Another way gambling can hurt the poor and needy...


PORTLAND, Ore. (AP (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OR_GAMBLING_PASTOR_OROL-?SITE=OREUG&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)) -- The pastor of a downtown Portland church has acknowledged taking church money intended for charity and gambling with it.

The board of First Christian Church asked Rex Loy to resign after an audit determined that at least $30,000 was taken in 2006 from a fund designed to help struggling members with rent, bills and food.

"I am overwhelmed with shame and remorse for the damage caused by my illness," Loy said in an e-mail to the congregation last week. "I have lied to you, and I have stolen from you . . . which means I have lied to and stolen from God."

Only apologized after being caught...Classy pastor

So sad.. think about how much food 30K would have bought for hungry families? What a shame.

...which is why people shouldn't pay to hear the word of God. If you believe in a certain God, and you believe that God gave His word in the Holy Bible, why would you pay some guy to preach it to you? Organized religion, for the most part, is just a business.

Seriously ask yourself, if everyone in my church stopped giving 10%, would this pastor stay here and do "the will of God", or would he bail for another church where he'll get paid? ...if the shoe fits...

Forgive the Pastor and then "get a rope".

...which is why people shouldn't pay to hear the word of God. If you believe in a certain God, and you believe that God gave His word in the Holy Bible, why would you pay some guy to preach it to you? Organized religion, for the most part, is just a business.

Seriously ask yourself, if everyone in my church stopped giving 10%, would this pastor stay here and do "the will of God", or would he bail for another church where he'll get paid? ...if the shoe fits...

Which is a part of the reason I strayed from the "word of God" in the first place. Between people like him, Ted Haggard, Jerry Falwell, Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson, Child-molesting "Priests", and radical Muslim clerics, it amazes me that anyone still has any faith in the "word of God" interpreted by these obviously extremely unqualified people. These are terrible people and it amazes me how many buy into their words. In fact, I'd be comfortable in calling most of them monsters.

Man will always fail because they are human. It's just that when it is an evangelist, pastor, youth minister, or some other type of clergy, it always makes the news....and it should. We all need to know when a minister, a man that you should be able to confide in, is caught in a crime.

I still have very much faith in the Word of God, because I follow God, not man. There are many evangelists that I can't stand, and Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart are two of the worst. As a believer, I follow the Word of God, not some man.

You see, I feel that is the reason many people quit going to church......they followed the man, not God. If I followed man, I would have given up a long time ago. I refuse to let a man interfere with my faith in God.

A noble point. I also see the Megachurches as a social fraternity above true faith. To me, I just have little faith in any actual word of God as it seems only relatively recently that these events have been reported in wide-spread encounters. We all know that corruption has plagued churches and religions, so what reason should I or anyone have to follow any denomination or religion in general?