Crystal Cathedral, Robert Schuller, Bankruptcy, and Ugandan Church Conmen
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/437-crystal-cathedral-robert-schuller-bankruptcy-and-ugandan-church-conmen.html
Kato Mivule | October, 19, 2010
There are many things going on in Christendom that would take many pages to document but one thing for sure is that there is no doubt that an invisible hand of God is shaking things up in His Church that whatever is not built on a solid foundation is collapsing.
In Uganda, a newspaper article appeared in the Sunday Monitor, Uganda's weekly, (October 17, 2010) documenting how conmen purporting to be Pastors and “Men of God” are busy swindling Christians of their money. This is despite the fact that those being swindled are intelligent as the article pointed out.[1]
The article asks why such intelligent people fall to such schemes? I am trying to find an answer to that too as to why thousands of well educated intelligent Ugandans give themselves to such explicit fallacies as the Prosperity Gospel.
On the other hand Crystal Cathedral in California and their world famous Pastor, Robert Schuller filed for Bankruptcy. Now this is a big story and just a tip of the iceberg as many other Prosperity Gospel Mega Churches are going to follow suit.[2]
Robert Schuller and his Crystal Cathedral have been known for their doctrines on materialism, positive possibility thinking, lavish lifestyle, pomp, extravagance, and all other teachings associated with the prosperity gospel. Now, if this is not a shaking, I don't know what is, but alas! There is more to come...
Yet the tragic irony is the link between the story happening in East Africa about Ugandan Church conmen and in the West about the Prosperity Gospel Mongul, Robert Schuller and his Crystal Cathedral project.
Robert Schuller and his Crystal Cathedral represented what the Church of Jesus Christ is NOT meant to be.
Kato Mivule
=====================================================================
=====================================================================
IS THE CHURCH LOSING ITS IDENTITY TO CONMEN?
http://www.monitor.co.ug/LifeStyle/Religion/-/689744/1033516/-/6hmvf1/-/index.html
By Andrew Kaggwa
Posted Sunday, October 17 2010 at 00:00
The church today has been infiltrated by conmen posing as pastors. This is eroding the flock’s trust in religious leaders and is beginning to bias many against this godly institution, writes Andrew Kaggwa.
Emmy, an old friend, was starting a business with Mark, a co-worker. She was and is a devoted Catholic, and Mark was born again. They had saved and sold off many of their belongings for the new venture.
According to Mark, his pastor had strongly advised about money and its unholy paths, thus on hearing about their new plans, he recommended they bring their money for a blessing. That was the end of their dreams; their investment money was taken by the pastor, who since then has tossed them up and down. Today, Emmy is a child counsellor, while Mark has since left the church and become a taxi conductor as a result of what the now-influential pastor did to them.
This story is not any different from the many church thefts today. But, before any judgment is passed, one needs to ask themselves how church leaders are capable of swindling innocent, smart and intelligent believers without the latter smelling a rat. Is this because the church too is full of lost believers, who have since changed from wanting blessings to yearning for luxury?
Emmy and Mark were too ambitious for returns that they almost let the pastor control their spiritual destiny. Many flocks have lost savings, land titles and cars because apostle so and so wants to bless everything associated to evil money. But then, some pastors go an extra mile with their trickery. They befriend their working-class flocks to the extent of visiting their homes. Through their genius, they can get hold of your phone, get some numbers off and that’s when the games begin. Con pastors don’t stumble upon strangers; they simply make it look that way but always look up all the necessary information beforehand.
Jennifer, a banker, was a victim to a pastor’s trickery after he called her with a prosperity tale. “He told me God had shown him my number during prayers and in three minutes I had become a devoted member of his congregation,” she says. Jennifer was then told her co-worker was bewitching her and stumbling her prophesied success. The pastor was able to extort offertory money and airtime to allegedly call her co-worker to get her to confess. “Before this, he would invite me to his house for overnight prayers and rush off in the morning without leaving up keep money for his family; this automatically meant I had to foot the food bills,” says Jennifer.
Sadly, she later found out that the said “witch” had resisted this pastor’s attempt to con her, causing him to paint her with witchcraft accusations to cover his back in case she tried exposing him.
According to Namara, a dedicated born again Christian, some dubious pastors hire about 20 to 30 undercover employees whose work is to befriend believers and gather vital information like who they are, what they do, where they come from or what has brought them to church. This is mostly common with pastors who preach prosperity. It is unheard of for any such pastor to say to a believer, “God has shown me that you will praise him in poverty,” or “God has told me you will be a pastor.” It’s always a story that will get one giving tirelessly because it carries a ray of hope.
For others, common grievances work best. From unemployment to marriage issues, there’s always at least two or one believer in that bracket. The pastor’s role here is to make them seem easy to deal with. For example, he won’t mention a campus girl having marital problems even though they exist in the congregation. To him, a campus girl will usually need tuition and better grades and it’s exactly what he will talk about.
Some Christians criticise churches that invite wealthy believers for prayers.
“All churches, be it Catholic, Pentecostal, Anglican or those other, give wealthy believers star treatment; front seats and acknowledgements in the hope that they will return the favour,” says Geraldine, a devoted Catholic.
In most churches lately, pastors use soothing words of hope, quote what they want you to listen to and some even provide special blessings for those who pay a specific amount for them. During a service I attended recently, the choir played songs that enticed, threatened or sweet-talked one into giving back to God. The pastor interrupted to emphasise how our power of relief was “within us, in our pockets”. She openly enticed the congregation into giving big chunks of money for a blessing.
“The Lord tells me you’re in need of a blessing because you need a promotion. If you really need what brought you here, in Jesus’ name, come get your prosperity blessing with Shs250,000,” she screamed into the microphone. She went on to lament how people who used taxis on their way to church were going to cruise their own expensive cars soon. This went on in different categories, even the students who needed tuition, decent boyfriends or jobs paid Shs5,000 for their blessings.
To me, this was direct thieving and I wondered why everyone wasn’t seeing through her lies and tricks. Is it because many believe that doubting a church leader is tantamount to disbelief in God? Some people I talked to think pastors are emotional and spiritual blackmailers; just like Jennifer was blackmailed into believing it was her responsibility to facilitate the pastor, others will be lured with a scripture verse because pastors know that Christians do not doubt the Bible.
Performing miracles or having the power to move something does not prove the authority of these works, since almost all strong Pentecostal churches have witnessed miracles. People can never doubt a man of miracles even if he intends to swindle them, but some con pastors have been known to do research about people they intend to con massively.
Con pastors are simply smart and shrewd; yet their most formidable tool is the Bible - they understand and know how to twist it to their own advantage. If we don’t stick to what the carpenter’s son stood for, we might definitely lose this godly institution to cons.
Notes
[1] “Daily Monitor: - Religion: Is the church losing its identity to conmen?.” [Online]. Available: http://www.monitor.co.ug/LifeStyle/Religion/-/689744/689744/-/ivpt1x/-/index.html. [Accessed: 18-Oct-2010].
[2] “Crystal Cathedral megachurch files for bankruptcy - Yahoo! News.” [Online]. Available: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101018/ap_on_re_us/us_crystal_cathedral. [Accessed: 18-Oct-2010].
