Why Critical Race Theory is an existential threat to the Church — a Theory — Part 3
When Churches act like corporations
A quick Recap
As this is part three, I want to recap the other parts very quickly. Part one dealt with how merit has a diminishing return in a mature Neo-Liberal capitalist society. In other words, whoever makes it to the top of the hill first has all of the advantages going forward. Part two looks at how issues of merit undermine Christian ideals and pollute the Gospel. Some of which will get talked about again as we look at systemic racism in the Christian system, the Church. A good starting point on this topic will be to address casual racism.
Casual Racism and merit
When one talks about Critical Race Theory and America, the essence of the debate centers around merit. Do my actions merit my prosperity? If I work hard and live morally, will I be rewarded with the American dream? Or, as the counterpoint of Critical Race Theory would point out, racism is woven into the very fabric and constitution of society. If racism is systemic, then a person’s morals and actions, i.e., their merits, have a diminishing effect on where they land in the social hierarchy.
For today’s post, I want to discuss how Critical Race Theory affects one of the most segregated institutions in America today — the Church. I write these words with a heavy heart as I am a believer. I want to take a constructive look at why the American Church is mainly racist and thus has labeled Critical Race Theory as some unfathomable atheistic weapon to tear Christianity down.
Let me be profound for a moment. When we go with what is familiar, everyone is at least somewhat racist, myself included. When we go with what is familiar, our race contributes to that familiarity. The superficial differences that distinguish one person from another, the way we look and dress, also signal cultural differences, distinguished by the way we look and dress. When we stick with what is familiar, we look for things that validate and reward us and stay away from things that do not. It is human nature to be selfish, to love oneself before all others. As all mothers know, children are born selfish; they need constant attention and immediate gratification. Part of what demarks an adult from a child is the ability to wait, be patient, and work hard for someone else’s benefit. Being aware that everyone has a bias towards what reminds us of ourselves is the profound affirmation of Jesus’ words that all have fallen short. Furthermore, if everyone is casually biased towards the familiar, then casual racism can only be systemic. Awareness of this problem is the first step in fixing it. (But it is not the only step.)
Paradoxically, some of the most challenging assaults to my faith have not come from outside the Church but have been from seeing the hypocrisy from within issues like sexism, racism, wealth, and abuses of power. The profound abuses and hypocrisies I’ve personally encountered have only been remedied by going back to the Word itself, and reading it in its entirety, reading multiple translations of it to parse out translator biases, and to learn more about the historical audience, and how they would have understood the passage in their cultural context to get closer to the truth of God’s word.
Nuance
In my past, I was a television editor for a Seeker Sensitive — Charismatic megachurch in D.C. while I was not part of my Lead pastor’s inner circle, I was privy to a lot of the background conversations that happened there. And while my experiences were not unique, they were also not universal. Christianity has more than 900 distinct protestant expressions of the faith. There is a BIG difference between being critical of an institution run by fallible humans versus criticizing or questioning the authenticity of God and or His Word. The latter of which I am NOT doing. Criticizing how believers use and interpret God’s Word is fair game for other believers to do and is encouraged like the Bereans in the book of Acts.
Some of what I describe might resemble a church you know. But one thing that does almost feel universal amongst Charismatic, Fundamental, and Evangelical Circles is their distrust of Critical Race Theory, Social Justice, and Socialism. But why?
In 2019 and 2020, I attended a Southern Baptist church during the height of the George Flloyd protests. Over the course of that year my pastor only once talked about the events and spoke about the problem as if it was a distant nebulous thing, and not happening in our own city. That racism is something that “this church” didn’t have a problem with. His logic was that the congregation was 90% white for reasons beyond their control. He never mentioned red-lining and only hinted that the problem was un-fixable, so it was best to move on. What he did talk excessively about until the day I left was on how the COVID Lockdown (not the plague, the lockdown procedures) was terrible and an existential threat to the Church! And during the height of the unemployment spike in November/December of 2020, the pastor and elder board sent out email blasts to the congregation about how their tithe was not meeting the church's quarterly quotas. Never mind how the church revealed they had a 1.5 million dollar reserve fund on hand in the previous month's financial report.
