I’m sad that this is the perception of many people. And I’m heartbroken that it is in fact a reality in many places. If I may offer a defense though…

What you’ve described is one caricature that does not accurately reflect all Christians, or IMHO even all conservative Bible-bashing fundamentalist evangelicals. I will use my own experience as a counter-example.

I am a member of a small congregation of about 50 people. We have a collection box for everyone to contribute, but we make an effort not to compel this of anyone. The box sits at the back, and is not passed around. Most people don’t use it anyway as, since COVID, we have suggested making anonymous gifts through a digital third party service. We are not a charity and we do not claim any kind of tax rebate for money given the church. No one person is given sole responsibility for these accounts or for the money in the box. Every year, we have an annual report of income and expenses. These are professionally audited and are made available for any member to see. We do not have any full time staff. The work of the church is the voluntary work of the members. We are a family and we serve one another. Our elders are no exception, though we are not opposed to having a full time minister if we felt the need. Apart from the running costs of our building, the money is given to activities, causes and people that we collectively care about. We will give gifts to guest speakers who come to us. They will have to declare their income and pay their tax accordingly. We may also give this money to missionaries or charitable causes. Those missionaries will be responsible for their own tax arrangements also. The church has no assets apart from, obviously, the building. The money we put together each year is the money we will spend that year, give or take.

On politics, this is very controversial. I’m not American and I realise Christians there may have a different perspective. But for us, while we certainly maintain views that would be considered politically right wing, these are on a few specific issues to do with our faith, and do not extend to an endorsement of right wing politics in general. We take grievance with the bad behaviour and corruption that exists within politics and will call it out (though we would avoiding naming names in our meetings) whatever side it comes from. We generally avoid voting, although this is left to the convictions of individual member, and we respectfully disagree at times.

As for being “greedy people pretending to follow God”. It is not only a criticism to throw at certain politicians, but a challenge to each and every Christian. We hope that this would never be the impression of someone who knew us personally. We confess our deep rooted flaws (this is a basic tenet of our faith), and we strive to live better, like our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Many blessings,