My family members are Evangelicals of the Pentecostal variety. I was raised in that faith, but being Orthodox for almost 10 years has distanced me quite a bit from the world of megachurches and televangelists. Still, visiting home frequently means coming face-to-face with it, as my retired dad usually watches several hours of televangelism a day. He's good about keeping the TV off when my kids are awake, but after they are in bed, he often turns on programs he's recorded during the day.

On a recent visit, I sat next to him as one of his favorite TV preachers thundered away at his congregation about God's plans for His children. Among his rantings was this gem, "God wants you to be happy! God wants you to be successful! If you can just empower God in your lives, health and wealth can be yours as a child of God!"

Evidently, you also needed to buy the good preacher's latest DVD series on self-empowerment through the Gospel in order to really "unlock" God's purpose for your life. God wants only the best for His children, especially if they are willing to pony up $79.95 plus shipping and handling.

I shrugged, turned to my dad and said, "I suppose that the book of Job is really a misprint?"

What Happens When the Party Is Over?

Look around you. Times are tough, and getting tougher. The stock market is down, housing foreclosures are rising, paychecks are outstripped by inflation, and everyone at least knows someone who has been laid off (if not having suffered it personally). Real suffering, real misery are coming to the shores of America.

Unfortunately, never has the Christian population of the United States been less ready for actual hard times. The Prosperity Gospel, preached on TV and in megachurches around the country, has convinced millions that the power of Theistic Positive Thinking can make them healthy and wealthy. In fact, they have a binding contract with the Almighty to that effect. Just follow the plan as laid out by the man on TV, and God has to keep up his side of the bargain to just rain down good things on you.

That is bad enough, but there is more to Prosperity Gospel than personal enrichment. As a Theological Form of American Materialism, the Prosperity Gospel doesn't just emphasize the ability of an individual believer to channel success via faith. The American Nation as a whole has pride of place as well. Prosperity Gospel within the United States tends to be strongly nationalistic, emphasizing America's unique role in the world and her unique destiny as a nation. America is expected to be rich and powerful, at least until after the Rapture has happened and the true believers have been taken safely to Heaven in the twinkling of an eye.

How much impact has Prosperity Gospel had on the American public? A Times Magazine poll in 2006 gives a clue. Among the findings:

17 percent of Christians surveyed said they considered themselves part of such a movement [Prosperity Gospel], while a full 61 percent believed that God wants people to be prosperous. And 31 percent-a far higher percentage than there are Pentecostals in America-agreed that if you give your money to God, God will bless you with more money

More people believe that God is obligated to provide a payout than actually belong to Penecostal churches. God, it seems, is a guaranteed investment in the minds of many Americans. Insert coinage, wait for good stuff to drop out. Sort of like a Celestial Slot Machine that always comes up triple 7's.

This is a philosophy uniquely suited to good economic conditions. Rising levels of income and abundant opportunity mean that self-help is actually possible. If there are better jobs than yours to be had, then getting out there and leaving your "comfort zone" could, indeed, make you richer. Following the advice of the man on TV might just pay off. And to God be the glory.

But what about when times go bad, and there are no jobs to be had - no matter how positive your attitude?

Our official unemployment rate is 6.1% and climbing. Many unbiased (non-government) economists estimate that the real rate of unemployment and underemployment is double that. Real wages are falling, food prices are skyrocketing, and the federal government keeps shoveling borrowed money into various sectors trying to stave off collapse.

Looking ahead, the economic prospects are bleak. At first, I imagine, the Prosperity Gospel will retain a lot of its appeal. To desperate people, the idea that empowering God in their lives will make them wealthier and healthier is going to be alluring. But the economic winter coming our way is likely to be long.

What happens when the power of Theistic Positive Thinking fails again and again in life after life? What happens when God doesn't turn on the money spigot as directed? Suppose even though the believers sacrifice to throw money in the collection basket - nothing changes? Suppose the Christians were hungry yesterday, are hungry today, and will be hungry tomorrow?

As businesses shutter and hard times spread, Christians will go to their leaders for wisdom. They will find very little to be had in the Prosperity Gospel, which has been stripped of both Sin and Redemption along with any rationalization for suffering. In fact, even traditional Evangelicals and other Protestants will find their faith sorely tried as they look for answers that won't be forthcoming.

