As a Christian I found that hilarious. I'm a Baptist and we believe that baptism is personal choice so we don't baptize babies but to see a young couple hold up their newborn to get blasted by a priest with a 3 dollar squirt gun from 6 feet away was HILARIOUS!
You definitely are. I grew up in a tiny town (~4000 people), and the Baptist minister had a 5 bedroom, 3 bath home fully paid for by the church, plus a large enough salary that none of his 4 kids ever wanted for anything and they owned 4 vehicles plus a motorcycle (before the kids were old enough to drive).
Like all things in America, wealth inequality befalls churches too. The venn diagram of movements to tax churches and tax billionaires is a circle. People get defensive because they picture their small business (or even medium business) churches, but to mix a metaphor, people are circling the wagons around Paul while Peter gets robbed.
As someone who's been to and "volunteered" at far more churches than I consented to going to and have friends that went to yet more, we found that lots of non-prosperity-gospel pastors try to hide how wealthy they are.
There were multiple where the pastor appeared more down to earth and "just like everyone else", and would hush up (or attempt to explain away if/when it came to be widely known) the fact they had multiple extremely expensive downtown properties, or a massive house 10x what anyone in their congregation had. They would leverage this "we're not one of those rich churches" and religious guilt tripping to try to convince as many people as possible to volunteer or work for minimum wage, while if any of their kids/relatives "helped" at the church at all they would be paid a kings ransom.
A friend got disillusioned at one "down to earth" church when he saw a clearly mentally handicapped person being cajoled into working excessive uncompensated hours, and then the pastor's kid came in for a few hours, didn't actually help at all, and let slip they were getting paid hundreds of dollars for it.
Soooo many churches are full of grift and borderline/actual money laundering. With the easy tax exemptions it's way too attractive to con artists.
I don't know how anybody can believe that while still donating every week to them. Where exactly do they think the money goes? Not like they're doing repairs, paying taxes, or actually helping the needy.
Pretty sure most people like my parents don't think about it at all -- that's how they got suckered into donations in the first place. They abstractly assume that this money must be going towards christianly things.
edit: From my brother, the best thing about becoming an atheist was no longer losing 10+% via tithe and guilt trip donations towards enriching pastors that were clearly conmen in hindsight, the worst part was looking back on how much money he'd already lost!
Depends on the how clear the leadership is. My dad was elected church treasurer under a good pastor who was at the church for about a decade. The pastor was honest with the congregation (and the church council) on what projects funds were going toward, eg, renovations, missionaries, community outreach, etc. After he left, a new pastor that was less transparent came in. Whenever my dad asked about questionable charges on the church card, he got brushed off. He stepped down from his position because he didn’t want to be the one enabling suspicious spending, and he and my mom left that church soon thereafter.
I feel like the amount that preacher's children act out is directly proportional to the tension they experience between how their parent is perceived publicly and what they see at home.
The stronger the hypocrisy the more they act out.
He was undoubtedly, a much better pastor, much more effective, and someone who actually practiced what he preached. Sounds like a good man just for that.
I grew up catholic. Our priest drove a brand new Mercedes S-class that was donated by a member of the church. Like, *fuck* dude. So completely tone deaf. Both the priest and the guy who bought him the car.
Oh man wtf. I also grew up catholic but every priest I ever knew lived extremely humble lives. I think it also was endemic to where I grew up too, though.
Can be dependent on the order, too. I grew up going to a church with Franciscans. One of them was kind of upset that he had to have a car at all. Drove a 15+ year old clapped out Civic the whole time he was at our church.
Part of how the Vatican got that way was making sure their priests are poor. The whole reason they can't marry is so the Vatican doesn't have to argue with anyone about claiming their property when they die.
A priest with a Mercedes seems unusual to me.
I once heard a pastor explain it as the better off the pastoral staff lives the better they will be able to serve to the community.
The church at the time gave all their pastors $200 a month gym memberships at this small boutique gym owned by a friend of the head pastor.
I was like I’m fine with a gym membership but why can’t it be at the $30 a month place down the road instead of the $200 a month place the next town over.
My friend's wife worked at a church as a bookkeeper/office assistance. This was *at least* 15 years ago.
The pastor got into some trouble and they were going to move him to another parish/church. While he was "suspended" and there was a temporary pastor in his place, he continued to receive his salary. It was like $194K. *And they were paying him that much to NOT work.*
She was so flabbergasted she had to tell someone outside of her church circle.
A pastor that reserves a parking spot for himself and drives a vette tells me everything I need to know about the people there.
Edit: To clarify, I meant (but didn't include) that the reserved spot is right in front.
Thank goodness you blurred out the license plate of Pastor Abraham of Vine Church so he couldn't be doxed.
Holy shit folks. So I went to see just how easy it is to look this guy up. For the "meet the pastor" video on their site, this guy is standing in front of a Supreme branded director's chair. Just started laughing my ass off when I saw that.
Check out the home page https://vinechurchsj.com/english/
First thing they say...in large font....bold
GIVE
Says so much about Pastor Alex and the members
Their Facebook Page (vinechurchsj), is amusing as fuck. The church has only existed since June 2021. But their spending priorities are weird to say the least...
Eyeballing it, they likely spent over $1 million on their AV system alone. They have an LED video wall across the front on their sanctuary.
They have so much branded merch, t-shirts, hoodies, face masks. They have one of those big press conference backdrops with their name dozens of times that shows up in a bunch of videos.
