Thoughts on “Aid” and A Zambian Tragedy

In rereading many of the posts and comments on blogsites and social media prior to the worldwide offering for African “aid” in February, you’ll notice a very prescient quality to many of them, as if they could sense that things were amiss, that things were NOT in accordance to scripture and that things could go horribly devastatingly wrong.

Now if only someone, anyone, would have read what was being posted and gave pause, reflection and examination to how things were being operated and perhaps suggested alternatives and corrections, maybe, just maybe those eight lives would still be around for their families.

Instead of instructing brethren to ignore the posts, concerns and criticisms, and expelling them how about responding to what’s actually being said, since WHO ELSE but Defenders(!) are trying to keep this morally-bankrupt train from derailing entirely off the tracks, while the conductor and his valets are too distracted harassing others, living lavishly, or too preoccupied with promoting their sanitized image, or being overly dramatic about inclement weather and the polar vortex or other such nonsense.

Before the tragedy

From FB, my take on the series of unfortunate, yet preventable, events:

· February 16 at 12:30am
Championing your charity only cheapens the church. No one is against aid, or handouts, or helping others but why turn it into a shameless spectacle?

 

Why exploit the suffering of others to fundraise for your own questionable operations? If it’s not Lakota Indians, it’s African nations. Can people trust their funds with an organization that has massive debts? If you truly care about the suffering of others, why not encourage the brethren to donate directly to already established non-profit charitable groups that are better equipped and better capable of helping those in need? Why play middleman?

 

Can we expect to see INCmedia and INCgiving to start making commercials like this, although I don’t doubt the sincerity of Ms. Struthers. https://youtu.be/XsxVy7vyyk0

 

If you’ve had the misfortune of already watching one of their promotional infomercials, documenting their “humanitarian” efforts in Africa, you might find it a very curious mix of pathos and pride. I wouldn’t recommend wasting your time doing so, unless you’re a glutton for punishment and don’t mind watching extremely manipulative and exploitive media, but if you do, ask yourself some questions. Is trumpeting your charity with documented footage pleasing to God?

 

If you give out a goody bag in the middle of the forest and there’s no camera there to witness it, did it even happen? Do you need a photo to show God proof of your “generosity”? I wouldn’t bother citing any Biblical verse suggesting otherwise, since the admin is operating on some other wavelength, above and beyond the most basic of Christian virtues, with an entirely illogical justification system that is infuriating and frustrating to try and decipher. So it’s best to just play along, less you give yourself migraines.

 

In the first segment of one such video, they show living conditions that are impoverished and deplorable by most industrialized world standards, with no infrastructure or electricity, or any of the modern conveniences much of the world might enjoy, so there is genuine concern for their welfare. In the following segment, however, is footage from a festival of sorts, with a stage and giant screens, and musical “entertainment” that hardly seems like a “solution” to their problems, but an opportunity for the INC to throw a self-congratulatory celebratory shindig. The INC’s own version of an African Coachella? Huh? Am I missing something?

 

Is that the purpose? To make a spectacle of giving away goody bags?

 

If eco-farming, or sweat shops, or whatever self-sustaining industry is happening, why not document that? Take a close and penetrating look at where the money is going and who is benefitting. Is there some form of manufacturing happening to help sustain their needs, or is it a profiteering venture?

 

Why focus on slums? The slums of Africa, India, Brazil, and Mexico? Is it secretly an ambition of the admin to become SLUMLORD millionaires?

 

So many questions, so little answers…

 

Isn’t it contradictory and hypocritical, to encourage brethren to NOT use their emotions in regards to others, yet in your extortion to procure “humanitarian” funds, prey on the brethren’s every emotion? They claim one thing, and do something else entirely. It’s all lip service.

The Aftermath

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You have no one else to blame but yourself.

If you thought your “aid” was going to help African nations, you are sadly and shamefully mistaken. It wasn’t aid they brought, but aches. Hurt, not help.

To those who gave blindly, who have deceived themselves into believing that their “offering” glorifies God (don’t kid yourself), and have ABANDONED their CONSCIENCE in the offering box, you should be ASHAMED. Your support has only ENABLED and EMBOLDENED them to continue in their Godless and gaudy endeavors.

They are not interested in following the Bible, but only in the Guinness Book of Records.

Enough with the sanctimonious showmanship. Who else has to DIE before the brethren say ENOUGH is ENOUGH?! Have courage, Christians.
Stop turning the church into an atrocious 3-ring circus with NO REGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE.

