Tag Archives: Christianity

Malawi and the Prosperity Gospel

04 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by in Christian living, life in Christ, martyrs, prosperity gospel, st. lawrence

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sad-African-childDuring my recent trip to visit our sister parish in Malawi I noticed that there are two groups very eager to make inroads into the country – the Chinese and Pentecostals. It is well known that the Chinese are searching the world for resources and this explains their presence in Malawi. The Pentecostals (sponsored by churches in the U.S.) are also very intent on Malawi and the gospel that they are proclaiming is the Prosperity Gospel. In a country that has a very young population burdened with chronic unemployment and underemployment, a proclamation of the gospel which stresses material blessings as reward for true faith is proving to be very tempting and appealing for many people.

In my reflection on this I was reminded of a post I wrote for the Feast of St. Lawrence in 2012. Below is the post and why the Christian martyrs are both a witness to the true gospel of Christ as well as standing in witness against the falsity of the prosperity gospel.

There is a malformation of the gospel occurring in our day and it is called the “Prosperity Gospel”.  The basic tenet of the Prosperity Gospel (from what I can tell) is that if you have faith then God will bless you abundantly (which means materially).  Faith leads to success in all of ones enterprises and endeavors and to comfort in ones life.  The Prosperity Gospel proclaims that you can indeed have your best life now!  This take on the Gospel is out there, it is prevalent and it has many adherents … the only problem is that it is not Christian.

My question to those who proclaim the Prosperity Gospel is this: if faith equals success, material blessings and comfort then why did Peter and Paul die penniless, in chains and – according to all counts – unsuccessful?  Was their faith not strong enough?  Did they not really believe in Christ as Lord and Savior?  And what about all the other martyrs of our faith (Lawrence included)?

The Prosperity Gospel leaves no room for the martyrs because they stand in witness against its basic tenet.

St. Lawrence was a deacon of the early Roman Church.  He lived his faith in a time when the Church was being persecuted.  Lawrence was known for his love of the poor and his service to them.  He also oversaw the temporal goods of the Roman Church.  This was widely known and at one point the prefect of Rome brought in Lawrence and demanded that he hand over the wealth of the church.  Lawrence asked for a few days to gather the wealth.  After a few days Lawrence once again came before the prefect and presented to him the poor, the beggars, the sick, the elderly, the foreigners and said, “Here, this is the treasure of the church!”  Lawrence was martyred (tradition has it by being grilled alive, this is why he is often pictured with a grill).

Lawrence knew that the true prosperity of the gospel is not found in material blessings but in the abundance of love which God has shown for us and which we, in turn, are to show to one another.  We have been loved abundantly so we, in turn, must also love abundantly!  The treasure of the church continues to be the poor, the outcast, the sick, the foreigner, the elderly, and the one who is hurting because they are the beloved of God and Christ is with them.  They might not count much to our world but they are precious in God’s eyes!

The abundance of love is the true prosperity of the gospel.

St. Lawrence and all holy martyrs, pray for us!

“Welcome!” A lesson learned in Malawi.

28 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by in Christian living, Malawi, sister parish

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welcome“Welcome visitor! Welcome visitor! Welcome visitor!” The voices of the three year old children rang out as I stepped into their little class room at the St. John Paul II Children Nutrition Center outside of Blantyre, Malawi. The Center provides a nutritious lunch for children ages three to fourteen every day of the year. On average, the Center feeds at least six hundred children per day. The Center is run by the Community of Sant’Egidio and there is no charge for the families whose children receive a daily meal. This is just one of the many good works that I have witnessed this week in Malawi.

I and Deacon Frank Fischer are visiting St. Vincent de Paul Church in Blantyre. For both of us this is our first visit to Malawi and to Africa. We are being hosted by Fr. Ernest and Fr. Frank – the parish priests of St. Vincent’s.

St. Dominic Church in Kingsport, TN and St. Vincent Church in Blantyre, Malawi are beginning a new sister parish relationship and I am confident that the friendship will be a blessing to both communities! Malawi is a very poor country and certainly the generosity of St. Dominic Church financially can help St. Vincent Church tremendously but a sister parish is much more than just another monthly collection. It is an opportunity to enter into friendship and to be reminded that we are, in fact, connected one to another. In front of the messages of our world that often seek to divide and isolate; our Christian faith reminds us that we are all part of the family of God. When my brother and sister in Malawi hurts then I hurt. When my brother and sister grows stronger then I grow stronger. This is the same also on the Malawian side of the equation – our health is their health. Friendship in Christ is a grace that exceeds all worldly limits and allows for unforeseen blessings!

