By pushing the parishioners to get bigger loans and get into bigger houses? Hanna Rosin at The Atlantic, has a very interesting piece on the how pastors are one of the many negative influences on people to place them in homes that are well beyond their means. Not to say there weren’t other causes, but churches have a lot of power and sway in their communities.
LIKE THE AMBITIONS of many immigrants who attend services there, Casa del Padre’s success can be measured by upgrades in real estate. The mostly Latino church, in Charlottesville, Virginia, has moved from the pastor’s basement, where it was founded in 2001, to a rented warehouse across the street from a small mercado five years later, to a middle-class suburban street last year, where the pastor now rents space from a lovely old Baptist church that can’t otherwise fill its pews. Every Sunday, the parishioners drive slowly into the parking lot, never parking on the sidewalk or grass—“because Americanos don’t do that,” one told me—and file quietly into church. Some drive newly leased SUVs, others old work trucks with paint buckets still in the bed. The pastor, Fernando Garay, arrives last and parks in front, his dark-blue Mercedes Benz always freshly washed, the hubcaps polished enough to reflect his wingtips.
discussing god, Judaism, and Christianity with host Jonathan Miller.
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