So, I was in a Church in the city for my young cousins christening
and I noticed that in the back of the Church was a gift shop. I was very,
to say the least displeased. So allow me to discuss with you all why
Churches should not have gift shops.
Why they should not have gift shops: My reasoning is as follows.
It to me is like monetizing faith. You are playing to a certain
degree on naive members of the faith based community to buy goods distributed
by the church. But this is like buying salvation from the olden times
such as Europe's Renaissance period. We generally realize that faith, or
salvation cannot be bought, but it disturbed me that even during the service,
there were people going into the gift shop to buy stuff. It just seemed
very, very wrong to me. Needless to say I held my tongue for it was a
special event for family, but I am expressing my opinion now since the
celebration is over. I feel that no matter how great the economic need, a
church should not have a gift shop in its back area. Additionally, it should
not be selling goods during a mass. To me, this is just irreverent.
Conclusion: Yes, I know that churches are
losing parishioners, and that they need the revenue to stay open. But
could they at least put it in the church's basement and sell goods there.
My home church has always kept the shops either in the basement or in the
parking lot, but they were ready to sell once mass ended, not during.
Maybe, the church is drifting away from faith, or maybe they are simply
just that desperate. Whatever their reason, unless it is a special occasion
with family, I will not attend mass in a church that feels it is ok to sell
trinkets during a mass or that has a gift shop in the back.
No comments:
Post a Comment