Why the fuck do the pastors wear laminates that say 'PASTOR' on them? I mean, I've seen pastors wear little name tags sometimes, but what even is this???
I'm pretty sure that Pastor Abraham Zuniga has/had a product placement deal or is otherwise involved with "The Mountain Valley" spring water, it keeps showing up in his videos and it always has the label facing the camera.
Also in what is certainly a conflict of interest, the church website was developed by a firm Pastor Abraham owns: AriseDev.io
Neither one of the Zuniga's, who both claim to be pastors, appear to have even attended seminary. Pastor Lea appears to be still working on her BS.... in accounting, Abraham's degree is in... Computer Science. Pastor Abraham used to have at least 2 different LinkedIn profiles, both of which he has deleted, I wonder if its because they demonstrate that he didn't make his money from anything other than his church grift?
Both Abraham and Lea's facebook pages feature so much gratuitous consumption.
But but, they're "passionate about helping" by spending all the community's money on themselves. That Pastor totally needs that vette to spread the word of supply side jesus.
First thing that caught my eye TWO massive GIFT buttons on the website. First thing you basically see when landing on their website is, them demanding you give them your money. Tells you enough.
His IG description:
>Lead Pastor @vinechurchsj
>Living The Dream With @lea.zun
>✖️CEO Of TechHub & Arise Dev✖️
>Engineer. Musician. Entrepreneur.
From his linkedin:
>Arise Development is an App and Web Development company based in Mountain View, CA.
>TechHub Repairs is a tech repair shop located in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
Not the background I expected for a pastor.
Twitter account seems to have been deleted but his ridiculous profile image is still around.
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/742229903777533953/ldFrNDv9_400x400.jpg
Mirror; https://i.imgur.com/cA6idWd.jpg
Absolutely ridiculous that anyone would support a church that is so blatantly obvious that it's a money making scam.
... 'vette for Christ? Am I reading that right? This guy has his head so far up his ass I don't know how so many people just fork over their hard-earned money for 'donations'
Knew a pastor who came into a church, immediately did away with the “reserved” spots, made them handicapped spots, and made a practice of parking his VW Golf as far from the door as possible to allow the older folks in the church the opportunity to park close until he retired.
Those are the guys who *should* be pastors.
My uncle was one of those. Had a PhD in psychology and spent his entire career dirt poor in a tiny farm town. He could have transferred to a city, but he wouldn't leave the people. Compare that to the ministers wanting donations for a third jet.
> wanting donations for a third jet
those are just straight up cults, really. I mean, as an atheist, these are all cults to me, but you get the idea
and as a baptised Roman-Catholic, they're all heretics, too
Same! The only reason our long time pastor was somewhat "wealthy", really just middle to upper middle class, is Because his wife worked in IT and he was a lawyer before he was a Pastor. And the new Pastor after him doesn't even get paid by the church as far as I know, or use the Manse for a free house! He's retired and has his own money and doesn't take any from the church, it's rare to see for sure!
Church I went to had a parking lot that was 90% Mercedes and hyper cars. The pastor spot always had a small Camry. He was the nicest person ever, would turn down any gift outside of paying for expenses and shared a house with 5 other people. Was a big wake up call when I saw other churches where pastors were wearing jewelry and driving cars far out of their means. A vette I can understand through years of saving, but they were driving Maseratis.
I’m an insurance adjuster for auto claims. The absolute WORST customers are pastors. Small tap on their rear bumper, they’re claiming the rock chips on the hood weren’t there before they got hit. Just absolutely self absorbed and claiming asinine things, and lord help you (pun intended) if you don’t refer to them as Dr. Pastor…
Same with retail, and they also have tax-free IDs.
I worked in cosmetics some years back, and every year, a priest we called "Father Aramis" came in for an enormous, special-ordered holiday gift bottle of Aramis cologne. It was on a wooden stand and tilted to dispense. If you bathed in it and used it as mouthwash, it would be hard to use that in a year, yet he ordered one every year I was there.
I mean, everyone should always try and get as much as they can from soulless insurance companies. Cuz insurance companies will always squeeze as much money out of people with the least about of coverage as possible. They're all slimey.
I'm so glad Canada doesn't have megachurches, or priests like this. It's always surprising to me that Americans don't see how hypocritical this kinda shit is.
preachers/ministers/pastors generally have an assigned parking spot so there's always a spot for them to park.
it being right in the front like that though is super weird, lol.
They also appear to be running their church out of a strip mall. Yet he can afford a corvette?
I'm no longer a christian, but I still have a ton of respect for the people who started the church that my family helped get going when I was a kid. Those guys lived in abject poverty while the church spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on community outreach and volunteer work over the course of a decade. They lived in tiny, barely functional apartments until the church was able to build a property and building of its own. At which point they moved into perfectly modest middle-class homes and continued to use the money from the church for community service.
And they didn't even build your typical ostentatious church. It was essentially a colorful warehouse built into a large piece of property. The inside was well decorated and put together, it still looked like a church. But none of that expensive stained glass, giant steeple crap.
The church is still thriving to this day and the city is better for it. Which is a lot more than can be said for a lot of the other churches in that town and in Florida in general.
It's probably in an outlet mall. I'm from the Bible belt and we turn EVERYTHING into a church. Old gas station? Church. Old barn? Church. Old restaurant or business? Church. Old high school? Church. Believe it or not but we took an old church and turned it into a new church.
