Last edited: Tuesday, January 5, 2008, 9:15 AM PST

INTRODUCTION

The Christian Commons Project™ is designed to carry out the mandate to the Church given by Jesus Christ in the Gospel According to Saint John the Evangelist, Chapter 21, Verses 14 through 17, to feed the people. It is the indisputable, irrevocable duty of every Christian and Jesus’s whole Church acting in unity and harmony. Let no Christian doubt that disagreement with this obligation and divergence from this responsibility are decidedly unchristian.

Using up farmland for biofuels, rising fuel prices, foreclosures and bankruptcies, waging wars on borrowed money, and many other factors are contributing to hunger, homelessness, and many other problems. The traditional charitable system is as a Band-Aid over malignant, untreated cancer. The Christian Commons Project™, however, is a plan for sustainable, green, and even bounty-increasing organic farms and facilities for producing needed goods and services that will itself employ the poor and homeless having indivisible equity in the Commons and who will, in turn, feed others and expand the Project. Generosity, cooperation, fair distribution, peace, harmlessness, voluntariness, and beneficialness are some of the guiding principles of the Commons.

Welfare Reform has failed. Secular taxes won't work. The “faith-based initiative” is the wrong approach. Unlike other plans, the Commons rather does not result in fiefdoms. Community Property though works. The Project explains the evidence. Also, the Christian Commons will reach out to the common people and to experts in all fields to help with the design and implementation of the Commons.

Belong to that Someone bigger than anyone else: God. Be moved to action both emotionally and spiritually. It’s heading in exactly the direction Jesus wants us to go: Good stewardship and good shepherding. The Christian Commons Project™ is a powerful plan you should want to help immediately.

The Commons is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit, Religious Organization. Donations are Tax Deductible on U.S. Federal Income Tax Returns. Corporate donors may deduct all contributions to this 501(c)(3) up to an amount normally equal to 10% of taxable income.

For text-proofing, this Project is supported by scripture. The Commons rests upon: Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-35; Matthew 5:42; 12:36; 12:7; 23:23; 7:12; 25:34-40; John 13:34; Isaiah 32:7-8; and other passages.

Mandate From God

Verses 14 through 17 in Chapter 21 of the Gospel According to Saint John the Evangelist indisputably assert an irrevocable requirement of every single Christian and Jesus's whole Church acting in unity and harmony. Let no Christian doubt that disagreement with this obligation and divergence from this responsibility are decidedly unchristian.

This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

Why then, despite Jesus Christ telling his disciple, Peter, in front of the others and three times for emphasis, that if he loves Jesus he will feed Jesus's lambs and sheep, has Christianity failed to do it? Why aren't consciences searing?

Let us finally do it. Let us finally truly be the Christian Church. Let us finally love him and one another, come together, and do what it takes to feed all his lambs and sheep, as he still asks so passionately. Can a Christian do less? Can any church be Jesus Christ's and do less?

There Are Hungry People even in the United States

According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors (2007):

The major causes of hunger in survey cities are poverty, unemployment, and high housing costs. The hunger crisis is exacerbated by the recent spike in foreclosures, the increased cost of living in general, and increased cost of food.

17 percent of all people in need of food assistance and 15 percent of households with children are not receiving it.

...eighty percent) of survey cities reported that requests for emergency food assistance increased during the last year. Among fifteen cities that provided data, the median increase was 10 percent.

During the last year, members of households with children made up 23 percent of persons using emergency shelter and transitional housing programs in survey cities.

In 2005, an estimated 12.6 million households nationally were food insecure at some time during the year, meaning that a lack of resources prevented them from providing enough food for all members of the household. Food insecurity is more prevalent in large cities and rural areas....

Local governments and non-profit agencies operate emergency assistance programs like food pantries, emergency kitchens and home-delivered meal programs. These programs rely on donated food.... [however] the availability of food assistance has decreased [emphasis added] due to a sharp drop in the supply of commodity foods from the federal Agriculture Department's Bonus Commodity Program and a decrease in donations from supermarkets brought about by improved inventory tracking.

Of course, along with homelessness comes a host of other problems. It's a chicken and egg situation, which comes first. Something goes wrong, and it becomes a cascade of ills ranging from mental illness, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, physical and developmental disabilities, domestic violence, to other problems.

Of the hundreds of thousands of homeless in America (a growing figure), many are children and some 25% of them are 4 years old or younger. Many of the families are headed by single moms.