If you want to missionize, fine, missionize. Be HONEST, let God call. If you want to give “help,” fine, give help, but for crying out loud, don’t cheapen the faith with a BLOODY BAIT AND SWITCH!

Those 8 people didn’t deserve to die because the church prioritized prideful, theatrical giving, over pious graceful and genuine generosity.

Please the Messiah, not the Media!

Look where your fraudulent “good” intentions has gotten you?! 8 innocent lives have died over a God-forsaken goodie bag, all because you’ve elected to glorify yourselves rather than God!

This is dark times for the INC.

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What a headline, “Zambia Stampede blamed on extreme hunger”.

Further proof why eaglenews will not win any journalistic rewards by a reputable and impartial award agency anytime soon. No hard-hitting journalistic INTEGRITY coming from that COMPROMISED bunch.

No, “extreme hunger” is not to blame for the stampede, nor is it extreme “poverty”. Whoever shares that opinion isn’t doing Zambia, or its people any favors. Those deaths deserve better.

It’s the HYSTERIA perpetrated by RECKLESS and DISORGANIZED promotion and management. It’s NEGLIGENCE and disregard for those in attendance. Poorly handled, poorly managed, and poorly executed. And if laws were not being followed, then CRIMINAL too.

If you yell, “BOMB!” in a crowded theater and someone gets trampled to death, the headline shouldn’t read “Stampede blamed on Panicked Nerves”. Take some responsibility. Don’t pass the blame. It’s your BOSSES who approve of this “activity” and the nature in which it is being handled and promoted.

And if you claim this is some freak occurrence, because your previous “charitable giving” have been so “successful” then ask yourself, what changed? What is God trying to tell you?

But that is if you even still believe in God and in what the Bible says, most especially about giving charity, and loving moms, and family values, and honesty and integrity, loving others, and all the other Christian virtues and instructions this administration seems to overlook in its misguided quest to make it into the record books. What a shame.

Eaglenews: the news that flatters.

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The trite statement from the Church regarding the deaths in Zambia couldn’t be more remorseless and cold, like some obligatory nuisance that must be offered for courtesy sake, less you appear completely dastardly. A pandering for the mourners.

No apology. No regret. Not the slightest acknowledgment that they are responsible, but a shameless implication that the present conditions of the country is to be blame. How INSULTING and how COWARDLY.

Of what use is it to say your “hearts go out” when it is already blackened and devoid of any genuine feeling. It is easy to give your hearts when you don’t have any, like empty Valentines filled not with chocolate, but choked rats and decay.

Keep your hearts, I say. They won’t bring back the lives lost that day. Some of whom I suspect were mothers hoping to come home with free food. NOT because they were starving and NOT because they were desperate, but because they, like anyone else in this world, like to receive “free” things. Can they be blamed?

When Walmart or other stores offer “exclusive” giveaways and free TVs, will they blame the attendees for the frenzy that results? Will they say they have a “clearer picture” of the greed that pervades middle class America?

NO, they won’t.

That’s a cop out.

That EVENT and those deaths would not have happened had YOU not poorly planned, promoted and ILLEGALLY, executed it. Those eight people would still be ALIVE had it not been for the chaos and frenzy YOU yourselves CREATED.

As charlatans, you came to Zambia to help…YOURSELVES.

Don’t claim you came there as Christians. CHRISTIANS DON’T DO THAT. Christians give, they don’t make a SHOW of it. It’s not INCGiving, it’s INCGrieving. Grieving the Holy Spirit, because you no longer know what’s right and wrong, what’s good or bad, what’s proper and what’s not.

If someone is genuinely hungry, do you advertise an event? Do you promote your propaganda before giving a “starving” person food? Do you direct them to travel to a venue that was poorly organized?

Instead, how about DELIVERING the food directly to those who are genuinely hungry? How about working with those organizations better equipped and logistically capable of actually HELPING those in need? A MARKETING group is not who you partner with if you’re TRULY concerned about hunger.

But then you wouldn’t have your photo opportunity of passing out goodie bags to share on your Social Media Roundup, and that would be a shame huh? There’s no glory in that, huh?

So instead, eight people had to die because the INC chooses glory to man over glory to God. What a disheartening shame.

So the members who pretend all is well, everything is fine, life goes on has no one to blame but themselves, because no one had the gumption to say, “wait a minute, I don’t agree with what this administration is doing.”

Those eight lives deserve better.