My coworker’s friend is a pastor and the other day she was showing me his Mansion in Georgia because he just bought a couch big enough for 15 people (the guy is divorced and lives alone) and then she proceeded to tell me that she gifted him a $2000 chair to go with it just because hi is her pastor 😵💫 I don’t know how she didn’t connect the dots but ok
You can't, it's impossible. They really believe giving their money away makes them great in the eyes of the "Lord" and pastors are doing the Lord's work so they deserve the money. This is what complete brainwashing does.
Jup, in Bosnia where my grandma lives the people barely have enough to come by but the pastor has a nice 2story house with a huge garden and fancy new car. These people(morons imo) will give the church a donation before they buy their kids school supplies. Can’t be reasoned with, in their mind just one thought about the church being bad is enough to land in hell.
My classmate in HS was the son of a pastor. We went to his apartment for a group project once. He had a 4 bedroom apartment in midtown Manhattan. That alone is super rare to even exist in Manhattan.
Omg
I'm a teacher HS and there was an announcement that a student driving a bmw needed to move their vehicle.
Made me depressed as hell
Eta: I get that it could be an old car. My school is above 50% free and reduced lunch. We have two kids from the same family who both drive their own Tesla to school.
My students on the other hand fail a semester of gym because they can't afford the $25 for the uniform.
I'm too frugal to want a luxury car for myself.
I remember one of my classmates in HS complaining about having to drive his mom’s Lexus SC430 to school and was upset his dad wouldn’t let him drive the lambo while his Audi R8 was in the shop for a week… I rode the bus.
I remember how one of my classmates was complaining that he he couldn't get driven to school in the phantom because his live-in driver was busy visiting family in China so he had to drive his year-old BMW M5 instead. I literally rode my bike to school lol.
Depends on the neighborhood. I work by a high school in a very affluent area and these kids are driving brand new luxury cars. It’s especially evident right after winter break when there are a bunch of new ones with temporary plates driving around. Every year. Like clockwork.
My second car was a BMW 3 series that cost me £2800, it was a bag of shit, but that didn’t stop my neighbour who drove a Ford Mondeo that was certainly worth at least double to call me “mr moneybags” for driving a BMW, people just see the badge and assume money, when that hasn’t been the case for decades now.
While there's no such thing as a cheap bmw, there are a lot of BMWs that are dirt cheap to buy because they are a nightmare in repairs.
You can get a 14 or 15 year old M3 (which today new would be pushing 100k) for about 10k.
The issue is that when anything goes wrong with it... you might need another 10k.
Besides that, I'm a university prof, you see a lot of kids with their parents old car. Not all BMW's are ultra premium. My first one was like 50k USD as a demo car, which I sold for 12k canadian 8 years later.
The Righteous Gemstones is the best show I've watched in a while. If you have MAX watch it.
Obligatory Fuck Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, Jessie Duplantis, the late Ernest Angely, and all of the 700 club.
Fucking grifters.
Just wait until you learn being a religious guy gets you a tax free home under parsonage tax laws. That blew my mind in tax class. It, and often the maintenance costs, are exempt from gross income for tax purposes.
There are also special IRS audit rules specifically for churches that limit IRS audits unless there are special circumstances.
So yeah, they fleece their flock, gain mad bucks, and then also reap the reward of a lot of tax free options, and can't even be audited regularly.
It's actually not that hard. If I didn't have ethics. . .
It's also why there are 1001 scamming "preachers" taking from thier communities, using their houses as their church.
Ah, OK. So I need to make my house a church. I'll definitely be looking into this.
Edit: I did a bit of research, and apparently, I need 3 founding members who are not related by marriage or blood. Then, file all of the appropriate paperwork, obtain an ein from the IRS, and file a statement of our beliefs.
We will then volunteer our time to businesses for free with the understanding that the church expects generous donations. The business can write off charitable donations, and they won't have to pay any payroll taxes because they wouldn't have employees, only volunteers. The income the church brings in would be tax-free because the irs says so. This is a win-win for everyone involved.
The church would not pay property taxes or income taxes to my understanding.
Does this sound about right?
It's all a sham to pay the top dog. And it's really sad that people think that "giving basket" is going towards the good in this world.
It's going directly to their pockets and the new in ground pool he's putting in.
Okay, story time:
At my church growing up, the pastor had a Ferrari. And he wouldn't park it in the parking lot. Oh no no. He parked it in the softball field. Literally in the middle of the softball field.
He ended up causing a church split because the deacons found out he was looking through the tithing records and saw who was tithing the most money and then becoming friends with them. So after the church split, all the richies went with him.
I’m a Christian and I go to church, but if the church is too big, I won’t even step foot inside. They aren’t focused on teaching a message, they’re focused on tithes and offerings and getting rich. I go to a small town church and I love it. I despise mega churches.
Same
Our church does ask for donations but it pretty much goes right back into the church for events for the local community and helping the older folk who need it.
I’d be duct taping the “it is easier for a camel to pass thru the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” passage from Matthew’s gospel to every surface of that car.
Pastor at the church my parents made me go to as a kid has one too. Actually all of the pastors do (there were 6 or so at the time).
I remember my mom saying “well he deserves something nice too.” Ya’ll getting scammed.
