The blaring headline from the Daily Beast last week, “Hipster Megachurch in Shambles Over Pastor’s Alleged Affair,” simultaneously caught my eye, made my heart sink, and got me angry. The anger part came as much from knowing what story behind the story I would likely find as much as from knowing what the main part of the story itself would be.
Right up front, and emphasizing the word “if,” let me go on record as saying that if a preacher commits adultery, he does not just get to “fill up, spend some time with God, get some counseling,” and then bound back into the pulpit a few weeks later. If adultery occurs, it is utterly disqualifying. But be that as it may, it is, as I referenced above, the story behind the story that should have been recognized as the problem years ago…
I strongly suspected even before I read the column that I would find the utterly heretical prosperity gospel spoken of throughout it, and sure enough, that turned out to be the case. Just a few paragraphs in, I read, “The services at Venue are standard megachurch fare, where sermons are preceded by rock shows complete with strobe lights and fog machines, and the preaching is heavy on “prosperity gospel”—the idea that donating to the church will increase your own financial fortunes.” A couple of paragraphs later, “A child support worksheet in Smith’s divorce proceedings lists his monthly income as $16,666. According to other divorce records, Smith and his ex-wife…
