Schadenfreude

Some celebrity pastor-types have stepped in it recently.  First you have Mark Driscoll, pastor of the Mars Hill Churches out in Washington state.  Driscoll has been criticized for abuse of power, for defying the accountability measures of his community, and for, as far as I can tell, being a big jerk.  I'm not going to even speculate as to whether some of the misogyny and totalitarian methods of church governance are even 100% true, but what I do know about Driscoll is that he seems angry about something.  Granted my emotional radar is not always foolproof, but I'm pretty good at spotting angry men, mainly because I know the signs from firsthand experience.  Driscoll seems angry.  Anger is a second level emotion founded on fear.  Fear explains a lot of what he is accused of doing and being, from his "complementarian" approach to gender roles, which includes women being submissive, to his alleged abusive treatment of colleagues, to his apparent need to control everything and everyone around him.  He seems deeply fearful of something, and he is trying to hide it under a blustery and aggressive persona.  It has run him on to the rocks; as fear, especially when you express it through anger, tends to do.
On the other end of the spectrum you have Victoria and Joel Osteen, who have become exceedingly rich and famous by telling people that God wants them to be happy and therefore, faith means that you will get every thing you want and "live your best life now."  There was a video of Victoria saying as much that was making the rounds this week, and a whole bunch of responses that seemed rather shocked that she would be so bald-faced in espousing the exact theology that all prosperity Gospel teachers essentially present.  I wonder why people didn't notice this "alarming" theology sooner.  It's not exactly a secret.  I kind of wonder if the whole thing would be a "scandal" if it had come out of Joel's mouth instead of his Barbie Doll looking wife.  The community that responds to the prosperity Gospel tends to have the same "traditional" ideas about men and women as the evangelical stream that Driscoll swims in.
There's this vision of a divinely mandated scenario: man, woman, being fruitful and multiplying, as God said in Genesis that it should be.  Following the plan leads to happiness and success and salvation, straying from the plan leads to damnation.  It is filled with "literal" interpretation of the Bible that carefully picks and chooses which verses (sometimes only handful) that it actually wants to take literally.  It tends to talk a lot about God as some sort of magic genie, sometimes benevolent, sometimes wrathful, that must be constantly placated with worship and rule following if you want to get what you want, whether it be eternal life or a Mercedes.
It has room for sinners, but only sinners who are willing to repent and fall into line.  It has trouble with people whose identity has been named sinful, such as homosexuals, and to a rather disturbing extent, women.
To many of us in the boring old world of Mainline Christianity, the theological foundations of both Prosperity teaching and what I like to call 'Merican Evangelicalism are deeply flawed.  But then again most of us are struggling to stay afloat with our little 100-300 member churches, while the likes of Osteen and Driscoll are "ministering" to tens of thousands of people every week.  They are "Megachurch" we are just plain old church, small, slow, sometimes a little cranky, and definitely not the "next big thing."
I must confess therefore, that I feel at least a little perverse pleasure in their downfall.  I am amused when the emperor has no clothes.  I felt vindicated when Driscoll was forced to step down, why, I don't rightly know.  It's kind of like hearing that one of those "fat cats" who got rich quick had now fallen on hard times.  The feeling is not an admirable, or Christ-like emotion.
I know I should not take pleasure in the pain of another part of the Body of Christ, which is really the damnable thing about all this: I have to somehow find the grace to call Driscoll and Osteen brothers.  And - well - I just don't want to.  I don't want them to represent Jesus to the world, I don't want to be associated with their muddle-headed and angry theologies, I don't want people thinking I'm with them.  Most of all I don't want to love them enough to forgive them for their faults.
But the fact that I don't want to leads me to the rather unpleasant, yet also inescapable reality that I need to do just that.
This Christian stuff can be really hard.