Many factors are contributing right now to an increase in all of the problems above.

Corn for Fuel

Food prices are going up along with general inflation. Food-guzzling biofuels, such as corn, are a double-edged sword. Using up farmland to grow corn for fuel rather than for food ends up increasing malnutrition and even starvation. On top of that, it actually adds to environmental problems. Nutrition isn't important for fuel, so not taking care of the soil is a result of cost cutting to be more price-competitive. This lack of care adds to soil erosion and chemical run off that includes toxic pesticides and herbicides that end up in drinking water and the food chain, causing serious health problems and generalized harm negatively impacting the whole biosphere. Runoff from artificially manufactured nitrogen-fertilizer, among doing other damage, causes huge dead zones in the oceans off river deltas, such as the Mississippi Delta, thereby harming fishermen and women, their families, and the seafood-eating community.

The 7,900-square-mile area with almost no oxygen, a condition called hypoxia, is about the size of Connecticut and Delaware together. The Louisiana-Texas dead zone is the world's second-largest hypoxic area.... (Source: Riversphere. Tulane University. July 2007.)

There are many, many other problems caused by or exacerbated by shortsighted biofuels. Seed that grows corn for biofuels doesn't have to meet the same standards as corn for human consumption. Cloned corn not fit for humans or even animal feed is claimed to be no problem, but cross-pollination occurs despite the assurances of the bioengineering seed companies. Corn prices have skyrocketed, and all the people who used to be fed on less expensive corn, including in poorer Mexico where corn has been the staple for centuries, have had to cut back and have been forced to turn to cheaper, less nutritious, fatty, fast, and heavily processed foods. Less land is being used to grow diverse human-food crops, so all crops are going up in price for the sake of powering vehicles that most of the poor can't even afford. It isn't feeding his lambs and sheep but rather making things worse in general. It's no Christian plan, and it's hurting poor people all over the world, directly and indirectly.

Fuel Prices

Despite biofuels, fuel prices have skyrocketed. Only a severe recession or depression will slow the pace or reverse it temporarily and soon. Also, Peak Oil is when production peaks and then inevitably goes down, since they aren't finding enough easy oil to keep up with increasing demand coming from rapidly developing nations such as China and India. New technologies hold out hope in the eyes of many, but that isn't feeding the lambs and sheep now. It will be too little, too late, for so many. We must start now in tackling problems (climate, hunger, homelessness, etc.) with one solution.

Mainstream farming runs on fossil fuels. As fuel prices go up, so do the food prices to pay for the fuel. That takes away from spending on other things or drives up debt for those who are not willing, or are unable, to cut back on consumption.

Foreclosures and Bankruptcies

Home foreclosures and bankruptcies are up due to the recent subprime-mortgage debacle. We've covered this issue, and many others, in more detail elsewhere on our website. Also, unemployment is increasing due to inflation and a general slowing of the economy. It's stagflation. The economy is stagnating in terms of lessening productivity even while costs are going up. In addition, many people are extremely under employed already in the U.S. due to all the off shoring of jobs and the importation of educated people from other countries, such as India, who are understandably willing to work for less. This has been driving down wages and salaries even for educated and skilled Americans, many of whom owe large sums on college loans. The trend is increasing.

Therefore, homelessness and crowding in homes is increasing as others make room for the dispossessed (relatives and others). The number of children in poverty is going up with it. This doesn't bode well for the children's educational and other prospects. It isn't good for them or for society as a whole. It's very bad planning. It shows a glaring lack of vision.

Waging Wars on Borrowed Money

All the spending on wars has strained the financial system, but add to it the lack of increase in sacrifice and savings and an irrational increase in consumption (called for by the U.S. government), and there is a financial credit disaster in the making that will hit hardest those who are already the poorest and struggling.

The U.S. has foolishly borrowed from other nations to fight its hugely expensive wars. We see much of the result in the falling value of the dollar that is about to stop being the world's reserve currency. It won't be the Petrodollar anymore. It will be replaced by a basket of currencies with the emphasis placed upon the Euro. (We started writing and talking about this long before it hit the mainstream.)

When the dollar is just another currency rather than seen as back by the full faith and credit of the United States as meaning something especially solid, the U.S. dollar will fall even more. That will cause even more inflationary pressures. It's a vicious cycle that the so-called financial experts are finding worse than they had planned. It means though that the time to act to obtain land to grow free food for the poorest-of-the-poor is now. The longer we wait, the worse it will be and the harder it will be to set aside the resources to effectuate the program.

