Today we shriek as we hear of financial scams, corporate greed, and virtually anything money related that isn’t entirely on the up-n-up. While religion has generally been a help in these economically difficult times, there is one segment of Christianity that is scamming as many as they can. Those who have ears (and debt) let them hear.
The Prosperity Gospel, which is manifested in the “Word of Faith” movement (a louder voice in Pentecostalism), has been writing checks with its lips that’s its theology can’t cash. Last year’s Pew Foundation mega poll, which surveyed nearly 35,000 people (one of the largest religion polls ever accomplished), revealed a few interesting facts about Christians in the Pentecostal tradition1:
Pentecostals have the lowest incomes of any other Christian denomination.
Pentecostals have the lowest education of any other Christian denomination.
The results show that Pentecostals have the most high school dropouts, the fewest college grads, and also the fewest post graduates. But the most interesting thing is that they earn the least annual income of ANY other Christian tradition polled. This is shocking, considering that a main feature in popular Pentecostalism is the Prosperity Gospel, where church members are promised that God will make them rich beyond their wildest dreams if they tithe generously and believe that they will receive the money.
The trouble Ive seen...
These Pew findings fly in the face of the main tenets of the Prosperity Gospel. Not only do Pentecostals fail to out-earn the regular “non-spirit filled” Christian, they make less. For me, to read such information is heartbreaking. I am a teacher in a private school that’s part of a Word of Faith church. The church is doing very well for itself, as most Pentecostal churches are, but the people are suffering.
Frequently I speak with coworkers and church members who are slowly slipping into despair. I watch helplessly as their hopes dim, and their pennies fade. When I attend a service at this church I hear the Pastors declare that God will make everybody rich, if first they will throw what little they have into the offering plate. Loud confident voices echo off the palatial walls of the sanctuary, while weary, struggling believers bristle with the hope of God’s "promises". My once weeping friends gleefully dance down the plush expensive carpet to the altar and pull out their dollar bills (not their food stamps and government checks, though they have those also) and cheerfully give. The Pastor nods approvingly as his hands are folded in prayer (a shiny Rolex on his wrist) and his eyes tear up.
Say what you want about the corruption of the pulpit, or the decadence of the minister- that’s not my issue. My point is that while the world howls at the scam artists who make big promises then don’t deliver, Christianity has its very own Ponzi scheme that’s alive and well. At least when Bernie Madoff promised big returns he initially delivered, the prosperity gospel doesn’t even do that much. When Joel Osteen, Ken Copeland, Paula White, or Benny Hinn take your money, you’ll never see it again (unless you happen to glimpse one of their private jets leaving a runway for Bermuda)2
Creating “The Least of these”
When a major tenet of your theology is that people who invest in your church will experience wealth, but then the facts show that your congregants are among the poorest and most disparate in the country, you have just been falsified. Further, when the national economy is in shambles, it should be criminal to continue to avoid taxes as a charity, yet earn immense amounts of capital on the promise of a better future. When we see such things in the business world, we rightfully call it a scam and send those people up the river. Why are we so silent while this happens in every neighborhood in America?
Another concern that the Pew Poll raises is the type of person that is being taken advantage of in these churches. The Pentecostal tradition holds more uneducated people than any other denomination, making them a prime target for would be millionaire pastors. In many ways I am as green with jealousy as these prosperity preachers are with greed, in that the scammed believers have more faith in their little finger than I will probably ever know in my lifetime. They would give the shirt off their back if they believed God wanted them to, and many of them have. These people, while simple, are in essence the purest of Christian hearts, trusting like children the intentions of their Shepherd, and being led as lambs to the slaughter.
If not for the absurdity of the scheme, or the arrogance of the theology, then for these poor, benevolent, mistreated souls our hearts must break. That these people, who would be the very first to give of themselves to please God have been allowed to flush so much money into the off-shore bank accounts of so few is a travesty. While their pastors make a spectacle of themselves these poor faithful who are the least able to earn a decent wage in our society run to the altar with everything they have as an act of worship. If even a tenth of what they have given had been redirected to the charities that truly do serve God, our country and our world would be substantially better.
Bankrupt Prosperity
Imagine that there was a brand of theology in which people were taught that God has promised to give followers an additional arm, say right from the center of their chest. It taught that scripture had everywhere indicated that this was the case3, and that by believing this “fuller” version of the gospel, you were opening up the as-of-yet closed off area of blessings that Christians have forgotten about (ie growing another appendage to better do God's work). After about 50 years the movement has spread worldwide and followers number in the millions, and you look to see how many of these folks have in fact grown that “arm of the Lord”. Upon inspection you find that the vast majority of them have lost an arm, leaving them worse off and less able to even serve God than even two-armed folk do. The irony would be overwhelming, that while it was said that God would give these people more for realizing this secret truth, somehow they have ended up with less than they perhaps even began with.
Despite the fact of statistics, and the continued empirical evidence of devastated human lives (Pentecostals also have the most divorces4), few if any Christians have plainly spoken against the Prosperity Gospel, or raised awareness that measures any merit. While high level corruption, and financial disrespect are the soup de jour of each week's media cycle, this prominent and aberrant theology has been allowed to wreak havoc on a mass of people who are grasping at economic straws.
Prosperity Gospel theology is bankrupt. The debate raged for years about how much sense coveting money made in the context of biblical principals, but now the fruit has been born and the numbers don't lie: those who attend prosperity gospel churches are in fact worse off for it.
1http://religions.pewforum.org/reports/detailed_tables
2All except Osteen have been suspected by the Senate of Tax Fraud due to their ostentatious lifestyles on the backs of non-profit “charities”
3Maybe John12:28 would be their anthem (This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: "Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" )
4Of all major denominations Pentecostals had the highest amount of divorced members (16%). While the “Reformed” group was higher (18%) it was only a tenth the size of most every other denomination.
1 comments:
Amen... but I know people who buy into this stuff... evidence means nothing
Post a Comment