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Apologia Report 18:34 (1,170)
September 11, 2013
Subject: Who's getting rich with the get-rich-quick gospel?
In this issue:
BUDDHISM - enlightenment, fraud, and death
MORMONISM - a journalist discovers suppressed LDS culture
NEW TESTAMENT CANON - understanding how the "early and medieval churches used apocryphal and non-canonical scriptures"
WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT - Is Charisma magazine criticizing decades of prosperity teaching?
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BUDDHISM
The wheels can fall off in any belief system - and much can be learned from the experience. In "Sex and Death on the Road to Nirvana," Rolling Stone writer Nina Burleigh explains: "The story of how two educated people ended up living - and one dying - alone in a spiritual retreat in a tiny Arizona cave, like the ancient hermits, begins and ends with a man named Michael Roach <www.ow.ly/oKZuH>. A 60-year-old boyish, impermeably cheerful one-time diamond merchant, Roach claimed to have achieved the highest levels of Tibetan Buddhism and had adapted the principles of that tradition into a uniquely American practice.
"The ideal of Mahayana Buddhism - the branch of Buddhism that Roach has studied and teaches – is a spiritual hero called the Bodhisattva. He can be divine or human, but a hallmark of the Bodhisattva is that while he attains a level of enlightenment enabling him to exit the cycle of birth and death, he chooses to remain behind and help others.
"To his followers, who know him as Geshe Michael (a Geshe degree is one of Tibetan Buddhism's highest academic achievements and often takes decades to acquire), Roach is one of these rare beings. They speak of a man who can walk through walls, see into the future and, some believe, cast powerful spells against those who cross him. He is also a highly controversial figure, who has rejected some of the orthodoxy of Tibetan Buddhism and molded the practice to suit his own private purposes and goals, selling the notion that meditation is not simply the path to enlightenment but to earthly love and worldly riches." Lengthy. Rolling Stone, Jun '13, n.p. <www.ow.ly/oF5rm>
More on Roach and his Diamond Mountain University and Retreat Center at <www.ow.ly/oKZyO>.
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MORMONISM
"Stranger in a Mormon Land" by Jeremy Lott -- in an era when pocket phones access anything made public, it is increasingly difficult to find candid admissions of what many outsiders suspect and yet what most insiders know. So to discover anything that suggests a universal LDS mindset of exclusivism (the sort of thinking that muses: "What non-Mormon could possibly be a Christian?") - especially when it's unearthed by a non-evangelical - is quite a nugget.
Lott begins: "Media fads quickly slip the bonds of memory, but try to recall one clip from last year's highlights reel. It's the one where nearly everybody in the press proclaims a 'Mormon moment.' ...
"For my part, I figured that a) since Mormonism was going to be in the news quite a bit; b) since my job is to cover religion journalism; and c) since I am nobody's idea of a saint, Latter-day or otherwise; it would be a good idea to grab some firsthand experience with the religion.
"So one Sunday, unannounced and with notebook in hand and caffeine coursing through my veins, I showed up at the local Mormon ward and occupied a pew. ...
"The culture shock experienced over the next few hours was not just a personal quirk, I hope. ... I converted to Catholicism as an adult....
"The closest analogy might be something along these lines: Imagines that you are an observant Jew attending a Christian church for the first time. There are many things that you will recognize, including concepts and even scriptures, but they will be recast in a way that is weird, in fact, utterly foreign to you. ...
"My visit to the Mormon ward was a bit like that....
"One thing outsiders usually don't understand about Mormonism is that, outside the official power structure in Salt Lake City, it's mostly a religion of earnest amateurs. ...
"I came up to talk to the teacher about one item after class. ... We struck up a conversation. He admitted, 'Either we're right or you guys are.' Then he thought about that and added, 'Please don't quote me by name.'" American Spectator, Jul/Aug '13, n.p. <www.ow.ly/oEVae>
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NEW TESTAMENT CANON
"The Fake Bible" by Philip Jenkins -- "This is the story of a major documentary find, the rediscovery of priceless texts that for centuries were hiding in plain sight, and which throw a remarkable light on Christian history. Yet outside a fairly narrow section of the academy, the story remains virtually unknown.
"The fact that early and medieval churches used apocryphal and non-canonical scriptures will surprise nobody with any background in Christian history. We know about all the New Testament apocrypha, like the various accounts devoted to the Virgin Mary. Quite apart from such 'mainstream' apocrypha though, churches were long familiar with a large and influential body of works with Old Testament settings, and usually claiming the authorship of various patriarchs and prophets, of Moses, Abraham, Enoch, Ezra, and Isaiah.
"To use the technical term, these are pseudepigrapha, 'false' writings under assumed names. In their day, these writings exercised a huge influence over Christian thought and religious practice, and were widely used by mainstream authors. ...
"The rediscovery of these apocryphal writings deserves to be counted alongside the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library as one of the scholarly feats of modern times. ...
"These works show how manuscripts have evolved over time. ...
"[W]ere the Inquisitors of the thirteenth century actually struggling against ideas that originated in Alexandria and Jerusalem over a thousand years before? It's a stunning thought.
"Dan Brown, eat your heart out." RealClearReligion, Jul 6 '13, <www.ow.ly/oF3aB>
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WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT
"Who's Getting Rich With the Get-Rich-Quick Gospel?" by Jennifer LeClaire, news editor for Charisma -- opens with secular examples including "the question-mark-suit-wearing infomercial icon Matthew Lesko," and the vitamin huckster Don Lapre. However, LeClaire fails to name the names of those who are behind "scams" that are much closer to home.
Christian examples of "the get-rich-quick gospel" include "a ministry asking for your help to keep a television broadcast on the air - or maybe even an orphanage.... The problem is what some of these ministries are promising in return. ...
"Maybe you've watched Christian television programs - or even seen in person - saints coming and laying money at the feet of the preacher, leaving it on the stage or even stuffing it in his pocket when he walks by. The idea here is to give to the anointing to get a quick return. They are sowing into the message they hear in order to reap a harvest. Scripturally, they stand on Acts 4:34 but blur the context, which was to distribute goods for the needs of people in the early church - not to heap up a quick financial return on a seed because of a 'special anointing' on a message.
"Or maybe you've seen variations of the Luke 6:38 swindle. The preacher says he had a vision or received a prophetic word that all those who commit to sow $638 over the next six months will get a massive financial breakthrough. Other gospel hucksters have offered a $1,000 return on a $58 seed - but only if you'll quickly go to the phone right now! And you'd better hurry because it's only available for 300 people who really need a miracle. Others just look for vows to give in exchange for an anointed prayer, then harrass you with letters to no end. Still others offer special anointed prayer shawls, anointing oil, special soaps or other merchandise that promise miracles in exchange for big bucks." Charisma, Jun 15 '13, <www.ow.ly/oF1gg>
The irony of Charisma running such a piece leaves us in hope that the flagship magazine of the charismatic/Pentecostal movement - long a nursery for all sorts of prosperity gospel flim-flam - might be discovering that it has a conscience, or at least that it must promote a semblace of accountability in the face of such widespread, grievous abuse.
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