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Buyer beware of too big to fail—fostered by a religion of wealth and health
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Ours is an age of too big to fail. We are living in the wake of bailouts and bankruptcies. Could it be that greed is good is more fostered than condemned by religion—by the greed inherent in positive thinking? The list of prosperity preachers is long—most of them link get rich with a conservative interpretation of the Book, but before the current big named clerics who promise wealth, there was the spiritually liberal Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, who came to be known for his gospel of positive thinking and as God’s salesman to the rich.
After this Ohio born preacher had served several other churches, in 1932 he arrived to head the New York City Marble Collegiate Church with its 600 members. (Not incidentally, does not Marble in the name of this church emit the sound of wealth?) By the time Peale retired in 1984, the church had 5,000 members. Peale's The Art of Living weekly radio program and later on television was broadcast for 54 years on NBC. For many years, I was one of those 750,000 people to whom his sermons were mailed each month. The Guidepost Magazine that he began now has a circulation of more than 4.5 million, one of the largest for any current religious publications.
Peale housed a psychiatric clinic in the basement of his church. He partnered with Dr. Smiley Blanton, a Freudian-Jungian psychiatrist, who headed it and saw it grow to an operation of more than 20 psychiatric doctors and psychologically-trained ministers. It is today known as the the Institutes of Religion and Health (IRH).
The Reverend Peale coupled the human potential movement to a liberal interpretation of the Bible: "Through prayer you . . . make use of the great factor within yourself, the deep subconscious mind . . . [which Jesus called] the kingdom of God within you . . . Positive thinking is just another term for faith." Unlike Billy Graham, he avoided the authority of the Bible says, and in its place preached, "Your unconscious mind . . . [has a] power that turns wishes into realities when the wishes are strong enough."
More than a handful of both liberal and conservative modern preachers ask their audiences not to wait for the hereafter for riches. Rather they promise believers good things in the here and now. Often their promises are re-enforced by the fact that they are made within huge stadium-sized buildings and ulta-modern magnificent cathedrals, such as Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral in Los Angeles. The opulence of this sparkling palace of worship--strikingly different from the grand gothic cathedrals or mosques of the past--exudes the promise of good things for those who believe. The Reverend Schuller and his son’s rhetoric of faith expressed in riches resonate harmoniously within those glass walls. Peale’s positive thinking is a distant echo to Schuller's coining possibility thinking--"Possibility thinking makes miracles happen . . . The greatest power in the world is the power of possibility thinking."
We know to beware of blatant or subtle, promises of wealth, health, and the human potential by self help charismatic advocates. Should we not equally be beware of God blessed positive and possibility thinking? We now know banks and financial institutions should cause us to pause. Right? Should this wariness not also apply to a religion positive thinking in marble and possibility thinking in crystal?
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