On The Fence Voters

Our friend Jerry over at Grumpy’s Grumblings has another post I’d like to share with you. I’ve provided a link at the end to continue reading at his site. Thank you Jerry!

Russell Wilson, the star quarterback for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, makes $35 million per year. To earn that level of wealth, Wilson trains tirelessly to maintain his standing as one the premiere quarterbacks in the league. Every time the center snaps the ball to Wilson, the QB faces a bunch of 300-pound defensive linemen who want nothing more than to throw the comparatively diminutive 200-pound Wilson to the ground—or worse. It’s a rough, competitive sport, but Americans exult in competition–even if some folks get hurt.

Obviously, not all competition is of the athletic nature; some is more physically sedate but more metaphysically consequential. And for those in that sedate but significant sacramental competition, the Russell Wilsons and LeBron James-level competitors can rake in even more money than an elite athlete or an A-list movie star. I’m writing here, of course, about megachurch pastors. For example, Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Texas, no longer accepts the $200,000 annual salary his church offers him. Rejecting the salary is a savvy PR move, and he can easily afford to do so since his book royalties net him more than $55 million annually

. But Osteen is among a few super-rich megastars of the megachurch industry. Many aspire to Osteen’s level, but relatively few make it. The few who do get there seem to do so by competing for the faithful believers’ dollars by contending for the crazy prize. For many, it’s a game of one-upmanship. Whether it’s ever zanier theology or constantly kookier conspiracy theories, the path to the summit of mammon mountain is up an indistinct, twisty trail of absurdity, a trail of one’s own choosing, while the once well-worn-but-demanding path of the Cross has grown thick with weeds.

The path to the summit of mammon mountain is up an indistinct, twisty trail of absurdity, a trail of one’s own choosing, while the once well-worn-but-demanding path of the Cross has grown thick with weeds.

So where once we saw church pastors pacing the streets with visions of the Cross drawing them forward and prompting them to feed the hungry and house the homeless, now we see far too many of them posting on cyber venues as they compete for clicks and cash by proclaiming their latest exclusive direct message from God. As of today, June 23, 2021, a Google search for the phrase “God told me” yields more than 64 million hits. And if you check out very many of the “God told me” YouTube videos, you’ll quickly see that the divine revelations are given only to the elect—of which there seems to be millions. Cash-generating God-told-me YouTube “ministries” are popping faster than weeds after a soaking summer rain.

To continue reading, please click here: Grumpy’s Grumblings