She’s written several books, but the one highlighted in the news was her latest release, Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide?: (‘Cause I Need More Room for My Plasma TV). It’s all about people- some people who sniffed money and got addicted and some people who realized that loving others was more important than stuff. Karen’s got two things going for her (actually, she’s got more than two, but these are pretty important).

First, she’s a superstar storyteller. Every chapter in Double-Wide kept my attention, but her description of the jubilee in Mobile Bay is the best I’ve ever read. The book is worth a buy simply for that one little old chapter. Dead serious.

Second, she doesn’t hold back when she sees something wrong. She’s got bite, and in her latest book Karen eviscerates the prosperity gospel and boldly rebukes those who proclaim it in the name of wealth. For real, folks. She did it with humor that good old Southern charm, but there was no mistake in the end. There’s no place in God’s Kingdom for those health, wealth, and prosperity guys. It’s just not what Jesus was about.

So that brings us to this week. You might have read about “Bishop” Eddie Long in the news. Some guys claimed Long sexually assaulted them. Long denies it. It turns out “The Bishop” is one of those prosperity gospel preacher-types, complete with the custom suit, bling on his fingers and around his neck, and those expensive cars. Karen wrote a blog post about it:

Whatever the courts decide about the sex abuse charges, Long has a troubling history of abusing his position to coerce people into serving him. In a flagrant abuse of scriptures, Long has preached a false gospel – the Prosperity Gospel. Tragically, it’s one that Americans have been groomed for since Oral Roberts arrived in shining white polyester promising that God loves Capitalists best.

It’s a message that allows pastors like Long to exact obscene amounts of monies from the manipulated masses in the name of the bloodied Christ.

Long’s abuses have been well-documented. According to an investigation conducted by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, between 1997 and 2000, Long received at least $3.07 million in salary, benefits and the use of property from the nonprofit tax-exempt, now defunct, Bishop Eddie Long Ministries, one of 20 charities Long established to reportedly help the needy.

Apparently that referred to Mr. Long.

Tax records revealed that the $3.07 million channeled to Long was as much as the charity gave to all other recipients during the same time period. Long’s compensation included a $1.4. million six-bedroom, nine-bath home on 20 acres in Lithonia, Georgia, use of a $350,000 Bentley and more than a million in salary. …

“I’m not going to apologize for anything,” Long told an Atlanta-Journal reporter. “We are not just a church, we’re an international corporation. We’re not just a bumbling bunch of preachers who can’t talk and all we’re doing is baptizing babies. I deal with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around this world. I pastor a multi-million dollar congregation.”

You’d think that a pastor of a multi-million dollar congregation would have better things to do, but he doesn’t. That post got Karen in an awful lot of trouble with The Bishop, because he banned his church from reading Double-Wide this week. No kidding. Is this a big deal? Probably not. I sincerely doubt many of those 25,000 church members were ever going to pick up Karen’s book.

But you know what? You should pick it up. You should go to your bookstore of choice and grab a copy. Download it on your Kindle, or Nook, or whatever e-reader you use. Buy one for your friends. You could even mail a copy to The Bishop (c/o Bishop Eddie Long, 6400 Woodrow Road, Lithonia, GA 30038). God knows they might get a kick out of it (and if they don’t, I know of a pastor down in Florida who seems to get a kick out of burning books).

I don’t get a kickback from any of this. Karen’s local, so maybe we’ll bump into each other sometime when she’s not touring the country selling books. But that’s about it. I’m a fan, and I believe in her message. I think you should, too.

If there is one essential to Christianity, it is that at its core we have the Gospel- literally, the Good News. The Gospel we preach produces the churches we get. Over the last ten years I’ve spent a lot of time on determining what the Gospel is. What comprises the Gospel? What makes it good news? Why is it good news? In all my theological education, I don’t remember ever having one class session where we sat down and attempted to answer that question, and it’s disappointing.

Nearly four years ago I asked my readers “What is the Gospel?” and responses varied. One friend cut and pasted the entire book of Romans into my comments. While it demonstrated my point, it wasn’t particularly constructive to the discussion. If you asked fifty people, you’d probably get forty different answers. “What is the Gospel?” is a loaded question. It has a lot of answers. One might say, “good news.” Another might proclaim it’s the books of “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.” Others delineate between different gospels, referring to the gospels of prosperity and salvation or the social gospel. What I want to know is simply, what is the Gospel of the Bible? What is the good news, and why is it good news?

