A church has withdrawn its support for a food pantry serving the needy because the pantry works with Roman Catholics.
Central Church of God explained its decision in a letter March 1 from minister of evangelism Shannon Burton to Loaves & Fishes in Charlotte.
“As a Christian church, we feel it is our responsibility to follow closely the (principles) and commands of Scripture,” the letter said.
“To do this best, we feel we should abstain from any ministry that partners with or promotes Catholicism, or for that matter, any other denomination promoting a works-based salvation.”
Link via No More Mister Nice Blog via The American Street.
What?! True Christians are supposed to abstain from partnering with anyone “promoting a works-based salvation”? Does this mean that these people think it’s more important to merely believe in Jesus than to act as his teachings implore us to act [with love and compassion toward one another]? Dang me! I always thought the most important thing was to do unto others as I would want done to me. And here I’ve spent my life helping people–sharing what little I had with those who needed it more, and offering compassion when I had nothing else to give. I’ve even been known to turn the other cheek! Wow! Thousands of good works wasted when all I really had to do was join Shannon Burton’s church to get into Heaven. (And pay my 10% tithe, no doubt.)
Sorry Shannon…. If there truly is a Heavenly Father who sits in judgement on us all, then I imagine He cares a lot more about how you treated people each and every day than what you believed in, and taking food away from starving people because of some horribly twisted moral principle doesn’t seem very kind at all. Misleading others to join you in withholding from the poor only multiplies the sin. In fact, it sort of sounds like the Devil’s work to me.
I suspect that heaven is actually fairly empty.