Small Town Pharisees

An email I got today from a church that - mercifully - I do not attend.  It shows well that extravagant spending is NOT confined to national televangelists, but can rear it's ugly head locally.

Here was the pitch from Real Life Church in Springfield, Illinois, which to be fair, does do good works:

"RLC, as a church, would like to surprise Pastor Clint and Pastor Brian by celebrating their anniversaries next year, with a week's vacation in Florida, for them and their families.  A condo has been donated for a week of their individual choosing. Funds in the amount of $5,000 are needed to cover flights, rental cars, and food. If you would like to participate in celebrating our pastors, you can give cash, or a check made out to Ken Morris, to either Nancy or Ken. Remember it is a surprise!"

My reply, in which I pretend to believe them that it's a surprise, even though we all know the Pastors are CLEARLY in on this:

"I've seen first hand some of the good works this church of yours does, but if you're so flush that you can have fundraisers for all expense paid Fun in the Sun vacations for the Pastors, then you hardly need my aid.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to study the New Testament, with an eye to finding the passage where one of the Disciples asked the multitudes to dig deep to send Jesus to sunny Cairo for the winter.  I mean, because surely if Pastor Clint and Brian deserve such, our Savior must have, too, right?"