Don’t believe the hype

I was invited to a church on the east end several times and after some nagging I decided to check it out. When I drove up to the ultra massive building, many parking attendants guided my car to a parking spot. The place was so big, staff were driving around the parking lot in golf carts to keep things organized. On the inside of the main sanctuary, there were many tv cameras (I think I counted 6 real tv cameras). The music was good. To be fair I’m good with just about any kind of worship music. There were many announcements. Finally the speaker, a guest from Brazil, went up to the podium and began to speak. About a few words into her sermon I knew this was going to be a big nasty prosperity gospel money grabbing message which would make me angry, so I dint’ bother getting too comfortable.

20 minutes into the message, the speaker did something I’ve heard about but never seen in person. Gold colored material appeared on her hands and arms. She then made a claim it was pure gold and even had written verification from a supposed expert company, this letter was projected on one of the several large screens, it said that even diamonds were there too. lol. At that point hundreds of people ran up to the front and began rubbing her, as if she was a genie in a bottle. I couldn’t believe I was seeing this. I recommend people to churches all the time in different cities and even countries, and I was glad to scratch this church off my list. I just wish I could scratch it out of my memory.

I was waiting for the big kicker and it happened after a few more minutes. She proceeded to tell us that God just told her that we should all give her $100 today and if we do, God would bless us, but if we disobey, we would be in trouble with God. Hundreds, maybe more than 1,000 people ran up to the front and started throwing money at the lady. The room had maybe 3,000 or 4,000 people in it at the time, maybe more. I got up and walked out of the service. I’ll never return to this church but I know others who will, and I won’t try to convince them not to. I won’t say a word about it.

There are people who are dumb enough to believe the hype. Most of the people who ran up to rub the lady’s hips for her gold did it because they saw other people doing it first. The people running up to give their money, most do it because they see others doing it. Just because other people are doing something dumb doesn’t mean you should join in. The person who invited me is a well educated, super smart person who comes from a family of smart people, she’s regularly skeptical of everything. So it’s not just stupid people who fall for this stuff.

God doesn’t do these bizarre gold related ‘miracles’. They are not from God. But if you tell a person to just live faithfully and forget all that mumbo jumbo they get bored. People want the insanity. They want the hype. They prefer a sensational story instead of the plain truth. They want gold dust, they want a good speech about prosperity, they want to be lied to if it makes them feel good. They don’t mind if it puts their walk with God in jeopardy, as long as they stay entertained.

Today’s society hears the truth and refuses it. They prefer to buy into the lie, even if it costs them their eternal soul.

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