 2010 to $40 billion.

So if the US, instead of building mega churches for a couple of years perhaps you could spend that money on stopping poverty, making sure that everyone in the world has enough food to eat. Perhaps you could do some real good around the world, maybe you could even try and be a bit more like Jesus, instead of just slagging off gay people and picketing about abortion.

You might call me hypocritical because I’m not out there doing a load of charity work but lets face it I don’t have the means to gather $40 billion. The church does, not only does it have the means it is already in excess of that every year. Just think of the amount of good this money could do for people who really have nothing? Surely even if you don’t agree with my stand point on religion you can see that this money could do a great deal more if it was used to relieve debt and poverty.

I really doubt that anything this radical and good would ever happen but the next time someone talks about the amount of good Christianity has done I would challenge them to think of the amount of good Christianity could do but doesn’t.