The Prosperity Gospel: Gaud vs. God

In His teachings given to His disciples, Jesus Christ places a great emphasis on self denial, generosity, giving, charity, and mercy.   He is a preacher of love for others, for one’s neighbors, even for one’s enemies.  The opposite of the love which God offers the world is self-love.  The difference being that true love is focused on the other, while self-love is not love in this same sense for its object is one’s self not someone else.  Love is always other oriented (see 1 Corinthians 13). 

I was asked what I think about Joel Osteen’s message and version of Christianity.  I have to admit being a person who rarely watches TV and so who isn’t awed by the most current “celebrity saint”, I had no idea who Osteen was.  Coincidentally two people sent me different electronic references about him including an article in The Atlantic about the so-called “prosperity Gospel” which is certainly appealing to every self-loving American.  “Name it and claim it” theology is so popular because it is so self-serving.

It is not that a positivist message is wrong in and of itself, but I think it is not true to God or the Gospel.  To put it in another way it is more about gaud than God or more about gaudiness than godliness.  Christ Himself warned His followers that they could expect persecution for rejecting the values of the world, Osteen though changes the message and has Christ teaching prosperity rather than persecution. 

Someone might say I as a pastor of a congregation under 200 members am jealous of Osteen’s worldwide outreach.  But I don’t have the personality to do what he is doing – I have no interest in making myself the message.  Besides it is the Church as whole – the Body of Christ’s task to reach the world.  I personally don’t have to do it by myself.  My role is a small part within the Body of Christ. Osteen is promiting himself and his ideas.   Osteen certainly strikes me as being part of America’s love for celebrity.  It is his message which he is selling, literally in the form of books.

4o Martyrs of Sebaste

I also think the prosperity Gospel is false, because history shows countless Christians who remained totally faithful to God despite persecution, enslavement, impoverishment, exile, imprisonment, torture, minority status and martyrdom.  Faithfulness to God is no guarantee of success in this world, nor is it meant to be.  The entire Old Testament is witness to the fact that despite defeat, enslavement, exile and all manners of suffering, the Jews remained faithful to God and did not embrace the religions and gods who triumphed over them.    One real contribution of Judaism to all of Western civilization is their belief that there is meaning to be found even in suffering and defeat.  Even when there is only suffering God still speaks to His people.  The search for meaning is the Jewish legacy to the world.  The glory of the people of God was their determined faithfulness to the Lord even when they languished in captivity or exile.

Though the positivist message is admittedly totally appealing to a self-loving population, it has little to offer to people in time of crisis, suffering, tragedy or cataclysm. 

The message of the Gospel is one of love – of giving of one’s self, of being merciful to others, of being charitable and generous.  The prosperity Gospel puts everyone’s faith at risk when there is no prosperity.   It makes prosperity, riches and wealth to be the greatest good which will only lead to greed – the willingness to be prosperous at the expense of any others, and the willingness to kill any who threaten one’s wealth.  Hardly the Gospel message of Jesus, the Son of God.

I see the same problem with the prosperity Gospel as I do with those believers who fear science and religion.   It sets up a false God which requires one to sacrifice truth in order to defend the idol.   Faith in God is to help us survive prosperity as well as poverty (“Fret not yourself over one who prospers in his way” – Psalm 37:7; “For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” – Psalm 73:3).   Faith in God is not threatened by the mounting evidence of evolution at work in the world.   Faith does not oppose truth, but helps us transcend an indifferent or hostile empirical universe.   God as Creator and Savior of the universe is just as true in times of plenty and at times of want.  God as Creator of the universe is just as true even if the on-going mechanism at work in creation is an evolutionary descent with modification.  Neither poverty nor science can change the truth about the Creator.  Faith sustains us through times of suffering and impoverishment and gives us peace and wisdom as science offers a materialistic view of the universe.

