Parson Goat: Crooked, Cowardly—or Both?

Responding to The Blackmailing of Parson Goat, a pastor in Colorado assures me he and his fellows are 

…Not being “black-mailed.”  

I personally feel [clergymen are]: 

a) Too scared to appear “uncaring” by congregants who are scared.

b) Drinking way too deeply (and erroneously) from “Romans 13”

In our … District, maybe 4 of 80 remained open, that’s 95% who closed … .  Remember, these are “evangelical” churches.  They are autonomous, so a heavy handed “bishop” did not order the 76 closed.

Our [denomination] was big on announcing the CARES program.  But I don’t think that was an incentive to closing.

Scott Evans, on the other hand, appreciates

…Mr. Anonymous’s theory on the reason for the churches’ almost synchronized capitulation to Caesar as part of the Covidiocy hysteria. I think he’s definitely on to something in suggesting that the clergy are being subjected to some sort of blackmail, but I find it interesting that he omitted mention of two of the most obvious ways by which Caesar could theoretically bring the churches to heel.

The first of these has to do with school vouchers. Many churches today also run Christian schools and in many states (mine among them) these schools qualify to receive money from tuition vouchers used by parents eligible to receive them to supplement their children’s tuition payments. Accepting these vouchers is of course a DREADFUL idea where Christian schools are concerned. Although most states swear that there are “no strings attached” to these vouchers, only a fool (or an Evangelical, to the extent that there is any longer any difference) would believe that. My now-former church had a Christian school, run by the pastor’s wife, whom I begged on multiple occasions to NOT accept Caesar’s coin, that depending on it would surely lead to the school being forced to compromise its principles in the long run. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what kind of ears that entreaty fell upon. I even told her of the case first mentioned a year or so ago on the LRC blog of a private Christian school in Maryland that was denied voucher funding because of the school’s stance on LGBTQ. It didn’t change her mind. “Can’t and won’t ever happen here” was essentially her response. I’m wondering if the state THREATENED to make it happen if she didn’t close the school and her husband the church in response to the governor’s extra-Constitutional fiat.

The second potential “Achilles heel” of churches, if not their 501C3 status (many, to their credit, won’t accept it) is the whole “Faith-based Initiatives” scam to come out of the Obamunist Administration and which, to my knowledge, is still a federal program. Like school vouchers, this is another dreadful government virus of a program that essentially gives the State camel another means of sticking its nose into the church tent. I don’t know how many churches receive these federal funds for “charitable projects,” but I’m betting many more do than we are aware of, and Lord only knows to what extent these churches have become dependent on the money. Given the unabashed Caesar worship that has completely co-opted and actually destroyed so many churches, I doubt most of the churchian CEOs, er, sorry, “Pastors” would see anything wrong with being on Caesar’s dole.

… I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual specifics are even more odious, heretical, treacherous, and stomach-turning than we imagine.

And that, my friends, is the only speculation of which we can be absolutely certain in this whole shameful mess.

 

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7:58 pm on May 29, 2020