A world-weary Baptist businessman I know likes to say, "Nobody will screw you like a brother in Christ." Meaning that there's a special kind of cynicism employed by people who use religiosity as a cover for dastardly deeds. I know of a former manager, a Catholic, who mistreated one of his employees daily, and when he fired her, answered her protests by asking her to bow her head in prayer.
You've read about how Bernie Madoff exploited his Jewish connections to work his scam. Well, I thought of these two Christian examples I know of when I read this story about how Allen Stanford's cronies used Christian religiosity to peddle their Ponzi crap. Excerpt:
Stanford's financial advisers sold CDs across the globe, from Europe to Latin America to the Middle East. In the U.S., the company put most of its sales force in the South, where Green, 46, managed a team from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The advisers drew on church and community ties to find customers."We all seemed to be of common yolk,"[Surely he said 'yoke' and the reporter misheard, right? Or maybe the guy means they were all bad eggs -- RD] said Hank Mills, 49, a Stanford financial adviser, in an interview. The sales people "seemed to be involved in their community, in churches."
In a 2004 training video, Mills recounts how he received a phone call from a dying man who then agreed to have Stanford manage his money.
"We pray together," Mills says in the video. "He shares his financial picture, and he decides I'm the person that he wants to involve with his family to take care of them when he leaves."
In the same video, Green and his family are shown with three giant crosses planted on a field behind them. Green didn't return phone calls seeking comment. His wife, Stephanie Green, said in an interview that "my husband is a man of great faith" and "of the highest honor" who was "shattered" by the revelations of alleged fraud at the company.
Religiosity was part of the corporate culture at Stanford, the story goes on to say. And it appears that they were all pushing a lie. I happen to know some folks who were almost certainly wiped out by Stanford. That these crooks brought the name of Jesus into their lies and exploitation is foul beyond description. Of course, that wouldn't be the first time anyone has profited from the Holy Name.
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Rod, when you say "there's a special kind of cynicism employed by people who use religiosity as a cover for dastardly deeds," I think you duck the hardest part of the phenomenon, which is the possibility that there is something inherent to actual Christianity that leads in this direction. I think it's possible that religious habits of mind tend toward the self-justifying as often or more often than the self-critical. This seems a greater tendency in the evangelical realms but I've seen it everywhere. Even people who have robust senses of their own sin take refuge in the certainty of their religious worldview or identity. Church life in America tends, socially, toward relentless mutual praise and approval.
Cannoneo--
No, no, no. Don't blame it on Christianity. There are always sheep and goats--Jesus made that clear. When you spend your life in church and get to know Christians well, it becomes pretty apparent which ones are the sheep and which are the fish-flashing, lingo-talking, system-gaming goats. Sometimes the goats are the ones in charge, but the sheep are the ones who really follow Christ: loving each other, sharing money with the needy, visiting prisoners, building houses, adopting children, forgiving their enemies, etc. etc.. Since they're actually living the faith, you should judge the faith by their lives and not by the ones who just see it as an affirmative action program for hypocrites.
Betty, if only sin and character were that black-and-white. I know many of these sheep you describe, but we can all be a bit goatish at times. I've yet to meet a true goat, but they're probably out there. Speaking of sheep and goats, I think it's the very effort to make wisdom out of the simplistic and unforgiving parables of Matthew 25 that is the essence of Christianity's ethical vulnerability -- its need to justify foolishness because it comes with the stamp of authority. As you can tell I approach scripture in a way that is probably on the margins of American Christianity, but I am active in a church community and I value it greatly.
"Church life in America tends, socially, toward relentless mutual praise and approval." I don't know about this. I've made the journey from Baptist through Charismatic through Lutheran to Orthodox, and I've only seen relentless mutual praise among a few, very few, of the Charismatics. I find it difficult to spend much time mutually praising and approving while simultaneously praying, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner," but YMMV.
Cannoneo, I agree that things aren't always so black and white, and that we're all part goat. Those are good observations. I disagree about Matthew 25, obviously, but I won't preach at you, since everybody's entitled!
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