The false Gospels are going to fail. The American enterprise itself, riddled with debt and hollowed-out from within, may also fail. As this failure becomes too obvious to ignore, millions of Americans will be looking around them asking, "What now?"

Many Americans will lose their faith, finding no solace in the Gospel as they have known it. Others will continue to believe, but will cry out that God has abandoned them, as proven by their suffering.

These newly disillusioned people will be hungry, tired, and frightened. They will be residents of a once-great nation that is on the rocks. They'll be battered by a hostile world, and looking for answers. And they won't be in much of a mood to hear about Your Best Life Now, to quote the title of megapastor Joel Osteen's best seller.

What happens then?

The answer to that question actually depends on us - the Orthodox Christians in America.

Why? Because the Orthodox Christian Faith has already been where America is headed. Orthodox Christianity has survived in lands beset by wars, economic disasters, governmental collapses, foreign occupations, and all sorts of other calamities. The depth of the Orthodox Faith has preserved Christians through trials and tribulations that televangelists like T.D. Jakes or Joel Osteen can not even begin to imagine.

From the persecutions in Rome to the long, dark night of Islamic domination to the mass executions of the Communist Era - the Orthodox Christian Faith has triumphed over adversity. The true Gospel has the power to transform lives, to bring hope to the desperate, to give succor to the widow and the fatherless. The authentic Orthodox Faith motivates charity and teaches that you are wealthy because you have few wants, not because you have many possessions. In Orthodoxy, you take up the Cross and deny yourself in ascetic practice. You do not name it and claim it on your way to a millionaire lifestyle.

This faith, this marvelous treasure of the true Gospel, will be what remains as the false teachings are burned away through suffering. As Orthodox Christians in America, it is our job to witness to the true Faith, once delivered to the Saints.

When those around us suffer, we must remind them of what St. Maximos the Confessor said:

Suffering cleanses the soul infected with the filth of sensual pleasure and detaches it completely from material things by showing it the penalty incurred as a result of its affection for them. This is why God in His justice allows the devil to afflict men with torments.

When others mock God, embittered by the betrayl of their easily wrought faith in material possessions, it is the Orthodox who must call them back to repetence and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by introducing American Protestants to the Philokalia:

If God suffers in the flesh when He is made man, should we not rejoice when we suffer, for we have God to share our sufferings This shared suffering confers the kingdom on us. For he spoke truly who said, 'If we suffer with Him, then we shall also be glorified with Him' (Rom. 8:17)...The outcome of every affliction endured for the sake of virtue is joy, of every labor rest, and of every shameful treatment glory; in short, the outcome of all sufferings for the sake of virtue is to be with God, to remain with Him for ever and to enjoy eternal rest" Philokalia, Vol. 2, St. Maximos-First Century of Various Texts, p. 170, 73

It is ironic that a great moment for Orthodoxy is opening just as economic hardtimes are dawning. But, that is ever the paradox of man's fallen state. In America, many who claimed to be looking for Jesus have really been looking for material prosperity. The comfort of our lives and our economic strength made it easy to avoid the contradiction inherent in this.

But that prosperity seems to be giving way to a profound crisis. As our material prosperity is stripped away from us, a true test of faith becomes impossible to avoid. While not all Orthodox Christians will survive this test, the Orthodox Christian Faith itself offers the only true path through the approaching storm.

It is our privilege, our honor, and our duty to be called by God at this time in history to offer up our lives in living witness to the Orthodox Faith. No matter what may come, we must remember the words of St. Mark the Ascetic:

When tested by some trial you should try to find out not why or through whom it came, but only how to endure it gratefully, without distress or rancor.

Now is not the time for fear in the face of an unstable economy, but for faith.

Now is the time to rededicate ourselves to prayer and fasting and to the teaching of Orthodoxy. Now is the time to rededicate ourselves to good works through our parishes as places where Christians come together, as a community, to confront the challenges facing us.

Our Orthodox forefathers have shown us the way time and again, we must simply follow their example.

Glen Chancy is CIO for corfun.com, Webmaster for the Orthodox Christian Network, and publisher of Orthodox Biz. You can contact him here

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 [When Prosperity Fades - Will the Gospel?]

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