Faith is not magic that can manipulate the powers of the universe to carry out “my” will.  Faith is accepting that I am the servant of the Lord – He is not my servant who must accomplish my will because He cannot resist my faith anymore than a Storm Trooper can resist the Force in the hands of a Jedi.   The prosperity Gospel ignores the plight of countless people who suffer disease and trauma in this world despite their faithfulness to God.  It turns God into the Cosmic Santa Claus who must reward your every whim whether you’ve been bad or good because you have the power to force Him to do your will. 

 The prosperity Gospel focuses not on God but on what works for me – any god will do as long as that force/god can be bent to do my will.   This has nothing to do with truth, mercy, love, kindness, peace, generosity or charity.  It says the universe is here to serve me – it is not even a geocentric vision which was ousted by truth centuries ago, but is an egocentric vision of reality in which the universe is nothing more than the narcissistic supply which feeds my self centeredness.  God is only necessary to the extent that He serves me for in this universe “I” am the only one who really exists or matters.  The world outside of myself is mine to manipulate, mine or pillage as I see fit for “’I’ am the Lord my god” in this pseudo-theological thinking.

If all the positive thinking gurus have got you down, you would be in good company with Barbara Ehrenreich whose new book BRIGHT-SIDED is subtitled, “How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America.”

Photo of the Day

I was totally surprised and both honored and thrilled that a photo I took was picked as The Photo of the Day for November 15, 2009, by dailyQi.com which describes itself as “an independent English language e-magazine with an Asian focus.”   The photo they picked  which I called “Beautiful Form”  is below:

The photo was taken along the Little Miami River in John Bryan State Park, Yellow Springs, Ohio. 

The photo can also be viewed on my Flickr page:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/frted/4104241660/  where it is part of several different of my photo sets (which you can also view through the link to my Flickr page).

While I usually go on my photo safaris alone, when I took the above photo I had invited a parishioner, Mike P, to go for a walk and he had to patiently endure my stopping to photograph things.  unbeknownst to me, he took on his iPhone a picture of me photographing along the banks of the river:

A picture of me is not award winning material and probably falls under the category of  what Daniel Boorstin labels a “pseudo-event” photo.

Good Samaritan (2009)

Luke 10:25-37    The Good Samaritan

At that time, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered right; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

 There exists in Christian Tradition a Wisdom regarding how to live the Gospel.  This Wisdom reminds us that the purely literal reading of Scripture may not be enough for us to know how to live.   Our Lord Jesus Himself was a Wisdom teacher – not a law giver, but offering the Divine Wisdom to guide us in our thinking and our decision making.  The Gospel Lesson of the Good Samaritan tells us to go and imitate the Good Samaritan – be neighborly to those you meet in life, even if they are strangers or enemies.  You don’t have to wait until someone is in dire straights or suffering from misfortune before being neighborly to them.  Being neighborly may entail intervening in a situation before it become tragic.  The Tradition also advocates that we approach all neighbors with wisdom – we do need to understand what we are getting into before thrusting ourselves into every situation oblivious to the risks involved.   In THE PARADISE OF THE HOLY FATHERS, we find this wisdom story advocating wisdom to the would be Good Samaritan:

One of the old men used to say, “If you see a man who has fallen into the water, and you can help him, stretch out your staff to him, and draw him out, lest, if you stretch out your hand to him, and you are not able to bring him up, he drags you down and both of you perish.” Now he spoke this for the sake of those who thrust themselves forward to help other people who are being tempted, and who, through wishing to help others beyond their power, themselves fall. It is right for a man to help his brother according to the power that he has, for God demands not from a man that which is beyond his strength.

