"O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich..." Being back in God's country (though 1,000 miles further south) has brought with it the joy that is EWTN (Catholic TV) and TBN (Evangelical TV). I love me some televangelists, and EWTN's coverage of the Knights of Columbus convention was riveting. Anyway, though I am a subscriber to the Wittenburg Door and a prayerful supporter of the Trinity Foundation, it had been a while since I had felt the shock and awe of a good TV preacher offering me the financial blessing of God for a "small love offering".
I got that same icky feeling as I read the first clause of the collect for the feast of St. Clare in the context of MPII this AM. In the light of the sermon I'm working on, it was scary to think about how easy it would be to believe fully that it is theologically sound to preach a prosperity gospel. I was reminded of how important context is in our study of Scriptures, Church history, theology, and liturgy. Without the context of a texts historical setting AND setting within a larger work (Bible, BCP, Church Dogmatics, Council of Nicea, etc.) it is very easy to fall into the trap modern day "news organizations" have brought us to with their use of statistics. Proof texting is so easy. It is so tempting. It must be avoided.
"O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through is poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordiante love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Clare, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come..." Ahhh... context, what a wonderful thing. As Jesus became poor so that we might be made rich is more easily read, in today's context as "as Jesus gave all so that we might be made whole." That'll preach my friends. On TBN, on EWTN, or in your church, that'll preach.
6 comments:
Spankey,
Are you aware that Ole Anthony, Trinity Foundation, ABC, and John Stossel are being sued for a story 20/20 did about prosperity preacher Fred Price in which they took some of his comments on videotape out of context in order to portray him in a false light?
The Dallas Observer's piece on their blog is a good summation of the story. See: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2007-08-09/news/ole-oops/
Also interesting is the YouTube video on Fred Price's Church's blog, where you can clearly see how out-of-context this piece was. See: http://www.crenshawchristiancenter.net/ecomm/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=85
John Stossel and ABC have apologized, but on his Wittenburg Door blog Ole says:
"'I've been sued so many times that I could play an attorney on television,' said Anthony ... 'We have never done a pro-active investigation on Rev. Price. All we did was provide ABC [with] some footage,' he said."
Wendy Duncan
I Can't Hear God Anymore: Life in a Dallas Cult
http://www.dallascult.com
I knew they were being sued from the most recent weekly newsletter, but had not read up on it. Thanks for the links, and thanks for reading.
Why do you characterize TBN as "evangelical"? I'd put them more in the prophecy/charismatic genre. But then again, evangelicals like to parse these terms... :)
laura,
you are probably right. i'm still learning who gets defined as what. do you think most people assume, like me, that when people talk of the "religious right" they mean the tbn crowd? or are they talking about something else?
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