Why Not Just Give More Money to the Usual Charities? The Christian Commons Project™ is Different

The Christian Commons Project™ is a plan for sustainable, green, and even bounty-increasing organic farms and facilities for producing needed goods and services. The Christian Commons will be the equal (community) property of all the Christian Church members. It will be owned and operated by all for the benefit of all.

Other charitable projects are often very well-intentioned and do, in fact, help many people who would otherwise not be assisted. However, most such charities are part of a circular system that facilitates (intentionally or not) environmental depletion and degradation and promotes greater scarcity while also failing to break the cycle of the dependency of the poor on handouts rather than giving them what they really need, which is their own land they work and housing they build, run, and maintain together for the sake of the many and to help others to help yet others, ad infinitum (full circle and always up).

The vast majority of charities receive donations in money and goods and some services that they, in turn, distribute to the needy. There are charities of course that serve in ways designed to lift the needy into at least lower-middle class status through job training and placement. Those are better than nothing; however, they still don't alter the structural problems that allow people to slip down, very often due to conditions beyond their ability to control. It is far from always the fault of the poor. Many are simply downtrodden by the visionless system.

The Christian Commons will distribute food, goods, and services; however, the Commons will most often be the original source and will employ the very people the Commons are designed to help. To clarify, the Commons will be open to all, including the highly educated and also the rich and superrich who wish to change their lifestyle and pitch in physically and otherwise.

The Christian Commons will be places where Christians and converts will live on the communal land and grow a wide range of organic food and make environmentally friendly things, even highly technical and skilled, for each other and for the benefit of everyone else. This will greatly help to break the cycle of dependency on the system responsible for, among others, the societal ills cited above.

Excess production or bounty (when our cup runneth over — Psalm 23:5) will be shared with those in need off the Commons. Donations will be continually helpful and accepted, of course. Where bounty is such that transportation will have reached environmentally sound limits, the remaining bounty will still be shared with evermore affluent people in the local areas, who it is hoped will help financially and otherwise. We're sure many will change their opinions and positions and come around to Jesus's way of thinking.

What we don't want to do is burn huge quantities of fossil fuels, which is the routine method now, to transport food long distances. What we want instead is to create more Commons spread out to cover ever-larger geographical areas. This will help reduce pollution and reduce local unemployment in addition to numerous other benefits.

• Mental and spiritual support


• Uplifting, unselfish purpose


• Well-rounded skills


• Full education


• Warm, friendly, safe environment


• Environmentally "green"


• Excess alternative energy


• Innovation


• Laborsaving output shared and enjoyed by all

The Commons will do a number of others things. The Christian Commons Project™ will provide much highly beneficial mental and spiritual support. Christian fellowshipping will greatly aid the depressed. Living and working on the farms for an unselfish purpose and working in the facilities that will produce everything communities need will uplift the people and afford them very valuable and well-rounded skills. All the children and adults will receive full educations as well and in an environment that will be as warm, friendly, and safe as we can make it while we also go into the world to do all the things Jesus asks us to do and to the best of our God-given abilities. The Commons will be as environmentally "green" as possible and will be able to produce excess alternative energy to add back into the wider grid for the benefit of all. The Christian Commons will be a place of innovation coming out of unselfish hearts. The Commons is not a Luddite concept where laborsaving devices are frowned upon for fear of putting people out of work. Rather, the laborsaving output of such devices on the Christian Commons will be shared and enjoyed by all.

This is Part of the Heart and Soul of Christianity

All Christians believe the following:

And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. Acts 2:44-45.

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. Acts 4:32-35.

All Christians believe that this came directly from the teachings of Jesus Christ that he taught to his earliest disciples who, in turn, passed on the teaching. This belief is an indispensable component of Christianity. It always has been. It's not optional. All Christians know this and profess it with one accord, with gladness, and singleness of heart and soul.

Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Matthew 5:42.

Christians don't judge or condemn to poverty or anything else. Christians seek the standard they want applied to them. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Matthew 12:36. Christians are not accusers looking for punishment. They stand against baseless (idle) witness or false witness. They only seek to warn of harm and to shine the path to consistent benefit and bounty. This is why Jesus spoke words that exposed the lies and deception of those who expropriate power and authority, who seize the rights and possessions of others by force, who by evil means deny and deprive even the righteous hearted, as they denied Jesus.

