Everyone is selling something, and I will boldly say, there’s nothing wrong with that because everyone needs an income to survive in this world. We are all selling something, our time, our labor, our ideas, our products, our services, and so on. I, for example, am trying to sell my books in addition to selling my time and labor at a full-time job. However, what we sell and how we sell can pose ethical problems. Not every means to an end is justified, especially when we are selling something that is harmful to others or when we are dishonest or have no intention of living up to our contractual agreements.
Buyers beware. With few exceptions, there is no one to whom we can turn for help in deciding whether the purchase would be harmful to us or others. We have to do our own homework to figure that out. Some things are obviously harmful, such as cocaine, heroin, or poison, but ideas and beliefs are not so clear. That’s where we have to do some heavy lifting in the soul-searching arena. For starters, we need to be or become clear on our own values, priorities, and biases to be able to make a wise decision on what ideas we will buy into vs. which ideas have the potential for misleading us.
Prosperity gospel has been a controversial idea that poses ethical dilemmas, especially now as more of us fall prey to a capitalistic system that has failed to provide a secure income for the vast majority of us, no matter how hard we work and no matter how educated we are. The system has resulted in rewarding a handful of billionaires and millionaires who have become excessively wealthy by questionable means, mainly by being the sole influence on our government. Capitalism has revealed that only money talks and is heard by those who make the laws or execute legal processes in the courtrooms. The harmful consequences are too many to list, but some of the most harmful include destroying our planet, human trafficking, and wages too low to be worth the cost of gas to get to the job.
So, what are we to do when the overpowering capitalistic system is designed to basically destroy us? We are in a very vulnerable position. It seems all we have for hope is a prayer, which can make us easy prey to the sellers of prosperity gospel who are making themselves very prosperous by exploiting our desperate need for hope.
The basic idea behind prosperity gospel is if you give money to their church, which, of course, includes the preacher, the main salesman, God will reward you tenfold with wealth. This is a business transaction with God, the third-party silent partner, not with the church or the preacher, so there is no promise made by the preaching salesman for which you can hold him or his church accountable. They don’t have to help you to prosper because you cannot legally hold them accountable for false promises or for any breach of contract. If God does not honor the promise from the self-proclaimed spokesperson for God, then what? How can you hold God accountable, and, besides, did God make the promise in the first place?
That’s the catch, isn’t it? In the evangelical Christian churches, the preacher makes his promise in the name of Jesus, but the problem is, Jesus is not sitting at the table nodding his head in agreement. In fact, if Jesus were sitting at the table, he would probably react with moral outrage and turn that table over while angrily denouncing both the preacher and the church, just as he did with the money changers who turned the temple into a marketplace over 2000 years ago. He would probably say the same exact words too, “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” (Matthew 21:12)
The idea that God rewards those who give money to God, or to the church, is not new. Churches have been selling Heaven for centuries, which is why a German Scholar, Martin Luther, denounced the Catholic Church and started the Protestant Reformation movement in the year 1517. At that time, the Catholic Church had been selling “indulgences”, which meant the buyer would experience less severe punishment for their sins after death. For more information on this practice, see the article, “Reformation: Here's what Martin Luther thought the Catholic Church was wrong about” by Michael Collet, which is available on this internet link: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-31/what-martin-luther-thought-the-catholic-church-was-wrong-about/9031732
What makes prosperity gospel different is the idea that God will reward people with money rather than Heaven, and the inclusion of other ideas such as God wants everyone to be healthy and wealthy and the law-of- attraction idea that what you believe in or focus on in your thoughts will be drawn to you. These ideas are not necessarily new either. After all, if God is the equivalent of a loving father, as Jesus did say he was, he would want his children to be happy and healthy, but wealthy? Maybe not. Jesus was pretty clear on where he stood on the topic of wealth, which can be summed up by his statement, "I'll say it again-it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!" (Matthew 19:24). In other words, wealth has a tendency to corrupt people, making them less able to be a good human being by Jesus’s standard, which, in general, is to be someone who is not selfish and who cares about their neighbors, feeds the poor, and heals the sick, just as Jesus did. It is interesting to note that of all the miracles Jesus performed, none of them involved an exchange of money. Given Jesus was able to perform any miracle, including raising the dead, if he had wanted to make someone wealthy, he would have. So, in essence, his statement about a rich person not likely to be able to enter the Kingdom of God was a warning that wealth is not a recommended aspiration. Like greed and hubris, it can harm the soul. Jesus offers another warning about the accumulation of wealth: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)
