How Religion Caused The Great Recession

HOW RELIGION CAUSED THE GREAT RECESSION

PART THREE: THE RISE OF THE MEGACHURCH.

(Image from wikimedia commons)

In part two, we saw how a market system based on perpetual growth required a change in social attitudes once productivity was capable of meeting basic needs, and that transition was one in which we went from frugality to signalling our individuality through consumption. By the late 20th century it would have been impossible to miss consumption culture and, perhaps inevitably, marketing, advertising and other aspects of growth culture began to have an influence in areas one might consider to be outside such economic concerns.

One such example would be Church. Membership of mainstream church had been declining in the latter part of the 20th century. In the past, churches faced with an increasing number of 'unchurched' folk might have sent out missionaries to try and convert the heathen population. But, this being an era of marketing, they tried something different. They did what any business would do when looking to relaunch a flagging product. They began thinking of potential members as 'customers' and conducted market research in order to determine what the 'customer' wanted. The various surveys and research indicated that people were not much interested in the kind of sermons they had sat through as children. Not for them, the angry sermon condemning sin. In fact, the market research showed people were not much interested in traditional church at all.

So pastors like Rick Warren, Bill Hybels and Robert Shuller set about reconfiguring church in order to better accommodate what the 'customer' wanted. Out went the hard pews, replaced with comfortable seating. Out went all the imagery of conventional churches. These new churches would have little in the way of traditional Christian iconography, such as crosses or images of Jesus. The result of this transformation was a building that looked less like a church and more like architecture that fit seamlessly with the modernist corporate-style environment of the rest of the city.

It was not only the physical appearance of the church that changed to suit the modern corporate, secular world. The sermons themselves changed as well. The more demanding principles of Christianity with its teachings of modesty and humble living were discarded, replaced with positive messages very much like the ones New Thought had preached. The new breed of pastor saw themselves not as critics of the secular, materialistic world but rather as active participants within it. They preached a 'prosperity gospel', one which claimed God wanted you to achieve status, wealth and other trappings of material success.

In terms of growth, this tactic of transforming churches into secular conference centres spreading the good news that God would payeth thy credit card proved very successful. The churches led by the likes of Schuller, Warren and Hybels became 'megachurches' which, if you include those attending via TV broadcast, preached to an audience of millions. Being so big, megachurches had to employ hundreds of people and find millions of dollars to keep the organisation running. These conditions led to their pastors becoming ever less like traditional clergy and more like CEOs of large corporations. As Ehrenreich explained, many of these churches were "nondenominational, meaning they couldn't turn to a centralised bureaucracy for financial or any other kind of support...They depended entirely on their own charisma and salesmanship".

(Image from wikimedia commons)

So the audience of a megachurch entered a building that looked pretty much like a corporate headquarters. The person preaching to them wore a business suit like any CEO and probably thought of himself as a 'pastorpreneur'- part pastor, part entrepreneur. And the message the pastorpreneur delivered was much the same as the one the corporate world wanted to get across: Through positive thinking, you can make anything happen. You can get ahead, you can become successful, you will become rich. Consider, for instance, the words of televangelist Joyce Meyer: "I believe God wants to give us nice things".

But, underneath all that positivity was the dark undercurrent of New Thought's attitude toward negativity as a sin. If, despite all your positivity, riches did not come your way, don't look for any flaw in business, economics or politics. Instead, blame yourself. You just didn't try hard enough. Pastor Robert Schuller advised his congregation to "never verbalise a negative emotion".

Still, at least the megachurch managed to remain a nice, comfortable place in which to receive the prosperity gospel. As Ehrenreich said, in a megachurch "no one will yell at you, impose impossible deadlines...All the visual signs of corporate power and efficiency, only without the cruelty and fear".

The same could not be said of corporate America in the late 20th/early 21st century.

Continued in PART FOUR

REFERENCES:

'Smile Or Die' by Barbara Ehrenreich