"I am not a poverty preacher"

A preacher who looks remarkably like Ed Grimley.

A little bit about my religious upbringing.

I was raised in the holy, Roman, Catholic, and apostolic church. It has produced theologians of a subtlety of mind which would make graduates of Moody Bible College hide their faces in shame for daring to discern the divine. It has committed great crimes and engaged in acts of selfless grace. It is a construct of human hands and souls, and as such is a fallible creation.

But more than that: I grew up in the Vatican II church, that moment when a two-thousand year institution was wrenched into modernity by Pope John XXIII. It asked forgiveness of our elder brothers, Jews, for all the crimes committed by the church against them. It bowed its head in humility, apologizing for the myriad times when it did not live up to the Christ in all of us. And it made it clear that its main mission was to uplift the poor, clothe the naked, and feed the hungry.

Joel Osteen... is the antithesis of all that.

The title of this piece is a direct, quote from him. This so-called "sermon", "preached" in 2014, is again becoming viral. I reproduce his exact words below.

"'Well,' you say, 'Joel, are you one of those prosperity ministers?' No, I don't like that term. That sounds like somebody that only talks about finances. Prosperity to me is having your health. It's having peace in your mind. It's being able to sleep at night, having good relationships. There are many things that money cannot buy, and while I don't like the term 'prosperity minister,' I must say I am not a poverty minister.

"I can't find one place in the Scripture where we are supposed to drag around not having enough, not able to afford what we want, living off the leftovers, living in the land of not enough. No, we were created to be the head and not the tail. Jesus came that we might live an abundant life. We represent Almighty God here on this earth. We should be examples of His goodness, so blessed, so prosperous, so generous, so full of joy that other people want what we have.

"But you've got to fight a religious spirit that says you're supposed to be poor, broke and defeated to show God that you're really humble. No, when you're poor, broke and defeated, all that proves is that you're poor, broke and defeated. It doesn't bring any honor to God. If I brought my two children up on the platform today and their clothes were all raggedy, worn out, holes in their shoes, hair not combed, you would look at me and think, 'What kind of father is he?' It'd be a poor reflection on me. Listen, when you look good, dress good, live in a nice place, excel in your career, generous with others, that brings a smile to God's face. It brings Him pleasure to prosper you."

I can't find one place in the Scripture where we are supposed to drag around not having enough, not being able to afford what we want, living off the leftovers, living in the land of not enough.

OK. Here we go.

Luke 12:15: Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

Matthew 19:16-24: 16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” 17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’[c] and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’[d]” 20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Now, both the Jewish and Christian Bibles also have passages which say that wealth is a blessing from God. In 1 Timothy 6:17, Paul says God gives liberally for his people to enjoy their lives. The problem isn't with wealth, per se; the problem lies when wealth replaces God, when Mammon takes over your focus. And, quite frankly, this is the crux of the false Prosperity Gospel. It teaches that wealth is Godly, and that anyone who doesn't acquire wealth is cursed by God. Using material success as a measure of your favor from God is idolatry. What does it profit a man if he wins the world but loses his soul? This un-Christian "theology", if such it can be called, upends the teachings of Christ and the prophets. It denies the through-theme of both the Tanakh and the Christian Scripture, which is that social justice is paramount. God doesn't want your sacrifices, your fatted calves; he wants you to protect the orphans and widows, feed the hungry, honor the stranger. The smell of the sacrifices, the sounds of prayers from the spiritually dead, sicken him.

My wife is a Bible-believing Christian. She bought one of Joel Osteen's secular self-help books a while ago. When I told her what he had said, she rolled her eyes. It is not the rich and powerful who will inherit the kingdom, but the poor and humble. For the rich and powerful center themselves over God. They place themselves as God's anointed due to the blessings they think receive from him. This is nothing more than the hubris which was the ultimate sin for the Greek and Roman gods. This is humanity forgetting that from dust it came, and to dust it will return. 

People like Joel Osteen, with their mansions and their perfect Aqua-Net hair and their tailored suits, are nothing other than the hypocrites praying loudly in the synagogue against whom Christ inveighed. Their faith in God is conditional, due to the success they've had in this fallen world. The would not clothe the naked, feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, for they do not see God in them. In them they see misshapen, monstrous things, outside of the glory of God. But these forgotten people are exactly whom all the world's religious traditions elevate, for anyone one of us can be brought down low like them. They are the ones with nothing, and will have their fill in the next life. 

Men like Joel Osteen had best pray that my agnosticism is correct, and that this life is all we have. If I'm wrong, they'll be in for a surprise.

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