Thanks, Megan!

 

Firstly, thankyou for your kind words, but, secondly, thanks for sharing your experience of this topic.  I always love it when people can add to a discussion with their own personal perspectives. And I imagine there are many others in a similar situation to you, who are no doubt benefited from relating to the topic in a way that I can't give (because I've never been personally mixed up in these modern churches - my personal experience of religion is Catholic, I was raised in the Catholic institution, went to a Catholic school, etc).  

 

I think it's the institutionalisation of religion - any of them - that lends itself to financial corruption. It's disgusting, really, that they are exempt for tax, because all of them, in the end, are supporting the pastors, priests and preachers involved, with that money. It's not a charity, the church does not use its money for much charity at all, if you look at it proportionally - it thinks sustaining itself "is" the good deed, so I don't see why they should be exempt from tax, when they use the money they lure from people to buy themselves luxury cars and bigger houses than most of their congregation live in. The country is doing it so tough, right now, but they're certainly not!

 

I even saw that, when, a few years ago, I spent two weeks at the Buddhist camp, at Blackheath. Naively, I suppose, I presumed it would be "above" such problems. I went there out of curiosity, because I was studying psychology at uni, at the time, and I had grown rebellious, and thought the psychology industry were deluded, out of touch and arrogant, in refusing to look at any other ways that people found solutions to their problems. So, I went off to do Vipassana (that I'd heard a lot of people talking about) to see what the more spiritual approach was (and I was also interested in the concept of ego-disconnection - but that's probably getting a little heavy for most people, here). 

 

This was a "free" course, because Buddhism forbids making any money from the religion. They made it very clear in the leaflets that they did not operate as a business, asked for nothing in return, but had a system of donation that anyone was welcome to give to. Turns out the implications were a little more pressured than I thought. And, of course, everyone, at the end, gets out their wallet, because there are all these people who think they have found the meaning of life and, like true consumers, are happy to fork out for that. I suppose that's not a bad thing, as such, but I was a little stunned that, in the middle of the wilderness, the last thing they did was whack out an eftpos machine!

 

The thing is, I'd been to see the head honcho, during this course (I had real problems with it, and was taken to him, to discuss my misgivings) and in the middle of all these lectures about the importance of living without luxury (like Buddha, etc), and considering the leaflets had made it clear that the donations simply went into sustaining the facility, I wondered why this guy was living in a luxury pad, at the back of the facility, with a BMW parked outside it! I couldn't help but be skeptical.

 

And they were making it very clear that we were expected to donate - that got stronger, as it went on. They took down people's names who had, and kept asking, "Have you been able to donate, yet?" as if they were just being concerned that you'd been given the chance. I told them I wasn't going to, and that the Universe would find a way of thanking them for my salvation.

 

They came to know me a bit, and spotted me as someone who could potentially recruit the businesses I was involved with, at the time, and gave me a new leaflet to show any corporates I knew. Turns out they were shifting their focus away from the public, and targeting business men and women. The leaflet had a guy in a suit, doing meditation on a yoga mat, in front of his briefcase! Their reasoning was that businessmen had to deal with more stress than most, and they felt the programme could be particularly useful for them. Call me a cynic, but I simply thought, "You mean, they donate more money than most people..."

 

To me, spirituality should be personal. It shouldn't need an institution, or a collective of any kind. Any time there is a power structure, and a foundation of conformity around it, to me, it's the antithesis to spirituality. I don't mind the idea that these places need to sustain themselves, but it nearly always crosses that line. But Hillsong have crossed it, like no other. I'm glad you're out! I hope there are other people reading this, who can take inspiration from your ability to think for yourself and join those dots. 

 

Thanks again, Megan!

 

Aaron