Okay, it’s really not that complicated. Prosperity Theology is wrong. It has no place in the Christian tradition, and is as much a heresy as the selective literalism (fundamentalism) of the radicalized right. In order to preach prosperity theology you must avoid Jesus, avoid the Acts of the Apostles or Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, you have to reach back to the Hebrew Testament, abandoning the Gospel. This is important, because our scriptures contain an evolving understanding of humankind’s relationship with the divine, with our place before our Creator. The earliest theologies encoded in the Hebrew Scriptures were henotheistic (multiple gods, but the tribe only had one god) and equated faithful duty to the tribe’s God as a requirement for worldly success. If Israel was faithful, it would be a militarily strong and rich nation (we see the modern version of this primitive theology in Fred Phelps and his hatemongers from Westboro Baptist). And when Israel was not strong and rich, when there were famines and invasions, the logical explanation was to be found in covenant breaking by the people. And, of course, let us not forget that guilt was passed on from generation to generation, not just in the collective, but to the individual. A child could be punished for the sins of the parent, for generations even, guilt transferred up and down the generations.
By the time of the Exile this theology had already changed dramatically. The theological trajectory of the major prophets came to understand God as a single and good being, what we might loosely label “ethical monotheism.†They also moved away from collective guilt to individual accountability. No longer would a child be punished for the sins of the parent. Even the strong connection between faithful adherence to the covenant and worldly success softened, as it became clear that some individuals behaved faithfully and still suffered in this life.
In Jesus’ earthly ministry we see a complete dismantling of these early theologies. Blood guilt is gone (though it is re-introduced in the form of “original sin†centuries later) and faith no longer means worldly success. In fact, the Gospels make clear that many will suffer for their faith!
None of this should come as a shock to the average Mainline Protestant. We may not be as skilled as we might like at following the trajectory, at sorting through the scripture with its diversity of belief and disorder, but we know that Jesus never promises Simon Peter a mansion and jewels. But many Christians have been following the prosperity heresy in recent years, and the greatest huckster leading people away from Christ has been Joel Osteen.
We don’t like pointing out the obvious. We’d rather be polite and socially acceptable. But the New Covenant in Christ has very clear standards, and we are called to denounce those who would lead others astray. Osteen, and others of his ilk, have worked mightily against God.
And then a funny thing happened. In an economy that seems rigged to profit the wheelers and dealers of Wall Street at the expense of the average citizen and our national security, faithful followers of the prosperity heresy found that they were no longer prosperous. But unlike the traveling snake oil salesman of earlier times, Osteen couldn’t just pack up and move when his “cure†failed to cure. How could he continue to pack that stadium? How could he continue to sell his product? What did his consumers want?
This week, we got the answer. Osteen has latched onto the gospel of hatred, making national news by denouncing homosexuality. If he can’t pack the house with greed, he’ll pack it with hatred and self-righteousness.
We can and must stand up to Osteen and his kind. In order to do that we must study scripture. We must teach and train, just as Jesus did. We must devote the same amount of energy to faith development as we devote to fundraising and building maintenance.
I pray that as new forms of Christian practice and Christian community develop, from the emerging church to neo-monasticism, they will develop disciplines of study to match their already wonderful work in spiritual practice and prayer, in transforming lives through evangelism and social justice. The treasure we seek, the Way of Christ, is there, in the Scripture, in the work of Francis and Luther and Zwingli. We serve a living God, are at our own place on a long trajectory of human relationship with our Creator. God is still speaking, and Osteen is not listening. Are you?