First Baptist Church of Jackson--or--Let me tell you where you can find $500,000 just sitting on a street corner.

The Link above goes to the First Baptist Church of Jackson. Clicking on that link will take you to the website with an informative link called "The DaVinci Code. Fact or Fiction?"

Oddly enough, I can help you out on that score here. it's fiction. know how i know? when i got my copy from the Jackson Library, it was in the Fiction section. The Author calls it a work of fiction too (for the uninitiated, that means 'made up' or 'not true'). Why is it that the people REALLY upset about this book/film are so ADAMANT about letting us know this is a work of fiction? Seriously, do they feel our tie to reality is so weak that we might confuse fictional stories at the movies with reality? Do they live in fear that someone will try to get their hands on a lightsaber and start fights?

...ah, but i digress.

The First Baptist Church is about 2 blocks from my office. I sometimes walk by it if i have business anywhere near our capitol. A week ago i noticed they constructed a small glass building on the sidewalk on a back corner of the Church's lot. Today i saw what the building was for. its to house 50,000,000 pennies. this is to symbolize the (claimed) 50 million abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade in 1973.

This sort of thing is an exquisitely perfect metaphor for the church and the misguided emphasis of so many social conservatives. Instead of dealing with any of the societal pains that exist within walking distance, they build a monument of money on their very sidewalk. Think about what 50,000,000 pennies mean. it means that this Church, nestled in the middle of downtown, walking distance from some of the most crushing poverty in this city, is more interested in the issue of abortion than the living souls within eyesight of its own walls. This is a church willing to put a half a million dollars in a box on the sidewalk before they'd spend a dime of that money on the lives on the other side of that glass.

The saddest point to me is that this church is erecting a giant, clear piggy bank who's whole goal is to hold HALF A MILLION DOLLARS in plain sight of the homeless of this city. everyday on this very street homeless people walk along with nothing but their own pains and needs. This church, the church who's website devotes not one paragraph to the poor...denotes not one charitable activity that enriches the least among us...would prefer to stack a half million dollars on the street than use it. They are erecting a box of money to memorialize a political issue.

Could Mammon have designed a better honorary himself? This church would rather sit a half million dollars on the streets of Jackson than spend the money on the streets of Jackson. I am somewhat taken aback by the vigor with which this church turns its back on the lord.