Money for morals
Written by Brianna Ehley Friday, 29 January 2010 08:00
It is no secret that our society is greatly driven by greed. It is fair to say that the majority of our motives are monetarily based.
If you disagree with this, you’re either Mother Teresa or you’re not being honest. A local Bible study instructor at Fargo’s Temple Baptist Church seems to agree with this theory, which is why he is now paying students to attend his class.
In an interview with The Spectrum, James Sabot explained that although he is “bribing students by paying for their time,” his intentions are to “give students perspective on values and to teach them what is truly important.”
As someone who attends church on a fairly regular basis, Sabot’s unusual recruitment method seems to be contradictory, and maybe even offensive. Although I’m sure Sabot means well, the method of bribery doesn’t seem like the best tool to use when trying to give perspective on “values,” nor to teach anyone what is “truly important.”
I understand that youth turnout might need a little boost at this church, and I fully support using creative ways to get students interested in attending Bible study. A good incentive never hurt anyone.
But shouldn’t the incentive be learning about and acquiring new values, not thickening your wallet? Paying people to go to church is a moral catastrophe that downgrades this instructor’s credibility.
The idea of bribing a student to come to a class that teaches high moral values is not only ironic but contradictory and completely inappropriate.
Religion is personal and should never come with a price tag. Sabot’s recruitment method is only further proving society’s obsession with money.
It seems like it would be insulting to the people that attend his class on a regular basis; the people that showed up before the cash grab-bags were around; the people that don’t need compensation for spending time spiritually enriching themselves.
Sabot justifies his unconventional method by looking to the long-term effects this might have on an individual.
I couldn’t agree with that more. After all, it doesn’t really matter what a person’s intentions are for attending church, what should matter is what they come away with after their experience.
The problem I have with his method doesn’t at all involve the intentions of the attendees, but rather the church for encouraging and engaging in bribery as a means to attract people. Unfortunately for Sabot, his first trial run at this new approach failed quite miserably, as only one new face took the bait and attended his class.
Yes, the new face did belong to a member of The Spectrum staff. Now, maybe what we can take from the Bible study’s ill-turn out, is that we may have underestimated student’s moral standards.
Maybe this proves my theory incorrect, perhaps morals might come before money after all. Or maybe Sabot should simply take an advertising class or two.