When I was working on the inside (at a different church) the executive pastor was a firebrand of southern colloquialisms, which I will not repeat. But if he trusted you, he would say what he thought bluntly. This person hailed from a Corporate setting, hence the Executive Pastor title. He would say, “if we’re not growing, we are dying.” Which explains a lot of how that church acted, like a for-profit business.
Since graduating college in 2006, I have been a part of almost a dozen different churches. At each one, I keep hearing the same tune, “We will be at 85% capacity soon; it's time to start looking for a bigger building.” Charismatic, or Fundamental, I’ve heard it from almost every church I have been a part of. I’ve listened to building initiatives being talked about at least 10x more than any initiative to the poor, and that is factoring in 2 recessions, a pandemic, and a civil rights crisis. So why are American Churches more concerned with more prominent buildings than helping the poor?
The American Church Incorporated — grow or die.
The real reason American Churches don’t help the poor is far more shameful. Running a church is expensive, and to adjust for this, the American Church is starting to act more and more like a for-profit business. Think about it… Those large buildings, and campuses with their phallic steeples, cost millions to buy, millions to build, and millions to maintain year after year. The water and power costs alone are staggering, usually 20k a month or more. Let alone the regular maintenance and repair of its facilities and immaculate landscaping. The pastors are also way overpaid. The median income is shy of $100,000 in 2021. Factor in that typically, the pastor's home is the property of the church, so they don’t pay for rent, utilities, or taxes the church does. The car they drive may also belong to the church, meaning they didn’t have to pay for that either. And more often than not, their spouses also work for the church also pulling in a similar income, yay for gender equality. And this isn’t counting the pastors who are smart enough to write books. Or the Mega-church pastors, who don't have to be transparent about the money they pull in or how it is spent.
One thing to realize is that the larger the congregation size, particularly once they surpass 400+, the more likely a pastor will employ private security for themselves and their family’s protection. Why would a pastor need protection from their congregation? Do you know where your Pastor lives? In a 400+ sized church, the answer more often than not is no. Is the congregation a threat to the pastor? Or do they see themselves as above the sheep, are they now part of a more elite class of people? The rich do not associate with the poor for these reasons.
Because maintaining church facilities and bloated pastoral pay-roles is expensive, churches further need to have a rainy-day fund on hand. The usual amount I’ve personally encountered is about 1.5 million in the bank at any given time. Because of this, most of the churches that I’ve attended have pushed far harder on fleecing their congregations for newer/bigger building initiatives that increase the occupancy ceiling, which opens up new stratospheres of income potential while increasing the costs of upkeep, which drive stronger initiatives for more giving in an ever-increasing death spiral. Hence the statement, if we are not growing, we are dying.
Do bigger buildings save souls?
Rather than be content with what they have, the pastoral logic is to push the congregation size up to 85% of maximum building occupancy, then it's time to expand. The logic of the seeker-sensitive movement, which is notorious for cycling through its congregants, or pulling/stealing from another church’s congregation. That same Executive pastor also liked to say “We are all competing for the same people and resources.” If we think about that for a moment, it is a very Capitalistic CEO mindset. If we are not growing, we are dying, and someone else will overtake us. Does that sound like a peace that surpasses all understanding, Blessed Assurance, or an easy yoke/burden? They do this under the guise that a larger capacity allows more people to be saved when the irony is that Church is for the converted, not the pagan. A person attends Church after conversion, or at least after being exposed to the message, not before. So who is the larger building for if it's not expanding the kingdom?
Think about all that for a moment. Any given church with a sanctuary that seats 400+ and owns the building and land has spent millions: on the purchase and development of the property, millions on debt and interest, spends further millions every year to maintain that property, keeps additional millions in reserve for a rainy day fund, and more often than not, the pastors of the larger 400+ churches are likely millionaires themselves. How would things be different if all that money had gone to the poor, or back to the congregation?
