The Errors Of “Feel Good Theology”

May 11th, 2014

Fr. Anthony Brankin

Whenever I would go into a motel or hotel room I would always look for the Gideon Bible.

I bet they aren’t there anymore. It might offend the Muslims or atheists. And I wouldn’t be surprised that there might have been many that were stolen or vandalized or desecrated. How could you miss—we have become a truly ugly society.

But I mention the Gideon Bible because in some senses it is the quintessential Protestant Bible. And by “Protestant Bible” I do not mean that in the sense that its translation is Protestant. Yes they took the Greek and the Hebrew words and found more Reformation friendly English. They did—but that’s not what I mean.

Nor by Protestant Bible do I mean the fact that the Protestant Bible is missing a number of books—which they are. In fact the Old Testament that Jesus used—the Septuagint—had 7 more books than the one the Protestants use.

No—by Protestant Bible I mean the way they seem to understand the purpose and point of the Bible—and it is really different than the way we Catholics understand it.

Take a Protestant Bible and flip to the back and look at the index. There you will find the most interesting and intriguing references in the Bible for just about anything that might be happening in you life:

Line after line and page after page the editors will ask: Are you sad? Read Ephesians 1-2

Are you depressed? Read Leviticus 3-4

Are you financially troubled? Read revelations 5-6

But think about it: Is that why the Bible was written? Is that why God inspired the Sacred Authors to take plume in hand and write thousands of pages and millions of words? To be some sort of a self—help book? A 1000 pages of helpful hints for better living in this world?

There are many good people who believe that that is the point of the bible—to be an advice book for maneuvering through this sometimes difficult world.

Not too long ago there was a weight-loss book on the Bestsellers list that claimed it was based on the bible. They said that the Bible was the most ancient Book of nutrition—telling us how to eat healthily and that if we just would follow the dietary laws set down by God for the Hebrews, we would just about guarantee ourselves health, happiness and a long life if he ate the way the Bible recommends.

I am sure that if the author dug deep enough he’d also be able to find an exercise program in the Bible, as well.

False wealth advice

I recently read about a minister who has discovered in the Bible the secret to wealth and smart investing.

Oh he is serious—and he wants to convince you that you can get rich if you really understand the Bible.

And there are others—including Jewish cabalists—who tell you that there is secret code in the Bible words that if you just knew that code you would be able not only to foretell the future but become enormously wealthy as well.

Okay. These are the charlatans—these are the Gospel of Wealth Guys—you know the ones who preach—with a million quotes from the Bible—that if you give God money, He will give you money back. They are popular.

Every time you see where the Protestant evangelicals are making progress in Latin America and Brazil—and the Protestant numbers are growing and the Catholic numbers are declining—they want you to think it is because the Catholic religion is tired and old and ineffective and corrupt and evil.

This is the “Reform the Curia” crowd in bed with the atheists.

Yes the numbers of Catholics are going down—but they never tell you that what is really happening is that the American Evangelicals are going to Catholic countries and appealing to the effects of Original Sin—and using our human weakness—and desire for wealth—to preach the Gospel of wealth.

They are telling the people: “It is the Catholics who are keeping you poor and hungry. If you read the Bible like we Americans do—you can wear nice clothes like we do and you can be rich like we are.”

So it is not a big step to go from believing that the Bible and religion and therefore Divine Revelation is all about improving our relationships to telling us that religion and the Bible is the surest way to get rich. The real point for them all is that it is all about this world.

Not a few priests and bishops get caught up in the excitement. They begin to think that not only the Bible—but the Faith itself—and even the point of the Incarnation is that it is all about this life—our health and wealth and happiness. If we follow the prescriptions and stories and analogies from Scripture we will have a sure guide for our lives.

And they make it seem so attractive to think that the reason that Jesus came was to relieve poverty—to spread economic progress and welfare to everyone.

Eventually the Gospel of wealth proponents end up proclaiming that Jesus is not so much the Messiah, the Saviour, the Redeemer—as He is the guarantor of health care rights and welfare benefits and fair business practices. They end up preaching that if everyone had the same amount of money—why we wouldn’t even have any sins anymore.

That is what comes of every complaint that the priests are not involved in the daily lives of people and that what they talk about should be applicable to people’s lives in this world.

I heard this 50 years ago at Loyola University—that all that pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die-stuff is for rigid traditionalists and doctrinalists and plaster saints and holy card collectors. They want us to believe that the faith is not about spiritual things and heaven—it is about getting down and dirty in the mud and wallowing in sin and poverty so that some how,miraculously we all come up rich and powerful and clean.

Well that is the tired message of the Protestants and the Modernists who at least agree on one thing—that you really don’t have to believe in anything supernatural—it is all about this world anyway.

But I say again, the Bible is not a self-help book—and Revelation is not a guide for success in this world. The point of it all is that the Bible and the Catholic faith exist for one thing and one thing only—to get us from this life—through this life—to heaven.

And this we do by means of our union with Jesus. We become one with Him through our prayers, our participation in the sacraments and our sacrifices—by which we unite ourselves with Jesus on the cross.

Oh yes indeed we must live a moral life and when we live that moral life—which includes the social teaching of the Church—others—including the poor—because of our goodness—are brought higher.

In other words those who are rich are taught charity and justice—and meekness and humility and how to use the goods of this world for the good of others; and those who are poor—well their lot in life may be improved—but they will learn that this life is about loving God—and neighbor—and nothing is more important than that.

Was my family—when it was dirt poor—and my grandfather was working in a linen mill in Belfast at the age of 6—and we were eating chicken gizzards every night—was my family consumed by jealousy against the rich and outraged with bitterness against God. No. It wasn’t.

We prayed and we loved and we made music and we gave two priests to the Church.

Catholics—bishops and priests and so-called liberation theologians need to understand and teach that the point of the Bible is to help us understand the point of the Incarnation and that is help us go to heaven.

The true message of the Bible

The message of the Bible and the Faith is that it will not make us wealthy—it might even make us poor. It will not make us healthy—it might even put us up on a cross—it won’t even make life very pleasant—think of all the martyrs and saints—including the Blessed Virgin Mary—who suffered greatly despite their huge faith—

No, to follow the message of the Bible as a Catholic is to understand that no matter what happens to us in this world—it is not about this world.

We belong not to this world and to its concerns but to Jesus who died for us and rose from the dead to prove His Divinity and who by the miracle of the Resurrection gives substance to His promise to us of eternal Life.

We are to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world—that we might be forever happy with Him in the next world.

This is why we are still celebrating Easter—long after the actual day—because Easter is what the Bible is all about –nothing more than that—and certainly nothing less.