War, What is it Good For? It Keeps Journalists Employed

Sites keeps himself in focus

I finished reading Kevin Sites’ IN THE HOT ZONE: ONE MAN, ONE YEAR, TWENTY WARS.  Kevin is credited with pioneering “solo journalism.”  As a reporter he has spent years in the world’s hot zones – covering war and conflict.   He spent 2005-2006 jetting around the globe from one conflict to another.  The book is an easy read, and at times interesting, but I would not rate it as a favorite book.  Kevin complains about Americans having little understanding about the world’s conflicts, but his book is a whole lot about him, traveling around.  He makes himself the news by being at the world’s hotspots and then reports on himself, culminating in this book about his being in all of these places.  Solo journalism enables Sites to keep his camera focused on the main person in his every story: himself.  That being said,  I gleaned a few quotes that I will share:

“The way wars are being covered by some media outlets bothers me.  Time limitations for television news programming usually mean that only the news of the day is getting reported.               In Iraq and Afghanistan, news of the day means body counts from the latest bombing.  These stories are essential – but fall short in helping educate an audience about the changing dimensions and nuances of the conflicts, which are necessary for people to truly understand them.”  (p 50)

Rarely in a war is an army, or its government, much interested in the didactic element of explicating the nuances of the situation.   Governments and militaries are interested in defeating the enemy more than in defining their positions on issues.   But the press might take upon itself this task if they have a concern about truth.  Too often though American media outlets, including news outlets – are more interested in advertising dollars, since that is who pays the bills.  So they will be ever tempted to report the news that will attract the viewer.  This plays into featuring sensationalism and bizarre stories over informative ones, or oversimplifying complex issues to spoon feed a lazy, indifferent or passive audience.

“As a society do we want to just say thank you to those soldiers – or do we need to try to understand that asking them to kill for us may also kill something inside of them?” (p 112)

We do ask soldiers to kill for us, and we pay them to do it.  Some probably would criticize Sites saying he is trying to pamper America’s young people by protecting them from the harsh realities of the world.  Danger and evil are real and so someone needs to be trained and prepared to fight for our country.   But I am reminded of some words by James Madison, founding American Father and one of our early Presidents:   “There can be no harm in declaring, that standing armies in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and ought to be avoided, as far as it may be consistent with the protection of the community.”   (from my blog Madison: Insights and Ideals)   Madison did squirm a bit about a standing army as he feared government would always be tempted to use it rather than to seek some other method to solve a problem.  We have those soldiers trained over there, so let’s use them:  Go to war.

Marine Corps War Memorial

Yet it is also not that hard to see in this fallen world that at times the only way to get to peace is through the use of military force.  Indeed soldiers have often thought of themselves as peace keepers and peace makers.   War is not their goal  but rather they see war as that temporary but necessary stage of mortal combat which must be won in order to get to the desired state of peace.  The main question of the pacifist in challenging the reliance on the military to accomplish national goals is:  have we done everything possible – have we done enough – so that war can be avoided and yet a secure and lasting peace is attained?   War as a necessary means to an end has been taught from the Q’URAN as well as from THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO.  Christianity however envisioned a different way from its beginnings as a persecuted religion without any army whatsoever, it still managed to convert an empire and change the world.   Of course once Christianity began to see itself as an imperial force, it too embraced warfare as a just means to an end.   However, personally I see little in the NEW TESTAMENT which makes me think that Christ or the apostles ever envisioned any military as the needed means to convert the world to follow the Crucified God.

“In conflict, everyone, whether they are invading force, government troops, rebels or insurgents, even journalists who help perpetuate the myth of war, has chosen violence over diplomacy, guns over statecraft, and when that happens we all lose a little bit of our humanity with every casualty.”  (p 291)

