I know I shouldn't watch these things

I'm discovering that this blog is getting a bit ranty. I'll need to relax and write something funny or even just updatish after this. Don't want to start sounding old before my time.

My friends know me well enough to know that I should not stop on channel 13. I gripe about it all the time and yet I am pulled back to it constantly. For the lone soul who might stumble across this particular blog and does not know what I am talking about, channel 13 is our local Trinity Broadcasting Network affiliate where we get to see gaudy sets, big hair, emotional singing, pleas for money, and promises of great fortune just around the corner. As someone who is trying to follow Jesus as best I can (and falling well short of the ideal consistently), I really want to have some grace here when it comes to this network. But sometimes it just gets the best of me.

Argh, Rod Parsley drives me nuts. First off, this past Sunday afternoon while I was at home trying not to throw up due to some stomach funk, this guy preaches his latest in a long line of sermons pretty much telling me to get some faith so I can get some money (or as he calls it "blessing" but I think we know what he's saying). In fact, one time in an earlier sermon, he actually grabbed the lapel on his rather expensive suit and told the listeners that if they wanted suits like this they just need to "believe for it". Well Sunday's sermon ended with Rod yet again proclaiming 2007 a "Jubilee" year, about the 6th or 7th straight Jubilee year that he has proclaimed, this time based on the idea that God loves the number 7 so 2007, and you've got it. Add on to that that ole Rod turned 50 and Jubilees are every 50 years and that makes this an extra special year, or so says God via a specific "prophetic vision" given to Rod on our behalf.

Because of the Jubilee properties of this year, we can join Rod as part of this covenant team and take part in this vision and jubilee by a small pledge of $50. Rod promised blessings and relief for our families as well as a promise of a lost dream to be fulfilled in our lives...if we join the team. Evidently God is not interested in people who don't pay. So I went to Rod's web site just for clarity's sake and evidently, if I want to donate $ on a regular basis, I can be a "platinum member" where I will have access to Rod's inner sanctum; a special prophecy just for me each month, a promise that Rod will personally pray for me and my needs each month, a special Breakthrough Bible (King James of course), and other benefits...again as long as I submit my credit card for monthly installments.

I realize that the sarcasm is dripping off of those preceding paragraphs, but hasn't this crap gone on long enough? I'm not perfect and won't claim to know the ins and outs of Parsley's life, but I have watched him preach at least 30 times and every time it is the same thing: 1. You don't have stuff but want it; team up with us and you'll get stuff (it's not always said outright but you don't have to infer much) 2. This country is going to hell in a hand basket and we must rise up and fight the infidels, specifically via your monthly contribution 3. Jubilee is here

So, a few things for me.
1. I don't have a problem with money, wealth, possessions, etc.
2. I do have a problem with boiling the Bible, specifically the message and life of Christ, down to consumeristic, individualistic, selfish nonsense.

Jubilee did not nor does it happen every year, at least Biblically. I don't want to drag out the specifics but there were seven year and 50 year movements to it. And all of it had to do with rest, forgiving debts, etc., so yes money is an aspect but here's the problem with looking at these Old Testament promises this way. THEY WERE MEANT FOR A NATION. It's not that they don't have individual notions and nuances, but God was promising the nation of Israel certain things and expecting certain behaviors from them in return. Taking them as some kind of bizarre promise of financial gain solely for my own benefit absolutely cheats the message of Scripture.

It makes me so sad to see the numbers of people who phone into these programs, pledging money they can't afford, in the hopes that God will make them rich. To suggest that in order to receive God's blessing or take part in a prophetic vision one must pledge money is no different than the Catholic church selling indulgences so many millennia ago. It's the same thing.

And Parsley isn't the only one. In between action in the NFC and AFC championship games, I flipped back to channel 13 and each pastor preaching after Parsley said basically the same thing. Every message about debt, money, possessions, and all of them making promises that "more blessing" would be coming, if we were only faithful, claimed it, walked in the "anointing" (which no one explains), and/or donated regularly to this ministry.

I know that I don't always represent God well, but the more I watched the more I found myself physically repulsed by these messages. My only solace was that most non-Christians wouldn't stop on that channel for 5 seconds.

I wish I knew the answer to this stuff. I wish I didn't sound arrogant when I criticize it. I wish that our culture and upbringing didn't make us so materialistic (and I say this having just bought a new TIVO). But don't we have to disown this stuff and say that the message of Christ cannot be summed up in the "name it and claim it" style of preaching? At what point, as followers of Christ, do we start telling people the truth about money; about how hard life is because of it; how it ruins people; how whatever we have just never seems enough; how no matter what our financial situation is, until we understand our identity as a child of God and follower of Christ, money will never take it's proper place? It's not that money is bad, it is an amazing thing and can accomplish so much, but it has to be in a proper perspective. At what point do we start holding each other accountable for messages that are blatantly misrepresenting Scripture and Jesus? How do we minister to people that are in debt, lack money, lack possessions, lack hope, without resorting to materialistic, consumeristic condescension?

I know I probably need to spend more time focused on what crud God is trying to get rid of in me and let Him deal with this stuff, but it just has bugged me for a long time. Happier stuff will follow in the next entry.