Six Flags Over Jesus

While in Houston for my wonderful college friend Christina’s wedding, one of my other friends and I went to a couple of “church” services. The first was Lakewood Church AKA Joel Osteen’s Church AKA Six Flags Over Jesus. The next was Ecclesia, but I’ll leave that to a future post.

For those unfamiliar with Joel Osteen, he preaches a prosperity theology to, by many accounts, the largest church in the United States. Essentially saying that being a Christian means that you will prosper. Time Magazine did an article two years ago called “Does God Want You to be Rich.”

Coming into the stadium, there was a notable abscence of a cross (not that a cross can’t be an idol), but there was a large American flag displayed in the back (looking at later videos I think there were more than I could see from my vantage point) and a massive rotating golden globe emitting fog.

The problem with Osteen’s message isn’t that it is completely false (deception must always contain some truth), it’s that it is, at best, incomplete. His message is at core, think positively (and give to Lakewood) and you will have your best year ever. Of course he talks about aligning oneself with God, but the only route to this provided is to think positively and recognize the God inside oneself. He provides a false hope to the poor and greedy in the face of the other American churches which by in large provides so little hope it’s hardly worth mentioning.

Osteen’s narrative is not primarily that of Christ, rather it is the American narrative: work hard and you will prosper. At core, it is a narrative of empire which makes the golden globe so appropriate.

While Osteen may be one of the most egreggious, most churches throughout the United States have traded the narrative of Christ with the narrative of America. It is a narrative (familiar to Family Christian bookstores) of God’s favor and endorsement. Of the availability of an unquenchable river of cheap grace flowing with comfort, wealth, safety, and health. In short, people get what they deserve, therefore I am entitled to that which I have and have no reason to share. I can have everything I desire and follow Jesus as well. Sorry, but that’s simply untrue (see Luke 18:18-23 and Matthew 10:39 for a couple examples of the many times Christ rejects this Saducean viewpoint).

It is the narrative that says that God’s favor is on the United States, therefore our actions, whether the genocidal removal of Native American’s from their land or the exploitation of foreign labor, are unquestionably sanctioned, ordained, and blessed by God. What arrogance! What foolishness!

Quite simply put, that is completely against the narrative Christ offers. Whether we like it or not, the United States is not the “new Israel,” the United States is the “new Rome.”