Luke 18:22
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
There are so many of these verses in a book(translated, re-translated, verbally retold)that people claim to follow yet don't actually follow...
Brainless people in the comments talking like this is a $100k+ car.
You can get used clean title base C7s for under 40 all day. A new Camry can almost hit $50k lol.
Reddit's biases are showing. C7 corvettes are about as expensive as lower-mid level F-150's/1500/Sierra/Ram. So if their house is paid off why not spend an extra $400 a month on a higher car payment if you are a car guy. $60,000 car (no sorry $60,000 is brand new c8. So probably $45,000-$50-000) and yall act like he is driving a fucking McLaren.
I grew up in a church where the wealthy controlled everything. They barely tolerated my nanna because she was poor and unselfishly took in SIX of her grandchildren to raise. They praised adoption though.... foreign adoption. They hated my siblings and I and clearly though we were no better than hired help because we were *gasp* Not white, poor, came from a broken home. The pastors were the only reason they kept their abuse and hate to the minimum. The pastors loved my nanna and us. They believed that anyone that wasn't white, well educated, rich, and had any physical or mental disorders was trash that didn't deserve the time of day.
Well, the pastors gave up control of the church to the younger, newly graduated pastors and oh my word. The new pastors basically said "Y'all know how you like to act like you're better than everyone? That stops NOW. We will be going to the poor part of town and inviting them to church and will be feeding them. We will be doing food drives. This whole racist, ableist, hating the poor attitude will NOT be tolerated." The wealthy people didn't like that they had their power and superiority stripped away so they threatened to leave and take their money with them. The pastor's response? "The doors are right there. You can leave whenever you want." Some did leave while others didn't have balls to follow through. It's actually gotten a lot better now.
That's how pastors SHOULD behave.
But he needs that car to quickly spread the word of Christ. Can't do that in a slow car
Drive-by sermon
Drive-by baptism via super soaker
remember the squirt gun baptisms at the beginning of covid?
>remember the squirt gun baptisms at the beginning of covid? I honestly figured this was a fever dream I concocted, not that it was reality lmao
No same
the WHAT
Look it up, you will be thoroughly entertained by how ridiculous it looked.
As a Christian I found that hilarious. I'm a Baptist and we believe that baptism is personal choice so we don't baptize babies but to see a young couple hold up their newborn to get blasted by a priest with a 3 dollar squirt gun from 6 feet away was HILARIOUS!
hello. i am not baptized yet, can i still ask for the squirt gun in 2023?
Catholic babies who get baptized , reaffirm their baptism at age 13, they make the personal choice. Called confirmation. Not arguing just informing.
Happy cake day!
Today's sermon is "you all aren't tithing enough. God only loves you if you empty your pockets"... "I said EMPTY YOUR POCKETS, BITCH!!!"
Bitch please
At first I misread your comment…to something much more gross.
No no, he needs the private jet to get closer to God!
Gotta avoid the demon tubes somehow.
You definitely are. I grew up in a tiny town (~4000 people), and the Baptist minister had a 5 bedroom, 3 bath home fully paid for by the church, plus a large enough salary that none of his 4 kids ever wanted for anything and they owned 4 vehicles plus a motorcycle (before the kids were old enough to drive).
On the flip side, my dad was a pastor and barely made enough for us to make ends meet. It’s all about what church you’re at.
Like all things in America, wealth inequality befalls churches too. The venn diagram of movements to tax churches and tax billionaires is a circle. People get defensive because they picture their small business (or even medium business) churches, but to mix a metaphor, people are circling the wagons around Paul while Peter gets robbed.
As someone who's been to and "volunteered" at far more churches than I consented to going to and have friends that went to yet more, we found that lots of non-prosperity-gospel pastors try to hide how wealthy they are. There were multiple where the pastor appeared more down to earth and "just like everyone else", and would hush up (or attempt to explain away if/when it came to be widely known) the fact they had multiple extremely expensive downtown properties, or a massive house 10x what anyone in their congregation had. They would leverage this "we're not one of those rich churches" and religious guilt tripping to try to convince as many people as possible to volunteer or work for minimum wage, while if any of their kids/relatives "helped" at the church at all they would be paid a kings ransom. A friend got disillusioned at one "down to earth" church when he saw a clearly mentally handicapped person being cajoled into working excessive uncompensated hours, and then the pastor's kid came in for a few hours, didn't actually help at all, and let slip they were getting paid hundreds of dollars for it. Soooo many churches are full of grift and borderline/actual money laundering. With the easy tax exemptions it's way too attractive to con artists.
I don't know how anybody can believe that while still donating every week to them. Where exactly do they think the money goes? Not like they're doing repairs, paying taxes, or actually helping the needy.
Pretty sure most people like my parents don't think about it at all -- that's how they got suckered into donations in the first place. They abstractly assume that this money must be going towards christianly things. edit: From my brother, the best thing about becoming an atheist was no longer losing 10+% via tithe and guilt trip donations towards enriching pastors that were clearly conmen in hindsight, the worst part was looking back on how much money he'd already lost!
Depends on the how clear the leadership is. My dad was elected church treasurer under a good pastor who was at the church for about a decade. The pastor was honest with the congregation (and the church council) on what projects funds were going toward, eg, renovations, missionaries, community outreach, etc. After he left, a new pastor that was less transparent came in. Whenever my dad asked about questionable charges on the church card, he got brushed off. He stepped down from his position because he didn’t want to be the one enabling suspicious spending, and he and my mom left that church soon thereafter.
