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 The nation is being savaged by the Great Recession, but many pastors are afraid to talk about its causes, some say. Preachers confront 'last taboo': Condemning greed amid Great RecessionBy John Blake, CNN (CNN) – Bishop Harry Jackson is a former college middle linebacker who can still hit hard. He once described same-sex marriage as a satanic plot to destroy the family, called on Republicans to get “political Viagra” and said African-Americans needed to abandon what he called the Gospel of Victimization. Jackson is not shy about stirring up controversy, but he stops short when it comes to preaching about greed. The Maryland bishop said he encourages his congregation to get through the Great Recession by saving and sharing. But he doesn’t want to alienate well-off members by talking about what’s behind the nation’s economic woes. "I've got to watch it," said Jackson, pastor at Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Maryland. "I could get into some big teaching on greed, but the reality is that a lot of that teaching may wind up creating anti-economic-growth and anti-capitalism concepts (in people’s minds). ... I always talk about personal responsibility so we don't get into the blame game." The Great Recession is more than an economic crisis. It has become a spiritual dilemma for some of the nation’s pastors and their parishioners, religious leaders say. Three years after an implosion of the nation’s financial system helped push the country into its worst economic nosedive since the Great Depression, pastors are still trying to figure out how to address people’s fears from the pulpit. But first they have to deal with their own fears, some pastors and scholars say. Though millions of Americans are angry over the economy, little moral outrage seems to be coming from the nation’s pulpit, they say. Too many pastors opt for offering pulpit platitudes because they are afraid parishioners will stop giving money if they hear teachings against greed, said the Rev. Robin R. Meyers, senior minister of Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. “Money is the last taboo in church. It’s much easier to talk about sex than money,” said Meyers, who wrote about greed and the other seven deadly sins in his book, “The Virtue in the Vice.” The anxiety from the pews has become so palpable for some pastors, though, that they now feel like they have no choice. Andy Stanley, a prominent evangelical leader, said some in his congregation cheered when he launched a preaching series called “Recovery Road” to talk about politically touchy issues such as personal greed, the federal deficit and the sins of subprime loans.  The Rev. Andy Stanley says he took a risk preaching about greed to his suburban Atlanta congregation, but it has paid off. The senior pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, north of Atlanta, told his church members they should look in the mirror before they start blaming politicians for the nation’s economic woes. Any economic recovery “begins with me, not they,” Stanley said. It continues when pastors ask how such a wealthy country can stumble into such a financial mess, Stanley said. “Any time the entire country is talking about something, pastors should pause and talk about it,” Stanley said. “We know what Republicans and Democrats think, but what does the Bible and Jesus say?’’ Other ministers say an economic recovery also must involve pointing fingers. They say Jesus calls his followers to struggle against those people and policies that helped lead to the Great Recession. Charity – feeding the poor, steering people to job fairs – must be accompanied by justice, said Meyers. “It’s good to pull people out of the river when they’re drowning,” the Oklahoma pastor said, “but it’s also good to go upriver to see who’s throwing them in the river.” Should pastors speak truth to economic power? During the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, Walter Rauschenbusch, a Baptist minister, inspired others to fight against the economic inequality of the time with the “Social Gospel.” During the Great Depression, Father John A. Ryan built such a national following condemning the excess of capitalism that he was invited to deliver prayers at a presidential inauguration. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spent the last three years of his life focusing on poverty. When he was assassinated in 1968, he was on the cusp of leading a nonviolent, interracial army of poor people into the nation’s capital to demand a fairer distribution of wealth. These ministers who took on the big economic issues of the day were inspired by the example of Jesus, who angered the powerful by condemning the economic exploitation of the poor, religious scholars say. His teachings are seen throughout the New Testament in parables such as “The Rich Man and Lazarus.” “Jesus took sides – he said he didn’t come to bring peace but a sword,” said Vincent Miller, a Catholic theologian and author of “Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in Consumer Culture.” Miller said pastors who are afraid of angering congregants by talking about touchy economic issues ignore the Gospel. “You can’t preach the Gospel without alienating people. That’s part of it. You’re not helping people if you’re not alienating them,” said Miller, the Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture at the University of Dayton in Ohio. The recession divides preachers, not just politicians That leaves pastors with the challenge of interpreting Jesus’ message for today’s economic woes. On that front, the pulpit is as divided as the nation’s politics. Consider the cause of the 2008 economic meltdown. Was it primarily the result of Wall Street greed? Jay W. Richards doesn’t think so. Richards is a senior fellow at the conservative think-tank the Discovery Institute and