The opiate of the masses

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4715210

According to this NPR story, lately Iranian clerics have become more lenient about trade, and have begun to even encourage consumerism among the people of their country (youth in particular). Their religious piety used to forbid shows of wealth but now, strangely, it endorses them.

In one interview, a girl stated that her fellow youth used to be involved politically, but now they don't have the time. Protests and political activism have been replaced by shopping and trend-following, and working to make more money to do more shopping. These Iranian clerics know exactly what they're doing. Money is the opiate of the masses.

Religion here in the United States has in some cases taken a similar turn. Especially in the case of mega-churches, wealth is considered a sign of blessing, and something to be aspired to. I guess they don't devote many Sundays to studying the Sermon on the Mount.

Many churches, when they DO use a wealth-related biblical text, often skew it to suit their purposes. I remember the sermons I heard, even at good ol' Calvary UMC (the church where I grew up), in which the minister preached on the passage that includes "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." He spent considerable time explaining that "the eye of the needle" is actually a difficult pass through the mountains, which was difficult to traverse by camel. That may be so, but WHO CARES? The disciples, whom he was talking to, then say, "Well then how can anyone be saved?" They knew that Jesus wasn't saying, "well, it might be kinda hard for you to enter the kingdom of heaven". They knew he was saying it was pretty darn impossible. Then, of course, Jesus follows with the beautiful, paradoxical, "With man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible."

Many churches spend a lot of time trying not to piss off their richer members, who allow (with their giving) much of the church's activities to go on. But in doing so, they water down their message. Mega-churches, who endorse the pursuit of wealth as "the Christian way", hopelessly pervert the meaning of the gospels.

In Iran, church and state have joined forces to quiet the people by busying them with the accumulation of wealth. Better-off Iranian youth, rather than engaging themselves in political activism against a government that is deeply corrupt, and doesn't reflect their values, are seeking the cheap pleasures of expensive goods. In effect, they silence themselves.

Here in the United States, a similar trend is happening. Many of us are so consumed with our own financial concerns that we ignore the blatant way our government has been abusing its power in the last few years.

The pastor at Calvary UMC summed up his sermon by saying that having money is ok, unless having it consumes your life, and separates you from the path of God. Today, though, money is power. It gets people elected, it makes wars begin. As the middle classes shrink, the divide between rich and poor gets larger, while the chasm of poverty becomes easier to fall into, and wealth becomes survival. When you have money, you vote differently, live differently. You live to protect what you have. So the question becomes not "when does having money divert you from living a Christian (or moral) life?" The question is, "when doesn't it?"