There have been crusades going on every evening this week on the steps of the (defunct) central post office across the street from my building. I hear the lively music, energetic call and response cheering and high octane preaching complete with frequent loud roars from the crowd.
After a film I watched over the weekend, I’m having a hard time not being skeptical about the state of the church in Congo. I’d heard that the “prosperity gospel” had made its mark here, but until I saw it on film it still seemed to be too fantastical and absurd to be real. If you don’t know what I am talking about, tune into the Trinity Broadcasting Network or TBN on your TV. They showcase, and may partly be responsible for the proliferation of, this theology in most nations around the globe. Some of these American pastors have decided that physical health and wealth are the primary evidences of God’s blessing. They live large and this shows that God loves them and gives them power. They preach that the faithful will reap tenfold blessings for every ‘seed’ of offering money that they ‘sow’. Many of them are lacking proper theological training, but again, genuinely tested wisdom is not the measure that matters, it’s only the bling. You’ve got pastors sitting in golden thrones, passing the plate to fund private jets, wearing custom tailored suits with diamond cufflinks, having their cake and eating it too. Somehow they reconcile all of this with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and still manage to sleep at night. (They probably have expensive drugs for that.)
So imagine what happens when the “prosperity gospel” is beamed into a nation like Congo where many pastors are political “big men” in training. Poor people are desperate for a line out of poverty and they follow these teachings of economic power. They put champagne into the pastor’s crystal goblet while their babies lack milk because they believe that this produces miracles. This isn’t the only problem in the church here and it’s not every church, but it is here and it’s big.
That’s extremely disappointing. I’ve heard it said the Church in DRC is a mile-wide, but an inch deep. I would think, as you hinted, the Western Church is predominantly to blame for this travesty. Our evangelism-without-discipleship and crusade-styled “missions work” has left an unfortunate mark on many parts of the Third World.
Thanks for the post, Brian. I’ve enjoyed your blog very much! I’m going to have to set up a link to your blog from mine.
All the best,
Chris