Photography by Nathaniel St. Clair
Pastor Eligio Regalado in Denver, Colorado, is charged with multiple counts of fraud and other illegal activities after convincing members of his congregation to buy millions of dollars of worthless cryptocurrency. Regalado and his wife pocketed nearly half of the $3.2 million they raised and used several hundred thousand dollars to renovate their home.
Justifying his actions, the pastor claimed that “the Lord” told him to do it, and that “we took God at His word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit.” In trying to explain the accusations now against him, Regalado said: “Either I heard God wrong” or “God is still not finished with this project and he is going to do something new.”
Compare this story with that of another struggling pastor. Chris Avellwho leads a church named Dad’s Place in Bryan, Ohio, was accused of violating zoning laws for using his church, classified as a business, for residential purposes.
But Avell was not engaged in a nefarious plan to deceive his followers or the city. Instead, he too was adhering to what he believed to be God’s word by opening his church to unhoused people in the dead of winter to protect them from the cold. “This is what the word of God teaches” Avell said..
According to Julia Conley from Commondreams“Dad’s Place is located next to a homeless shelter, but overcrowding at the facility led Avell to begin offering space to unhoused people.” The church is accustomed to welcome homeless people in your space to stay warm in winter. Ohio’s winters are so cold that the state health department has a full page on its website offering advice on how to survive life-threatening weather conditions. And no, there is no guidance for those who do not have housing.
While these pastors claim to have heard two completely contradictory messages from God, most believers might conclude that Avell’s version of Christianity is one that is faithful to religious ideals based on compassion and concern for one’s neighbor.
But Pastor Regalado’s version of Christianity is tragically much more consistent with what many Christian leaders in the United States have espoused: the idea that God wants believers to be rich at all costs. Regalado is convincedthat “God is going to do a miracle in the financial sector”. His only misstep appears to be that he didn’t know what he was doing when he sold his followers a cryptocurrency that wasn’t creditworthy.
But for financial-savvy Christian leaders, the Church is like a bank. Eight of the top 10 The richest pastors on the planet are based in the United States and are worth between $20 million and $300 million. There is no contradiction between Scripture and the quest for wealth for those who view Christianity as a capitalist enterprise. According to Rodney Stark, who was professor emeritus at Baylor University, Western domination of the Americas and other colonies was made possible by capitalism, a set of ideals derived from Christianity. “The rise of capitalism…has been a victory for reason inspired by the Church,” he wrote in 2005, apparently praising capitalism, colonialism and Christianity.
Indeed, the biblical scriptures were not only used to promote capitalism but also to justify slavery And settler colonialismboth of whom supported American capitalism.
The abuses of Christianity are not simply a thing of the past. Today, Christianity, especially under the euphemism of “religious freedom,” is used to justify all kinds of injustices: ban on abortionattacks against LGBTQ children and particularly transgender youthand even Israeli colonization of Palestine. The Catholic Church, in particular, offered refuge to pedophile priests.
Evangelicals helped Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential race despite Trump’s moral character being so obvious in contradiction with the fundamental principles of Christianity. Far from the election resulting in a weakening of conservative Christianity, many white Trump supporters who initially did not attend church were attracted to the church during his presidency. Today, evangelical conservatives are once again support Donald Trump in full force, threatening to take this nation back on the path to fascism until the 2024 race.
In such a national context, it is not surprising that Pastor Avell of Ohio faces criminal charges for being out of step with the American version of Christianity. Kindness, compassion, sacrifice and love are at odds with a capitalist Christianity that prefers the accumulation of individual wealth and the control of vulnerable humans.
The only bright spot is that Americans as a whole appear to be ending their love affair with Christianity, according to several recent Pew Research findings. A 2019 update found that fewer Americans identified as Protestant or Catholic and those who identified as “nothing in particular” stood at 26 percent, or more than a quarter of all Americans. This number is now peaking at 28 percent of all Americans.
Additionally, more and more Americans are adopting an identity of “spiritual” rather than “religious”, an apparent rejection of organized religion. The United States also appears to benefit from greater religious diversity, perhaps linked to a demographic shift in the United States as 61 percent of Americans say they have friends who are of a different faith than theirs.
The 2020 U.S. Religious Census showed a changing religious landscape linked to politics. Political scientist Ryan Burge summarized the census results this way: “Democrats are making progress in areas where religion is fading. » As Republicans increase their hold on states like Texas and Florida thanks to a surge in conservative Christian populations, Burge predicts that “Democrats will continue to gain ground in suburban counties that are majority white and where the religion is losing size and importance.
Even though there has always been a strong progressive tradition Among some sects of Christianity, the progressive church has traditionally been less successful in rallying voters to the polls on the basis of faith than its conservative counterparts. But that may be changing. For example, a coalition called Faithful democracy is organized around the idea that “only a healthy, well-functioning democracy has the capacity to tackle any of the problems our faith calls us to solve: systemic racism, climate change, hunger, violence, poverty, health care and much more.” And ten years ago, the Rev. William Barber, in North Carolina, began leading “Moral Mondays”, which are faith-based political protests in pursuit of economic justice.
Regardless of how one identifies with religion and spirituality (or lack thereof), the central question is: Will Americans choose the ideals of collective well-being that animate Pastor Avell, or the individual selfishness that motivates Pastor Regalado?
This article was produced by An economy for alla project of the Independent Media Institute.