In regard to the law of attraction, well, there is some similarity to what Jesus said in regard to praying, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) However, the difference is one has to ask for help, and what you want doesn’t just come from merely thinking about it. Also, this statement comes from within the context of discussing God, the Father, and his relationship with his children, as Jesus explains:
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:9-12)
Within this context, Jesus seems to clarify what the Father gives to his children—not just what they ask for but also what they deserve, for better or worse, depending on whether they have followed the golden rule to treat others as they would like to be treated. In a way, this is similar to the law of attraction and karma ideas—that whatever we dish out to others will come back to us. In other words, we can expect to get a taste of our own medicine. But, again, Jesus is not speaking specifically about money. Rather, he is speaking about God, the Father rewarding his children for treating others with respect, kindness and compassion, as he summarizes in his Sermon on the Mount:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:7-12)
So, again, the reward Jesus speaks about is not wealth, but blessings of love, mercy, and peace, but only for the “pure of heart.” It all comes back to what one deserves, not necessarily what one wants. This is a moral teaching. Conversely, the law of attraction is amoral. According to the law of attraction, you get whatever you think about the most, bad or good, intentionally or unintentionally, and whether or not you deserve it. This difference alone can make the idea of the law of attraction incompatible with Jesus’s teachings, but it might fit well with prosperity gospel.
When and where God, the Father rewards his children who are the pure of heart, is another possible difference from prosperity gospel. When Jesus talks about “the Kingdom of God”, do we know if he is talking about a place in the afterlife or some place on Earth? One can easily argue that he is talking about both here and there because Jesus also said, “People will not say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ because God’s kingdom is within you.” (Luke 17:21) So, if you are pure of heart, wherever you are, God is there, residing within you, and this close relationship with God gives you blessings of love, mercy, and peace of mind. You don’t have to die to get to Heaven. If you are pure of heart, you are already there.
If God is within you, then it is logical to assume that your will aligns with God’s will, which is mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-12)
It is reasonable to assume, based on Jesus’s efforts to bring Heaven to Earth through his teachings, his compassion for those in need, and his miraculous healings, that what he is saying is the Kingdom of God comes to us when we follow his teachings and become a source of God’s love in this world. If you are living in accordance with Jesus’s teachings, there is no conflict between what you want and what God wants, which, in a nutshell, is living in harmony with others within a loving community who takes care of each other, making sure everyone has their needs met, the sick are healed, the poor are provided with food and shelter, and so on. From this perspective we could also logically assume that everyone in this Kingdom of God has sufficient income or other means to live comfortably, and no one needs or desires to be excessively wealthy, especially not at the cost of others being deprived of having their needs met. Jesus’s Kingdom of God is not a world divided between the Haves and the Have-Nots. It is a world in which everyone is equally and mutually valued, respected, and loved.
As long as we are here on Earth, we have material and spiritual needs that must be met for our physical and emotional wellbeing, and Jesus addressed both, but being excessively wealthy is not a need. In fact, according to Jesus, excessive wealth could prevent us from experiencing a close relationship with God, which leads to the deprivation of true happiness and peace.
Prosperity gospel departs from Jesus’s teachings in several important ways, and one could easily argue that it is not Christian, or certainly, not what Jesus taught. It is its own and very different philosophy or theology that cannot honestly represent Jesus. It is more in line with the values of capitalism than anything else. However, this is not to say that it is a bad or harmful philosophy. Many people subscribe to it and claim that it has been a great help to them. However, they probably should find another name for their philosophy because claiming they are representing Jesus is, frankly, either ignorant or dishonest. Neither Jesus nor his Father is anyone’s personal banker.
Photo Credit: Mathieu Stern
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