While it is true that Churches do help some poor people, this is usually done as a secondary offering apart from the primary tithe. Which lists the priorities, Christians only support the poor after the church has been satiated. Why save the poor when we can keep the saints? That way, it doesn’t detract from the primary income stream. Other mission trips are also undertaken at the congregation's expense apart from tithe money, usually as a secondary offering or a personal cost. Which brings up an interesting question?
Do American Evangelicals hate the American poor?
Why do American Churches, when they choose to tackle an issue like poverty, arrange for a mission trip in some faraway land when there are poor here in our own country, around the corner? The answer is that when it comes to helping the locals — it isn’t fun, exciting, or cool. When you help the beggar on the street corner, you can see that person every day, you know if they are getting better or worse. So if they don’t improve, or what you gave did nothing, you will know it.
When you travel to some exotic land to help the poor build a new church for two weeks. You receive the same euphoric high that affirms that you made a difference, and then you leave before the effects wear off, and more often than not, you will never see or hear from those people again. Out of sight, out of mind, which is the point of these trips. The ugly truth is these mission trips are feel-good initiatives that boost the person's ego; they got a fantastic experience designed to make them feel better about their circumstances rather than creating meaningful change for the people they intended to help.
Helping someone in poverty and seeing them remain in poverty is heartbreaking and disheartening. There are, of course, exceptions to this, and some Christians are highly dedicated to long-term missions/callings. But these individuals are few and far between. But planting a church/ building in a distant land doesn’t help the poor it enables the Christian institution. It doesn’t give the poor a home, an education, a job, or food on the table. Maintaining that building and its staff creates a burden on that community — money they may not have.
Helping the poor requires long-term support commitments and help across emotional, spiritual, and fiscal mediums. It involves relationship investments with the person you are assisting akin to raising a child. Far more than not, most Christians are unwilling to consistently give on a scale needed to pull one family out of poverty, let alone an entire community. One-time offerings and two-week missions trips are an effort to absolve a congregation of any guilt about why they are rich when their neighbors are poor.
Do I hate the poor?
As a privileged white male, I often lament that when I exit off of the highway, there is someone on the corner with a sign asking for help. Most of the times when I have been unexpectedly solicited for money by a poor person at a mall or elsewhere, I think that the person who is asking for help is a con artist; they are not poor, they just don’t want to work, because they can make money doing this. The reality is the fault is mine. I have contempt for them because they are asking for help that I am unwilling to give, making me feel guilty. And on some level, I hate them for that. God forgive me. I as a Christian, am far too often unwilling to help the poor, and Proverbs 19:17 is my rebuke “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord.”
The Church vs. Socialism
If you listen to the most prominent Evangelical voices (John MacArthur, John Piper, Todd Friel) in America today, Charismatic or Fundamental, it makes no difference. Virtually all will say Socialism is from the devil.
The reality is that human creatures are by design social beings. We have to interact with others to survive emotionally, physically, and fiscally. We cannot live for the first two decades of our lives without help from our parents, who have spent unfathomable sums on our development, which essentially goes un-repaid. Most parents since 2020 have furthermore proven they need help to educate their children, that they cannot manage a child’s education and maintain productivity at work. Because what is public education other than a form of socialism? Most families can’t do it on their own. We live in an age where both parents must work to make ends meet. Few are rich enough to pull one parent out of the workforce to educate their children in a qualified way, and fewer still can afford to hire a private tutor. And Single parents have twice as many problems. How can a single parent who works a more than likely taxing low-income job raise emotionally and spiritually nourished children? They can’t without significant help. Individualistic help that public schools and their overstuffed classrooms cannot by design provide. As the cost of healthcare, post-secondary education, and housing continues to spiral out of control, even the most ardent capitalists are going to be backed into a corner to consider either regulation to cap off capitalism’s worst barbaric tendencies of socialism to make life livable for the masses.
