Righteous Anger

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I am exhausted by those that lament the changing values of the Church; not those who, disingenuously, argues that the Church has become "political" by - correctly - pointing out that Jesus' commandment to love cuts across all genders, races, disabilities and sexualities. But those who lament the increasing encroachment of the Prosperity Gospel - the idea that those with monetary wealth are the most blessed by God - as a trojan horse for a more capitalistic version of Christianity. It is a version that worships money and its privileges over the Gospel, despite what 1 Timothy 6:10 and Matthew 19:24 may say. 

This critique of the Modern Church exhausts me because this is the way the Church has always been. For as long as the Church has been ruled by susceptible men, and traditionally it has been men, afforded plenty of political and economic power by dent of their, often, self-proclaimed closeness with God, corruption abounds in the Church. Remember that, in the 16th Century, Martin Luthers' 95 Theses attacking the Catholic Church, dedicated plenty of ink to the sale of indulgences and the corruption, and hypocrisy, within the Church. Yet, we react to the increasing closeness between capitalism and the church with a surprise that is downright insulting. The insult lies not in the reaction itself, but in the fact that no one does anything about it afterwards, despite the fact that JESUS took concrete action to divorce capitalism - or business - from the Church. 

Remember that the ONE time Jesus got angry and explicitly violent was when he found traders conducting business in the temple. He was so incensed that he flipped tables and physically assaulted traders, and when asked to explain himself he said: "It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves" (Matthew 22:13). Yet, those of the faith do not express this same righteous anger at those that seek to co-opt the church; both physically and figuratively. In fact, parishioners with wealth are held to different standards than those without. I have seen this with my own eyes; where wealthy parishioners are allowed to misinterpret, manipulate and, ultimately, abandon the call to obedience, the economically disenfranchised are not. The trade-off is simple and utilitarian; those with wealth tithe and their tithes finance the important, socially-beneficial activities of the church. In exchange, the wealthy are held to a different standard, almost Christianity-lite. Yet this is not the standard Jesus, himself, established. 

Instead, the standards that Jesus established - that Christians ought to act in love, and treat others how they would like to be treated - have been sacrificed at the altar of money. And rather than reacting in righteous anger, like Jesus did, Christians - or institutional Christianity, have changed their beliefs. Redirecting that righteous anger towards people who fail to live up to socially-defined levels of normality; at the cost of Christ's central message. Love. 

Therefore, spare me your lamentations and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. If you truly worry about the encroachment of the prosperity gospel, or the continued melding of the Church and capitalism, DO SOMETHING. Might I suggest, starting with the Gospel?

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