Monday, March 28, 2005

 

The Price Of The Prosperity Gospel

I am so tired of quid pro quo messages about Christian giving. I hear them all the time, everywhere. "Give freely, receive in abundance." I am not going to bother to cite them, because you hear them everywhere -- particularly with media preachers.

I am tired because the message is so cockamamie. You give to place yourself in the proper relationship with God and the rest of the world. You give because others are more important than yourself, and God is more important than all of us. If you give as some sort of "heavenly investment," then you just miss the point. Christian giving should be sacrificial, completely sacrificial, as was modeled by Christ. I should probably take the time to develop my case here, but this post is not really about the theology of giving, it's about the very practical consequences of this sort of idea.

My wife handed me this article from the February 28 issue of "People" magazine. Trust me when I say I would never have found it if she had not pointed it out to me -- "People" is not on my reading list. Upon reading the article, I was reminded of this little incident from early last year.

These stories are all about church members, churches, and whole denominations being bilked out of thousands to tens of thousands to millions of dollars in Ponzi schemes. Why would churches be such a "target rich environment" for con men and schemers like this?

Could it be that this "Christian investment" idea about giving sounds remarkably like the sales pitch for a Ponzi scheme to begin with? Maybe? Just possibly? I am just glad these guys are taking advantage of bad theology. I have a sneaking suspicion that such pratical matters might be an actual test of a particular theological idea. Good theology is not likely to produce such disasterous results.

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