Further adding to this problem is that poverty is a black hole; once you get too close to it, like missing a rent payment, you get sucked in. The landlord kicks you out; your credit rating goes terrible, so you can't get a loan. The Car stops working because you skipped the maintenance to pay the power bill during the hot summer, and you're late for work and get fired. It cascades very quickly. The sobering reality is once you hit poverty levels, it's nearly impossible to climb out of it if you don’t have help. If you don’t have a home or a car, how can you travel to find high-paying work or be presentable enough to be considered a viable candidate for the job if you smell like a dumpster? And most of the jobs that will take on the homeless who are fortunate to find a shelter don’t pay enough for them to afford a permanent home or car. And while Christians do have the means to provide benevolence in the form of rent or vehicles, they get hung up on that perineal problem that they don’t deserve because they are often seen as slackers, criminals, hoars, or drug addicts.
Addiction is a terrible thing, but what most Christians forget is that addiction is usually a coping mechanism used to medicate a deeper problem, trauma, self-contempt, and or a lack of hope. Providing food, clothing, and transportation nine times out of ten will not amend the psychological issues that may be tormenting a person. And if a person is homeless and malnourished, what are the odds of being in a healthy mental state? Christians are ill-equipped to tackle these issues; even Christian councilors are ill-equipped because problems tend to get externalized behind demonic influences that are incurred due to morally questionable personal choices. Meaning the person suffers demonic oppression because they deserve to suffer. In other words, they blame the victim, its karma, which is a pagan notion that negates Grace. Under this logic, they will continue to suffer until the sinful behavior is addressed, which is the opposite of Grace. It places the burden on the victim to fix themselves before receiving help, rather than receiving support so they can get set. The fallacy is that this is not how Christians received Grace in the first place; we didn’t fix our sins, then Jesus died on the cross. He died on the cross while we continued to sin to this day.
A Christian Counselor’s emphasis on demonic influence can invalidate a person’s feelings and personal agency. “You don’t feel this way; the Devil is making you feel this way.” If the Devil is the cause, then there is no reason to dig deeper into underlying issues of trauma to find healing. It is well known that Christian Counselors and Psychologists have a mutual disdain for each other’s practices. The advent of Christian councilors feels more like a reaction to the fact that Psychology was mentally and emotionally healing people in a way that Pastors had been failing to do for over an eon. Having been to all three, I can say that, on average, a pastor is not as skilled as a Christian counselor and those Counselors are not as effective as Psychologists and Therapists at addressing issues and causes that arise from trauma and addiction. And this still doesn’t address the elephant in the room — that at least some of these people have mental disorders. Which again addresses the major fault in American Christian thinking. Is the system fair for those who are physically and mentally disabled? Even if systemic racism is taken off the table, the disabled have a severe disadvantage for their ability to merit a home and a living wage. And if their powers are not equal to the rest of us, is it fair to hold them to the same standard? If we hold them to the same standard as everyone else, are we still just? Are we still good Christians, or are we Capitalists, can we even be good at both? Ultimately which is more important.
Is the desire for a Perfect Union contempt?
I feel that there are systemic problems in my Country; it doesn’t mean I hate America; it's just that I do not idolize it. I am willing to admit my faults and attempt to fix them. We are fallible creatures, especially Christians because we claim to know the truth yet still fall short. So how can Christians fix it? Well, if the problems are systemic, it is beyond normal individuals' scope. Most of us do not have the means or the training to address income and or mental health disparities in another person’s life. Does that mean we give up and accept it? No! We can, in a representative democracy, vote to change the system.
