I received my first, and hopefully only, mailing today and as I was reading it I was wondering if it was supposed to be a joke because it was quite hilarious, so hilarious that I had to call members of my family so that I could read this thing to them and give them a good laugh, also.
I am told 4 or 5 times in this letter that Saint Matthew's is "a 53 year old church", possibly trying to make me believe that the age of this church lends some credibility to its existence. I am sent a prayer "rug", (described by seven different names throughout the letter) which is merely an 11x17 piece of paper with an imprinted picture of the face of Christ and told to kneel on it or place it over both my knees. Had to really laugh at that sight, but in the same light, shouldn't this be considered sacrilegious? And how does Saint Matthew's propose to forward on my wrinkly, crinkly used prayer rug to someone else, as they state they need to do within 24 hours? Is this meant to get my 'seed gift' off to the quicker?
After the hilarity of the letter wore off I thought about the timing of my receipt of this letter; "The Passion Of The Christ" has just been released in theaters and this movie has people rethinking their footholds in their religious standings and beliefs... What a great way to solidify my Christianity! Why, I'll just kneel on my "Holy Ghost, Church Ministry, Bible Faith, Anointed Prayer Rug", say my prayer, ask God for forgiveness, good health, a better job and a thousand dollars and send a substantial 'seed gift' to Saint Matthew's! This will put me in better standings with God! And then when I get $750 in the mail I will think "Oh my gosh, thank you, Saint Matthew's Churches!", totally allowing myself to overlook the fact that it was my expected tax refund! It's all coincidence, dear Saint Matthew's.
I'm not saying that this letter is a scam, although I do think it is, but it sure raised alot of red flags in my mind as I was reading it and my intuitions and instincts have been pretty accurate, thus my reasoning for checking the web. Low and Behold!
What am I going to do? I'm going to take everything that was inside the envelope, put it all back into the "Business Reply Mail" postage paid envelope (thought churches were all Non-Profit Orgs) along with my wrinkly, crinkly paper prayer rug, weigh the envelope down with a few of the comments I printed out from this site causing it to be much heavier than the normal one ounce, black out any barcoding that may make the envelope trackable back to my address (it was addressed to "Resident - To A Friend") and send it right back to them as everyone else should do who receives these letters!
No matter who we are, whatever our wants or needs are, God hears our prayers. We don't need to send anyone a letter with money inside for our prayers to be answered.
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