2023-09-22 14:10:57
Although the exploitation of other people’s faith is not new to humanity, since charlatanism has existed since antiquity, this practice emerged and seems to have become recurrent, also, in the evangelical environment, transforming part of the Brazilian church into a “business desk”. .
This is the opinion of pastor and theologian Renato Vargens, who used social media to criticize the emergence of figures who preach a “self-help gospel”, and who “in the name of cheap grace” also preach “a good-natured Christ”, destitute of Justice.
“They turned the church into a big business and the gospel into a product. If that were not enough, many pastors have commercialized the good news by charging high fees to preach the Word of God”, commented the pastor.
Author of at least 30 books in the theological segment, Vargens has joined other names in Brazilian Christian theology to appeal to the Church for a “return to the biblical gospel”.
Contrary to what some may imagine based on the pastor’s comments, the exploration of faith in the evangelical segment is not limited to the neo-Pentecostal environment, which includes megachurches that promote practices that are questioned in light of the Bible.
It also involves traditional leaders of evangelicalism who were once known for their fidelity to the Scriptures, but who now seem to have opted for a type of personalized gospel, at odds with Christian orthodoxy.
They became products
For Vargens, the commodification of faith also concerns the music sector, where gospel singers earn large sums of money, not as a result of natural work, in fact, but of those who place themselves in this segment as a “product”, instead of proclaimer of the gospel.
“For some time now, part of the Brazilian church has become a business counter, singers have become products and pastors have become auditorium entertainers. Sad to know that the house of prayer became a business house, that the gospel, coaching; and the people are a mass of manoeuvre,” he said in other Publication.
Recently, a controversy involving preacher Vitória Souza and pastor Éverton Porto, from the Assembly of God Fonte de Vitória, in Catanduva (SP), brought to light the topic of commercial exploitation of faith, also becoming the target of criticism from the pastor Renato Vargens. “Christ is the product sold”, commented he. “May God have mercy on the struggling Brazilian evangelical church.” Watch:
#Church #business #counter