Giving and sharing is Christian and bringing forth bountifully for all is the real meaning of liberal. The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right. But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand. Isaiah 32:7-8. The "churl" is stingy, greedy, acquisitive, hoarding, and creates scarcity rather than bounty. The true liberal is not morally unrestrained, does not condone immoral behavior, but does not punish or coerce. The real liberal warns and calls for mercy. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. Matthew 12:7. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Matthew 23:23.

This means that the more important matters of the law and judgment (more important than ceremonies or rites) are to point out and correct the unjust methods of the greedy and covetous who come up with ways to destroy the poor and who lie about them, even when the needy are speaking the truth.

Not Mere "Bible Thumping"

We cite chapter and verse to reach those who do so but who do so selectively, thereby, passing over Acts 2:44-45 and 4:32-35 and the other direct and implicit teachings of Jesus that clearly and plainly call for, among other things, changing the basis of economics to giving and sharing and cooperation and away from selfishness and the spirit of competition. If no one stands up to point out to those who say they are Christians and that Christianity does not require adherence to Acts 2:44-45 and 4:32-35 but rather their exact opposites, then those who would otherwise see the truth will not turn to do what Jesus asked of Peter and all Jesus's followers (all Christians): Feed my lambs. They will not see the way to give, to hold all things as community property shared by God, and to feed all God's children through God's adding bounty in response to righteous emotions and behaviors.

The Failed Welfare Model and Failing Welfare Reform

Those American city-dwellers old enough will remember the huge housing projects that were built after the Korean War. Many of them became hellish places to live and have been torn down. What went wrong, and what does it have to do with the Christian Commons?

Those housing projects became as human warehouses for the poor and oppressed. The projects were often not maintained and even subjected to deliberate neglect by very hardhearted politicians. The residents were severely neglected and financially trapped.

Most importantly, the residents had little to no involvement in building, running, or maintaining the projects. The Christian Commons concept is exactly the opposite. The residents of the Commons will build, own, operate, and maintain everything. They will decide together at the lowest levels possible. They will decide in the spirit of service that Jesus advocates.

The spirit of the Commons will be in the form of "what may I do for my fellows" (the fellowship) versus "what may I get for myself." In that way, all ships will rise with the tide. It will be a great example for upcoming generations. It will have a profound and beneficial impact.

What else was wrong? The welfare system paid more to families that were broken than it did to those that stayed together. Desperate families broke up just so their children would receive more assistance. The downward spiral that has resulted hasn't bottomed out even yet. It has had a highly negative multi-generational result. The Commons, however, won't duplicate any of that.

On the contrary, there will be no such pressure to break up marriages on the Christian Commons. Christians are to remain faithful, harmless, beneficial marriage partners, as one flesh, as Jesus called it. That will be emphasized. It too will have a beneficial impact upon children, especially those raised in the Commons.

How Will the Christian Commons Project™ be Organized?

The Real Liberal Christian Church will reach out to the common people and to experts in all fields to help with the design and implementation of the Commons. There are people who know a great deal about each aspect of creating, maintaining, and enhancing truly bountiful organic farms and environmentally intelligent housing, manufacturing, alternative-energy production, storage, and much, much more. Many of their talents are being wasted by the actions and inactions of certain for-profit corporations that don't wish to see the progress the whole world needs to solve the problems raised in this short written appeal. The Commons will be an opportunity for everyone involved to showcase to the world the many alternative forms of building and the rest that the vast majority of the world's citizenry doesn't know is readily available. This plan will readily translate around the world where it is sorely needed.

Some Guiding Principles of the Christian Commons in a Nutshell

Generosity, cooperation, fair distribution, peace, harmlessness, voluntariness, and beneficialness are all wrapped in the New Commandment. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. John 13:34. Our guiding principle is truly to love as he means it here, which meaning is informed by his exemplary life (good deeds) and all his teachings (including his teachings about the Greatest Commandment: To love God with our all; the Second Great Commandment: To love our neighbors, who is everyone, as ourselves; and the Golden Rule that he came to fulfill: All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Matthew 7:12).

Does Community Property Work?

There are a number of examples where community property has been historically shown to be highly successful.

