Would you sell your earrings and gold teeth to pay your electric bill?

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/article/293146/3/Local-church-program-to-pay-their-electric-bills-frustrates-residents

I guess the message for churches is to not help ANYONE if you can't help EVERYONE.

Ghandi wrote:

Would you sell your earrings and gold teeth to pay your electric bill?

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/article/293146/3/Local-church-program-to-pay-their-electric-bills-frustrates-residents

To answer your question, Ghandi: I have no jewelry that's worth anything to anyone besides me nor do I have any gold teeth, but if I couldn't pay my electric bill -- or any of my bills, for that matter -- you'd better believe I would start selling the things I DO have of value in order to pay my bills. Books, tools, art, my collection of Fiesta Ware,... All of it would hurt to have to sell, but I'd do whatever necessary to make-good on my bills. I would sell the most easily replaceable things first, starting with books (I own literally over a thousand books) and tools.

I think it's terrible what this church did. They should have first reviewed finances and advertised that they could only help the first 300 people or the 300 most needy in the community. I am very much in favor of folks getting the support from private organizations as opposed to seeking government assistance, and I think this sort of thing only serves to deter people from seeking out support from the private sector. Such a shame.

Hopefully the church learned a valuable lesson from this and in the future will perform due-diligance to evaluate how many folks they will be able to assist before they advertise to their community.

The church had the best of intentions, and I laud them for this, but they could have handled the situation better. People that couldn't be helped should have been promptly turned away with an apology that the church was swamped.

It sounds to me like this was a word of mouth thing that was publicized by people other than the church. I'm guessing the church helped some people out and those people spread the word...

If the church promised people face-to-face that they would pay their bills and then just ignored them when the money ran out... that's just wrong.

riceme wrote:

Ghandi wrote:

Would you sell your earrings and gold teeth to pay your electric bill?

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/article/293146/3/Local-church-program-to-pay-their-electric-bills-frustrates-residents

To answer your question, Ghandi: I have no jewelry that's worth anything to anyone besides me nor do I have any gold teeth, but if I couldn't pay my electric bill -- or any of my bills, for that matter -- you'd better believe I would start selling the things I DO have of value in order to pay my bills. Books, tools, art, my collection of Fiesta Ware,... All of it would hurt to have to sell, but I'd do whatever necessary to make-good on my bills. I would sell the most easily replaceable things first, starting with books (I own literally over a thousand books) and tools.

I think it's terrible what this church did. They should have first reviewed finances and advertised that they could only help the first 300 people or the 300 most needy in the community. I am very much in favor of folks getting the support from private organizations as opposed to seeking government assistance, and I think this sort of thing only serves to deter people from seeking out support from the private sector. Such a shame.

Hopefully the church learned a valuable lesson from this and in the future will perform due-diligance to evaluate how many folks they will be able to assist before they advertise to their community.

The church only had enough money to pay for 300 of the 1,000 that applied for it.
1,000? Word must have spread really fast to the gimme gimme tribe.

I would not blame the church UNLESS they put out the word that they would pay the electric bills of all who applied.

I guess they didn't pray hard enough..

I wonder how many of them were members of the church.

Ask not what your church can do for you; but what you can do for your church.

Nekochan wrote:I would not blame the church UNLESS they put out the word that they would pay the electric bills of all who applied.

Ehh, I can agree to you to an extent, but in financial times like these they absolutely should have expected that the good word (see what I did there?? ha ha) would have spread. I maintain that they should have performed due-diligence, calculated and advertised how many households they would be able to assist.

I give them credit for trying, and again, I hope they learned their lesson.

Ghandi wrote:
The church only had enough money to pay for 300 of the 1,000 that applied for it.
1,000? Word must have spread really fast to the gimme gimme tribe.

Sure it did... you know as well as the rest of us that financial times are tougher than they've been in most all of our lifetimes. I'd expect word would spread to folks in bad financial situations.

That being said, I cannot see myself in a situation where I would request such assistance (that's not to say that it couldn't ever happen... bad shit happens to the best of us). Like I said when I originally replied to your post, I'd sell all my own things before I ever did that. But we do not know if these people have already sold their own belongings or not, so that's a little prejudicial.

A good friend who donated thousands to his church messed up and ended up in jail one night.. I bailed him out because his paster wouldn't do it..

Jake92 wrote:A good friend who donated thousands to his church messed up and ended up in jail one night.. I bailed him out because his paster wouldn't do it..

It's sad and disappointing to hear that your friend's pastor wouldn't bail him out particularly after he'd donated thousands to the church. Shameful.

I've bailed out a couple friends in my day because family, church-folk and other friends had given up on them. We had serious "Come to Jesus" talks about what was to transpire if and when I was to bail them out, beginning the moment they got out of jail, and what precisely would happen if they did not follow-through on their commitments to me. I've never regretted my decisions to help them out. Just otherwise good people who were in bad situations and who'd made poor decisions. Being pushed in the right direction with a hard-ass like me riding their butts to make things right, they got through the bad times and cleaned-up their acts.

Nekochan wrote:I would not blame the church UNLESS they put out the word that they would pay the electric bills of all who applied.

You're right, Neko. There is no way the church or anyone can anticipate how many people are going to apply. I can tell you from experience many of those people who applied used their money for something else because they anticipated getting something free. If I help one person, I am bombarded by twenty more who heard and want it too whether they need it or not.

Rice, I just can't imagine you as a hard ass.. :-))))
My friend is now a paster in TN himself...

Jake92 wrote:Rice, I just can't imagine you as a hard ass.. :-))))
My friend is now a paster in TN himself...

LOL. :-))))

Glad to hear that your friend made it through his rough time/s. Mine did as well, and are all doing a lot of good things again.

"There is no way the church or anyone can anticipate how many people are going to apply. I can tell you from experience many of those people who applied used their money for something else because they anticipated getting something free. If I help one person, I am bombarded by twenty more who heard and want it too whether they need it or not."

No doubt many of those who were counting on help used their own money for Christmas gifts instead of making an effort to pay the bills themselves or get help via another program.

I have sold personal belongings, including jewelry, to pay my utility bills. I was a young divorced mom working a minimum wage job with no benefits. When I was out sick for a week, I never dreamed of going to any agency for help with my bills. I just sold my class ring and my wedding and engagement rings and considered myself lucky that I still had the job.

I bailed out a few and most of them turned things around. One of them got married way too young and his wife wrote a lot of bad checks and he was the one responsible for paying the money.. I bailed him out 4 different times rather than have him miss coming to work and the Navy getting involved in it..

BTW, they got divorced after she sold his brand new Harley to her boyfriend for $50 while he was in jail.. She ended up in jail for a few years for numerous thefts.. That was all back in the 80's..

He made chief after 14 years and retired a few months ago..