Sand of Christ

I try very hard not to mock the religious, save for my own private enjoyment, but when you see things like this being taken seriously it really drives home how close to “magic” christianity can get.

This whole topic also reminds me of the the “blessing of the microphones” scene in the infamous Jesus Camp.

(Maxwell Smart’s voice) “Ah yes, the old end justifies the means rationalization. Second time this week I’ve fallen for that.”

Somehow, ill-begotten gains almost always end up biting you in the ass even if you are applying them to what you think is a noble cause. One common reason is that once you say it’s okay to be deceitful to one person in order to benefit another person, the number of persons you deceive begins to increase and the number of persons you benefit decreases until it’s just yourself. Eventually, you’re willing to cheat anyone in any way to benefit yourself.

This kind of scam almost always gets exposed and discredits charities in general. The people in need end up with less help coming their way.

As my mom loves to say, there’s an ass for every seat.

Granted it’s been decades since I was a Protestant Christian, but back when Protestantism meant something, ordained ministers couldn’t bless things or make things holy. That’s strictly God’s domain. And an ordained minister would never claim to have blessed something; only that he had asked for God’s blessing. Having ministers bless things is a big thumb in the eye to the whole Protestant Reformation.

Look, if you want a priest, join a religion that has priests. If you can’t stand the pope, there’s Orthodox, Syrian, Maronite, Coptic, and even Episcopalians. Their priests can bless sand to their hearts’ content. But ministers, ordained or otherwise, are simply unqualified to bless things.

PROTESTANTISM: UR DOIN IT RONG

This isn’t just a hypothetical exercise in ethics. The Sand of Christ website is actually claiming that they are benefiting a charity, the YMCA. I wrote this email to the YMCA national headquarters:

I wish to bring to your attention the fact that a website calling itself “Sand of Christ” is selling little vials of sand that they claim are “blessed” and they imply are highly spiritually valuable things. They claim that portions of their proceeds are going to benefit the YMCA and they are using your logo. You can find the website here. http://www.sandofchrist.com/

I certainly hope that this is not authorized by you, because deceitful nonsense like this does not reflect well upon your organization. If you have not authorized this, I strongly urge you to repudiate them and take action to have their claim of benefiting the YMCA removed from their site.
Sincerely yours,
Richard Wade

If the store had a name not attached to a particular religion, like what Tony suggests, then I think I would be okay with it. The “blessing” is entirely irrelevant, obviously, but if people attach significance to it and buy the blankets, then that’s their choice.

I don’t understand the significance of the sand. I don’t recall anything important about it in the bible except that God told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as sand granules. Or maybe that was only stars in the sky.

God commanded his people to bury their shit . Since they lived in a desert, what do you think they buried it with?

“Would you support the Blankets for Christ store?”

No. Religious belief is dangerous and I would not encourage myth and superstition. It really doesn’t matter where the profits go.

Speaking of profits, it is interesting that site claims to donate to the YMCA “based on our net profit” yet later states “at this time we have still not achieved a profit.”

…then anointed and blessed through a long and expensive process.

Wait. What? Wait.

Expensive? What about an anointing and blessing process could make it expensive? Are they anointing it with caviar oil or something?

This whole thing makes no sense. I can’t even begin to imagine a sense in which it might make sense. It is such blatant, shameless huckterism, I can’t imagine how it is that not everyone can see through it to the fraud it is.

And to the question: No. Absolutely not. The end does not justify the means. There are better ways to raise money for a good cause: ways that don’t destroy the trust of the people donating money and the honor of the people raising it.

Hey, as long as it’s legal you have a right to make money on any fool idea and then keep it, give it to charity or blow it in a casino. Whatever. That’s the freedom of the market.

Would I support it? No. I wouldn’t shell out for the Home Depot sand these guys took with them to church some Sunday either. I’ve got much better silly trinkets to waste my money on.

I don’t understand the significance of the sand

You spread it on the floor and make footprints.

“I’d like to start a religion. That’s where the money is!”

Can we sell books that explain we are all possessed by the essence of a boogey man but for a financed price we can show people how to expunge the essence?

Well, provided they use the Blanket of Blessing that is.

Actually, I’ve said too much. Until you’ve spent enough….uh…studied enough to reach the proper level I can’t discuss this with you any more.

Buy your blankets now!

If you want a list of atheists who are already taking suckers for their bucks, just begin writing down the names of every televangelist and TBN maven you can come up with. These fraud artists _can’t_ be believing what they’re pitching.

And no, I wouldn’t support a blessed blankets enterprise.

lewelly Says: January 3rd, 2009 at 5:49 pm

God commanded his people to bury their shit . Since they lived in a desert, what do you think they buried it with?

We needed God to tell us this? makes sense we couldn’t come up with ‘do not kill’ or ‘do not steal’ without divine assistance

Why sand? Why not ground cardamom? It would smell better, and you could use it to infuse your food or coffee with a holy zest.

I don’t fully understand why everyone is saying the blankets for Christ idea is deceitful. It’s sounds honest and on the up-and-up to me. You are selling blessed blankets to people who want blessed objects. The only issue I see is not believing in the product you are selling, which is a different issue. In the end, if your customers are happy and not deceived what is wrong with it though?

Though there may be nothing technically wrong with this scheme, I would hang back because it just FEELS wrong to me (how’s that for using my critical thinking?)……Kind of like a white wine spritzer — just…..EWWWWW.

Blankets are too expensive. The faithful don’t need real blankets. Every year there’s a church that sends me a piece of paper printed to look like a rug. They claim it’s a prayer rug and expect a donation in return. We could crank out thousands of those pieces of paper for the cost of a single blanket.

Nope, bad idea, for the same reason that doctors should not be in the business of dispensing placebos: it erodes credibility. You can’t build a truthful structure on a huge lie.

The same phenomenon is currently happened in here, that the preacher is saying that it’ll be more holier to do the ritual with a blessed oil(?). And those people keep believing it’s true. I don’t get it!

Thank heavens! Now I know where to go when I need some new inventive vampire repellant. Lestat will never suspect holy sand! *evil laugh* Okay that’s a lie, I like Lestat so I wouldn’t want to repel him.

Seriously I think if people are stupid enough to fall for that crap, they deserve what they get. As for the YMCA having any involvement, I don’t know that they know about it but it wouldn’t surprise me. Don’t forget YMCA stands for Young Men’s Christian Association. They used to offer Bible classes as part of their fitness program. That fact was pulled off the Y’s site by the way in the history section. It could be too that the company is donating the money to the Y but not telling them where it’s coming from as far as the “scheme.” Also “a portion of the proceeds” could be as little as one penny on every buck sale. That sort of thing drives me nuts!

Anyway I don’t see any problem with the blankets as long as there was no false advertising.

When I first read this, I thought the believers were buying a blanket to donate to charity and I was all on board for a humanist running a blankets for Christ gig. I was thinking the needy get a blanket, I get to choose the charity, and the believer gets to feel “closer to God”.

But on re-reading it, I understand it as a form of lying to people. The people are buying a blanket for themselves but they’re hoping for something extra because it’s a Christ blanket. So my conclusion is it would be wrong to sell a blanket of that type of anyone.