Roman Catholic religious orders (apostolic associations) are usually a type of community property. Their model wasn't spread to the wider community, because the privilege was jealously guarded by the Roman Catholic Church and reserved to their ordained, as the elite. The laity (non-clerics) were denied the privilege and benefits of living with all things held in common.

Another example of successful community property in certain states is marriage. Arizona is a case in point. Married people in Arizona hold property acquired in marriage (with certain qualifications) as their community property. It is very egalitarian. In most other jurisdictions, the male is granted more rights by the state over earnings and property acquired in marriage.

As for community property where raising food is often central, many Anabaptists (many tens of thousands) run highly successful communally owned farming enterprises. They do so largely without donations from outsiders. Although they are reaching out more now than in the recent past, their model has differed from the Christian Commons Project™ because they suffered much persecution and as a consequence, kept even more to themselves (one of their original tenets is separation) and became, in common parlance, highly self-reliant. The Christian Commons, however, will deliberately not keep to itself regardless of persecution. The Commons will both give and receive so the giving-and-sharing pattern may spread far and wide. The Commons will not teach an either-or dichotomy concerning separation. Jesus Christ was both separated to God and working in the world to bring forth righteousness.

The Kibbutzim of Israel are also another prime example where community property has been highly successful. The community-owned farms known as Kibbutzim literally fed the nation and still account for a large percentage of the food in Israel. Privatizers there, however, are also being very short-sighted and selfish and have passed laws designed eventually to eliminate the Kibbutzim.

Other examples of community property would be all instances where people live and work within secular governmental systems where the government is owned by the people. The ownership is considered less direct and the decision making is often top-down only, but even the U.S. military is more a communal effort than seen as private versus governmental. That is something the privatizers constantly seek to change for the sake of adding a layer of middlemen and women who take the lion's share of the benefit of expending the people's tax revenues.

Of course, let us not forget that the earliest Apostles and disciples of Jesus and Jesus himself lived with community property. Jesus gave and shared all he possessed that was, and is, according to Jesus, God's. If it was right for all of them and for Jesus, how could it be wrong and not work? How could any Christian believe Jesus and his earliest followers were wrong and still call herself or himself a Christian?

Why Not Let the Secular Government Take Care of the Poor through Taxes?

As just mentioned, the privatizers seek to be the largest beneficiaries of taxes raised under the coercive power of the secular state. Those privatizers usually take the form of for-profit corporations. It is not in their selfish interest to correct the problems but rather to build private fiefdoms where the problem sustains them. A fief is property held by those who pay taxes to those who grant the fief.

There are non-profits and religious organizations now receiving funds out of mandatory U.S. taxes. In the case of religious organizations, the system has been termed the "faith-based initiative." In this instance, the secular government demands taxes. It then allocates funds to the religious organizations of its choosing based upon the predilections of the executive in power at the time swayed by political contributions and deals that are, in fact, a form of kickbacks. A government kickback is where some of the money received via a contract is given to the governmental official or his or her causes directly benefiting the official and at the direct negative expense of the general welfare (the benefit of all regardless of personal persuasion, opinion, position, and the like). The U.S. Constitution was established to "promote the general welfare": Everyone. The religious organizations receiving the tax proceeds are thereby boosted in both visibility and operations over other religious organizations not in favor with the executive. In a competitive society, the selfish are incentivized by the secular executive at the time to take the funds and further his or her cause over the general welfare. Those who refuse to participate in this coercive scheme are reduced in both visibility and operations relative to those who participate. That is the intention of the program. It's deceptive: Basically dishonest. It's double-dealing and double-crosses tax-payers at-large.

Don't the Poor and Others Still Receive Help?

They do, however, not without at a minimum some proselytizing effect by the given "faith-based" organization paid for out of the general and coerced tax revenues of the secular government. Just the fact that the given organization is, in turn, giving away coerced taxes given to them lends itself to a more positive, albeit false, impression of that organization in the eyes of many recipients and much of the general public. Also, there have been instances where aid recipients have been required to undergo even overt religious proselytizing and evangelizing. This is not right coming out of the secular government that forces people to pay taxes: Forcing people to work, earn, and pay taxes to further religions with which they don't necessarily hold. Jesus forced no one to support his cause. All was and is to be voluntary. Even when he cleansed the Temple of those conducting commerce, he was working within his own house where everyone joining is to do so voluntarily. None of those conducting commerce were required to join the real religion. They were free under Jesus's interpretation to choose to be slaves to unrighteousness but not in his house.