Arlington Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

To me that is Site’s most profound insight.  It is not simply soldiers who lose their humanity in war, everyone in society does (just think about the German citizens near the death camps saying, “we didn’t know” – they had closed their hearts and minds and gave up part of their humanity to live at peace with what their country was doing).   Even the victorious see in their returning soldiers increases in mental health problems, suicides, drug and alcohol abuse.  Every time we decide to go to war for whatever reason (no matter how noble),  all who support the war (for whatever reason) have decided that violence and force are the expedient way to accomplish a goal.  The cost of such decisions is the loss of a bit of our humanity.   Yes, it will be argued that the war will save more lives than are lost and might pre-empt further suffering.   But we are also saying some human lives are not valuable, and that we can kill an idea by killing some people.    One might think that Pro-Life people would be most reluctant to go to war, but that is not always the case.  Pro-lifers will defend the life of the unborn, but are often willing to send the post-born to their deaths.   I find the whole issue of war to be one of the most troubling aspects of being human and being a Christian- perhaps because I cannot say that war is never the solution to evil.   I am not in the least comforted or convinced by those who argue that God Himself in the Bible orders people to war.  That I find one of the most theologically difficult features of the God who is Love.  It also is a reason I find Islam unacceptable:  there is no allowance in the Q’uran for pacifism.  War is a duty required by God at times because in the Q’uran “God knows what we don’t know.”    In one Sura (2:216) God says there will be times when the believers won’t want to go to war, but God will require it of them anyway because He knows what we do not.   I prefer to struggle with the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of God the Trinity, who said to love even our enemies.  I do not know how to accomplish this counter intuitive love, but I find the thought far more Divine than a call to war which humans even without any God have been readily able to think up for themselves.

For Orthodox Christians the Cross of Christ remains that mysterious weapon of peace, even if Constantine’s followers saw it as a sign of victory in war.  As we sing on the Feast of the Cross (September 14):

Rejoice, O life-bearing Cross!

The invincible weapon of godliness;

The gate of paradise, the protection of the faithful!

The Cross is the might of the church.

Through it corruption is abolished.

Through it the power of death is crushed

And we are raised from earth to heaven!

The invincible weapon of peace!

The Cross is the enemy of demons,

The glory of the martyrs,

The haven of salvation

Which grants the world great mercy!

Glory to God for All Things Ode 6 Illustrated

Akathist:  “Glory to God for all Things”   

by Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Tryphon (+1934)

See Ode 5

ODE 6

How great and how close You are in the powerful track of the storm!

How mighty Your right arm in the blinding flash of the lightning!

How awesome Your majesty! 

 The voice of the Lord fills the fields, It speaks in the rustling of the trees.

The voice of the Lord is in the thunder and the downpour.

The voice of the Lord is heard above the waters.

Praise be to You in the roar of mountains ablaze.

You shake the earth like a garment;

You pile up to the sky the waves of the sea.

Praise be to You, bringing low the pride of man.

You bring from his heart a cry of penitence: Alleluia!

IKOS 6

When the lightning flash has lit up the camp dining hall,

how feeble seems the light from the lamp.

Thus do You, like the lightning, unexpectedly light up my heart with flashes of intense joy.

After Your blinding light, how drab, how colorless, how illusory all else seems.

Glory to You, the highest peak of men’s dreaming.

Glory to You for our unquenchable thirst for communion with God.
Glory to You, making us dissatisfied with earthly things.
Glory to You, turning on us Your healing rays.

Glory to You, subduing the power of the spirits of darkness and dooming to death every evil.

Glory to You for the signs of Your presence, for the joy of hearing Your voice and living in Your love.

Glory to You, O God, from age to age.

Next:  Ode 7

The Church – The Israel of God and The New Creation

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.  (Galatians 6:15-16)

