While most people would choose to save their money or use it to support their families, some think differently. Unfortunately for this Reddit user, their parents seem to prioritize donating to a megachurch over helping their own child. Frustrated, user Scratchfangs shared a photo of a donation their mother made to Bill Winston Ministries Megachurch in Illinois. According to them, their mother has been giving thousands of dollars to the church, and the photo showed a recent $600 donation. If that already sounds excessive, it gets even worse once you read the contribution details.
The largest portion of the donation went toward tithes, with the mother giving $300. However, several other sections raised more eyebrows. These included the “Airplane Fund” and “Ten City Tour.” It makes one question why a megachurch like Bill Winston Ministries needs this level of financial support from its followers. Many Redditors who saw Scratchfangs’ post also mocked the airplane fund. “‘Airplane Fund’ is literally paying for the owner’s private jet lol,” one user commented.
Others were left wondering how something like this could even be allowed in America. “How is this even legal? I think an IRS audit is overdue. Televangelists are vultures…” one Redditor asked. Unfortunately, megachurches like Bill Winston Ministries are classified as nonprofit organizations, which makes them exempt from federal income taxes.
Some Reddit users pointed out that Scratchfangs’ mother wasn’t lying when she said the family had no money. She had simply spent it all funding her favorite Illinois megachurch. Others, after hearing Scratchfangs’ story, began sharing their own experiences. One Redditor said they were forced to live on a SpaghettiOs diet because their mother insisted on tithing 20 percent of their income during the 2008 financial crisis. The Redditor said,
“It’s f**ked because the deeper you go, the worse it gets. My homie’s brother married into the pastor’s family, and they gave him some biblical bullst justification for why he shouldn’t hang out with his actual family. To this day, my homie’s brother won’t talk to him or even acknowledge his existence.”
Besides commenting on how horrible and nightmarish this whole situation is, some users suggested some unusual strategies to the OP. One user even told Scratchfangs to build a fake megachurch website like the one her mother donated to and then collect the money. “Actually, it’s not hard to do from inside the house. Remap the DNS to an internal server, duplicate the website, grab some of the emails, set up the forwarding, and create an account to collect it and shazam… instant growing college fund,” another user said.