Permit me this brief anecdote. I hate using Turbo Tax to get my taxes done every year. I hate the company behind Turbo Tax even more because they lobby to keep the Tax system complicated and convoluted to justify their existence. With that in mind, imagine for a moment if it were possible, a world where everyone had access to a minimum living income, guaranteed housing, free daycare, free healthcare, and free education through college; what could society look like? What would the poor look like? Would they still need to be on the streets when they could have a home? Would they still need to beg if they had guaranteed basic income? My initial reaction to this thought was, "Then what do we need the church for?” And that, though, is probably why most Pastors indoctrinate their congregations to hate Socialism because it’s stepping on their turf. If the Government can take care of the poor better than the Church, does it make the Christians evil for getting in the way, in an insecure attempt to create the conditions for their own prosperity? Who would be better equipped, trained, and funded to help the poor if not the Government?
If a single mother could still have children and a career, would abortion be an issue or the exception to the norm? To me, Socialist initiatives feel more like a society motivated by Grace than greed, by Christianity rather than Capitalism, by love for their own people rather than judgment.
As an American, I am a part of the world's wealthiest and most blessed country; if we are, then why can’t we do it? The first steps toward this begin with compassion and Grace for others we do not identify with. If someone says they are in pain, listen to them, even if passively you or the system you represent causes that pain. Is that not Christian? To leave your gift at the altar and reconcile with your brother whom you hurt? (Matthew 5:24) The truth is accountability isn’t fun. I never appreciated the times my parents scolded me for failing to live up to their standards or my boss me for sub-par performance. When the top criticizes the bottom, it's good stewardship. On the other hand, when the bottom criticizes the top, it's often characterized as disloyal. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, right? What bites harder than criticism?
It takes a very mature person to listen to people they have power over criticize them without retaliation. Most people, including myself, probably couldn’t meet this standard. Awareness of a problem is the first step in fixing it. Christians need to be humbler than we are; now, Christians are entitled and angry. Any criticism is an attack; it makes Christians want to fight back and dominate, but is that how the Bible says we should be? Is it blessed are the warriors, or is it blessed are the peacemakers?
What about the shareholders?
If Churches continue to act like for-profit corporations, one aspect that gets lost in the metaphor is that the shareholders and investors get a share in the profits. And make no mistake, the Church does make a profit. What if every congregation member received a quarterly check from the Church, giving back an equal measure of the excess wealth it accrued? I bet that would fix the existential attendance crisis Churchs are facing. But I do not like this idea.
Making church attendance entertaining or profitable is antithetical to the Gospel. When you are entertained, you are not thinking. Attending Church is supposed to be Good for you, nutritional to your spiritual growth like kale, or medicinal to your spiritual pain like cough syrup. It's supposed to teach the sheep how to walk in the faith and know the difference between the Shepperd's voice and the charlatans. I feel what matters most to God is in your heart. The requirements for salvation are thankfully few, a simple declaration of Faith, and repentance for one’s sins. Mandatory church attendance was not a requirement for salvation; it was supposed to aid and instruct you in your walk, it was supposed to provide a safe community to learn and grow in, it was supposed to be Good for you. But if the Church is not Good anymore, if their real concern is money and power, should we still attend and or give money? If you don’t like what a company is doing take your business elsewhere. The same logic goes for churches.
For the Christian, what is best for the soul is Biblical literacy. A significant portion of the New Testament is dedicated to warning against False Teachers. Think about this, have you ever heard of Hermeneutics, exegesis, or eisegesis? Can you tell the difference between when scripture is correctly interpreted versus being twisted for someone else's benefit? Have you ever disagreed with how your pastor interpreted the scriptures? How do we test for faulty teachings, how do we tell the difference? If you can’t tell the difference or don't know, how can you claim to know your Savior? Most Churches do not equip their congregations to read the Bible correctly. Most sermons I’ve heard over the past 12 years have been a smattering of topical cherry-picked verses with no context given to why that verse exists in the first place. Only learning later in life how to read the bible using hermeneutics and exegesis have I realized how badly the pastors in my life have trained me to know Jesus.
Reading a good translation of the New Testament, one book at a time, has done more for me than decades of church attendance. The New Testament can be read in a mere 12 hours. People will come and go, but God’s word is eternal. Again, if the Church isn’t teaching me to read God’s word “correctly” to know the voice of my Sheppard, then why am I attending? Even Jesus says if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your pastor causes you to hate others, leave, read the Word on your own and make up your mind.
