Father Adam Kotas held the empty offering basket in front of the entire congregation.
He didn’t use it to ask for more. He used it to say the opposite of what many expect to hear in a church.
“God doesn’t need your money! In other churches they tell you, ‘Oh, the bigger your donation, the greater your blessing.’ God doesn’t need you to give him anything; he already loves us and blesses us”
He said that God doesn’t need anyone’s money, and that the formula of “the bigger your donation, the greater your blessing” that other churches repeat is a trap disguised as faith. His blessing, he explained, already exists, unconditionally, regardless of how much you put in the basket.
Then, with that honesty that only elicits nervous laughter and applause at the same time, he concluded: the money the parish actually collects is to pay the electric bill. No divine intermediaries, no guilt.
The video went viral on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and Father Kotas’s official website warns that scammers are using his name to ask for money in ways he would never ask for.