author of “Money, Greed and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem.” Greed was a factor in the 2008 financial crisis but not it’s primary cause, Richards said. There were other major factors, including the tendency of Americans to live above their means and policies that encouraged banks to dilute mortgage lending standards. In addition, he said, large financial institutions were encouraged to engage in risky behavior because they knew the federal government would bail them out. The causes of the 2008 crisis were so complicated that some of the smartest people in the world failed to anticipate it, Richards said. The first thing pastors should do during tough economic times is “pray for, comfort and encourage” parishioners, he said. “If a pastor suggests that the financial crisis happened because of a few greedy corporate titans and some Wall Street traders, that’s a sure sign that he doesn’t understand the crisis,” he said. Neither should Christians condemn the growing gap between rich and poor, Richards said. “Denouncing a presumed gap between rich and poor is, more often than not, a symptom of economic confusion, not prophetic wisdom,” he said. “It can also mask envy, and is usually invoked just before someone calls for the state to coercively confiscate the wealth of some and give to others.”  Bishop Harry Jackson says Americans can experience a miraculous economic recovery if they return to God. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, income disparity in the United States has increased 40% in the past 30 years. In 2010 the nation’s poverty rate rose to a 17-year high, with more than 46 million people – 15.1% of the population - living in poverty and 49.9 million living without health insurance. Despite these grim statistics, Richards said he believes people born in America today can still succeed if they work hard and get a good education. “The American Dream is still alive,” he said. “The fact that millions of people from around the world still want to come here is a sign of that. … If someone works hard in school and develops good financial habits, they’re more likely to do reasonably well financially than most people were for most of human history.” The Rev. Jim Wallis, a prominent evangelical who has worked with Democrats, has a different perspective. He said it’s clear that greed was a major factor in the economic collapse and that a wide gap between the haves and have-nots is social dynamite. “History shows that an increasing gap between the rich and the poor is a prime indicator of imminent collapse,” Wallis wrote in his recent book, “Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street and Your Street.” Wallis said he hoped his book, written right after the 2008 meltdown, would spark a movement among the nation’s churches to re-examine the country’s economic values. But he said many of the nation’s pastors operate like politicians, afraid to alienate their wealthy donors. “We said the public is ready for this. The church is ready for this,” a weary Wallis said of his hopes for such a movement. “Boy was I wrong.” Where have all the prophets gone? Joel Osteen is the senior pastor of one of the nation’s largest churches, the 40,000-member Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. His 90-minute services are broadcast nationwide each Sunday, and he’s just come out with a book, “Every Day a Friday,” which encourages people to have a “prosperous, victorious year” and be “dream releasers” by helping others realize their goals. Osteen said some of his church members have been hit hard by the recession, but he prefers to preach about the cures, not the causes, for the nation’s economic ills. Part of his message: Live within your means, don’t give away your power, live without crutches and travel light. “We go through difficult times, and it’s easy to get trapped in the past thinking about what didn’t work out,” he said. “At some point, we gotta move forward. I’m not supposed to just endure my life. I’m supposed to enjoy it.” Back in Maryland, Jackson said he tells his congregation that the nation’s economic problems are partly God’s way of encouraging the nation to return to a “biblical faith.” He said there will be a “supernatural economic recovery” if Americans practice generosity. “If you have a bowl of rice, why not share a quarter of that bowl with someone who is needy?” he said. Those kinds of sermons annoy Meyers, the Oklahoma pastor. He said too many pastors have reduced Jesus to a “financial adviser, not a prophet.” He said pastors should also call for justice. He said it’s a crime that no bankers or financial leaders behind the 2008 collapse have gone to jail. “We’ll send an African-American teenager off to the slammer who robs a 7-Eleven, but we won’t do anything to a banker who helped cause the collapse of the entire banking system,” he said. But most preachers won’t say that, he said, because much of the church is too captive to greed to address the moral challenges of the nation’s economic problems. He doesn’t expect politicians or other leaders to step into that void because too many are beholden to the rich and powerful. “There just aren’t that many prophets left,” he said. “A prophet is someone who is willing to tell us the unpleasant truth about ourselves. If we can’t bring unpopular messages, who will?” |
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Dan Gilgoff and Eric Marrapodi, with daily contributions from CNN's worldwide newsgathering team and frequent posts from religion scholar and author Stephen Prothero.  |
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It ain't no recession, it's a Depression, have the decency to tell it like it is is. And it was caused by a group whose god is The Dollar Bill. This group is guilty of high treason to America and everyone of them like Judas Iscariot deserves death at the end of a rope. That is all.