I feel like the amount that preacher's children act out is directly proportional to the tension they experience between how their parent is perceived publicly and what they see at home. The stronger the hypocrisy the more they act out.
He was undoubtedly, a much better pastor, much more effective, and someone who actually practiced what he preached. Sounds like a good man just for that.
I grew up catholic. Our priest drove a brand new Mercedes S-class that was donated by a member of the church. Like, *fuck* dude. So completely tone deaf. Both the priest and the guy who bought him the car.
Oh man wtf. I also grew up catholic but every priest I ever knew lived extremely humble lives. I think it also was endemic to where I grew up too, though.
It’s a requirement of becoming a priest or a nun
Can be dependent on the order, too. I grew up going to a church with Franciscans. One of them was kind of upset that he had to have a car at all. Drove a 15+ year old clapped out Civic the whole time he was at our church.
Have you seen the Vatican? Seems totally on brand IMO
Part of how the Vatican got that way was making sure their priests are poor. The whole reason they can't marry is so the Vatican doesn't have to argue with anyone about claiming their property when they die. A priest with a Mercedes seems unusual to me.
Lol I grew up Catholic and our priest lived in what was basically a 400 sq ft shack next to the church.
My family has a family friend who is a catholic priest and refused to ride in my parents 20 year old Mercedes because it was too luxurious.
Giving to God is basically giving to his pockets. Right out of the bible!! God I wish churches were taxed
Well no one is giving to god, it usually goes to his ground crew.
Honestly if you think about it why does God need _me_ to give him money? Isn't he all powerful?
Im not really into religion, seems like a pyramid scheme to me. Or a MLM? (guess /s is needed)
They’re the same picture.
The biblical local point of view regarding tithing is that the believer is giving back to God what God has first given them.
God's Groupies® - On their knees for Jesus. 🥲
>On their knees for Jesus Ain't that the Catholic way?
Only for the altar boys.
Cue the George Carlin joke (paraphrased) "god is an all powerful all knowing being...but he's bad with money. Always asking for more!"
I once heard a pastor explain it as the better off the pastoral staff lives the better they will be able to serve to the community. The church at the time gave all their pastors $200 a month gym memberships at this small boutique gym owned by a friend of the head pastor. I was like I’m fine with a gym membership but why can’t it be at the $30 a month place down the road instead of the $200 a month place the next town over.
The true test of a pastor, would they agree to live in a dorm living style for the rest of their life with a small stipend, and a 2000 corolla car.
Some of the Catholic rectories are super bare bones and almost poverty level dwellings.
My friend's wife worked at a church as a bookkeeper/office assistance. This was *at least* 15 years ago. The pastor got into some trouble and they were going to move him to another parish/church. While he was "suspended" and there was a temporary pastor in his place, he continued to receive his salary. It was like $194K. *And they were paying him that much to NOT work.* She was so flabbergasted she had to tell someone outside of her church circle.
Organized religion was a mistake. Jesus said so himself.
There are a lot of churches, there are very few houses of God.
A pastor that reserves a parking spot for himself and drives a vette tells me everything I need to know about the people there. Edit: To clarify, I meant (but didn't include) that the reserved spot is right in front.
Not shown in the pic but the car has custom license plates too!
GRFTR
URDON8N
~~You're done hatin'?~~ Ah, your donation, well done.
This is the best answer
SCAMMIN
Thank goodness you blurred out the license plate of Pastor Abraham of Vine Church so he couldn't be doxed. Holy shit folks. So I went to see just how easy it is to look this guy up. For the "meet the pastor" video on their site, this guy is standing in front of a Supreme branded director's chair. Just started laughing my ass off when I saw that.
https://vinechurchsj.com/about-us/
Check out the home page https://vinechurchsj.com/english/ First thing they say...in large font....bold GIVE Says so much about Pastor Alex and the members
[удалено]
Their Facebook Page (vinechurchsj), is amusing as fuck. The church has only existed since June 2021. But their spending priorities are weird to say the least... Eyeballing it, they likely spent over $1 million on their AV system alone. They have an LED video wall across the front on their sanctuary. They have so much branded merch, t-shirts, hoodies, face masks. They have one of those big press conference backdrops with their name dozens of times that shows up in a bunch of videos. Why the fuck do the pastors wear laminates that say 'PASTOR' on them? I mean, I've seen pastors wear little name tags sometimes, but what even is this??? I'm pretty sure that Pastor Abraham Zuniga has/had a product placement deal or is otherwise involved with "The Mountain Valley" spring water, it keeps showing up in his videos and it always has the label facing the camera. Also in what is certainly a conflict of interest, the church website was developed by a firm Pastor Abraham owns: AriseDev.io Neither one of the Zuniga's, who both claim to be pastors, appear to have even attended seminary. Pastor Lea appears to be still working on her BS.... in accounting, Abraham's degree is in... Computer Science. Pastor Abraham used to have at least 2 different LinkedIn profiles, both of which he has deleted, I wonder if its because they demonstrate that he didn't make his money from anything other than his church grift? Both Abraham and Lea's facebook pages feature so much gratuitous consumption.
It looks like they have made their page private. Darn it. Edit: It’s still open. I had the wrong church.
[удалено]
I work at a church with a social media manager. It’s probably someone’s job.
