It's Not Just "Anti-Social"

It runs directly contrary to the gospels:

A God who does his best work in the dark hours is integral to the story of American evangelical Christianity. The stuff of country music songs and conversions in roadside motels, Jesus tends to come to people at their lowest and loneliest. The only problem is that some of God’s most pernicious modern apostles understand this all too well. At a time when fewer and fewer believers are going to church, it is consumption, in these dark times, that illuminates a deeply antisocial shift in evangelical Christian beliefs. 

Why this happened is actually kind of cute:

For all of its certainty, social media algorithms favor muscular Christianity. During the pandemic, when people couldn’t go to church, the preachers who had the online infrastructure in place to broadcast sermons—and accept donations—found a whole new audience: members of “mom and pop” churches who had nowhere else to go. Those who ended up getting their Christianity from Facebook rather than the pulpit found it all too easy to fall down into some extreme theological rabbit holes. And without anyone to bounce new ideas off, they had no mooring—there was no congregation to moderate radical ideas. 

Yeah, I'm not buyin' that for a New York minute.  The extreme "Prosperity Gospel" teachings have drawn huge crowds for Joel Osteen.  I don't doubt they drew many, many more, with or without covid closing the churches and forcing worshippers on-line.  And I've seldom seen congregations "moderate" radical ideas so much as just ignore them, and the people who hold them stay because of a family member or some similar tie, not because they feel absolutely at home there.

But take it out of the church: a post on my NextDoor just popped up claiming to be a repost of a Facebook post (so I take it with a mineful of salt), about people abusing food pantries and the "wrong people" taking all the food/charity.  It's a story I actually wrote a paper about in seminary.  Most people think charity should be "earned" or at least "deserved," and defend their lack of charity with the idea that the "wrong people" get it.  In some cases that extends to xenophobia, as a few people on the ND post blamed "illegals" for taking all the food, or worse, coming here just so they can get free food (and apparently free money.  There are citations to "nice trucks" in the parking lots of food pantries, etc.)  These people, you see, don't deserve charity, so it's okay to hate them for taking it (never accepting it, either.  The "wrong people" always "take."). Others just think the "wrong people" are "taking" the food, which is why there is never enough food to go around.  They System (i.e., "God") is good.  It's just up to us not to abuse it.  When, in fact, it's the System that's abusing us.  The System doesn't serve us; we are meant to serve it.  "O machine, O machine!"

It's not that long a step from there to people who think the poor don't deserve God's blessings, which certainly come in the form of money.  These are people who don't just warp the gospel teachings, they ignore them:

“Congratulations, you poor! God's domain belongs to you! 

“Congratulations, you hungry! You will have a feast.”

“ Congratulations, you who weep now! You will laugh.”

“Damn you rich! You already have your consolation! 

“Damn you who are well-fed now! You will know hunger.  

“Damn you who laugh now! You will learn to weep and grieve.” (Luke 6:20-21, 24-26, SV) 

Or we can go to the Didache, which sums up the important teachings of the gospels with this paragraph:

There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. And of these sayings the teaching is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For what reward is there for loving those who love you? Do not the Gentiles do the same? But love those who hate you, and you shall not have an enemy. Abstain from fleshly and worldly lusts. If someone strikes your right cheek, turn to him the other also, and you shall be perfect. If someone impresses you for one mile, go with him two. If someone takes your cloak, give him also your coat. If someone takes from you what is yours, ask it not back, for indeed you are not able. Give to every one who asks you, and ask it not back; for the Father wills that to all should be given of our own blessings (free gifts). Happy is he who gives according to the commandment, for he is guiltless. Woe to him who receives; for if one receives who has need, he is guiltless; but he who receives not having need shall pay the penalty, why he received and for what. And coming into confinement, he shall be examined concerning the things which he has done, and he shall not escape from there until he pays back the last penny. And also concerning this, it has been said, Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you know to whom you should give.

Not a lot there about this:

In May, Jason Mattera, son of Joseph Mattera, one of the most influential modern prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation—which emerged from the Pentecostal-Charismatic tradition that is sweeping all of evangelical Christianity before it—wrote a piece outlining a new direction for prosperity theology. In the article, titled “A Biblical View of Work and Welfare,” Mattera junior opined that, while Christians should help to alleviate poverty, they are not “under any obligation to help indolent bums.” Such people, he added “are not entitled to our generosity” (emphasis his).

...

In Mattera’s vision, which appears rooted as much in right-wing talking points as in theological ideas, “​​there are clear worldview implications for Christians to consider on the topic of work and welfare.” A hereditary influencer who made his name creating a “whites-only scholarship” while at college, he concedes that Christians should be at “the tip of the spear” when it comes to looking after the poor but largely for other Christians. The unfortunate, he writes, “have chosen the path of poverty.” 

Tl;dr?  "Screw the poor!  They deserve it!"

There's an interesting (but brief) analysis in the article of the roots of this peculiarly American "theology."  But it's the ending that interests me:

It’s easy to deride believers in the prosperity gospel as misinformed or uneducated. But for all of Mattera and his fellow trevelers’ views about people living in poverty, there is a growing body of evidence that the failings of the secular world are driving believers to faith-based alternatives. And this movement is going global: Research out of Brazil, where Pentecostal-Charismatic churches are overtaking Catholicism as the primary expression of Christianity, found that economic downturns push people toward the gospel of health and wealth—and, politically, to more religiously conservative candidates. One man’s spiritual Ponzi scheme looks a lot like another’s solidarity network, and for those who believe that there are better ways than the state to look after people, it’s a powerful thing. 

I don't think it's up to the state to look after people.  But the state shouldn't squash them, either.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

 Classic liberalism, I know, but I don't accept the unequal and inapposite analysis here, either.  I think it is the "failings of the secular world" we're seeing here, but we're always seeing the failings of the secular world.  The first failure is to not recognize each person as our brother or sister.  The second failure is to seek our own prosperity and comfort at the expense of others; or to not realize that is the system we all labor under and suffer from.  But the third failing is to call any of this "Christianity," when it is anything but.  Maybe we need a proper reform of Christianity, one that teaches us that "Religion is responsibility, or it is nothing at all."

Man, that would clear the churches out in a heartbeat, wouldn't it?  I mean, the major problem with the world right now, from Gaza to D.C. to "Prosperity" churches, is the desire for authority and refusal to take responsibility.  We are all children, and none of us want to grow up.

At least none of our public figures do (with the exception, at the moment, of President Biden and most of the Democrats in Congress). 

There's something eschatological about this "gospel," too.  The theology of scarcity, for one thing.  But also the theology of an end.  That's the eschatological part.  Which leads me to something I said once before:

Except, of course, the Hebrew prophets always see that as a paradise: a holy mountain upon which nothing is harmed; a beacon to the nations (the people of the world, not nation-states) that will draw them as they want to live as that nation exhibiting God's justice, lives (sort of the way America inspires the world to be consumers, but with much less injustice and wanton waste).  The vision offered by America just demands you participate by buying, by consuming.

The vision offered by eschatological hope is that you participate by making it happen.

That would clear out the pews, too, huh?