Votin' or Fishin'? Summer 1996

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TURN ON THE TV ANYTIME, IT SEEMS, and there it is: the Gospel of Prosperity. "Give your life to the Lord and he'll give you everything you need: a house, a car, a beautiful family, a great, fulfilling job—whatever you lack. For he has said, 'Ask and ye shall receive. … ' " This is a slightly crass exaggeration, but not by much. This type of televangelist spiel has been criticized and parodied often, and rightly so. We should reject the rampant materialism of this age and the Gospel of Prosperity along with it. To what extent, though, should we minimize or even reject the legitimate goods of this life? While harboring no fondness for televangelists, I am perplexed and disturbed—quite at a loss, in fact—when I read Mark 10:28-31.

This passage is a relatively obscure coda to Jesus' famous saying that a camel can go through the eye of a needle more easily that a rich man may enter the Kingdom of Heaven. After this saying we read: "The disciples were completely overwhelmed at this, and exclaimed to one another, 'Then who can be saved?' Jesus fixed his gaze on them and said, 'For man it is impossible but not for God. With God all things are possible.' " This passage alone is food for thought. The remark about the rich man and the camel is commonly taken in a rather self-righteous fashion: "You may be rich and well-off now, but just you wait! You'll get what's coming to you!" And yet it is the disciples (surely no wealthy men!) who "could only marvel at his words" (v. 24). They, poor as they were, knew better than we how difficult it is to overcome attachment to material things, which are not in fact evil in themselves. And Jesus, outrageously enough, implies that it is impossible by human standards, ...

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