We Knew It! Black Churches Sell Out To CAR Dealers!

We knew it was just a matter of time, didn't we?

Well, it's happening. Black churches, especially those megachurches
that are springing up all around the United States, are joining hands
with auto makers like Chrysler (Daimler-Chrysler) to forge partnerships
in business. Yep. But it's all about jesus ... or something.

Anyway, the megachurches, not content merely to:

1) Follow a white man's religion that really never wanted 'em.

2) Set up ego-based church hierarchies of (a) power-wielders and (b)
underclass collection platers.

3) Create massive traffic snarls around their over-large,
multimillion-dollar monuments to wealth and greed.

4) Cajole their more ignorant "members" to contribute, in the name of
god and/or jesus, as much money as they can't afford -- until they die
-- to support their superiors' venal, ostentacious, mammon-based
empires and high lifestyles.

5) Hypocritically raise humongous "building funds" that could be
better used as donation streams to true charities, like feeding the
neighborhood poor, or supporting medical research.

.... but, yeah, megachurches and their deacons, deaconesses, and other
church "elders," NOW see a clear way to acquire the cars of their
dreams -- and also convince their less enlighted brethren that owning a
big Chrysler (or, better, a Mercedes) is the true way to show that
they're following god's path to holiness through wealth! It all
starts with mega-tithing and the collection plate.

And these "arrangements" lend a tinge of truth to those old anecdotes
about welfare folks having nothing to eat, but having a big limousine
parked out front of their condemnable shacks. Appealing, eh?

Have a chuckle, won't 'cha?

----------------
"Car and Churchgoer"

"Chrysler Increasingly Courts African Americans at Their Places of
Worship"

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Religion News Service
Saturday, December 16, 2006; B09

Automaker DaimlerChrysler AG is finding redemption -- and a valuable
new venue for showcasing its vehicles -- in the African American
megachurch.

Four of the nation's largest black megachurches, including Jericho City
of Praise in Landover, are breaking ground in the worlds of marketing
and religion by hosting test drives for Chrysler vehicles this fall. So
far, about 500 churchgoers have driven the new Aspen SUV, the new
Sebring sedan or the Chrysler 300 on sacred ground that's not known for
peddling big-ticket merchandise.

For Chrysler, the experimental test drives mark a coup on two levels:
The carmaker has overcome a centuries-old taboo on marketing goods for
profit in sacred spaces, and it has gained entry into influential black
church circles less than four years after Chicago area black pastors
launched a boycott alleging the company discriminated against black
customers.

Chrysler has achieved its de facto redemption in part by sponsoring
singer Patti LaBelle's 14-city gospel concert tour, which included her
Dec. 2 show at Jericho City of Praise. That's one element of the car
company's partnership with churches whose memberships range from 3,000
to 27,000 members. For each test drive, Chrysler gives the driver a
free concert ticket and donates $5 to the Abramson Cancer Center at the
University of Pennsylvania.

The campaign helps Chrysler reach its target demographic more directly
than through advertising alone, said David Rooney, director of Chrysler
brand marketing at DaimlerChrysler.

"We try to go out to our best prospects in their environment, where
they're already engaged . . . and in the African American community,
one of the opportunities is the church," Rooney said. Churches provide
access, he said, to "opinion leaders who are involved, upscale,
new-car-buying types of people."

Twenty years ago, such an initiative would have likely been a
non-starter because of black pastors' skeptical views of corporate
America, said Tulane University sociologist Shayne Lee. But now,
Chrysler is riding a "revolutionary" shift in attitudes, especially in
prosperous congregations, where Lee spots an emerging
"commercialization of black religion."

Test drives at congregations are "just symbolic of greater changes
taking place in the black church," Lee said. "The black church under
[Martin Luther] King had sort of prophetic response to corporate
America, to raise challenges and attack systemic racism.

