angelwngs
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Hi CL,CyberLaw said:
This is just my personal opinion. It's possible that the minister in this case, Rev. Cooper, never "asked" people to send letters. I have often written or typed my prayers. One time, I addressed an envelope to my pastor and sent a written prayer of thanks to God. I have also written on the back of a church envelope and placed the prayer at the alter before. When my mother died, we noticed a tiny drawer made into her casket. My family and I decided to place note cards, pens and envelopes in a basket and many of Mom's friends and family wrote prayers and placed them in the drawer. Unusual? Absolutely. It was also very comforting. It offered a very real connection between our Faith, with the death of the Earthly, human body, and with our Belief that the Spirit/Soul goes on as did those prayers placed in that tiny drawer.
Personally, my thoughts tend to make more sense to me when I put them into written word rather than simply when I think or speak them. No minister ever prompted this type of action with a request from worshipers in any congregation I have ever attended. It was simply my choice to prayer using written word. I never expected the pastor or any other human to 'do anything with my prayers'. It's also possible that Rev. Cooper did not intentionally choose to leave those prayers unopened. There's the real possibility that he was very sick and unabe to open those letters for an extended period of time prior to his death.
In this particular article/link above, I read no mention of any offerings found in the envelopes, so I think, in this particular case, these 'letters to God' were simply prayers. The Bible asks us to give offerings to the Lord. That also, is a very personal choice in the manner in which one offers gifts to God, in my opinion. I often choose to give directly to those in need where I see the Lord working in their lives. That's just my personal choice. Many elderly Christians that I have spoken to about sending money to televangilist ministries have often explained to me that since they do not often attend their local church and that now, it is more difficult for them to 'give' their offerings to God through their local church. They have also shared that they indeed feel as if they gain a great deal Spiritually from the television ministry of their choice and that they wish to give their gifts directly to source of their Spiritual Blessings. Who am I to argue with that logic?
My concern with coming to a place of personal understanding and acceptance with this issue, in the end, boiled down to our "freedom to choose" right from wrong and believing that is our gift from God. I feel that the person who gives their offerings from their heart, in God's name, has accomplished their intent. Even if a televangalist is "wrong" in the way he uses those gifts, it is God that he will ultimately have to answer to for his wrongs and it takes nothing away from the intended 'good deed' of the giver.
