Ever since I graduated from Mount House (Churcher’s College’s
junior boarding house in the days when Churcher’s had a small boarding
community), I’ve not been much of a church goer. I’m afraid to say that despite
my record as a decent student of Christian theology, my reasons for entering a
church have been limited (usually to listen to a good choir – though I did
attend for a while when I had other-halves who were trying to be Christian).
Unfortunately, life in Singapore doesn’t make it easier to
be inspired by the church. It could be me but the few church visits that I’ve
made in the last few decades have been closer to being at a combination of a
rock concert mixed with a real life case study in marketing. I was getting used
to the idea that Church was becoming the last place where you’d hear Godly
words being spoken.
Thanks to the tough-half’s mother (this 70 plus year-old
lady is a devout Catholic and the highlight of her visits to Singapore are my
bringing her to Sunday mass) being in town, I actually found a service where
Godly words were spoken. The priest at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd
announced to his flock that the inspiration to worship God did not come from, “The
Glamour of our Church buildings or the beauty of the liturgy but from the
compassion that we show.”
This struck me as being the most amazing thing that I’ve
heard in a long time. You could say that I’ve become a little jaded by a decade
of being a PR man in Singapore. Life in the past decade has been about the
constant search for more and in my case, I’ve been a very active participant in
the process of telling people to buy more than what they may actually need or
want. When you operate in a business that’s all about creating needs, you tend
to get the idea that everything is all about packaging – God, is unfortunately
not immune from this.
Singapore is littered with religious institutions that cater
to various segments of the market. The Churches have been one of the most aggressive
and slickest marketers. They have become so successful in the marketing
department that Christianity has become personified by the likes of Joseph
Prince, a young man who was destined to live life as an IT consultant until
Jesus told (since I don’t speak to Jesus, I can’t verify this) that it was his
mission to be a TV personality, wealth coach and author.
If you follow “Give me Your Money” school of Christianity,
you’d be inclined to believe that Jesus died on the cross so that you would be
entitled to live a wonderful life that would be free of sickness, worry and
poverty. As my ex-girlfriend’s pastor said so eloquently, “Pagans chase good
things – but good things just come to us naturally.”
Now, it goes without saying that faith is always easier to
inspire when you look like the message. Think of how we’re all enamored by the wealth
of Donald Trump, always seems to be living in the swankiest homes in the
swankiest places on earth. Mr Trump personifies wealth and success despite the
fact that the banks are consistently after him.
What is true of Donald Trump has been true of some of our
church leaders. I think of the Rev Kong Hee and his wife Sun Ho, who currently
facing charges of embezzling money. Despite the obvious evidence that is
mounting against them, their followers continue to believe in the good pastor
and his wife – I mean how can anyone who finances his wife’s singing career in
Beverly Hills to the tune of $28,000 a week be anything but God’s one true
representative on earth?
The problem with all these wonderful ideas about God being
the source of prosperity, is the fact that Jesus (the Son persona of God) had a
habit of blessing and bestowing kindness on social outcast like the poor,
prostitutes, tax collectors and so on. Scripture clearly quotes him as saying, “Blessed
are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” Every available record of Jesus’s
life show that this was a man who encouraged us to “love your enemies,” and to “bless
those who curse you.”
The records show that Jesus was born into poverty. There are
no records to show him owning anything more than the cloths on his back (a
topic that even some dispute). Here was a man who told us that God was to be
found in the dregs of society. It could be the fact that my theology is nearly
two-decades rusty but I don’t recall scripture talking about an entitlement to
prosperity and health by being a follower.
If anything, Jesus wasn’t into mass followings. I think he
made it quite clear that being a follower could be a nasty and brutish
experience. He told people to sell ALL their possessions to become his
followers. All four Gospels quote him as saying that a follower had to carry
their cross.
So, if you were to follow the evidence that’s laid out by
Christian scripture, you’d realize that Jesus was, materially speaking, a
pauper and his message was all about things like alleviating suffering of the
down trodden.
This fact goes onto beg the question of what Christ would
have thought of the effort of Churches to out-do each other in the effort to
build bigger and more glamorous buildings? What he have thought of Pastors who
pay themselves salaries that are comparable to those paid to corporate CEO’s?
Ironically the one Church that is starting to answer these
questions is the Catholic Church itself. While the Catholic Church has been
noticeably quiet in its efforts to raise funds when compared to its more “charismatic”
counterparts, it has several centuries before to raise funds. Popes have
traditionally lived like monarchs. The Pope is regarded by international law as
a “Head of State,” and has to be given the privileges of one.
The current Pope, has now began to challenge these by
example. His Holiness dines with ordinary people and instead of conducting
services in the beauty of the Vatican, goes and brings the word of God to such
charming and acceptable people like prisoners.
Now, wouldn’t be nice if more of today’s self-appointed
agents of God, thought of devoting more of their time to bringing compassion to
the down and out?
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