So, not grifters, just a normal American healthcare catastrophe. smh.
Christian influencer couple asks for prayers from global church to resurrect young daughter who died
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Man, if Charles Ponzi were here today he would have a good old time with online fundraising websites.
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I keep trying to figure out what the money is for. Is the kid brain-dead, and they still have her hooked up to life support, waiting for their miracle? They might need money in that case, but otherwise… So fucked up. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here, but every possibility is fucked up to some degree.
That raises its own questions. It’s one thing to raise money to support a family at a time of grief. But this target amount? With no actual expenses determined yet? And is someone using this whole “we’re going to resurrect our daughter” narrative purely as a marketing scheme to get more attention (and money) for the campaign? The fact that they’re Instagram “influencers” makes me immediately suspicious. There may not be any kind of overt grift or scam, but it’s still people used to exploiting/manipulating others as part of their day-to-day existence.
Which I guess goes some way towards explaining why they’re so vague about what the money will be for. They don’t want to contradict the resurrection narrative. It feels like someone is exploiting this situation - though maybe purely to aid a grieving family. I had family members who were into this kind of Christianity and it always felt exploitative, of everyone, at all times.
Assuming there’s a difference between true believers and even pure grifters. For some versions of Christianity, I’m not so sure. The grift is the religion…
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Given the state of the American healthcare system it is entirely plausible that the family already racked up tens of thousands of dollars in medical expenses in the time leading up to their daughter’s death.
It seems cruel to me that so many people are immediately jumping to the conclusion that this grieving family is a bunch of grifters (@hecep even made a comment that seems to imply they might be murderers), especially since they don’t appear to be the ones who set up the Gofundme page.
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They will take an Etihad Residence flight to meet him in person.
“Kalley Heiligenthal is a worship leader and songwriter at Bethel Church and with Bethel Music. She also serves as 2nd Year Worship Pastor for Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry.”
And Bethel Music organized the fundraising.
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Yeah, but it doesn’t follow that she’s the one who decided to organize the Gofundme campaign. Organizations do this kind of thing for their employees/contributors/co-founders all the time.
Implying without evidence that she killed her own child for profit is fucked up.
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Guys, I am not at all comfortable mocking a grieving family. The pain of losing a child is enough to make the most balanced people act crazy, and it appear they are asking for prayers and support. No clue what kind of medical bills they are facing. They just lost their baby. They get a lot of leeway in my book.
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Absolute expected, even. Which makes it weird they’re being so cagey about what the money is for, only vaguely talking about future expenses. (I’m wondering, in part, if this is a Jahi McMath type situation.)
As I said, I had family members into this kind of Christianity, and it always felt exploitative and scammy, even when there was no intentional con going on. The whole thing is just sad and awful on multiple levels.
If I remember my indoctrination religious education classes correctly, Christ’s unique distinction was bringing himself back to life. Everyone else needed someone else to do it.
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Yeah, so Paul bored a guy literally to death, then resurrected him. Just so he could keep boring the poor man.
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Cf. American Gods (at least the TV adaptation, can’t remember if that particular bit was in the book).
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That’s a bit…different.
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The organizers may not even have a clear idea of what the family’s expenses are but are just doing their best to help out one of their own through a devastating time in any way they can. They probably just set the fundraising goal at $100,000 because it’s a big round number.
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Prayer: an intangible currency with variable dollar/prayer exchange rate
Somebody has to minister to the ghosts.
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I admit that I jumped the gun. (There is flaw in my character.)
For all that I know about the semi-unique American custom of catastrophic healthcare fundraising, it never occurred to me that the death of a baby could have racked up that much debt.
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Huh - am I the only one seeing my post in yellow? Is that a new thing? @codinghorror ETA - one of @Brainspore 's posts is yellow too.
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I believe those posts were highlighted by moderators to steer the conversation away from unfair attacks/accusations directed toward the family.
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Make sense, but I don’t recall seeing it before. Is it new?
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