A 47-million dollars church building

I once raved about a local mega-church spending $47 million into building a titanium-clad church building and a friend – a non believer – pointed out that he felt there’s really nothing wrong with it because like the 5.5-ton gold Buddha in Thailand, the intention was probably to inspire – i.e. to let the believers see just how they have been collective blessed – or rewarded, depending on your point of view – for their faith.

I do not deny that a $47 millionchurch building may have left believers in awe and inspired by the goodness of God. But unlike the 5.5-ton gold Buddha, which will probably outlast our species even if the human species go extinct, the $47 million church building was, from what I have gathered, built on 30-year leased land. In other words, after 30 years they will have to tear that building down and return the plot of land as it is to the state. That will be approximately the equivalent of paying $1.6 million a year for the lease, and I am not even sure if that $47 million even include land cost.

Simply put, the 5.5-ton gold Buddha would have continue to inspire the Thai people and impress tourists for many generations to come, but in one generation the $47 million church building will only live on in photos or the memories of those who still lived. It begs the question, would God have look less favorable upon a ‘lesser’ church building in lands with strong persecution and the believers built with their own bare hands and material obtained from nature?

It makes one wonder, how those who are charged as stewards of His blessings actually account to Him that this is a prudent use of money. In fact, I wonder how they actually justified that as being part of God’s Will.

Anyway, here’s something out of point: Did you know in the Forbidden Palace in Beijing there’s a almost 300-year-old art piece carved out of a piece of jade weighing almost 5.4 tons? Took them years to mine it from some mountain in Xinjiang and – if I am not wrong – 3 years to ship to Beijing, and then another 6 years to send it to Yangzhou to carve it into the art piece it is today and back.

Reality and Ideals

I did not think Cao Cao [曹操] has in his mind all along the plan to seize and hold the Han Emperor hostage as a mean to dominate the other warlords. Indeed, before he even participated in the any military action, be it against the Yellow Turban rebels [黄巾军], or before he participate in the coalition of forces against the warlord Dong Zhuo [董卓], he was nothing more than a security official – sort of the equivalent of the Deputy Commissioner of the Police Department – in the northern part of Imperial capital.

Do note that at times, the younger Cao Cao even seek advice on how to attain certain near term objectives: e.g. stabilizing the areas he rule, how to restore order to the Empire etc. His stature and power only increased over a long period of time – from general to Prince of Wei – over a period of 36 years [184AD to 220AD].

What I am trying is this: be realistic and not idealistic. Many people who achieve greatness or their objectives in the end normally do not let his opponents or any other people determine how it should be done or what the rules of the game is. They look at the reality at that time to make the best of it, or redefine what the rules should be and work towards their ideals one step at a time.

In short, to ask for certain plans to be revealed before the person is given a task is an absurd proposition which only the Tali-PAP Men-In-White can devise to fxxk up the opposition. I don’t even know what to think about the people who would accept that!