I know that a blessing I have already received in these days is a deeper awareness of welcome. “Welcome,” I have learned is a favorite word of Malawians. If there is one word I have heard over and over these past few days it is “welcome”. I have heard it not just from those three year olds but from all ages and all people and I have heard it in a variety of contexts.

I have learned that “welcome” should be more than just a quick and perfunctory greeting and to limit it to such a thing is to stunt its potential and possibility. In Malawi, I get the sense that when “welcome” is said it comes from a deep place of the heart. “Welcome” should be an opening of the heart. “I welcome you into my life and my day. I welcome you as a potential friend. I welcome you as a gift that God has provided for me in his providence. Because you are a gift, I take the time and I give the attention that warrants such a great gift.” “Welcome” can be, in fact, a way of living and a way of encountering other people, encountering the world in which we live and even encountering God, himself.

In the Letter of James we find these words: Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. (James 1:21) Scripture reminds us that to live in welcome is indeed an attitude, a way of being, an approach to life and a spiritual discipline. When I live in welcome I choose to live in hope and in trust. I choose to believe that friendship can last a lifetime and that great and unforeseen blessings can come from friendship!

Our world is often rushed, exasperated, tired and cynical. We don’t have to live this way. We can learn the lessons of welcome and new life and new possibilities can be discovered!

As Deacon Frank and I have visited St. Vincent’s these few days we have been welcomed into the heart of this community. We have also, in the name of St. Dominic parish, offered welcome to our brothers and sisters in the parish of St. Vincent de Paul.

Welcome! We look forward to this friendship! We recognize one another as a gift given from the very providence of God!

I have no flag to wave

28 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in authenticy, image and likeness of God, personhood

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no flagThere are a number of flags being waved these days.  On the news and all over social media I have seen various flags being posted and waved – the Confederate battle flag, the gay pride rainbow flag and the American flag.  As I have watched this virtual parade of flags I have realized that I have no flag to wave.

I will not wave the Confederate battle flag.  Even though I live in a state that was part of the Confederate South (though East Tennessee was pro-Union I would note), I will not wave this flag.  I recognize what is good and true in the south and southern culture but for too many of my African-American brothers and sisters this flag is an all-too-painful symbol of oppression and slavery and I cannot abide that.  This flag holds none of my identity.  I will not wave this flag.

The gay pride rainbow flag?  No, I cannot wave this flag either.  I recognize that homosexuals also have experienced oppression and pain throughout history and I sadly recognize that Christianity has been warped to legitimate this oppression and hatred but this flag also holds none of my identity.  Despite the appeal to diversity, this flag equates for me the tendency to reduce the fullness of the human person to one single component – sexual orientation – and to state that this one component holds primacy and even dominance over all others.  I cannot accept this.  As a Christian I hold the deepest core identity of a person to not be orientation, gender, race, nationality, or economic class but rather the Imago Dei – the image of God in which every man and woman is made.  Although these components are important to a person’s identity and not to be dismissed, no one component should ever eclipse the Imago Dei.  Sadly, though, this happens far too often and we forget the full truth of who we are and we get lost.  I cannot applaud this when I see it happening.  It is, in essence, a form of tyranny.  I cannot wave this flag.

The American flag?  Sadly, I am beginning to wonder if I can wave this flag and I do not say this lightly.  Since my youngest days I have been taught that religious freedom was one of the foundational principles of which this nation was based.  Yet, I currently see a secularism developing and being triumphed in our society that makes no room for religious freedom and its expression outside of the privacy of the home.  It seems that just as the activities of the bedroom are being celebrated and paraded in the open public square; religion is being told that it must be content with remaining behind the locked doors of one’s home.  No, I claim my religion to be just as constitutive to my identity as any other qualifier out there.  Therefore, I cannot leave it behind when I walk out the front door each morning – to do so would be to live a schizophrenic life.  Does the secularism developing in our society have room for me or will I and my core beliefs be written off as either too antiquated or even bigoted?  The answer seems uncertain.  Will I be able to authentically wave the American flag or even be allowed to?  I am not sure and I say this even as I love this country and what is so good about it.

So, at this point, I have no flag to wave.  What I do have though, is the empty tomb of our resurrected Lord and here is where I will remain and here is where I will draw my strength, my inspiration, my resolve, my joy and my decision to love.  In a way I am grateful for this recent virtual parade of flags because it has reminded me that as a Christian there never really is any flag that we can ever truly wrap ourselves in – whether that be national, social or ideological.  Flags can quickly become idols and idols quickly turn into tyrants.  All that the Christian has is the empty tomb and in this is found our freedom which the world can neither comprehend nor contain.  The Christian, it has been said, is in the world but not of it.

The good people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston have witnessed this freedom of the Christian to our entire nation.