Big Buildings = Big Donors, and Big Ego’s
Despite what a Pastor in a 400+ church says, when a building initiative is talked about that requires multiple millions of dollars to purchase the land, and millions more to develop, they are in all likely hood not talking to you unless you are a millionaire. Acquisitions of this type are a call to the high tithers (or kings as my old Executive pastor would say). A topic that doesn’t get talked about much is that BIG churches with big campuses are unsustainable by the general congregation. Churches of that magnitude receive a disproportionate amount of their tithe from a small handful of rich patrons, usually, there may be exceptions but I doubt it. And this concept radically alters the power dynamics in the church.
When only a handful of patrons were needed to build a mega campus, those donors know it, take pride in it, and that pride is toxic. In these scenarios, the pastors and elder boards depend almost singularly on the high tithers for survival. That means that the pastor does not cater to or answer to the congregation, but to them. In a 400+ member church, the average or new congregant will generally not have access to the Pastor’s cell phone, much less any guarantee he will answer, these people will. What happens if these members become abusive? If parents approach a pastor that one of the kings sexually abused their children, will a pastor be willing to kick out 30% of the church’s revenue stream, or more likely will they try and settle the matter quietly? There are plenty of stories online about the latter not the former.
And again its important to remember Church is for the believer, not the pagan. If a bigger building doesn’t mean more people are getting saved, it just means more saved people are attending (probably from other churches), then who is the bigger building for? The pastor’s ego. While the result is that the pastor becomes the slave of the high tither to sustain the new expenses.
Consider if a 200 member church is trying to update to a 400 member or a 400 to a 400+ size church consider it may be time to move on to a new church that values you. If your pastor is talking about giving or tithing to merit God’s blessing. If he talks about how money solved a problem, or how the rich or kings were used by God. And not talk about what Jesus said about the rich and the powerful/prideful then it may be time to move on. Because the end result will most likely be the pastor will have new priorities after this transition, and you’ll be seeing less of him anyways. I know from personal experience.
What it means to Christianity if racism is systemic.
My final thought is this. When we live in a world where all (even the Christian) have sinned and fallen short, then how is racism not systemic? Racism at its core is a more gross form of classism. White against black is a worse form of the rich trying to keep another group poor. It's all wrong, gross, and unjust.
Are we not inherently selfish, unjust creatures? Don’t we keep far more than we give? If the benefits of Grace are unmerited, then why does the Christian require others to display merit just to give benevolence? Going further — for a Christian, what is Capitalism? Is it an economic system where the strong thrive, and the weak wither? Is it survival of the fittest? If so, then the question is this: are Christian values like forgiveness and un-merited Grace compatible with capitalism?
Furthermore, is Socialism: the giving of food, money, housing, education, and healthcare to those who cannot afford it anti-Christian? Does that not sound or feel like a form of grace? Why is benevolence good when the Church does it but destroys families when it's coming from government-run socialist institutions? How can we say such socialism promotes sin while guaranteed eternal forgiveness and salvation doesn’t? While true Socialism doesn’t save souls, it can save lives, and the living can always be converted later.
For most American Evangelicals, prosperity is a sign of acceptance that the Savior approves of how they live their lives. That their actions and faith have merited their prosperity. This is prosperity gospel heresy. I’ve met far too many Christian musicians, business people, and (untouchable) high tithers who believe they are doing their works for the kingdom while they reap the rewards with lavish lifestyles, and ego boosted affluence. In thier minds, their works/merits justify their prosperity. Countless times I have prayed the blasphemer's prayer of “lord Give me X so I can do Y for the kingdom” in these instances, X often comes in some form of wealth, success, or affluence. These greedy prayers thankfully go unanswered because if God gave me these things, they would destroy me. I know I am selfish and sinful at heart.
