Blessings or the Prosperity Gospel?

I’m sorry God, but I cannot accept the teachings of your blessings and the flippant concept of being constantly blessed.  I recently attended a local church and, although not having particularly high expectations from the outset, I still managed to be so very disappointed.  The sermon was empty and hollow and related to amassing monetary funds. I learned nothing about how to live life or create a positive outcome in my local community.  It was all about the Storehouse Future Fund that I quickly gathered was a church slush fund aimed to purchase land and buildings. Oh, excuse me, of course it was actually a “vision for united sacrificial giving for a storehouse that God can bless and multiply and then when opportunities to acquire land and buildings arise, our church will be ready. That’s the vision.” Podcast available So I suppose I did learn a new concept about life from that single church attendance: The Prosperity Gospel. 

I had never encountered the phenomenon where everybody prayed for blessings and riches.  If you’ve never heard of it, please allow me to explain the Prosperity Gospel as I witnessed it recently:

The Pastor has the highest authority in the church.  God gives the vision for the Storehouse Future Fund to the senior leadership, after all God had given instructions to the Pastor that he should get the church into its own buildings.  The church members are then reminded of myriad prophecies made by visiting speakers about the blessings bestowed upon the church.  Apparently celebrity pastor Phil Pringle prophesied for this church saying, “Both your hands are full. In one hand I see money and buildings and in the other hand I see people.” Apparently, each member participating in Storehouse should have an expectation for blessings because God brings blessings on Storehouse.

My hatred for the Prosperity Gospel is the level of selfishness involved by the individual.  The giving is not done out of a selfless desire to assist those that have not, but done in the expectation that some level of blessing shall be returned.  Are people so blatantly superficial? Especially from those that represent themselves to be proponents of the gospel to all salvation?  In my two hours at the recent church service, I witnessed the pastor and the congregation pray a blessing upon three new members.  The blessings requested for the new members consisted of a wife for one and a job promotion for another (the third blessing seemed to be praise for the pastor’s wife so I couldn’t work it out).

The Prosperity Gospel concept is definitely not confined to Pentecostal pulpits. We are surrounded by it on a daily basis.  We believe that the more superficial possessions we amass in life, the more God has blessed us.  Surely, only fools would believe that God is concerned about our own monetary success.  I am aghast, therefore, at those sports people who stand on the podium and thank God for their blessed success.  I am horrified at this because the winner’s success came at the demise of their opponent.  By that rationale, it would seem that the losing competitor was not worthy of the same level of blessing as the winner.  What a horrible concept to ungraciously throw back in the face of an opponent who’s worked no less hard than the winner. 

There seems to be a belief that God’s blessing is so abundant and available to all and sundry.  God bless you, God bless America, God bless ye merry gentlemen, etc, etc.  These are feel good buzz words that are devoid of depth and meaning in the modern world.  As a child, I had conceived a childlike belief that a blessing was unique and privileged.  As an adult, I can never believe in the concept of “blessings” when the Western world is claiming them from every pulpit, dais, stage and screen.  There’s nothing special or unique in that concept.  I have absolutely no interest in an everyday “blessing” that anyone can obtain through earnings, church or sports. 

So, when a church is calling for God’s blessings to be bestowed upon its Storehouse Future Fund, is God going to actually be upon it?  Does God care that any particular church has more available funds and buildings than any other?  Does God bestow his blessings upon a particular religion by multiplying its riches and providing bricks and mortar?  I won’t be so foolish as to anticipate the antics or pretend to understand the Christian God, so I can only ask questions not provide answers.  Some of my historic heroes in life made selfless donations and were full of riches and they changed humankind for the better.  Rich or poor, these historic figures upheld the needs of community above their own selfish interests:  Mother Theresa, Gandhi, J.M. Barrie, Nelson Mandela, William Wilberforce.  I continue to be impressed with current figures like Vandana Shiva and Dalai Lama who, don’t seem to chase blessings, yet I believe they should be entitled to something far more special and unique than anything I personally should receive in this lifetime.  Their dedication and their selflessness is beyond measure and something to which to aspire.  That is the stuff of gods, or Brahma, God, or Allah, or miscellaneous.