I will not squander my freedom.  I have no flag to wave.  All I have is the empty tomb.  All we have, as Christians, is the empty tomb but here is found our freedom – a life that has overcome even death itself.

I will remain at the empty tomb.

The danger of narrowcasting in the Church

13 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by in Catholic Church, dialogue, Media, Pope Francis

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studio-broadcasting-camps-2There has been a trend developing in our national news media and you have probably noticed it.  It is the move from “broad-casting” to “narrow-casting”.  Charles Seife, in his book, Virtual Unreality: Just Because the Internet Told You So, How Do You Know It’s True?, lays it out quite clearly.
Back when the Big Three ruled the airwaves, the nightly news had to perform a delicate balancing act.  A news program had to try to appeal to the entire television audience – it had to be, quite literally, a broad cast – if it was to compete with the other two networks that were taking the same strategy.  This meant that the networks couldn’t become too partisan or take an extreme position on anything, for fear of alienating its potential audience…
Then cable and the internet increased our choices.  The Big Three kept trying to capture as big a slice of America as possible by staying centrist, but a couple of upstarts – particularly Fox News and MSNBC – realized that there was another possible strategy.  Instead of trying to go after the entire American population with a broadly targeted program that appealed to everyone, you could go with a narrowly targeted program that appealed to only a subgroup of the population.  Throw in your lot with, say, die-hard Republicans and give them coverage that makes them happy; you alienate Democrats and won’t get them as viewers, but you can more than make up for that loss by gaining a devoted Republican fan base …  MSNBC did exactly the reverse … 
“So, what’s the big deal?” one might wonder.  Let the conservatives have their Fox News and the liberals their MSNBC then everyone gets what they want.  As Charles Seife argues in his book though we need challenges to our assumptions in order for our ideas and understanding to grow and evolve.  True information can only be gained through this sometimes difficult but essential process.  If all we get when we switch on the news is a presentation that is catered to our particular slant on the world then we get stuck in our own assumptions and we even become more radicalized.  We do not get true information.
With news and data that is tailored to our prejudices, we deprive ourselves of true information.  We wind up wallowing in our own false ideas, reflected back to us by the media.  The news is ceasing to be a window unto the world; it is becoming a mirror that allows us to gaze only upon our own beliefs. 
Couple this dynamic with the microsociety-building power of the hyper-interconnected internet and you’ve got two major forces that are radicalizing us.  Not only does the media fail to challenge our preconceptions – instead reinforcing them as media outlets try to cater to smaller audiences – but we all are able to find small groups of people who share and fortify the beliefs we have, no matter how quirky or outright wrong they might be.  Ironically, all this interconnection is isolating us… 
Lack of true information, radicalization and isolation – this is a disturbing and dangerous mix that, I would argue, we are witnessing the affects of throughout our world today.  That is a larger discussion but my purpose for this reflection is to wonder how much this trend of “narrow-casting” has moved into the life of the Church.  I would point to the wide-ranging reactions to the recent preparatory meeting of the upcoming Synod on the Family in Rome as a prime example.  The way I read them, reactions posted in journals, on the internet and the blogosphere were often extreme and catered to a particular slant.  There was a lot (and continues to be a lot) of noise regarding the preparatory meeting in these pieces but not much true information … at least from my reading.
Call me crazy but I have a hunch that Pope Francis knows what he is doing and that the Holy Spirit is in the midst of the Church.  Maybe our United States “American” (I say this because this is the only cultural context I can speak to) tendency to interpret an event (i.e. the Synod on the Family) only by catering to a particular viewpoint is more of a reflection of a deficiency in our culture than a reflection of what actually transpired in Rome?  Maybe we have become more conditioned by narrow-casting than we realize?
Pope Francis is not a product of United States “American” culture.  I do not think that he has been conditioned by narrow-casting.  I think he asked the participants at the meeting in Rome to speak boldly from their hearts because he knows what Charles Seife knows.  True information is only gained through the difficult process of having assumptions challenged – if the assumptions are true then they will only grow stronger through this process, if not then they will fall by the wayside.  Pope Francis values true discussion because he values true information.  Isn’t true information what we want any leader (particular the Pope) to have?
Catholic means “universal”.  I do not believe that there is space for narrow-casting in the Church.  In fact, I wonder if it might even be a sin against the unity of the Church.  Seife lays out the fruits of narrow-casting: lack of true information, radicalization and isolation.  All of these harm the Body of Christ.
Come, Holy Spirit and enkindle within us the fire of your love and strengthen your Church that she might be a humble and authentic witness of the gospel!

