One woman spent her entire life believing in the good teaching of her local church, a whole five decades to be exact – then, all of the sudden they refused her death proceedings.
A Houston pastor of Fourth Missionary Baptist Church has come under fire for refusing to bury a 93-year-old woman who had been a member of his church for 50 years but had not tithed enough as her death neared.
Blair’s daughter, Barbara Day said that her stepfather had also been buried at the church. So why would the church officials turn her mother away, the very same institution that held such a prominent role in her life?
“It was like the last insult in the world, there was nothing else that I could do for my mommy but funeralize her in the church that she loved and worshiped all of her life, even as a little girl. For the last two years, my mother has been in either a nursing home or she’s been in a hospital,” she pointed out.
“And last few months, she was in a coma!”
Day also said that she could not understand why Houston would force her to find another place for the burial after her mother had supported him for so many years.
Day feels she and her family have been blatantly disrespected and shamelessly dismissed by the church and still cannot believe that money is all they reportedly seem to care.
“There’s no explanation for anybody that has been paying dues for a church that long, for him to make me have to roll my mother’s body around town, and somebody finally picks her up and says, ‘Yeah, we’ll do the best we can,’” Day insisted.
“They knew she was ill! They don’t care! All they care about is getting money money money money money!”
She continued:
“Even retail stores give people more respect than that,”
“I don’t understand why we’ve become so commercialized with religion! What does this have to do with God? Why can’t I give my mother her last wish to be funeralized in a church that she loved so much?”
Preacher watchdog, Tyrone Jacques of PimpPreacher.com heard about the family’s plight and stepped into the matter.
Jacques contacted Houston who allegedly told him that Blair had not paid her tithes in about ten years. Day however begs to differ with the preacher man and insists that her mom stopped supporting the church two years ago when she became physically unable to do so.
Jacques pleaded the Blair family’s case to the pastor and even generously, offered to spring for the woman’s funeral costs as he outlined his plans to Houston. The pastor reportedly responded to Jacques’ pleas with the following pat phrase, “Membership has its privileges.”
Jacques then states on his website how Houston responded to his offer by reportedly stating, “If the family cared so much, why didn’t they at least send a dollar to the church a week to reserve her membership?”
In memory of Day’s mother, PimpPreacher.com is sponsoring the Olivia Blair Project to “focus on the abuses of Tithing and the horrific financial trauma it inflicts on the elderly and those living on fixed incomes.”
Sources: Taphaps, Washingtontimes, Christianpost
