Meet my old (step)Aunt D, who passed on last year. She had a good long life, and was good Christian wife to her (long dead) husband. She never had to worry about money, having inherited well from him, and a very well off sister. Having no kids of her own, her nieces and nephews were her only remaining family, but all of us were pretty far away, and not a part of her everyday life. I last saw her three years ago, when she was still upright and full of good humor. She told me how glad she was that life had been good to her, so she could leave her nieces and nephews something when she died.
Well, her estate is all settled now, and it ALL went to the Church. Every last dime of her considerable estate now belongs to her Church.
It seems she was quite frail the last couple of years, and no doubt very lonely and appreciative of the visits by the church people, especially Lady X, a good Christian woman from her church who befriended her, and got herself named “Representative” in Aunts D’s last will, drawn in the last year of her life. Why, she cared so much for our Aunt D she even convinced her to totally renovate her house before she died.
That very nice, newly renovated house, along with treasures and antiques from a lifetime of travel were all auctioned off last fall, all proceeds to the Church, along with the rest of her financial assets. My sister, who only wanted one family heirloom from her grandmother, had to bid on it and pay for it at auction.
Apparently, some of the family contacted an attorney, and were told the will was air tight, and that it would cost a fortune to contest it, with small likelihood of a win. The family was too late to even choose pall bearers for her funeral: the church had already made arrangements and chosen men from the church to haul the casket. .( But they could have “honorary ones” listed in the program if they wished.) There is speculation that the owner of the funeral home is also a member of that church. Neither that funeral home or Lady X, now executor, would release any more information to the family, and from what I understand, had the legal right to withhold it, according to what my sister knows from the others.
If only I could still be shocked by this, but I can’t be. I’ve seen this to too many other times in a lifetime of work and connections with the elderly population. Mostly women, old, sick, frail and lonely women without any involved family, who are cared for and befriended by “religious people” doing “Gods work” in caring for the elderly.
*(Please take note: I am equally aware of wonderful congregations full of deeply loving Christian people who also do this ministry with the elderly from good and pure hearts with no intent ever, of exploitation. This is not a general condemnation against all Christian Churches, only the ones like this one, whos “Christian Charity” comes with a very hefty price tag.)
I’ve seen old people not even able to pay for their medicine or buy enough food, pay the church, first, who seemed very willing to take it. And there isn’t enough paper or ink to list all of the scams so called `religious people” have used to fleece these most vulnerable elderly out of their life savings, one way or another.
Then add to this, all the non religious greedy who prey on this population. I turned 65 last fall, and since then, my mailbox is full of this crap every day. Much of it designed to look like “official notices” from Social Security or Medicare that require an immediate response. I think of the thousands of vulnerable elderly who will pick up their phone and give out their vital information, or send back those forms, out of fear that if they don’t, they’ll lose whatthey have or be breaking the law, etc.
But to me, the most despicable among these are those who exploit the elderly in the “Name of God” by not only perverting the tenants of their own faith, but also by perverting the rule of law to serve their own greedy, materialistic ends. How can one trust “Gods word” spoken from the pulpit, when it can and is perverted like this? What good is the Rule of Law, if it too, can be so easily molded to legalize such perversions?
Writing this brings back a very old memory of when I was just a kid, and still a Christian. Our little church had burned down, and a big new fancy new one had been built. I remember admiring the shiny brass doorknobs gleaming on every single door in the church, and asking how much they cost. The deacon proudly said, “Why those doorknobs cost $70.00 a piece!” I remember that this was another of the things that made my tummy hurt, because it felt so wrong to have $70.00 doorknobs in my church, when there were people who had no food just down the street. I said nothing however, having already learned the hard way not to ever question anything in my church.
Soon spring will be here, and then I’ll be able to get back to my own sanctuary under the willows by the lake, where the only offering expected of me is the dry bread the ducks will gladly receive, and the only sermon consists of bird songs.