In Galatians 6 St. Paul speaks about the Israel of God and the New Creation.  The Israel of God in this case refers to the Church, the Body of Christ.  St. Paul did believe that Christian believers were the Israel of God – not the New Israel (as versus the Old), but the continuation of the only Israel of God.  St. Paul does not use the phrase the “new Israel” but does believe that in Christ we are a new creation.  As Sergius Bulgakov wrote:  “The end of the world is not physical but metaphysical. In reality, the world does not end but is transfigured into a new being, into a new heaven and a new earth. ”  It is not just Jews or Christians who are renewed and transfigured but the entire cosmos.   St. Paul (and the entire New Testament) also does not use phrases like “True Israel” or “True Faith” when speaking about the Christian Church.  Actually the Church’s claim to be the “True Faith” is based upon the idea that we have received a true understanding of Christ and the world.  It is Christ as Truth that makes Orthodoxy true and the fullness of the truth.  “The greatest gift of Orthodoxy is its conviction of being the true faith, that is, a way of faith and life which possesses and proclaims the truth as a gift of God. At the heart of this awesome claim is Christ Himself who said; “I am the way, the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6). Based on the truth of the person and saving work of Christ, the Apostles and Church Fathers have bequeathed to Orthodox Christians a remarkably coherent and universal vision of truth pertaining to God, man, creation, salvation, Church, ethics, society, family, marriage, vocations, and so on.”        (Theodore G. Stylianopoulos, The Way of Christ)

Three Prong Illusion

 

 

The photograph on the right which I took of the Deeds Carillon in Dayton, Ohio, plays tricks on me.

 

It does appear to me that at the top of the tower  the middle leg stands out further than the two side legs of the tower and is closest to me.

 

However by the bottom of the photograph, it appears to me that the middle leg is actuallygoing behind the two side legs. 

 

 

It is an optical illusion - besides proving that I am easily intertained, diverted from doing anything important, and suffering from bad eyesight.

 

The photo though reminds me of an old optical illusion that I saw as a child:

3 Pronged Fork

 

 

Difficult in Deeds!

In a previous post, I asked a Difficult:  Where am I?

The Longfellow poem’s conlusion is to the right.

The main clue from the poen is “Then pealed the bells…”

The poem is on the door of the Deeds Carillon Tower.

It is entitled “Christmas Bells” and was written during the American Civil War.

 

The photos in the previous blog were taken right beneath the Carillon Bells. 

 

Here is a another view of the bells now much closer to how we might see them when we were close to the Carillon.

 

You can view all of my photos of the Deeds Carillon at:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/frted/sets/72157622778528834/

 

Deeds Carillon Dayton, Ohio

 

 

 

Glory to God for All Things Ode 5 Illustrated

Akathist:  “Glory to God for all Things”   

By Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Tryphon (+1934)

See Ode 4 

ODE 5

The dark storm-clouds of life bring no terror to those in whose hearts Your fire is burning brightly.

Outside is the darkness of the whirlwind,

the terror and howling of the storm,

but in the heart, in the presence of Christ,

 there is light and peace, silence.

The heart sings: Alleluia!

IKOS 5

Pleiades Star Cluster

I see Your heavens resplendent with stars.

How glorious You are, radiant with light!

Eternity watches me by the rays of the distant stars.

I am small, insignificant,

but the Lord is at my side:

Your right arm guides me wherever I go.

Glory to You, ceaselessly watching over me.
Glory to You for the encounters You arrange for me.
Glory to You for the love of parents, for the faithfulness of friends.
Glory to You for the humbleness of animals which serve me.
Glory to You for the unforgettable moments of life.
Glory to You for the heart’s innocent joy.
Glory to You for the joy of living, moving, and being able to return Your love.

Glory to You, O God, from age to age.

See Ode 6

Difficult: Where am I?

I decided to try another set of pictures to see if people can identify: 

where am I?

This one is probably going to be more difficult,

 though the last two times I asked “where am I now?” or “where in the world?“

and “what was I doing?”  a number of people got it exactly right.

Here it is again, but not quite as close up.

This one is more difficult because it is not at the church,

and it is not something we look at very often,

though I am sure that many have seen this from this very angle.

I took the photo about Noon which won’t necessarily help you to see where I am, but it is a clue anyway, so I’ve heard.

The last clue is a poem, which if you know the whole thing is a much better clue. 

Longfellow is a hint. 

I am in Dayton, I’ll give you that much.

And it’s not an obscure location,

rather it is all quite visible,

And in Dayton at least, well known.

 

 

The Answer to the question, “Where Am I?” can be found at http://frted.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/difficult-in-deeds/