Oct 08 | Resistance Lectionary Part 15: Question Everything

Today’s citation: 1 Samuel 8:4-22

One of the most notorious new movements in Christianity to rise within the last century is “prosperity theology,” the notion that personal wealth is a sign of God’s blessing, and that it can be gained by faith in God and financial support of the right churches. It first came to prominence in the 1950s in the US and can be most clearly seen in the televangelism movement of 1980s. It has since spread throughout the world, and is particularly popular, troublingly, in nations where poverty is widespread.

While it is not fair to say the notions behind the movement are totally unscriptural, many mainstream denominations, with very good reason, proclaim it as exploitative and even heretical. And indeed, many arguments can be made that the lifestyles promoted by leaders like Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, and Paula White are surely not what Jesus had in mind for Christian leaders who are commissioned to ‘take up their crosses.’ Particular Bible verses favoured by prosperity theologians, especially Matthew’s parable of the talents, are heavily cited while others criticizing the rich or urging moderation are routinely ignored. Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa, writing in the July 2018 Jesuit journal La Civilità Cattolica, compared prosperity theology to a reductive version of the American Dream.

Prosperity theology is only one movement among many that have sought to wed faith to glorification of the status quo. The Bible actually holds a multitude of opinions about monarchy, economics, and social justice, and its positions on which one is “the best” or “God’s will” is not at all clear. One thing is certain: the writer of this portion of the saga of Samuel, Saul, and David is not what you could call wholly supportive of the idea of kingship for the People of God. They want a king to be “like other nations,” but this was never God’s intent for them. They were supposed to buck the trends, be set apart. Samuel’s prophecy contains criticism of the entire notion of a king. Monarchy leads to inequality between people, and this was not God’s desire.

As people of faith we too are called to buck the trend. We’re called to be critical of the narratives that drive our society. There is nothing particularly prophetic about the idea that the wealthy are blessed. “Just world theory” is an ancient belief parroted by spiritual infants, and every day we are given evidence that it is not a sufficient conveyor of ultimate truth, and indeed isn’t particularly healthy either. We are called by the Creator of all things – from slugs to stars – to question the assumptions of society, to seek growth, to embrace mystery. We are called to place radical self-giving, to place Love, made manifest in a convicted criminal desolate on a cross, on the throne of our hearts.