"Now we have this new black church that is very conservative, very
bourgeois, telling people: 'Hey, corporate America is your friend. God
wants you to make money, so you need to know how this world works.' "

Corporate sponsorships of religious activities dovetail with a
"prosperity gospel" from the pulpit, he said. Chrysler isn't alone in
courting black customers through churches. For years, McDonald's Corp.
and Coca Cola Co. have given away free samples of new products at the
25,000-member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. This
year, discount retailer Target won kudos from Christian Cultural Center
in Brooklyn by donating 2,000 backpacks for its outreach ministry to
children in a nearby housing project.

Still, Chrysler walks a fine line when using church property to
showcase its goods, said Christophe Van den Bulte, associate professor
of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

When a company tries "to enroll people's support for a commercial
product in a setting that is sacred, that is not supposed to be spoiled
by anything else, that can backfire," Van den Bulte said.

Back in 2003, Chicago area pastors backed Gerald Gorman, a car dealer
in Midlothian, Ill., who accused the corporation of lending policies
that denied financing to black customers.

DaimlerChrysler denied any wrongdoing; in September, a federal judge
threw out Gorman's suit against the company. Last year, DaimlerChrysler
settled a class-action suit brought on behalf of black customers.

Organizers never officially ended the boycott, but it has lost steam
since 2005. This year, DaimlerChrysler spokesman James Kenyon said, the
company met no resistance to conducting test drives on church property
because "the churches don't have a problem with this relationship."

For some churches, that seems to be true.

"They [at Chrysler] are giving money to a worthy cause" in their cancer
donations, said Erik Burton, spokesman for New Birth Missionary Baptist
Church, which is hosting test drives in December. "We are not parading
cars through the sanctuary or having cars parked on stage. None of
that's going to go on."

Jericho City of Praise in Landover drew about 150 people to its test
drive in late November. Betty P. Peebles, senior pastor of Jericho City
of Praise, said that even though Chrysler and other companies are
interested in improving relations with megachurches like hers, that is
not her concern.

"We are about saving souls. That is our only focus," Peebles said in an
interview.
Some purists, leery of corporate ties to the church, haven't given up.
Lance Davis, a Chicago pastor who helped launch the Chrysler boycott,
said he has twice refused offers from local Chrysler dealers who would
like to underwrite his ministries.

To showcase cars at churches, Davis said, "is a total disregard for the
true function of the church," which is "to promote the gospel, to make
sure families are counseled and to make sure individuals are visited
when they're suffering or hospitalized."

Washington Post staff writer Hamil R. Harris contributed to this
report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/15/AR2006121501745.html

 

Be happy, brother, not jealous! Not only you desire (and earn) a good time
on earth.
J++

 

Subject: Lost Churches of Louisiana

 

MissSouth wrote in message

Excuse me for interjecting facts, but remember that only about 3% of
evangelicals attend megachurches, which include about 1,200 of the 300,000
houses of worship in the US. And the extrememly vast majority of them do not
follow the prosperity gospel or what ever else you want to call it.

Here's a fairly good source of information for those who want to live in the
real reality-based community:

http://hirr.hartsem.edu/org/faith_megachurches.html

Pay special attention to the myths debunked here - scroll almost to the
bottom:

http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/megastoday2005_summaryreport.html

Bottom line: almost everything you know about megachurches is simply false.

Sorry, but Christianity has never been a white man's religion. Worldwide
Christianity is and has been quite overwhelmingly non-white (and no, I don't
have the time right now to provide a cite). You should familiarize yourself
with the work of Phillip Jenkins in The Atlantic (currently behind
subscriber firewall - but htere should be much commentary elsewhere).

Do you have any actual evidence? I'm sure that there a few places where
traffic is a little heavire on Sunday mornings.

Do you have any actual idea as to how many preachers are remotely well off?
It's no more than an extreme miniority. Note that I'm not excusing the few
that are too wealthy. A couple churches that I used to attend in the suburbs
used the public school pay scale in terms of seniority and level of
education as a guideline for pastors salary. Far from extravagant, but above
average, and not out of line with the amount of work that an average postor
does.

