“1My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. 2Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”

How does this reconcile with the Kingdom builders programmes in some big Churches…?

If you donate over $5000 to the tax-deductible building fund you can become part of a special club of ‘veryimportantbigpeople’ in the Church and have access to special priveledges like exclusive breakfasts with the Senior Pastor. You can also ‘network’ with and be noticed by the other ‘veryimporatntbigpeople’ in the Kingdom builders programme…

Plainly, St Paul in this letter to the Hebrews descrbes this type of thinking as ‘Evil’.

Can these programmes (as ‘pragmatic’ as they are) be reconciled to Christianity?

I think not.