Being Radical: Choosing to Live within the Context of Creation

04 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by in creation, Gnosticism, humility, incarnation

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026 (3).JPGIt is said that old heresies never die; they just keep coming back in different forms.  There is truth to this and I find it revealed in the pervasive spirit of Gnosticism present in our culture and time – specifically, Gnosticism’s denial of nature and creation.  Historically, Gnosticism was a blending of aspects of Christianity, philosophy, and Eastern mystery religions that challenged the orthodox faith in its first centuries.  Gnosticism highlighted secret knowledge as key to salvation as well as denigrating what it saw as the shackle or prison of creation and the physical body.  The early Church had to answer the distortions of Gnosticism and it did so by maintaining the continuity of the same God revealed in the Old and New Testaments and holding to the profound truth of the incarnation.
Now, jump ahead to America in 2014.  It seems a contradiction and an irony that in a time that prides itself on being increasingly “ecologically conscious” we find the re-emergence of the gnostic temptation of denigrating and fleeing creation but this, I would propose, is exactly what is happening.  We find this temptation to flee the “confines” of creation all around us; i.e. trends in body modification from covering the body in tattoos to the extremes of plastic surgery and body building (as noted by Jared Zimmerer in his post “Desire and the Human Form”for Word on Fire), the now felt need for a plethora of distinctions in gender identification (apparently the biological stamp of “male” and “female” no longer suffices and gender can be determined distinct from biology and creation), the temptation to play God and use advances in technology and scientific understanding to craft babies to our liking, the stubborn refusal to admit that climate is changing and that humanity has a role to play in this (here I would refer readers to the encyclical “Caritatis in Veritate” by Pope Benedict as well as his Message for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace – January 1,2010).  What is common in all of these (and many more) seeming disparate social trends?  I would argue that one element held in common is the gnostic trend to seek to flee the confines of creation.
In this context what then is the Christian to do?  Be radical; make the choice to live within the reality of nature.  Here is a point to reflect upon: for those who participate and pray the Liturgy of the Hours, look through your Breviary and notice how many of the opening songs of morning and evening prayer refer to creation and grace … and the two are not opposed!  This is the genius of Christianity on display and the prayer of the Church is teaching us an essential truth!  Grace does not abolish creation nor does it overcome it; grace sustains creation, peacefully enters within creation, heals creation and works with creation.  Creation is not to be fled from but rather embraced because within the very “confines” of creation, God’s grace is at work and to be found!  Any attempt to flee creation is based on error and confusion.
Here are some thoughts (not a definitive and exhaustive list) on what it means to be radical and actually seek to live within the reality of creation.
Accept yourself for who you are and others for who they are.  Throughout Scripture we are reminded again and again that God is the creator and that God loves his creation.  That includes you, me and every other person.  Yes, there is the reality of sin and our need for a savior but the savior has come and his healing grace is offered.  Allow God’s gentle grace to work in your life.  Part of living with this gentle grace, I believe, is to not give in to the common temptation to affix a label to oneself or others.  The human person is an ever-dynamic mystery; labels cut off mystery.  Be willing to live in this mystery and trust that God is at work.
Celebrate the sacraments.  Sacraments reveal in an utterly unique way the reality of grace working through creation and not opposed to creation.  Learn the wisdom of the sacraments not in an attempt to “figure it out” but rather to live in the mystery and through them to be brought to deeper understanding.
Develop a mature understanding of Scripture, especially the Gospels.  Gone are the days when Christians could get by on leaving the Scriptures to the “professionals”.  A part of every day should be spent with the Scriptures, particularly the Gospels.  Notice how creation plays a major part throughout the Gospel story, i.e. Jesus walking on water, the star of Bethlehem, Jesus teaching on the lilies of the field, Jesus and the disciples walking on the road, the bread and wine used for the last supper – the list could go on and on.
Fast.  Hunger has a way of clarifying priorities and through fasting we are quickly reminded that we are embodied beings.
Develop healthy friendships.  True and healthy friendships, though often rare, are a gift from God.  Friendship helps to anchor us in ourselves and in our world.
Turn off the TV and social media.  Entertainment and social media certainly have their place and can be beneficial tools in helping to enlighten and educate the human spirit but my experience has shown when not used in a measured and balanced way they quickly lead to isolation, superficial relationships and a chronic cynicism and jeering attitude which stunt maturity and are besetting sins of our time.
Enjoy nature.  Creation gives glory to the Creator.  Creation also teaches, gives insight and enables us to gain perspective.
Practice humility and through this practice realize that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.
Not long ago I was out for a walk in the mountains, coming over a rise I was met by a herd of at least eight deer peacefully and calmly grazing in a field and drinking water from a stream.  They noticed me but rather than seeming startled and bounding away they calmly moved off into the woods.  It was a beautiful sight and a gift.  Like the deer that yearns for running streams so my soul thirsts for you my God.
Creation is not to be fled from.  Be radical!  Choose to live within the context of creation!