While money was a part of it, Peter points out it is about lying. Please note, I am trying to weed out a predatory tactic of “sell everything you have to give to a priest”. Not “billionaires should exist”. In terms of tithing, it’s more about lying.

Acts 5:3-4, 8-9

But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”

And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”

I’m not discounting both readings, I think here it’s a case of “both are true”. But I don’t think Ananias and Sapphira would have died had they just not pretended it was all of their money. Greed was a part of it, but so was an act of deception and stolen valour.

Main thing keeping me away is banking. Unless if I just carry two phones. Quite trendy these days.

I remember they have a telephone thing. Fun fact, if you have two receivers, you can like use the other one to listen in and spy on phone calls.

Is that a landline? We have that in the UK, I used to do that on my mum. Got in trouble quickly when she heard me laughing over the line 🤣

The distance between a dilapidated city slum and a modern-looking shopping mall is like 20 minutes away. Like. You walk 20 minutes, and its like you time travelled. So bizzare when I recall the memories.

20 minutes? I saw some that were right next to each other. I came out of a metro station and was in a pomegranate farm, across the road were newly built apartments.

What I found odd is that their TV provider was their ISP. The TV must have been IPTV and they were allowed to use the internet, by plugging a router into the TV box which had a modem. In the UK it’s generally the other way around, your ISP is your TV provider also.

Where I stayed had a crapper toilet. I don’t think that was the norm, though.

ROC built nukes, maintains sovereignty, becomes a bastion of freedom.

The ROC didn’t become a democracy until the 1990s.

Modern China is definitely better, but CCP’s China wasn’t the only possibility we have, there are much better alt-timelines.

Yeah, that’s basically what I’m saying. However, you can say this about any country. I think the UK would have had a better future if we got “chaos with Ed Milliband”

Disclaimer: I have nothing against the Japanese people, I’m only mad at the Imperialists specifically

You’re allowed to, it’s fine. You shouldn’t need to disclaimer this.

I don’t know if there are breadlines, but definitely a lot of poverty… very underdeveloped. My parents have extremely frugal behaviors… especially my mom.

The Chinese still do that, the ones that came into wealth are still alive. I think that’s the same with any recently developed country. The house I stayed in China was very cluttered but also very clean. Furniture was kind of haphazard and the bathroom was basic. But their tvs and fridges were pretty modern. I think it’s just they don’t know the potential, but this family certainly could have afforded it.

In the villages, the only bathrooms are the communal ones…

I have a memory of it being late at night and walking to the bathroom with my dad…

Like, you literally have to leave your own house to go to the bathroom lol.

What year was this? Genuinely curious. I saw some underdeveloped villages there from the windows of trains and manual farm labourers. My dad also used to have a communal neighbourhood bathroom in the UK when he was younger in the 1970s. Someone else I was talking to was recalling collecting water from the well.

But I don’t think ROC would be wasting crutial time on some “cultural revolution” stuff and actually starting on building the country. But then again, if Japanese Imperialists didn’t invade, it would’ve been a much better timeline anyways. War ruins shit.

Yeah fair, I think if you put China how it is now, ten years ago (accounting for the cultural revolution) it wouldn’t have set it back. Also the one child policy will have extremely concerning implications in a few years

China is such a strange country. The streets are extremely clean minus the dust, the place I was staying had an advanced metro system nearby and endless huge apartments in the area, something I had never seen or experienced ever before. But the water wasn’t running like 30% of the time and even when it was, it was best not to drink it and get it from a machine outside. You’re Chinese so I cannot speak in a position over you, but I do find a lot of westerners seem to underestimate it. And they think we’re behind because there is one bus every thirty minutes to the somewhat big city which is half the side of the centre of their district.

In China they aren’t in bread lines and a lot of people there seem to have a stable life. A few Chinese people I know do genuinely say that life did get better than what it was under the communist party. Keep in mind, this country was still getting peasant girls into harems for the emperor who couldn’t leave his palace ever during victorian times

Okay, so, if all the quiet religious folk were just more quieter, that would stop the megachurch swindlers? How? Wouldn’t it just give them more leeway as we won’t be “forcing our religion on them”, eg, calling out their heresy?