But first, a couple ground rules:
1. Try to keep your comments as clear and concise as possible (don’t post an entire book of the Bible).
2. Remember that other people are watching (Hi Mom!). I shouldn’t have to say this for a post about the Gospel, but play nice.

Okay. Your turn.

You’ve probably been inundated with Katrina memorials, specials, and documentaries this past week. The media (and many regular folks), especially those who spent time in New Orleans during and after Katrina, don’t want you to forget what happened. It’s not about how much Katrina cost ($81 billion). The economic factor is minimal compared to the 1,836 people who lost their lives. It’s about all the families who returned to New Orleans and all the towns along the Mississippi Gulf Coast to rebuild their lives. It’s about making sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. Hurricanes happen. All of us along the Coast know that. But what we saw in New Orleans in the days after the wind subsided was unnecessary and inhumane. So we beg you to remember what happened. Remember so it doesn’t happen again.

If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? (James 2:15-16)

I prayed. Amy said, “come with me, let’s go get something to eat,” and took off with him across the street to Bubba Gump’s. Tiffany yelled after her, “don’t go, he’s trouble!” and I rushed after Amy so she wouldn’t be alone. Clint followed a few steps behind. We stood in line at Bubba Gump’s and then just as we sat down, they kicked us out because of Bobby. They said he had come around a lot and bothered everybody all day long. So Clint got food though, courtesy of the folks at Bubba Gump, as Amy and I stood outside and Bobby went back to his corner.

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. (James 4:17)

Clint brought half his meal out to Bobby, who didn’t eat it. But on that corner we met Ali from Ghana, his friend in a wheelchair. We learned that Bobby was from Liberia. Later we met Testimony, his East African friend. They all sat on that corner and talked to us for a few minutes. Close to two hours after we got there, we hadn’t traveled more than three blocks from the car, and had done zero interviews.

I was looking forward to the interviews, because I have this whole personal philosophy of “anyone, anywhere, anytime.” I stole it from Southern Miss’s football slogan, but it works. Or, it did. But as I stood there in front of Bubba Gump, watching the people as they walked by- the guy who had the walker and seemed to have cerebral palsy, looking sheepishly like he wanted to cross the road; or the Bobby on his corner; or any one of the other random people walking by- I thought about that slogan. I thought about how that’s all it was- some pumped up slogan about evangelism or whatever.

And it’s like this. I can talk to rational, everyday, normal people… all day long. Seriously- anyone, anywhere, anytime. But then there are those who I can’t hear well, can’t understand, who aren’t rational, who go on and on about some random political issue native only to Liberia or Ghana or something, who rant and rave and get real good at it. And I freeze up. And I pray for them and wish them well, and tell them God Bless, and walk off. Sometimes I even feel good about it. (Not usually though; I’m a naturally melancholy and reflective kind of person.)

So Clint reminds me tonight of what Dr. Ortiz told us in Encountering the Biblical World. After he reconciles the gospel accounts of the disciples and Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the healing of the blind men, Ortiz explains: “That’s not even the point. The point is that we get so busy doing God’s work that we forget to DO God’s work. We completely miss the folks standing right there asking for our help.”

A refugee crosses the ocean to stay in the land of the free and begs for food. One night he meets a disciple of Christ, and says he is hungry. The disciple prays for the refugee and sends him on his way. “Be well fed and stay safe,” he says, but does nothing for him.

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:37-40)

In contrast, it is our responsibility as Christ-followers to be positive change agents- bent solely on the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer to the Father: “YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.” We cannot do this alone, thus our desperate need for Christian community and cooperation. Thus, the Church.

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. [2 Corinthians 4:1-6, ESV]

May I wake up tomorrow with the desire and ability to be a good servant of Jesus Christ to the world. To you.

But I wanted you to know. I’m gonna go check the code and make sure there’s nothing malicious in it. If you run WordPress and get a subscriber with that name and email address, dump him, change your password, and stop letting “anybody register.” Like I did. Because mean people suck.

Alan Siegel talks about simplifying legal jargon, from credit card agreements to IRS forms. Considering a 1000+ page health care bill was just signed into law, it seems this is a talk worth listening to. It’s about four and a half minutes. Take the time to watch it. Finally, something we can all agree to: let’s make life a little less complicated. There’s no need for legal jargon in everyday life.

[E. Stanley Jones, Source Currently Unknown]

[Norman Borlaug, "father of the Green Revolution," during his 1970 Nobel Laureate lecture]

Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

[Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke 12:48b]

[Robert S. McNamara, President of the World Bank (1968-1981) in his address to the World Bank, September 1973]