Can Church Embezzlement
Be A Ministry?

Church embezzlement can only be a ministry for someone who has not defined ministry properly...that is given it proper boundaries...according to Aristotle's rule...which is still used in modern science...for defining anything.

If you haven't read that rule you can go from this church embezzlement page to the defining words page and then hit your browser's back button to return here. I'll wait for you.

On the homepage we defined ministry as

Now embezzlement means that someone in charge of funds not their own...stealthily converts those funds to their own personal use. They steal it.

So church embezzlement...the converting of church funds to someone's personal use is not ministry...no matter how good the person's intention was in taking the money.

People can commit sins and crimes with perfectly good intentions. The Robin Hood school of ministry...steal from the rich to give to the poor...is just another way of saying...the end justifies the means. That's a morally risky ethical code.

Here's an example of church embezzlement done with the best intentions to help the poor.

His friend and classmate...Father Eric...was pastor of a rural farm community parish in another diocese.

When they got together periodically...they often talked of parish matters. Whenever Father Eric made it known that someone in his parish was having financial hardships...Father Andy would send him a check to distribute to the needy people in his parish.

So what's wrong with this picture? Is anything wrong with it?

There are a number of boundary problems in this scenario.

First...The money Father Andy gave away belonged to his parish. The funds were not for his personal use...however well-intentioned his actions might be.

Second...by simply trespassing on the parish funds...Father Andy committed church embezzlement and

Third...he violated the boundary of the seventh Commandment as well.

So his actions...well-intentioned no doubt...cannot be justified on the grounds that he only took the funds to help some poor people.

It is one thing to give the parish funds away to people outside the parish...

It's another thing for Father Andy to send out a plea to his parishioners for donations for less fortunate people in other parishes...or to ask his parishioners if he may use some of the parish funds for such charity work.

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