A New Trinity: Jesus, Money & Power

Communists and Church Leaders Hands in Hands

On September 20, just 3 days before the opening of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, the relay torch has eventually come to its destination: Hangzhou. Imagine who have handed the torch at the end? See the man in the middle of the picture below, a man in his middle 50’s, average height, with great joy and pride. His name is called LJ, president of ZCT and the Guangzhou-based YLC, a company providing lightning engineering, which is exactly what Mr Li is aimed to do: as an exclusive supplier of lightning engineering to the Asian Games. Apart from these two companies he is related to some 50+ companies throughout China.

You would think this man must be a communist party member and belongs to the local government or at least is a member of a governmental organization. If you think so, you’re wrong!

Yes, normally this kind of events are organized by and for governments, and religious groups are mostly excluded from government welfare. And now the world is upside down: our Christian brother Lee has also the opportunity to mingle in the government business. Apparently Jesus and Communists have joined hands at least in the sports events, and possibly in many other activities.

Yet that’s not all. Mr Li has business and domains extending well beyond the money matters.

He is the founder of at least two Christian churches, both located in Hanzghou.

He runs churches alongside with his businesses, seamlessly and unnoticed. In fact, he considers both businesses as equally important and promote one another. His church businesses help his money business and vice versa. One of my coworkers told me earlier that he runs the churches the same way as his business and they benefit each other. You can imagine what that means, because the churches raise money by donation almost every week from among their members. I used to be one, and I have donated tens of thousands of Yuan to churches, until I was aware that my money was stolen and when I was in crisis, I was unable to receive helps and sympathy there. Therefore I have to stop my church activities forever.

He started his business in 1995 with sales of mobile phones and at peak time he managed to become one of the biggest distributors of the then prosperous Nokia, and then his business tumbled, but somehow, he managed to transform his business from telecom to other businesses, including lightning engineering for mostly governmental projects. I don’t know how he was able to get out of troubles and bankruptcy.

And now he earns big bucks by cooperating with various governments and he enjoys the good relations with the government while at the same time he is leading two of the SDA (Seventh Day Adventist) churches in China, very much notorious of their lack of love and full of cult. Incredible? Communists and Christians hands in hands, making big money out of government purse.

If you think Jesus and money are the only two things he is pursuing, you’re totally wrong. His ambition goes well beyond that. See, he is a member of the socalled Political Consultancy Council of the province Zhejiang, and more than that, he is also a socalled People’s Representative of his native city of Wenzhou, also in Zhejiang.

Politics, religion and money, what else more a man on this earth can expect to possess? Good education? Yes, he has too. He owns an EMBA degree or certificate from China’s privileged Beijing University, this time but with some tricks, because he has no higher education before. People in Wenzhou are notorious for making fake products, why not education as well? Easy task! So with enough money, you got all things education in hand.

All the above all his ambition? I seriously doubt about it. I won’t be surprised to hear something extraordinarily someday that he is promoted to the highest position of the central government. We have an example already, with a man from the same area with slightly better education sitting at the highest government position.

Jesus, money and power, if combined, is unbeatable, he is fully aware of that.

…

The story does not end right here.

In fact, I have known this kind of things, not just out of this event but long long ago when I was also serving the same churches as Mr Li.

The church – where I was bound and went to attend the worship – seemed only a subbranch of the company whose head is also the head of that church.

He looked like a genuine and loyal church leader when in the church and a true businessman when meeting privately with him.

He is not alone: many other people also want to expand their business networks through churches.

They run their churches not only for Jesus’ sake, but for their own profits. For that purpose, we have found out that they defraud money under the umbrella of Jesus Christ. They plunder believers' money in the name of building new churches and other expenditure. They ask their members to give 10% of their income to the church.

There are also obvious signs that they are collaborating with some evil groups, cloaked in the guise of the church, but actually making businesses with them.

There is no room for argument there. Democracy doesn’t apply to churches. Churches become the territories of the religious dictators. They choose the management staff of the churches based on their tase, their relationships, wealth, and social status.

They are good at performing, such as songs and dramas. Their performances are fairly professional and could match the level of a theatrical troupe, but when the music ends everything returns to normal.

They declare they have love in God, but they don't love their fellow Christians.

They promise believers eternal life but do not care about their lives on the earth, that is, their secular lives.

They replace actions with prayers, and even think they have Jesus’ power to heal diseases and exorcise demons. etc.

They submerge people into water and declare them born again.

They speak full of church jargons.

In one word, I couldn’t see God’s presence or God’s glory there. All in all, they are a very hypocritical group of people.

These people in the churches are worse and much less polite and civilized than those in the society.

At least they have never helped me before while I was in troubles or in need of some helps.

A dozen years ago, I was actively involved in church activities there, including visiting the sick, the elderly, and doing heavy work in the church.

But the church paid little attention to me. I was self-employed then, but they never tried to help me with a job although I was an experienced engineer. No one came to visit me when I was sick, nor did they visit me in time when my father passed away, etc. I have given out a lot to others, but what I have in return was indifference.

It was also quite weird that they did not ask me to join their companies, although they knew how skilled I was with all sorts of expertise.

Some years ago I went to their church and met a guy from the church where I have served with my whole heart and passion and donated a lot. I have expected many of my former fellow Christian brothers will come to meet me, because I have not been to this church for quite some years. But to my disappointment only one guy appeared. And at 5:00 pm at dinner time he said bye to me and drove home. If I visited a guy in the society after a long journey, he certainly would invite me to a dinner, but the church guy did not care for this. I don’t care if the dinner was simple, but I do care if the dinner was proposed to me under this circumstance.

Therefore, I have decided not to go to that church anymore.

Perhaps I will never go to any church at all.

………………………..

I am wandering how far the Christianity will go. Will it completely disappear in some near future?

Religions appeared in human history because people have no ideas how to cope with many things in their lives, due to lack of understanding, knowledge and capacity. Along with the development of science and civilization, there is no need to call upon various manmade gods for help.

Another function of religions is their organization of people and the collective gathering to enjoy some kind community life, to dispel the solicitude of a single person or a single family and sometime to ask for help from other members of the religious groups. At those early days religious groups are the only places for community gathering. But now people have plenty choices of coming together and there are numerous society groups to share all kinds of activities. Therefore religions are playing less and less roles in human society and at the end it will be no more useful at all.

If neither love nor practical assistances can be offered by Christian churches they are no more better than those outside.

Christianity is not the only religious groups in the world. There are many other religions here on the planet earth, such as Buddhism, Islam, etc. They all have the same problems, hence will share the same fate. (I have heard numerous time how a monk has become millionaire or even billionaire, drives luxurious car, enjoys sex with many women and that sort of things happening in the temples)

I predict all religions will disappear in about 200 years, roughly the same life span of the human race.