If you want to see decadently extravagant architecture, go to the north side
of Chicago...St. James, Holy Name, 4th Presbyterian. All non-mega mainline
churches. Or go downtown to see Chicago Temple, a massive church/office
building combo. Or how about the gaudy Hindu temple in suburban Bartlett. I
haven't seen good comprehensive data, but anecdotal data I've seen suggests
that megachurches are less costly per atttender than many traditional
churches.

And then there's your wrong ideas about conservatives and charity:

http://www.highplainsmessenger.com/2006/06/sweaty_solidarity_forever.php
"As a forthcoming book by statistician Arthur Brooks, Who Cares,
demonstrates, religious conservatives give more to charity than liberals do
by any measure."

Ok, I'm in complete agreement with this. Actually, I'm not chuckling. This
is embarrassing, shameful, and contemptible.

- Rick

 

What's the big deal. It's a win for all involved.
Chrysler has tons of big vehicles to unload and religious clubs see an
opportunity to get a slice of the profit and there are people who get an
ego trip from a BIG vehicle; regardless of the environmental impact.
I expect other religious clubs will be pressuring Chrysler for the same
deal, those religions may even get new club members as a result.

All religious clubs eventually build mega churches, all say they save
souls and all promise prosperity for good donating (10%+) members.

I only hope that Chrysler doesn't add an old rugged cross decoration to
their vehicles! <

 

I hope they do, a nice BIG motherfucker.....so we can spot them
easily.

 

This is utter bullshit.

The religious conservatives idea of how the world should work is dog eat
dog.

They don't have any problem with their own members that are heads of
corporations pulling down 100s of times the amount of money their workers
do,
outsourcing America's jobs overseas, and laying off thousands of people and
bringing
in illegal immigrants who work at below minimum wage.

It is the conservatives arguing against minimum wage - then voting
themselves
salary increases.

Sure, they may give more to charity. Of course, it's their policies that
are
creating the large numbers of people who have no other alternative than to
go
to charities to survive. So in other wirds they give slightly more to
charities
with one hand then take away far more in total compensation to the average
person in wages.

The liberals may give less to charities, but are advocating policies like
national health care that would give far more total compensation to the
poor than any conservative ever spawned.

So, I think you need to get your head on straight.

Ted

 

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote in message ...

You need to get your head on straight. BTW, I generally support more liberal
social and fiscal policies than most conservatives. Maybe you should read
more carefully.

- Rick

 

You forget Ted that when liberals "advocate", they are giving away
everyone else's money by confiscating it in taxes. Everyone's problem
is that when they "advocate", as you obviously realize from the clever
way you threaded the needle with that sentence, they aren't giving a
thing of themselves - they are "giving" with everyone else's money.

Also, liberalism never allows for the unintended consequences of their
actions and ignore that the end result of them are generally exactly
oposite of the stated intention (i.e., typically giving them something
to "hel" them that only gives them less incentive to get off their asses
and do for themselves, and in the end enslaving them even more to their
own laziness and dependence on the government (and on liberals to come
save them again).

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

From what i read of the Post column, Chrysler is offerring test drives,
a free concert ticket and some donation to a charity for the privilege
of the exposure of their vehicles at some large churches frequented
primarily by black Americans. I don't see anything about giving cars
away, or any other donations offerred to the churches themselves. {At
least, not on the surface of the report}.

So...................Chrysler is using these churches to showcase their
new vehicles, it's just marketing/advertising. Big deal, who really
cares?

 

Speak for yourself, you illiterate ****.

You like to lump everyone you hate together, and give it a label that
appears to your ignorant "mind" to be opposite of what you espouse.
It would be best, if you were to keep BOTH hands off the keyboard.

Like you have a fucking clue as to what the word means.

Why bother signing this crap? No one who reads this gives a shit as
to just exactly which sub-moronic republican spawn shit his pants and
then wiped it all over the usenet...and I expect that anyone who's
experienced your inanity in person would bother to read your netspew,
anyway.

 

Ghod wrote:

Wow - that was intelligent.

Don't worry Ted - I don't put you in the same category as that guy.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')