God takes "it seriously when the rich are treated unfairly?" Are you kidding me? That is the most ridiculous statement in the history of man, keep your mouth closed forever.
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http://www.180movie.com
So Jay Richards a visiting scholar from the Heritage Foundation thinks that corporate greed is not the problem. Big Surprise! Who funds the Heritage foundation? Rich people. How shameful that greed is keeping pastors from preaching against greed. I'm sick of hearing that we should all "live within our means" and "be thankful you have a job" while more an more of our neighbors and our children suffer with unemployment, underemployment, crushing student loans, inadequate educations, etc. All the while the super rich get richer off nothing but paper money. They live in million dollar homes shielded from the rest of the world and run corporations that no longer seem to care about this country but only the bottom line. It's time to wake up America!
So your solution is to take away from them and give to you and other poor people? Between me and my wife, we have $160,000 dollars in student loans and we make about $60,000 per year. I would love to have our loans paid for, but I do not want the government to take from someone else just so my life is easier. If someone chooses to pay my loans for me, I will be forever grateful, but I will not take from someone else to do it. Capitalism is greed with the potential for generosity and charity. Socialism and it's big brother Communism is greed and envy disguised as charity and generosity.
IF SO THEN WHY DO CHURCHS WANT TO REMAIN IRS 501 (c)(3)S THEN, A BUNCH OF BS FROM THEN AND THEIR GREED
You Republican Criminal's can't take it with you no matter how tight you are.you keep crabbing about your taxes.Well I used to be MIDDLE CLASS,But you REPUBLICAN CRIMINAL'S sent all the good job's to your friend's in CHINA TO SATISFY YOUR GREED!!! AND YOU KEEP VOTING FOR THEM FOR ONE REASON THEY CLAIM TO BE ANTI ABORTION,ANTI GAY,BUT IT'S O.K. TO KEEP STEPPING ON THE ELDERLY,THE SICK AND THE POOR !!!!!!! YOUR JUST A BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING!!!!!!
If you really believe that greed is wrong why do you keep believing what the tea party Republican's say?????
Don't make the rich mad or they won't keep the money flowing into your check account???????? What a sad hypocrite!
If a pastor is afraid to hurt someone's feelings by speaking the Bible, then he is not a real Christian pastor and should leave the pulpit.
As one crying in the wilderness, I can only say that the sin of the love of money is so common place, that it even has infected the very bosom of many churches, and many are deceived into supposing that gain is godliness. Few have heard the Truth of the matter according to God, that having food, clothes, and shelter are the only necessities in life; but it is not to say that we cannot have other things, but that with all things in this world, we must not allow ourselves to be brought under the power of any. When we will have began to actually deny our own will, which outr Lord requires of any that would follow Him, then can we also begin to evaluate, and determine, and conclude things justly; but until then, we will do so in the capacity of a carnal mind, which mind allows the love of money to be acceptable. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Religion needs to stay the hell out of politics, they have already done enough damage. They have been laying on their silly a**es for many years now while all of this greed has been running rampant without a single peep from the clergy, who were happy little parasites feeding off of their flocks of sheeple. Many of them were doing their best to get the farthest right-wing candidate in office so they could push their theoasininities on everyone.