Also, I believe that anyone outside of my religion goes to hell. So it will be neglectful and not loving to refuse to give someone the reason/cause of my belief, or to warn them of impending disaster.

I consider Jesus of Nazareth’s resurrection from the dead a historical fact. Therefore the logical implications from there are that He is God and what He says must be true. I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to speak about said fact like anyone can speak about other facts and give them my reasons for believing that.

Lastly, if I weren’t practicing my religion in public, that would involve not forgiving other people. It would involve seeking revenge. It would involve being impatient. Things I might do if I weren’t a Christian.

genuinely want to know your thoughts: what do you think we can do?

I hope the Roman Catholic church is better now. That scandal was horrific.

Not every Christian group is like that. You only notice the loud lunatics.

Gonna eliminate some strawmen here. For a start, in the vast majority of Christian churches, the collection plate is a modest charitable giving. It is not typically used to fund the mill/billionaire “pastors” that you see on the media all of the time. Most pastors aren’t like that. Most Churches seem to take finances seriously. The ones I have been a part of are very transparent with their finances- some publish their finances to everyone, some publish it to members. My mum is a Baptist and she says she knows how much her pastor is paid, and the congregation sets that wage in a democratic manner. In fact, voting on finances is usually what they do in members meetings. In Episcopal churches, from what I’m aware, finances are authorised for dispensation by the select vestry - who are essentially voting members in church affairs. Some churches I regularly attend do struggle for finances, as when Christianity was more culturally participated in, members would have generated enough money to maintain large beautiful buildings. Now they are aging, and churches don’t have that money to throw around.

The collection plate being passed around is actually supposed to be a method of anonymous donation. It is very much frowned upon to even look at how people handle it, most people don’t even look to take it.

Onto scripture:

Jesus said:

Matthew 6:1-4

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

So giving is encouraged, but to be done secretly.

2 Corinthians 9:7

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

I’d argue this is abolishing the 10% rule.

There is a case in the Acts of the Apostles where two people lie to the Church, and pretend to donate all of the proceeds from selling their land to the Church and drop dead. This wasn’t because they didn’t give it all, it’s because they publicly gave in front of many others as a show of holiness. After they dropped dead, the church wised up (Christians generally accept that they still went to heaven, but the act of them dying physically was to “purify” the church and to scare them out of deceit)

Acts 5:1-11

But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

Now, let’s address the table flipping incident:

People were essentially overcharging and commercialising sacrifices. Some speculate that they weren’t letting people bring their own sacrifice, instead they had to buy it in the temple court. Essentially it was a “pay to enter” fee. Not like modern day tithing.

And finally - those megachurch millionaire/billionaires? Those “ministers” who only care about money?

Matthew 7:22-23

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

Wasn’t there something that couldn’t be classified as free because it had json or something which has a licence and it’s only stipulation is is “do not use for evil”?

"Copyright © 2000 - 2011 China. "

They can’t read the contents of the traffic but they can tell it’s a VPN

They don’t really ban them, but there is deep packet inspection where they may throttle the connection or in my experience, cut it off after a period of time. Sometimes they block them during national occasions. I could probably try something better than OpenVPN. I only use it for personal use anyway and I am a foreigner, so they really wouldn’t care (if anything, it’s kind of expected waiguoren behaviour). If you are roaming on a foreign sim card and using mobile data, there is no censorship from my experience. Just needed the VPN for wifi

It is distinguishable via deep-packet-inspection, China uses this

Deep-packet inspection exists. They can tell when vpns are being used generally. They kept shutting off my VPN in China ☹️

You sure it’s secure? How are you handling security? Sometimes AI can neglect security

Listen to the voices in my head

I store them in an app on my phone behind password protection

Depends on how strong your password is and the environment you are entering the password in