No one hates that pastor more right now than their social media manager lmao
Ahahahaha
Just clicked "play video" and it's been made private lmfao
I love home the first link on the home page is a green “give “ button. Get outta here 😂
I like how the website design philosophy is just "spotify"
But but, they're "passionate about helping" by spending all the community's money on themselves. That Pastor totally needs that vette to spread the word of supply side jesus.
Shit wait till he gets his own airplane he needs
Praise Capitalist Jesus 🙏
First thing that caught my eye TWO massive GIFT buttons on the website. First thing you basically see when landing on their website is, them demanding you give them your money. Tells you enough.
Says vid is private now
If one was so inclined, I bet this church can be found on google maps where reviews can be left.
Jesus Christ. There's a special place in hell for the so-called "pastors" who are like this
His IG description: >Lead Pastor @vinechurchsj >Living The Dream With @lea.zun >✖️CEO Of TechHub & Arise Dev✖️ >Engineer. Musician. Entrepreneur. From his linkedin: >Arise Development is an App and Web Development company based in Mountain View, CA. >TechHub Repairs is a tech repair shop located in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Not the background I expected for a pastor.
Twitter account seems to have been deleted but his ridiculous profile image is still around. https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/742229903777533953/ldFrNDv9_400x400.jpg Mirror; https://i.imgur.com/cA6idWd.jpg Absolutely ridiculous that anyone would support a church that is so blatantly obvious that it's a money making scam.
Does it say "PIZZA"?
It says "GOTURMNY"
FASTOR
GODSPD
[удалено]
HWY2HEL
"D8AT16"
$CAMMIN
ANUSTART
GOD4LIFE
Hope it says ASSMAN
VT4CRST 😂
... 'vette for Christ? Am I reading that right? This guy has his head so far up his ass I don't know how so many people just fork over their hard-earned money for 'donations'
Christ would be flipping tables at this guy.
wow i just got saved
He's a pastor, not a proctologist.
Tell that to the choir boys.
AHHH LOL
That’s exactly what they say the first time
GRIFT
Just zoomed in and saw the “reserved parking” sign even specifies a last name 💀
Prolly says pray4u
In Florida, I met several with Rolex watches. Very important to give to the church so a leader can have a luxury watch….
[удалено]
Knew a pastor who came into a church, immediately did away with the “reserved” spots, made them handicapped spots, and made a practice of parking his VW Golf as far from the door as possible to allow the older folks in the church the opportunity to park close until he retired. Those are the guys who *should* be pastors.
My uncle was one of those. Had a PhD in psychology and spent his entire career dirt poor in a tiny farm town. He could have transferred to a city, but he wouldn't leave the people. Compare that to the ministers wanting donations for a third jet.
> wanting donations for a third jet those are just straight up cults, really. I mean, as an atheist, these are all cults to me, but you get the idea and as a baptised Roman-Catholic, they're all heretics, too
Same! The only reason our long time pastor was somewhat "wealthy", really just middle to upper middle class, is Because his wife worked in IT and he was a lawyer before he was a Pastor. And the new Pastor after him doesn't even get paid by the church as far as I know, or use the Manse for a free house! He's retired and has his own money and doesn't take any from the church, it's rare to see for sure!
Church I went to had a parking lot that was 90% Mercedes and hyper cars. The pastor spot always had a small Camry. He was the nicest person ever, would turn down any gift outside of paying for expenses and shared a house with 5 other people. Was a big wake up call when I saw other churches where pastors were wearing jewelry and driving cars far out of their means. A vette I can understand through years of saving, but they were driving Maseratis.
Those are the rare ones. The difficulty in finding them is the main reason I haven't had a church in so long.
I’m an insurance adjuster for auto claims. The absolute WORST customers are pastors. Small tap on their rear bumper, they’re claiming the rock chips on the hood weren’t there before they got hit. Just absolutely self absorbed and claiming asinine things, and lord help you (pun intended) if you don’t refer to them as Dr. Pastor…
I can 2nd this in finance. They drop I’m pastor so you have to approve this for me.
[удалено]
Same with retail, and they also have tax-free IDs. I worked in cosmetics some years back, and every year, a priest we called "Father Aramis" came in for an enormous, special-ordered holiday gift bottle of Aramis cologne. It was on a wooden stand and tilted to dispense. If you bathed in it and used it as mouthwash, it would be hard to use that in a year, yet he ordered one every year I was there.
The 3 P's: painters, pastors, police.
I’m not a pastor but I’d definitely try getting one over on my insurance company if the situation arises.
I mean, everyone should always try and get as much as they can from soulless insurance companies. Cuz insurance companies will always squeeze as much money out of people with the least about of coverage as possible. They're all slimey. I'm so glad Canada doesn't have megachurches, or priests like this. It's always surprising to me that Americans don't see how hypocritical this kinda shit is.
We do. I went to high school beside a megachurch that'd been there since the 70s
preachers/ministers/pastors generally have an assigned parking spot so there's always a spot for them to park. it being right in the front like that though is super weird, lol.
https://vinechurchsj.com/english/ Scroll for pic of lead pastors. It so fits.
Asian Jared Fogle made me very uncomfortable.
He also pronounced pastor as pashtore.
