Miracle-Mart: The "Prosperity Gospel" Comes to Sudan

I was shocked, horrified, ashamed, disgusted and deeply saddened to learn of the tragic and totally unnecessary death of a young Haitian-American holiday-season worker trampled by shoppers at a Wal-Mart on Long Island early Friday morning following Thanksgiving. Yes, the news reached as far as Sudan. This event unmasks the ugliness of the degree to which Christmas in America has been distorted and commercialized.

Oddly enough, that tragedy happened to coincide with another kind of ugly American commercialization and distortion of Christianity that I ran into right here in Torit. A few days ago I noticed posters plastered all over the trees, posts and pillars downtown, which read:

This is the second “crusade” of its sort in as many months here in Torit. The last one took place in early November and featured a Canadian preacher, again allied with an independent church in Uganda. Two such similar events in close proximity highlight for me the way in which the uncoordinated, divided and competitive world of fundamentalist Christianity continually replicates almost identical efforts, involving an extraordinary waste of energy, resources and money.

It was with a heavy heart that I walked home the other evening, hearing the forceful speakers of the rally blasting almost a mile away. Someone I met on the road told me several hundred people had gathered to witness the spectacle. Why was I so heavy hearted?

First, Eastern Equatoria State, which is coextensive with the Diocese of Torit, has the highest concentration of Catholics in the country: 75-80%. One can suppose that a large number of those gathered at the rally were Catholics. Second, the “crusade” takes place the week preceding the diocese’s Silver Jubilee celebration – a fragile new beginning for a community that suffered through more than 20 years of civil war and is just getting back on its feet. The following week the “crusade” will move to another site in the diocese. Third, Mark Bowling of Global Impact Ministries, who is speaking at the rallies, was educated at the RHEMA Bible Institute associated with the Kenneth Hagins (father and son). The Hagins are among the principal purveyors of what has come to be known as the “prosperity gospel,” “name it and claim it” Christianity, or as some describe it more bluntly: “blab it and grab it.” It is a mutilation of the Gospel which teaches that followers of Christ will experience material and financial prosperity, as well as physical healings and other miracles on demand. It was popular in the US in the 70s and 80s, but suffered a big blow from the televangelist scandals involving Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. It has recently made a comeback in the accession of Joel Osteen (who’s father was associated with Kenneth Hagin, Sr.) and other preachers of a similar ilk. It is summed up in the words on the poster: “Come receive your miracle!!”

I have read through the entire New Testament numerous times and have yet to find a single example of someone who became wealthier and more materially prosperous as a result of following Jesus. In fact, just the opposite seems to be the case; many who embraced the Gospel gave their wealth away and shared their possessions with their fellow Christians and the poor.

Not only is this a betrayal of the message of authentic Christianity, it is an insult to the Sudanese Christians (that’s how Catholics normally refer to themselves here) who are just emerging and recovering from two decades of violence, persecution and destruction. It's the last thing they need, and something utterly unhelpful at this juncture. Now, after the fact, someone shows up with a “miracle machine” that will give you just what you want and will make all your problems go away just by pushing the magic faith button. It is a blatant, mechanistic, mercantile, manipulative reduction of genuine faith and a hijacking of the real hope to be found in Christ (not unlike what took place in the Obama campaign) as Pope Benedict XVI describes it in his encyclical Spe Salvi. It involves a fundamental shift in focus away from the Person of Jesus in Himself, and His significance for each human life and the entire human race and the whole of human history, to what he can do for me – or even what I can make him do for me – in the most crass, selfish, individualistic and materialistic sense. It is a dangerous distraction from the substance of the Gospel and its call to conversion that so desperately need to be applied here as South Sudan rebuilds. I am reminded of the words of Jesus Himself to the crowds who sought Him out after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves: “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs [that point beyond themselves to who Jesus is] but because you ate the loaves and had your fill [you got what you wanted]. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (Jn 6:26-27).

The two verses omitted from the Gospel reading for today's Mass hit the nail on the head, and make clear that even when there may be miracles worked in the name of Jesus, that doesn't necessarily mean that those who perform them really know Him or adequately represent Him: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?' Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers'" (Mt 7:21-23).

This is not a new temptation for Christians, but one that was present from the earliest times of the Church. The fact that it is being regurgitated now by certain modern reinventions of so-called Christianity show how ignorant of history, and severed from it, such groups are. The warning from a second century homily, cited in the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours for Saturday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time is as appropriate now as it was in the 100s:

"And do not let yourself be distressed by the prosperity of the wicked and the difficulties of God's servants. We must make an act of faith, brothers and sisters, that our trials come from the living God and that the troubles of the present life are crowned with happiness in the world to come. The faithful do not reap a quick harvest; they have to wait for it to ripen slowly because if God rewarded them quickly religion would be a career and not the worship of God. It would consist in the pursuit of self-interest, not piety."