The reality is power and prosperity are toxic to the soul. Suppose you don’t believe that Biblical fact; re-read Matthew 19:24 and Matthew 20:16. Those statements are sobering if you are a person of wealth or privilege. Wealth is a snare, and power is poison. For the Christian, it is better to be the sheep than the wolf. Capitalism, on the other hand, rewards wolves. What is the wolf of wall-street if not an apex capitalist? Capitalism is kill or be killed, dominate or be subjugated, grow or die. By this, can a Capitalist be a good Christian? Those who receive more have more to lose, so they hoard all they can for themselves and seek out more. They also are in a position to write the rules of society that ensure that they and their children stay on top. The few that penetrate that social stratosphere are few and tenacious.
We often paradoxically see multi-millionaires as paragons of virtue. When the reality is they got there by taking from others. They seem nice because they can afford to pay others (the middle class) to do their dirty work for them. Truett Cathy may seem a highly generous individual, but that was only after decades of growth, domination, and suppression. How many people did he deprive of wealth before he made his first significant tax-write off in the form of a donation? The truth is COE’s are ruthless; they will terminate a hundred or a thousand jobs before they take a pay cut or see a depreciation in their annual bonus. Honestly, would you or I be different if we were in their shoes? Probably not. If I received a million dollars my inclination is to spend or save/invest it, not give it away. And if Churches are acting more like corporations, then the (Executive) Pastors are acting like CEOs! Think of it, if Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk, and Chapek were Pastors instead of CEO’s would church be all that different?
Why do pastors hate Socialism? Because they (Pastors of 400+ sized churches) are rich and afraid of getting taxed more, pure and simple. Why do pastors hate Government welfare initiatives, because they fear it will invalidate them. Why don’t (white) pastors talk about Racism, social justice, or Critical Race theory and how it aligns with the Gospel of Jesus because they know their white congregation (and their rich donors) will leave. Not because it's wrong, heretical, or erroneous, but because the high tithers don't want to hear it, and church is expensive so those donors are needed.
That Executive Pastor I worked for was also exploring ways to “add” value to the Gospel of Jesus by NOT making it free anymore. (His inspiration was Bethel Church in Redding California, so his ideas were not unique.) In his eyes, giving the Gospel away for free made it cheap and worthless. Blasphemy! Remember the parable of the Master and Servant, Luke 17:7–10. My only regret was not quitting that very day, because even back then I knew that idea was wrong.
No one got to the top of society in this world by being a generous saint. If they are benevolent, then why are they still rich? Clearly, they kept more than they gave. CEOs and board members approve and enact harsh draconian policies that pinch every penny from their impoverished workforce while they and their shareholders singularly reap the benefits from the labor of that workforce. The sad reality is that the ideas and critical theories developed since Karl Marx’s manifesto may align with the Bible more than the modern American Evangelical is with our own sacred text. That LGBTQ and Feminist communities may display a deeper understanding of acceptance and grace to people they perceive as “other” than Christians can with the real thing. Christians/We have been given something far more precious than money and need to pay it forward to others. Conversations about merit and demonizing socialism are excuses to be selfish with what little we have today that will be gone tomorrow anyways. Somebody recently told me “Capitalism is the way the world works, don’t bite the hand that feeds” My response, Jesus feeds me not Capitalism, and He said, “do not conform to this world” - Romans 12:2.
And while it is true that money does not fix sin. That a socialist government will be just as bad at taking care of the poor as the church will be, at least the corruption won't be in my church (hopefully), and we can get back to talking about Jesus and the Bible.
I hope one-day things change, I hope one day Churches will be better, to be more concerned with Grace, Salvation and Biblical literacy, than money and power. That old Executive pastor used to say people value what they invest their time, talent, and treasure into, that rubric also works for churches. How does your church talk about wealth? If your church, isn’t helping your walk, it's ok to stay away from all churches until you find a faithful community. There is a drought in the land right now.
I hope this helps someone out there.