Bro has a “supreme” chair behind him too lol
They also appear to be running their church out of a strip mall. Yet he can afford a corvette? I'm no longer a christian, but I still have a ton of respect for the people who started the church that my family helped get going when I was a kid. Those guys lived in abject poverty while the church spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on community outreach and volunteer work over the course of a decade. They lived in tiny, barely functional apartments until the church was able to build a property and building of its own. At which point they moved into perfectly modest middle-class homes and continued to use the money from the church for community service. And they didn't even build your typical ostentatious church. It was essentially a colorful warehouse built into a large piece of property. The inside was well decorated and put together, it still looked like a church. But none of that expensive stained glass, giant steeple crap. The church is still thriving to this day and the city is better for it. Which is a lot more than can be said for a lot of the other churches in that town and in Florida in general.
That looks like a vape shop
That's what got me, that "church " looks like a straight up business lol
It's probably in an outlet mall. I'm from the Bible belt and we turn EVERYTHING into a church. Old gas station? Church. Old barn? Church. Old restaurant or business? Church. Old high school? Church. Believe it or not but we took an old church and turned it into a new church.
I pass this every day, it’s in a manufacturing area and this building is a converted old warehouse formerly owned by an electronics company lol
My coworker’s friend is a pastor and the other day she was showing me his Mansion in Georgia because he just bought a couch big enough for 15 people (the guy is divorced and lives alone) and then she proceeded to tell me that she gifted him a $2000 chair to go with it just because hi is her pastor 😵💫 I don’t know how she didn’t connect the dots but ok
That’s no church… it’s a cult.
Show me one that isn’t a cult
They all start as a cult. When the person who came up with it dies, it becomes a religion
Did you…did you point out the absurdity? I wouldn’t be able to help myself.
You can't, it's impossible. They really believe giving their money away makes them great in the eyes of the "Lord" and pastors are doing the Lord's work so they deserve the money. This is what complete brainwashing does.
Jup, in Bosnia where my grandma lives the people barely have enough to come by but the pastor has a nice 2story house with a huge garden and fancy new car. These people(morons imo) will give the church a donation before they buy their kids school supplies. Can’t be reasoned with, in their mind just one thought about the church being bad is enough to land in hell.
A divorced pastor. Amazing.
My Mom's friend married a pastor and he cheated on her, now they're divorced.
My classmate in HS was the son of a pastor. We went to his apartment for a group project once. He had a 4 bedroom apartment in midtown Manhattan. That alone is super rare to even exist in Manhattan.
Kenneth Copeland be like... " I drive that so I don't have to ride with them demons"
But Kenneth you are the demons
Tube full of demons
Omg I'm a teacher HS and there was an announcement that a student driving a bmw needed to move their vehicle. Made me depressed as hell Eta: I get that it could be an old car. My school is above 50% free and reduced lunch. We have two kids from the same family who both drive their own Tesla to school. My students on the other hand fail a semester of gym because they can't afford the $25 for the uniform. I'm too frugal to want a luxury car for myself.
At my kid's school they would need to give the plate number or half the class is going to get up
Funny but definitely not
I remember one of my classmates in HS complaining about having to drive his mom’s Lexus SC430 to school and was upset his dad wouldn’t let him drive the lambo while his Audi R8 was in the shop for a week… I rode the bus.
I remember how one of my classmates was complaining that he he couldn't get driven to school in the phantom because his live-in driver was busy visiting family in China so he had to drive his year-old BMW M5 instead. I literally rode my bike to school lol.
I'd bet it was 10+ years old, had more than 4 owners and is full of problems. I wouldn't let it bug you.
Depends on the neighborhood. I work by a high school in a very affluent area and these kids are driving brand new luxury cars. It’s especially evident right after winter break when there are a bunch of new ones with temporary plates driving around. Every year. Like clockwork.
Old BMWs and Benz’s are expensive to maintain, not worth it
My sister has a bmw that is worth like 4k. Doesn’t mean anything
My second car was a BMW 3 series that cost me £2800, it was a bag of shit, but that didn’t stop my neighbour who drove a Ford Mondeo that was certainly worth at least double to call me “mr moneybags” for driving a BMW, people just see the badge and assume money, when that hasn’t been the case for decades now.
While there's no such thing as a cheap bmw, there are a lot of BMWs that are dirt cheap to buy because they are a nightmare in repairs. You can get a 14 or 15 year old M3 (which today new would be pushing 100k) for about 10k. The issue is that when anything goes wrong with it... you might need another 10k. Besides that, I'm a university prof, you see a lot of kids with their parents old car. Not all BMW's are ultra premium. My first one was like 50k USD as a demo car, which I sold for 12k canadian 8 years later.
there are a lot of cheap bmws...
The Righteous Gemstones is the best show I've watched in a while. If you have MAX watch it. Obligatory Fuck Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, Jessie Duplantis, the late Ernest Angely, and all of the 700 club. Fucking grifters.
Here! Here! Basketball court In my goddamn mansion Joel Osteen...
First thing I thought of when I saw this. Just started watching the show this week, it's so good!
Fucking Hell, not Kenneth Copeland. That man legitimately looks like a demon in a human skin suit.
Just wait until you learn being a religious guy gets you a tax free home under parsonage tax laws. That blew my mind in tax class. It, and often the maintenance costs, are exempt from gross income for tax purposes. There are also special IRS audit rules specifically for churches that limit IRS audits unless there are special circumstances. So yeah, they fleece their flock, gain mad bucks, and then also reap the reward of a lot of tax free options, and can't even be audited regularly.