"There just aren't that many prophets left,”
No there are not! And those who are, they are stoned every day, and although may not be stoned physically, yet they are still stoned...
America loves her false prophets, who sing her people smooth lullabies, telling them how great this country is, how everyone covets it's piece of pie, and how no one has it better then American people. But it's just a lie, and a well funded propaganda.....Let those who live in it, and struggle having to choose between the food on the table and the medicine for themselves and their children tell if it isn't so!
But there is yet one more thing America does not like; it's that the sins she hides are exposed openly...But she can't hide them any more... And the world sees and is watching in amazement how her glory has faded and turned to shame!
"And the world sees and is watching in amazement how her glory has faded and turned to shame!"
Yup it's nut cases like you who are making this country shameful.
LOL! You have no clue!
say onto the lord god the SUN, we the people ask you why thoust shine and whom thoust shine for? ALMIGHTY SUN THEN SPOKE – WHY DO HUMANS ASK SUCH QUESTIONS WHY I SHINE FOR THE REASON OF MY FIRE BURNS, THE HEAT IS GIVEN TO USE...TRANSFERR THE ENERGY INTO ALL THINGS, I THE GOD SUN, THE ALMIGHTY SUN, ALL POWERFUL AND GIVING GOD TELL ALL INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO USE MY ENERGY TO GO FORTH AND SHINE IN EACH YOUR OWN WAY, FOR ALL I FIND ARE BEAUTIFUL. PRAISE BE ONTO THE GREAT LORD GOD THE SUN ,THE ALMIGHTY SUN , ALL POWERFUL AND GIVING SUN!
There are Christians holding on tight to their nest eggs while people in the next pew are living paycheck to paycheck. God takes back seat to financial realities. The clergy doesn't want to mess with their own meal tickets.
I believe there's a flaw in your argument – they wouldn't be Christians then. Maybe you can use the term 'Sunday Morning Christians'.
......but you can't build a BIG church without BIG money. Truth. Its what Jesus was all about. Too bad none of you so-called Men of God have not stomach for it; gutless wonders.
Most Pastors are afraid of this topic because many, many of them are examples of "greed". There is an epidemic of "greed" in the Church which is supported by parishioners who want their pastor to "look good and ride great"!!! They understand that they will be pointing the finger at themselves. You won't hear many sermons on this issue. (from Milwaukee, WI)
If you want to know about the rich man read the book of James in the King James Bible. Jesus abhorred money. The Book of Acts shows how to live without money by community sharing. Jesus said "render back to the person whom is on the face of the money": I assume he meant give back the money to whom it belonged to that issued it. He paid his taxes with free money from a fish's mouth. The rich man walked sorrowfully away. So, yes, if you use money then you take the mark of the beast as you cannot buy, sell, or trade without it. You take the mark when you reach out and use money with your hand and you take the mark in your forehead when you think about it and calculate it in your mind's eye. It is the root of all evil no matter how much you love it. The nations now bow down to money which is a graven image. The person worships money when they consider it before God. Can God provide you with transportation, housing, food, clothes, or any of these things like money does? That is why everyone is subject to the graven images, but not so in the Book of Acts as they shared all things in common among the believers. So, Christians, you now know the truth, so you can be set free now, otherwise woe unto those whom retain the mark of the beast! Floyd
Shhhh. Don't tell them about the Mark, and keep your forearms covered.
God takes it seriously when the rich exploit the poor, but He also takes it seriously when the rich are treated unfairly. Money is such a big topic in the Bible that Jesus talked about it more than Heaven and Hell. Our use of money is an indicator of how we really think about the world. Greed has been with us for a long time. We have to look within ourselves and ask "Am I greedy?" A rich person and a poor person can both be greedy. The Bible teaches that we should be generous in sharing with others when needs arise.
Good one. We want the riffraff to go on being generous. There's a lot of them and we rich can keep our taxes down if they keep on giving.
i think this pastor needs to preach the everything and not just about what people want to hear.
half-atheists? So are you a "half-believer"?