Thoughts on money

Here's something I've been thinking of - I may offend some people, and that is not my purpose. I don't really know what my purpose is...but it's not to offend.

Today on "America's Court" (what?!?! I had the week off - daytime television is interesting when you're scrubbing the house) a woman was suing her church for $5000 that she gave toward a building project. She wanted it back because she had recently found out that her pastor was performing wedding ceremonies between homosexual couples. She felt that the church was not following the original plan God had for churches and in addition, she thought that this church in particular had drifted from what the original founder's ideology had been. She did not want her money going to support that ideology and only wanted the special project gift back, not her tithes.

I thought her request was reasonable and wondered at why the church didn't just give her the money before it went to court. I mean, seriously, did she go to him, tell him that she was leaving the church and why, and then ask for the money back and he said no?

This got me thinking about an agenda for more money. I think lawyers are behind the push to have marriage between homosexual people made legal.

Among heterosexual couples, the divorce rate is just about 50%, let's assume it is the same among homosexual couples - this gives the divorce lawyers all kinds of new clients for divorce cases. Have you known someone who has gone through a divorce? In many cases (if the couple has any money at all) the lawyer is making some dough.

Let's also consider churches. I believe in the institution of the church and am a regular church goer myself. I am totally aware that churches are full of humans, and mistakes happen, feelings get hurt, sin goes on. And - I think of how much more tithe and giving churches could 'make' if they embrace the homosexual lifestyle and include marriages among those that are officiated. I could see how a humanistic pastor could look at the controversy about homosexual marriage and see dollar signs.

I am sure that there are more ways that this could be a money making opportunity - I just have to think some more. And like I said, I'm off this week, so thinking time is very limited.

Dump of Long News

As you can tell by how sporadically I write in my blog...not much goes on in our world! :) but that's okay - it's better than having lots of drama (I suppose)!

Let's see, since September what' happened in our lives. We finally finished up (mostly) our energy rebate update and got our first winter bill. We saved $200 over last December, wowzer...we're shaking our heads at why we didn't do this years ago! There's a new boiler, new water heater, insulation in our heated garage (yes, we heated an uninsulated garage), and the crawl space is all sealed up. We'll get on the list soon to have our blow test redone, and hopefully we'll get back most of what we spent to update our house. We are so green.

In October we took a short (and I mean S H O R T) trip down to CO to pick up meat. My uncle is a rancher in NE, and my parents buy beef from him and shared a half with us. It's great meat, and we have a freezer full of love!

In November, we went on vacation. It was a wonderful 2 week cruise to the Caribbean, and I'd do it again next week if I could. YAY! Then we came home to subzero weather...and into the funk that is winter in Alaska. I'm pulling out of the funk, and looking forward to spring. I think spring is coming in more ways than one in our lives, and I'm looking for signs of green. We're planning another trip in April so we have something exciting to look forward to.

I have some exciting projects to do including a bedroom makeover, so maybe I'll post some pictures of that...maybe not. Depending on how good it ends up looking!