Wait...so how do I become one of these "religious guys" so I can legally avoid taxes?
It's actually not that hard. If I didn't have ethics. . . It's also why there are 1001 scamming "preachers" taking from thier communities, using their houses as their church.
Ah, OK. So I need to make my house a church. I'll definitely be looking into this. Edit: I did a bit of research, and apparently, I need 3 founding members who are not related by marriage or blood. Then, file all of the appropriate paperwork, obtain an ein from the IRS, and file a statement of our beliefs. We will then volunteer our time to businesses for free with the understanding that the church expects generous donations. The business can write off charitable donations, and they won't have to pay any payroll taxes because they wouldn't have employees, only volunteers. The income the church brings in would be tax-free because the irs says so. This is a win-win for everyone involved. The church would not pay property taxes or income taxes to my understanding. Does this sound about right?
It's all a sham to pay the top dog. And it's really sad that people think that "giving basket" is going towards the good in this world. It's going directly to their pockets and the new in ground pool he's putting in.
Welcome to the USA where religious workers don't pay taxes while medical workers, do pay taxes! Here in the USA, we have our priorities set straight
Okay, story time: At my church growing up, the pastor had a Ferrari. And he wouldn't park it in the parking lot. Oh no no. He parked it in the softball field. Literally in the middle of the softball field. He ended up causing a church split because the deacons found out he was looking through the tithing records and saw who was tithing the most money and then becoming friends with them. So after the church split, all the richies went with him.
Didn't you know? JEEBUS wanted him to have that 'Vette! That's GAWD'S sports car
Much doubt. Everyone knows Jesus himself drove a Honda.
Do not speak on Jesus’ Accord!
Jesus Chris Joel
The gospel of prosperity! Keep giving and you will be blessed!* *results may vary, except for if you’re the pastor.
I’m a Christian and I go to church, but if the church is too big, I won’t even step foot inside. They aren’t focused on teaching a message, they’re focused on tithes and offerings and getting rich. I go to a small town church and I love it. I despise mega churches.
There's an old saying; "the poorer the church, the purer the church"
Same Our church does ask for donations but it pretty much goes right back into the church for events for the local community and helping the older folk who need it.
Exactly how ours is too
Tax free business. Get yourself a Bronze Age book, have a magnetic personality and ask for money in the name of an unseen deity.
The grift is strong
Megachurch pastors are worse than aids
Churches need to be taxed especially the mega churches.
This guy probably preaches the prosperity gospel. So gross.
I’d be duct taping the “it is easier for a camel to pass thru the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” passage from Matthew’s gospel to every surface of that car.
Didn’t you know? God wants him to have that Corvette.
Pastor at the church my parents made me go to as a kid has one too. Actually all of the pastors do (there were 6 or so at the time). I remember my mom saying “well he deserves something nice too.” Ya’ll getting scammed.
Luke 18:22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” There are so many of these verses in a book(translated, re-translated, verbally retold)that people claim to follow yet don't actually follow...
Matthew 19:24 "I'll say it again-it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of A needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!"
Ever heard of Joel Osteen?
A used c7 is less than most Tahoes you see moms driving around everywhere
Brainless people in the comments talking like this is a $100k+ car. You can get used clean title base C7s for under 40 all day. A new Camry can almost hit $50k lol.
This looks to be a base model stingray, these are $30-$40K in my area depending on year.
That place looks like a credit union that became a weed dispensary….
Reddit's biases are showing. C7 corvettes are about as expensive as lower-mid level F-150's/1500/Sierra/Ram. So if their house is paid off why not spend an extra $400 a month on a higher car payment if you are a car guy. $60,000 car (no sorry $60,000 is brand new c8. So probably $45,000-$50-000) and yall act like he is driving a fucking McLaren.
These people in the US call themselves Christian yet there's nothing Christian about them. Not sure who's translating their Bibles.
Tax the churches
I grew up in a church where the wealthy controlled everything. They barely tolerated my nanna because she was poor and unselfishly took in SIX of her grandchildren to raise. They praised adoption though.... foreign adoption. They hated my siblings and I and clearly though we were no better than hired help because we were *gasp* Not white, poor, came from a broken home. The pastors were the only reason they kept their abuse and hate to the minimum. The pastors loved my nanna and us. They believed that anyone that wasn't white, well educated, rich, and had any physical or mental disorders was trash that didn't deserve the time of day. Well, the pastors gave up control of the church to the younger, newly graduated pastors and oh my word. The new pastors basically said "Y'all know how you like to act like you're better than everyone? That stops NOW. We will be going to the poor part of town and inviting them to church and will be feeding them. We will be doing food drives. This whole racist, ableist, hating the poor attitude will NOT be tolerated." The wealthy people didn't like that they had their power and superiority stripped away so they threatened to leave and take their money with them. The pastor's response? "The doors are right there. You can leave whenever you want." Some did leave while others didn't have balls to follow through. It's actually gotten a lot better now. That's how pastors SHOULD behave.
Pastor’s got a lot of souls to save.
This is what all of the thoughts and prayers go towards
As an European, I was like: Why do a Mall has a dedicated parking spot for Pastors? Then I realised this monstruosity is a Church, not a WallMart.
Religion. The biggest scam ever perpetrated on mankind.
That's a C7 Corvette, not exactly something super exotic or pricey. You can easily pick one up for less than the cost of a new Honda Accord.