I don't know how many people pay close attention, but I tend to. The same thoughts occurred to me when viewing a few music videos from Christian artists today as have occurred to me in the past while watching evangelists on television, or indeed while visiting the church that runs the therapy and counseling centre I use.
Essentially, I can not recall ever seeing someone that wasn't rich getting up on television and praising God. Ever. They have lovely, tailored clothes. The bands and artists can afford not only the studio time and videos with decent production values that don't come cheap, but some of the best instruments available, if you pay close attention. I'm a music fan, and I know my basses and keyboards pretty darned well, and I can tell you that some of those instruments do -not- come cheap. I can see the record labels picking up the costs of the video, fine. That's a write-off for promoting the artists. But the apparent affluence seems to go well beyond that.
Which really all speaks to how easy it must be to praise God from a position of privelege. I'm sure it's a remarkably self-reinforcing cycle, too. Someone does well, they get out there and praise God, they sell even more, they lavish more praise. Boy, their lives must be really rough, with their expensive wardrobes. I'm not really a clothing/fashion person, but I've never seen these folks in clothing that didn't look expensive--and it's hilarious when there are about 20 wardrobe changes in one video. On the instrument side, you've got vintage Fender Precision Basses, Kurzweil synthesizers, Tama drums (some of the most expensive gear out there, too, if you know and watch the makes and models).
And that's just for music videos. For evangelist preachers, I mean, you've got anything from huge projection screens, to actual composite video "walls", made up of multiple actual full monitors in an array. The latter used to be more expensive, but the former is more modern--but still not cheap by any means. Awesome P.A. systems in these places, too. Let's not knock the buildings themselves. Some of these places put major sports arenas to shame, and essentially have no corporate underwriters that I've ever heard of. But there they are on telly. Or even better, in our neighbourhoods! The church that runs the counseling centre that I mentioned... They rebuilt a -HUGE- (and I -mean- HUGE) multi-storey main building, with several other buildings as a campus, including a recreation centre. Their musical gear is a bit mixed bag...the keyboard was a Yamaha, and I know that unit to fall into the $2-3k range. But the Roland V-Drum kit they had was easily $10k+ after all the supporting hardware. The P.A. system...don't start me. And yet...they'll hit up people in need for astronomical sums for their "community" counseling centre. Give me a break--they can afford to help people at much lower rates, if not for free. Apparently it's more important to build an entire campus than it is to help those in need.
Just once...once!...I'd like to see someone on television, or at a church, dressed respectfully but modestly in clothes that even look like they -might- have some wear on them. Maybe even (*gasp*) a patch somewhere (and no, I -dont- mean in the synthesizer, I mean on their clothes!). I'd like to see someone that -doesn't- already have it all get up there on the church stage, or on the telly, and talk about how great God's treated them and blessed their lives so much, even though they're facing foreclosure on their single story tract home, their wife is leaving them, and their kid is in rehab. What's that? Oh, that's right...that won't happen, because the people that have control of the message are of the same ilk as those who have control of our government. They really don't want for anything, they don't have it bad, and it's easy to be that blatantly thankful when you have and can get anything you please. And of course, they don't stop. They keep going to maintain their image, and continue to be "blessed" (read: carefree and rich) by spreading the word of what great works God has brought to their lives.
Show me one homeless person, or unemployed person, or bankrupt person, even on public access telly, who will get up there and praise God as devoutly. I don't think anyone can, because they either can't get the access, wouldn't be able to honestly say they felt blessed, or both.
I'm definitely not rich. I'm in debt past my eyeballs and will likely never be able to retire--similar to pretty much any non-made person under age 50 or so these days. But I do consider myself blessed in many ways. I have a treasure in my wife. I have a huge wealth in my friends, which is better than any amount of possessions.
But life surely is not this joyride that those expounding on the grace of God make it out to be. Show me the person with $60k+ in debt, depression, anxiety disorders, physical ailments that are untreatable...show me someone with some things like that eating them up every day that can get up there and really praise God with all the fervor that these rich and untroubled folks do. I'm doubtful that sort of thing will ever happen either. Because people that have those kinds of problems tend not to feel blessed unless they think really hard about it, and manage to come up with some things that might be blessings if they strain really hard to see them. Most days, they're probably feeling like God gave them the shaft, and continues to do so every day that they have to suffer through what amounts to hell on earth. Small wonder we never hear of God's awesomeness from more than the people on top on any significant scale.
It's easy to praise God when you have everything going for you. And it's extremely easy to be cynical about The Word, and all the glory, when it's delivered by people who have everything--while you sit there day after day trying to make even a mediocre life work halfway properly.
And I write this in fear that God will punish me for daring to complain, or doubt Him and His intentions and actions regarding my life or anything else. But I do feel bitter--the sort of bitterness that shakes my faith down to really low levels. Why do I fear God's retribution when I'm having a hard time as it is--hard enough to doubt Him? Becaues I'm afraid He'll make it worse out of spite. Part of that is a cynical parsonality, part of that is what my particular Catholic upbringing taught me to feel about God--fear.
But I write this also in some hope. Maybe if I get my feelings out there, someone will see it, realise what I'm getting at, and show me something that actually indicates why I shouldn't feel cynical and bitter. Hopefully not with rote scripture quotes, or vast yet meaningless platitudes, but with actual logic and meaningful insight.
It's times like this, when I realise how let down I feel by God, that I wonder why I even still try to believe. And it mostly comes down to fear of things getting even worse than they already are--for even daring to question, much less complain. And Heaven help me if I'm actually -getting- help already. If I'm actually being helped, I don't want to know what it's like if that help is revoked. So belief is essentially insurance.
Which raises the question--is belief borne of fear actually sincere enough belief to count? Feels more like emotional blackmail into insincere belief. I believe in God more than just out of fear, but at times like these, that extra part bottoms out to the point where only the fear keeps my faith going unless I think very hard and search for my blessings. But it really seems like if things are coming from that place, where you feel you have no choice but to keep believing out of fear of punishment or things getting worse, that maybe the belief is there at least partly for the wrong reasons.
Yup, this post started off in place, and got away from me about halfway through. Sorry about that, but I'm honestly too tired at this point to edit it into shape. Hopefully I'm not punished for voicing my cynicism and even a bit of anger at God. I really just started off with an observation, and by the time I got done, I counted so many apparent injustices that I just went off a bit and ended up in a totally different place than I intended. Not one of my most coherent pieces of writing. The problem is how interconnected everything is. I see the links between so many things that, for me, one topic actually branches over what might be 10-30 topics for someone else. If you think this is bad, you should hear inside my head sometimes--it gets noisy in there sometimes, as the topics all fall into place along a series of connected thought.
At any rate...have ya ever noticed the wonderful caste system we have in religion? 'Cos I have.
God bless you, Rev. Dr. Dean