So apparently, in Singapore, an acceptable metaphor to entice people to God is to invite them to "bank with" and "invest in" heaven. I wonder what's the going rate of return on that 10% tithe thing they've got going ...
Related post: Whose God is it anyway?
Technorati Tags: Singapore, church, Christianity, religion, advertising
Labels: Personal, Singapore stories
6 Comments:
An Eternity of what, that's my question.
ok ok... I know you're trying to draw attention to the monetary obsession in your country, but seriously... Eternity is a very very scary idea.
and nearby, schools teach us that "knowledge is currency"...
we're well on the path of intellectual and spiritual ruin, but heck, at least we have $$$$.
I saw the banner recently too. I must say, if we have to use such financial terms to get people to go to church, we are a bunch of pathetic people indeed.
I'm a biased christian, but here's my $.02. You confine the definition of these terms ("invest in" and "bank on") to relate only to money when they have clearly found broader use in our everyday language.
I think it wise to realise that our daily lives are acts of investments, mostly of time and energy.
Lucian > The thing is, the banner is not just using a term like "invest in" in isolation. It's calculated to thrust the entire metaphor of commercialism in the reader's face, and that metaphor is the be-all and end-all of this banner's message.
My discomfort comes from the fact that having religious faith is not supposed to some kind of "investment" that brings potential profit into one's life. One believes because, well, one does. One doesn't believe in order to get rich or to go to heaven or for any other reward. Not to say that there's no reward to be had, but that's not why one believes. One believes because God has spoken to you --- not because God said, "Believe in me and check out all this cool stuff (tangible and intangible) you'll get."
For that matter, to take up ballsy's observation, we shouldn't see education as an investment. Education ought to be for its own sake, not because it will bring some kind of profit to the matter. Similarly a relationship isn't an investment. It ought to be appreciated for its own sake. If everything gets reduced to "investments", why, who'd dare to take a risk and do something just for the hell of it then?
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