One of my favorite movies is a 2014 Brendan Gleeson masterwork called Calvary. It's about an Irish priest, Father James, doing his best to care for a motley collection of townsfolk whose relationship to morality is as complicated as James's own past. In one scene, Father James is summoned to the home of a lonely, drunk, ultra-rich narcissist named Michael Fitzgerald to receive either a confession or a donation, he's not sure which.

As a demonstration of how little money means to him, Fitzgerald takes a priceless painting from the wall of his own parlor, throws it on the floor, drops his pants, and urinates on it. Father James is not impressed by the gesture nor the renunciation of wealth it is meant to communicate. James tells him, “I think you don’t want to do penance at all. I think you asked me here to make fun of me. But when you do want to do penance, sincerely, you can give me a call any time and I’ll try my best to help you.”

As a pastor, I have found myself in Father James’s situation too often — not with the painting or the bodily fluids — but in that moment when I’m called on to discern whether a mendicant is genuine of heart. Is this person who is asking for financial assistance simply scamming the church? Is this person who is asking me to bless his divorce really as innocent as his version of the marriage makes him seem? It is one of the most difficult and unwelcome tasks of ministry.

Earlier this month, Irving-based televangelist, faith healer, and prosperity preacher Benny Hinn announced that he is abandoning the prosperity gospel. Correcting his theology, he called it. For those of us who keep tabs on such theological minutia (I admit we probably seem a curious few to the rest of the world) this was big news. Christianity Today ran it as the top story on its website. The theological twitterverse shrilled. And the question on all of our minds was the same question Father James ponders facing his friend with his pants down: Is this contrition?

Hinn has done this before. In 1987, 1990, 1991, and 1993 he denounced prosperity theology — the belief that God wants to make all Christians healthy and wealthy — only to preach it again in the years to follow.

Prosperity theology is a pernicious distortion of Christian teaching. The Bible describes a God who is slow to anger and abounding in love, who longs to give good gifts to his children. But it also makes clear that those gifts are not always, or even usually, material. Wealth, in fact, can work counter to faith. And the most celebrated heroes of the New Testament — Paul, Peter, James, John, Mary, and Jesus himself — died poor, lonely, and misunderstood. In one of the most famous passages in the book of Hebrews, a list of lionhearts often called the “hall of faith,” the Bible praises disciples this way:

“Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated — the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.”

By contrast, Hinn’s life involves private jets, luxury cars, and European vacation homes.

“Growing up in the Hinn family empire was like belonging to some hybrid of the royal family and the mafia,” Hinn’s nephew Costi Hinn wrote in a 2017 article. “Our lifestyle was lavish, our loyalty was enforced, and our version of the gospel was big business.”

1 / 3Benny Hinn is seen on May 10, 2017 in Los Angeles.(Hollywood To You/Star Max / GC Images) 2 / 3William Vandenkolk, of Las Vegas, shown in this Feb. 2003 photo, was not cured of blindness at a 2001 Benny Hinn faith healing "Miracle Crusade," leaving the 11-year-old boy to wonder two years later why God didn't love him. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag) 3 / 3CANADA - SEPTEMBER 28, 1992: Benny Hinn: At left; and above; during Maple Leaf Gardens performance where he waved his coat about; proclaiming people cured of their ailments.(Tony Bock / Toronto Star via Getty Images)

The Bible does not teach that money is evil or wealth is sinful. There’s no maximum earnings allowed for Christians. The warnings in the Bible are about the love of money, about valuing material things more than eternal things. The message of Jesus is not, “Come to me and get rich.” It’s also not, “Come to me and be poor.” It’s closer to, “Come to me and lose everything. Then you’ll understand what your soul is worth.”

And that may be the saddest element of Benny Hinn’s saga. If the value of a soul is measured by how much we’re willing to surrender to keep it, Benny Hinn appears to think that his soul is worth very little.

For most, the answer to the question about Hinn’s contrition may be obvious: of course he’s not sincere. Only a relentless optimist would believe his confession or his preaching. But that’s where we must return to Father James, his urinating penitent, and the one lesson we might learn from Benny Hinn. Unlike the priest and his parish, we are not meant to judge the genuine-ness of Hinn’s repentance. Alongside the Bible’s teachings on wealth is this one on judgement: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

The beggar asking for money, the divorcé asking for absolution, the convicted felon asking for divine forgiveness. These are confessions we can encourage, conversations we can facilitate, but they are not souls for us to judge. In the lines just before Michael Fitzgerald drops his pants, he accuses Father James of breaking this code. “I think you’re a very judgmental man, father.”

To which James answers with his own confession. “Yes I am. But I try not to be.”

So here is Benny Hinn, the prosperity preacher. In another act of histrionics, he has exposed who he is. He has denounced his wealth (though not abandoned it). And he asks us and thousands of his followers to believe him. The best we can do is to keep our wallets in our pockets but our hands open, repeating Father James’s gracious offer: “When you do want to do penance, sincerely, you can give me a call any time and I’ll try my best to help you.”

Ryan Sanders is a pastor at Irving Bible Church and an editorial writer for The Dallas Morning News.

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