Yesterday I was listening to a highly respected minister talk and I wanted to smack him across his face

[Stargazer99]

The lecture was about not spending so much as to help ones finances. So I thought to myself what do you do? Not see a doctor? Not fix the car? When one cannot pay basic living expenses from crappy wages from the capitalist employer, blame your self? When I was 15 yrs old I had to run away from home to prevent incest as a young person no one to help me (where in the hell were you my society?) oh I forgot a frightened 15 yr old was expected to reason like an adult. I lost my education when I ran away to protect my self and had to work for poor paying capitalist from a lack of skills to support myself. And now you want me to blame myself by not over spending by not being able to meet basic living needs. My response is what sh***y society I live in run by males

[SheltieLover]

1. ...

[Vinca]

2. Well, you could always sell a couple of your homes. Scott Bessent says we all have a few extras around the world.

[niyad]

6. Exactly! problem solved! no upkeep, no taxes*, extra money.

*except for capital gains, but one can probably get around those with the right accountant.

[Linda ladeewolf]

22. Scott Bessant is completely detached from most peoples' reality i recently read some nonsense .

Like this from him, So is your minister. Religion is meant to keep people contented and poor or suffering, don’t complain if you are hungry, it’s gods will. He must be a very cruel god to allow millions of people suffer or he is non existent. As for unreasonable expenses I don’t have too many things pressing, a good thing because I don’t have the money above a certain amount I can use.
I don’t eat avocado toast, I do drink a large latte in the morning, but I make my own. My big expenditures are usually a bottle of nail polish and my weakness for yarn and Irish whistles. I don’t have a second home.

[JT45242]

3. I don't drink starbucks etc to help finances

For me it is micro choices. Buy pop in grocery store and keep in office rather than pay at vending machine

[niyad]

10. I believe you are missing the point.

[JT45242]

15. White dude in a blended mostly African American church

I've heard a lot of those sermons over the years...but for me, it was from an African American preacher speaking in a lower SES part of town.

But there is a place for those sermons...I've lived it in those churches. When we did Friday night movies or Friday night hoops during the summer for many of the kids what we fed them, especially towards the end of the month might have been the only full meal that day.

But that is a very different sermon than Christian nationalist charlatans. Or worse yet those prosperity gospel grifters like Joel Osteen

[Dan]

4. He/She might be highly respected, but

Why listen to a fool?

[niyad]

13. He. . A fool who does not have to worry about the roof over their

Last edited Tue Feb 10, 2026, 10:09 AM - Edit history (1)

head, the utilities, or where their next meal is coming from.

[Dan]

18. You said it much better than me.

[FoxNewsSucks]

5. That "respected minister" should be addressing the greed

of the billionaires and corporate oligarchs.

Not the people being exploited.

A few years ago, I was in a convenience store on my job. A tobacco rep was there talking to the store employee & manager, about tax cuts and how we need to provide incentive and 'help' to job creators. And that workers can just live within their means.

I wrote down some fast math and showed them that even with a higher tax rate, someone making 2 million a year has A LOT MORE left to live on after taxes than gas station employees making 40k. I told him that the wrong people are being told to "live within their means".

It's only gotten worse since then. The rich are greedier than ever and don't give a rats ass about us.

[niyad]

9. Ohhh, they care about us!!! Why, we greedy, useless ones might

manage to scrape up an extra penny that actually belongs to them.

[niyad]

7. hugggggs. If you were listening in person, and walked out without

slapping him in his arrogant, tone-deaf face, I admire your self-restraint!

[Clouds Passing]

8. So many of us, our lives have been severely diminished because of sexual abuse.

Who could you have been? Who could I have been? Who could we have been if we hadn’t been sexually assaulted, not protected, ridiculed and outcasted?

I stand in solidarity with you Stargazer99

The American people have had enough belt tightening just in order to support a handful of billionaires.

Many countries in the world provide K -U education and healthcare. US doesn’t beacause the effing uber-rich.

[niyad]

14. You are correct on every point.

[Clouds Passing]

16. Thanks niyad

[niyad]

17. hugggggs

[MustLoveBeagles]

23. I agree with everything you said

I'm sorry you've also gone through this.

[Clouds Passing]

24. Too many of us have. The largest club in the world, the abused.

Thanks MLBs

[Diamond_Dog]

11. I am so sorry, stargazer.

For a minister, that guy is awfully shortsighted and narrow minded. Blaming the poor? He should be de-frocked.

They never go after the ones who deserve the blame.

I hope things are better for you now.

[purr-rat beauty]

12. For the most part

Our religious leaders are painfully quiet in the midst of this shit

Not all, but many. Guess their tax exempt status is more important than compassion.

[travelingthrulife]

20. I think it is just now beginning to dawn on them that this new-fangled right wing

christianity is very far off the mark from any traditional interpretation. It is probably to0 late for them to make a real difference. For years I heard the excuse that 'you can't know what's in someone's heart' to discourage criticism of this vile interpretation.

[travelingthrulife]

19. That's the thing that MAGA never understands. Some people get crapped on from the day they are born through

no fault of their own. We have so much wealth in this country but also so much amorality.

I am sorry you had to endure all of that.

[MustLoveBeagles]

21. I'm sorry

You were put in that situation through no fault of your own. I really hate poor shaming.

[dlilafae]

25. A poor shamer

who lives off the money tithed by the congregation!! There are people in the world that are so ridiculous that you have to narrate back to them, the scheme they are attempting to pull off. One does so in the hopes that they'll "get a clue." ~ Smack landed.