SUVs At Altar, Detroit Church Prays For A Bailout

With sport-utility vehicles at the altar and auto workers in the pews, one of Detroit's largest churches on Sunday offered up prayers for Congress to bail out the struggling auto industry.

"We have never seen as midnight an hour as we face this week," the Rev. Charles Ellis told several thousand congregants at a rousing service at Detroit's Greater Grace Temple. "This week, lives are hanging above an abyss of uncertainty as both houses of Congress decide whether to extend a helping hand."

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Comments

[concernvoter]

Don't wait until times get rough before you start paying tithes and offerings.

[TheLivingTinman]

You are right, you shouldn't wait. You should never start in the first place. That money could go a lot further if saved, or invested. Turns out when you don't give your money to shamans and snake oil salesmen you have more to save.

[concernvoter]

Why do people wait until they are in trouble before they go to church? Learn to pay your tithes and offerings and pray at all times. God is a good God. Sometimes things happen just to see if you haven't forgot about him. It looks as if the CEOs have forgotten who brought them this far and now the employees are suffering for their mistakes.

[TheLivingTinman]

People wait until they are in trouble because that is when they need help. Though why they turn to the invisible and rely on the words espoused by some self appointed 'minister' is beyond me.

Instead, they should be turning to one another and organizing a solution, not spending their time crammed into tiny wooden benches and talking to the air.

[Angelic11]

THIS IS NOT WHO WE ARE HERE IN DETROIT!

At this moment I don't want to admit that I'm from Detroit: and...

Okay, we deserve it; when I saw what they were doing on the local news yesterday...I said..' Oh boy, I hope this stays local because the nation is not going to understand this one, but let me try to explain.

1. These SUV's are the hybrid version of vehicles; those which we hope to produce should we remain in business.

2. They (not my church) were not worshiping the vehicles, they were only symbols for what they were praying to remain an industry here in Metro Detroit.

3. This is a Pentecostal church and their way of worship is very flamboyant anyway; there is always lots of pageantry--they don't mean any harm to anyone but they choose not to be boring. (as you can see)

I went to a play there one Christmas and I almost walked out because of the graphic displays...I was appaulled --- a woman ran down the aisle covered in blood holding a baby doll that was beheaded to display the evils of ab.ortion.

This was a blundered PR move but it does not speak to how we (or they) worship in our city. They just wanted to get the nation's attention and that they did -- but not in the way they expected.

[ICanHasDemocracy]

Golden calf...meet White Escalade.

[MsLiz]

Thank you! I was wondering if they used gold rather than brass for the collection plate.

[HelixScanr]

OMG!!! That is weird I made a comment awhile back about "whorshiping" a "Golden SUV".... The question I have: Are congregants, there at this Detriot church, offering those SUVs as sacrifices on the alter to the God of Finance???

[Double H]

IDOLITARY!
Today, most of our spiritual leaders have gone astray and have led many down the same path that lead to nowhere-only destruction.
I pray that God will have mercy on this great nation which HE has founded.

[SirReal1]

HE who?

[Double H]

GOD!

[1differentdrummer]

Could anything be less important?

[hortonhearsawho]

sarah palin.

[rbspickles]

Heh :) good one!

[hortonhearsawho]

Diidn't Jesus use public transportation...less the water bit of course.

[Hank10303]

I would have gotten up and walked out of this church; the fact that a man of God is not interested in the health of "God's" planet is beyond my comprehension. SUV's without argument are the most gas guggling vehicles in this country and he's praying with them on stage. I wonder what the big 3 put in that donation basket.

[SirReal1]

Worshiping SUV's and promoting the production of "Huge, Heavy, but Less WASTEFUL (read: STILL A GASHOG) products, doesn't strike me as a reasonable argument for a Government Bailout!

The "workers" in this congregation better look for someone else to present their collective ambition! Their "minister" certainly isn't helping their cause!

With 3 Million jobs on the line, I would think that they could IMPOSE their will on the industry, and make their Union Leaders communicate to the American public that they WANT to make better products, they CAN make better products, and they WILL make better products, IF we give them the opportunity!

This is the ONLY pitch that will convince me that we are not just "throwing our money down the drain"!

