Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Houston Chronicle]

Sister Deenan Hubbard has never met the Katy man who struck it big last week in the Mega Millions jackpot, but she figures William Kiefer must be “a really, really good man with a big heart.” Kiefer plans to donate the bulk of the $144 million he won in the Jan. 29 drawing to charity, including to retired Catholic nuns.

“The greatest gift my parents gave me was to be raised a Christian. I plan to give 60 percent of all after-tax winnings to charity,” Kiefer, 59, said in a statement released Friday by the Texas Lottery Commission.

He could not be reached for comment. Hubbard, of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, said she believed Catholic nuns probably played a positive role in Kiefer’s life at some point.

“To see him want to be generous with women who have spent their life trying to be generous to others is a good thing,” Hubbard said. “Whatever it is that the sisters did for him before he won the lottery, it worked.”

Read more here.

[From me]

Do you think God had something to do with this man winning? I’m sure there are some churches that wouldn’t accept the money. I heard someone once say that the devil has had the money long enough.

[CBS 11]

A Long Island pastor says one of his congregants donated a lottery ticket to his church just after scratching it off and realizing it was worth $3 million.

Pastor Bertrand Crabbe of the True North Community Church of Port Jefferson says the donor, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “This was why God put the ticket in his hands.”

Read about it here.

[From me]

Would your church accept a donation from Lottery winnings?  How about a trip to Vegas? I heard a pastor was once asked if he would accept lottery winnings and he said, “yes, the devil has had it long enough.”

What do you think?

[Denver Post]

Gloria Aguda was on the verge of losing her home to foreclosure and couldn’t afford a trip to the doctor. Depressed, the 50-year-old Fountain resident prayed for help. Last week those prayers were answered when she matched all six numbers in the Lotto drawing for a $9 million jackpot.

Read about it here.

[From me]

I won the Irish, British, and Jamaican Lottery today according to the e-mails I received.  Would you accept the tithe?  Wasn’t it David Jeremiah who said the devils had it long enough?

What do you think?