God and Riches
Two recent articles, one in Time and one in the Los Angeles Times raise interesting questions. The Time article has already received much attention because it raises the question of God's provisions for humanity. Prosperity teachers are nothing new. Reverend Ike was an early purveyor of such ideas. Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, and others have been preaching a "name it and claim it" doctrine for years. It has been a popular though at times controversial component of some forms of Pentecostalism that affirms God's provisions of healing and blessing. The Foursquare Gospel of Aimee Semple McPherson put healing front and center.
So, does God want us to be rich? Or perhaps better put, does God want us to be prosperous and happy, which is the message of the most recent purveyor of prosperity doctrines, Joel Osteen. Osteen is the son of John Osteen, a Baptist turned Pentecostal, who has transformed a former basketball arena into a mega church. His message is pretty clear, God wants us to be happy and prosperous. So, is this what God wants for us?
Well, it depends on how you parse some words here. I believe that God wants good things for us. I don't believe that God is an angry God looking for ways to pounce on us and destroy us. The problem with prosperity doctrine isn't with the promise of blessing, its with the way in which it is distributed. There is a dark side to the call to faith. Yes, I do believe that a positive outlook on life is beneficial. With hard work, a few breaks a long the way, and a good attitude, a person can do a lot. The problem is with the flip side. What about the poor and the marginalized of society? Do they deserve their situation. Do they not have enough faith, or have the breaks not gone their way. Is every poor person lazy? The book of Proverbs offers sage advice -- do the right thing and things should go well for you. Not bad advice, but as Job found out things don't always work out the way we planned. Job was a righteous and truly blessed man, and then everything fell apart. His friends came to visit and console him, but they were bothered by his adament refusal to confess his sins. Surely he'd done something bad, surely he didn't have enough faith, or else he wouldn't be in this state.
Where the LA Times article comes in concerns a recent study of American views of God (http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/la-me-beliefs16sep16,1,2867764.story). According to the story, a recent Baylor University study discovered that while over 80% of Americans believe in God, we have very different attitudes about God. The biggest group of believers (31.4%) envision an "authoritarian God." This God is engaged in our lives, but is judgmental and capable of punishing us. This is the God of the South (43.5%) and the Midwest (32.5). The Critical God, a distant but possibly judgmental God, is popular in the American East (but only 16% of us affirm this theology). Out here in the West we prefer the Distant God (24.4% of Americans), a God who is neither engaged in our lives nor judgmental. Finally comes the God who would seem to be affirmed by the Prosperity teachers, though I'm not completely sure of this. This is the benevolent God, the God who is engaged but generally not judgmental (23%) of us take this view.
When yiou break things down along denominational/religious lines. Things get more interesting. 68% of Black Protestants and 52.3% of Evangelicals believe in an authoritarian God, but only 22.6% of Catholics and 23.7% of Mainliners take this view. Mainliners are pretty much equally divided along all 4 camps, with a distant and a benevolent God leading the pack. Interestingly among Jews, the Distant God comes in at 41% while this deity garners 35.7% of the unaffiliated. Catholics prefer either an engaged benevlent deity or a Distant one.
So, who are these prosperity teachers? Where do they fall on the map. They're not Catholic or Mainliners. Many are African American and black churches go in for the authoritarian God overwhelmingly and hardly embrace the benevolent God at all. This is all very intriguing to me.
I will confess now that I've laid all this data out for you, that I embrace a benevolent deity. I believe God is engaged in our lives. I do believe that God can get cross with us at times and that God calls us to care for the poor and the sick, the imprisoned and the marginalized. When we do, we serve Jesus. There's something to the sheep and goats parable that needs to be remembered. So, check out the stories, and consider your theology!
So, does God want us to be rich? Or perhaps better put, does God want us to be prosperous and happy, which is the message of the most recent purveyor of prosperity doctrines, Joel Osteen. Osteen is the son of John Osteen, a Baptist turned Pentecostal, who has transformed a former basketball arena into a mega church. His message is pretty clear, God wants us to be happy and prosperous. So, is this what God wants for us?
Well, it depends on how you parse some words here. I believe that God wants good things for us. I don't believe that God is an angry God looking for ways to pounce on us and destroy us. The problem with prosperity doctrine isn't with the promise of blessing, its with the way in which it is distributed. There is a dark side to the call to faith. Yes, I do believe that a positive outlook on life is beneficial. With hard work, a few breaks a long the way, and a good attitude, a person can do a lot. The problem is with the flip side. What about the poor and the marginalized of society? Do they deserve their situation. Do they not have enough faith, or have the breaks not gone their way. Is every poor person lazy? The book of Proverbs offers sage advice -- do the right thing and things should go well for you. Not bad advice, but as Job found out things don't always work out the way we planned. Job was a righteous and truly blessed man, and then everything fell apart. His friends came to visit and console him, but they were bothered by his adament refusal to confess his sins. Surely he'd done something bad, surely he didn't have enough faith, or else he wouldn't be in this state.
Where the LA Times article comes in concerns a recent study of American views of God (http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/la-me-beliefs16sep16,1,2867764.story). According to the story, a recent Baylor University study discovered that while over 80% of Americans believe in God, we have very different attitudes about God. The biggest group of believers (31.4%) envision an "authoritarian God." This God is engaged in our lives, but is judgmental and capable of punishing us. This is the God of the South (43.5%) and the Midwest (32.5). The Critical God, a distant but possibly judgmental God, is popular in the American East (but only 16% of us affirm this theology). Out here in the West we prefer the Distant God (24.4% of Americans), a God who is neither engaged in our lives nor judgmental. Finally comes the God who would seem to be affirmed by the Prosperity teachers, though I'm not completely sure of this. This is the benevolent God, the God who is engaged but generally not judgmental (23%) of us take this view.
When yiou break things down along denominational/religious lines. Things get more interesting. 68% of Black Protestants and 52.3% of Evangelicals believe in an authoritarian God, but only 22.6% of Catholics and 23.7% of Mainliners take this view. Mainliners are pretty much equally divided along all 4 camps, with a distant and a benevolent God leading the pack. Interestingly among Jews, the Distant God comes in at 41% while this deity garners 35.7% of the unaffiliated. Catholics prefer either an engaged benevlent deity or a Distant one.
So, who are these prosperity teachers? Where do they fall on the map. They're not Catholic or Mainliners. Many are African American and black churches go in for the authoritarian God overwhelmingly and hardly embrace the benevolent God at all. This is all very intriguing to me.
I will confess now that I've laid all this data out for you, that I embrace a benevolent deity. I believe God is engaged in our lives. I do believe that God can get cross with us at times and that God calls us to care for the poor and the sick, the imprisoned and the marginalized. When we do, we serve Jesus. There's something to the sheep and goats parable that needs to be remembered. So, check out the stories, and consider your theology!
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