Pulling the SUV's off the altar would be a good "first step"!

[SirReal1]

I can (sort of) see what the "intent" of the minister of this church was, but seriously, what an incredibly ill thought idea.

Putting SUV's on the altar? As if they were a part of the churches "sacraments"?

How do you do this, and not realize that the visual message virtually SCREAMS "FALSE IDOLATRY"!

It would be bad enough to put ANY auto on the altar, but SUV's? Don't these folks realize that this Nation literally DROVE THE SUV straight to our own EXECUTION!

The SUV is now a SYMBOL of our "ill-informed consumerism", our "arrogance", and our "lack of consideration for the PLANET"!

Consider what the Big 3 (CEO's) drove to Washington to deliver their plea for help:

"Robert Nardelli of Chrysler drove his company's Aspen Hybrid S.U.V., which gets 22 miles per gallon on the highway and 20 in the city. Ford's Alan Mulally drove an Escape Hybrid S.U.V. -- 31 m.p.g. on the highway and 34 in the city. And Rick Wagoner of General Motors drove a Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid Sedan. His was the most efficient on the highway, averaging 34 m.p.g., but only 26 in the city."

This say's it all. The rest of the world gets better mileage out of their "least fuel-efficient vehicles", and these idiots pilot these as "examples" of "the best we can do"?

I can't see either of these being very helpful to the cause of the workers!

[MsLiz]

I agree with your points, except I think you should not use the same hammer on the Ford Escape hybrid that you use on the Aspen (which your figures show still has poor mileage). Obama has one personal vehicle, a Ford Escape hybrid. Check out the manufacturers websites, and see that Chrysler has produced only gas hogs. Ford has produced a smaller car with better mileage, the Focus. Ford can survive.

[SirReal1]

Liz,

I'm afraid that a "combined average" of 32.5 mpg will not get me to "use a softer mallet".

Personally, I like Ford, and I can agree that of the Big 3, they are far and away the most viable in the near future. They are, however, also the corporation who bears the most responsibility for getting us where we currently are. Without the HUGE success of the Explorer, the SUV craze might never have gotten off the ground, and to suggest that they "couldn't have known" the potential outcome of promoting such a vehicle is ludicrous.

Everyone in Detroit KNEW that producing oversized, gas guzzling vehicles was an invitation for Big Oil to one day pull the rug out from under us. They had done it twice before, there was no reason to believe they wouldn't do it again.

That Ford saw this coming ahead of the other Big 2 isn't exactly a valid claim to superiority. They still continued, and still continue, to make oversized, uneconomical, over-polluting vehicles that threaten our future. They CAN, and SHOULD do better than a 32.5 mpg SUV!

A 35 mpg CAFE that INCLUDES Trucks and SUV's should be the short term goal, with 40 mpg CAFE within 5 years. The technology exists already. If they stop promoting the profits of SUV sales, they could easily accomplish this.

[grumbles]

That is certainly an apt metaphor for the American people worshipping at the alter of commercial goods. Our position in the eyes of God would probably improve if we give to Caesar what is caesar's and to God , what is God's.

[JustNotTrue]

Churches are the biggest thieves in the USA...............when will people wake up to their own mind and stop being weak??

OH, and if there is a ''god'', I don't think he is looking kindly at the USA for the murders and raping of countries like Iraq and vi e t nam.

[Hank10303]

well said

[hortonhearsawho]

god drives an import anyway...

[JustNotTrue]

God who? Last name please.

[BlueZoo]

Yank this church's tax-exempt status ASAP! This is one of many who put politics ahead of religion in their pulpits. As someone at HuffPo said last week, they preach 'world' when they should be preaching the WORD!

[jcollell]

Is this for real? Isn't there a separation of church and the auto industry?

http://www.youspar.com/

[tbsykesopinion]

My thing is...could they have not prayed to God for intercession on this matter without the SUV's in the pulpit? I mean really...were the SUV's that were sacrificed on the alter going to move God on their behalf?

I don't criticize what they were trying to do. I simply question their methods. If prayer is suppose to be defined as communication or talking to God. I just don't see what the purpose of the SUV's were for.

I'm just saying...