Yes, But Isn't the "Faith-Based" Program Democratically Derived?

Laying aside issues of limited, representational, democratic republicanism as the form of government and how the U.S. came to have such a government and whether or not it is properly functioning, the U.S. Constitution nevertheless forbids the secular government from changing from being a secular government to a government that has established religion without amending that Constitution. That means that the U.S. government as the state may not institutionalize a religion as an organ of that state. It cannot make a religion part of the structure of the state. This is balanced by the provision that the state cannot forbid the free exercise of religion. Hence, since people in military service are captives of the state while in service and in order to not prevent their free exercise, chaplains are provided who have traditionally functioned in a highly ecumenical manner. Forbidding establishment and guaranteeing free exercise was an attempt to preclude historical abuses done by religions as governments and to religions by such governments. To be honest, the faith-based initiative is an end-run around the establishment clause. There are Christians who want to see this, but Christians are supposed to go about things in an honest manner — being able to justify actions under a full reading of the teachings and deeds of Jesus. Doing otherwise is to fall to succumb to temptation rather than rising above and overcoming as called for by Christ.

The Christian Commons is Better

• The Commons does not coerce.


• It does not result in fiefdoms. Unlike the privatized (secular-government-funded private contractors), the Commons will not contain a layer of people taking the lion's share.


• The Christian Commons is leveling and fair. It raises that bottom.


• The Commons seeks to correct problems. The Commons does not benefit by systemic poverty. There are no kickbacks in the way of the Christian Commons. Those who give expect that the general welfare of both Christians and non-Christians will be the goal.


• They will know that non-Christians will be voluntarily converted when they see the giving and sharing path advocated by Jesus Christ in operation in the open.

The Commons is designed deliberately to shine the light into the world.

Christians Give without Holding out for Recompense

What's in it for me if I give to the Christian Commons Project™? This is what sets real Christians apart. We break the cardinal rule of non-profit fundraising. We don't tempt you to selfishness. We appeal solely to your unselfish sense of Christian compassion and God-given intelligence.

Will the Real Liberal Christian Church send me a gift to acknowledge my donations? Real Christians know that they don't give to get that way in return. They give, because it's the right thing to do. Are there benefits to giving? Of course there are. Every little bit helps, and the saying "what goes around, comes around" applies to righteousness too. After all, Jesus said to magnify the light not because of the evil it would bestow but because of the blessing. He meant it generally and specifically and concerning individuals and the whole of society willing to receive it.

Does this mean the Christian Commons will never have its name on anything that a member or donor may obtain as an outward sign of unity, not even a simple T-shirt for instance?

We want to start out on the right foot. We want to avoid selfish incentives for giving. The inner condition of one's heart will be reflected outwardly. Receiving is not the motive for giving, not even part of it. As a Christian, you don't want some of your donation being spent on giving you something in return, since that's fooling yourself. It's partially buying yourself something when the object is to be giving to others. Also, to those to whom it matters, in cases in which a donor receives a "gift" in return for the donation, only the value of the donation exceeding the value of the gift is tax deductible on U.S. federal income tax returns. More importantly, as a real Christian, you really want your entire donation, especially while the Project is on the ground floor, going to keeping the cause alive, making it grow, and helping it become hugely fruitful. You believe in serving others. Since you believe in Jesus, you want to be completely unselfish.

Such items from the Commons will be given out free of charge according to need. Those who wish to donate may. That's good!

Belong to Something Bigger Than Yourself

As for belonging to something bigger then yourself, nothing's bigger than God. When we house, employ, and feed, etc., his lambs and sheep (each other), we are feeding Jesus. We are feeding God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit dwelling in spirit in our fellow human beings. The poor and everyone else are part of God's whole realm.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:34-40

Now What?

First things first: The Church can't do anything without the spirit of help moving people such as you. Therefore, we call you to action right now to set up on-going contributions so, together, we will bring this God-compelled project to fruition for the benefit of the hungry and homeless, to lessen the strain on existing social services, to provide an opportunity for people who want more than the heretofore traditional approaches, to reduce global warming, and to have so many other beneficial results.

I'm Spiritually Moved to Act Right Now

I love this. It's heading in exactly the direction Jesus wants us to go: Good stewardship and good shepherding. The Christian Commons Project™ is a powerful plan. I want to be a part of it. Take me directly to where I may schedule donations.