The Crusades: Salvation or Exploitation
Crusades in the current Christian setup have been converted into social avenues of exploitation. In the past, crusades were voluntary events attended by Christians globally with the sole purpose of affirming their faith and converting the non-believers. They were presented as acts of commitment and authoritative enticements for the amends of the global sins. Debatably, the concept of crusades was aimed at bringing together a sequence of interlinked principals both those inborn with the particular individuals and those triggered through faultless and rational methods of word preaching. During the era of Christian Holy war, crusades were held with the goal of preaching the word of God to pagans and the non-believers so as to convert them to Christianity. In the current society, crusades have been misused by some rogue preachers to champion their own self interest. Many preachers have in recent times used crusades for personal benefits instead of conducting it willingly as a means to aid believers devote and repent their sins.
In today’s society, many preachers have based their sermons around their own social needs. Several of them have become overnight millionaires for manipulating religion for their own self interests by organizing and running international money-minting crusades, robbing poor believers in the name of God. Majority of people stream to the evangelical crusades with high hopes of finding lasting solutions for their problems and praying for miracles that are performed at heavy prices beyond their reach. In many instances, the men of God arm-twist their followers into making pledges, offering gifts and all manner of monetary orientated donations. Armed with all the Bible verses touching on giving, the believers are intimidated into believing that God only blesses those who give. In some churches and crusades, believers are asked to sow a certain amount of money per month and the Lord shall multiply it several times. Incidentally, the faithfull’s give their offerings whole heartedly because the Bible teachings that the evangelists cite persuades them to bequeath part of their wealth for the development of the word of God and spiritual cause. The religious fraud is spread by the evangelical churches during crusades in several ways with the promise of freeing them from the chains of troubles rocking their lives. For instance, some rogue preachers claim to posses “holy water”, blessed handkerchiefs, powerful ointment that their followers ought to purchase, a ploy used to siphon the believers’ money.
In conclusion, crusades should be held for the sole purpose for which they were initially intended; spiritual nourishment and repentance. Rogue evangelists should desist from holding crusades for their own selfish gains and believers should be educated on how to identify and shun evangelist who are only intended in siphoning their hard-earned money.