A Twisted Crown of Thorns ®

A recent trend these days in Evangelicalism is to endorse a celebrity and in return a preacher gets publicly affirmed. Another version of this trend is to preach (weak and neutral soppy messages) pandering to people’s feeling and sentiments so as to get recognition. These trends are mostly seen among prosperity and word of faith preachers and broad casters. When prosperity guru T.D Jakes was endorsed by multi millionaire P. Diddy, I saw a few people get excited. They said, “Oh look! Now surely there are going to be multitudes coming to church too after seeing their celebrity in church.” The rationale is usually and sometimes is that the celebrity becomes a draw string to bring people to their church. One ill advised pastor revved up his church by inviting a Hip hop artist to share his pulpit while another mega church pastor invited a popular talk show hostess and on and on the brouhaha goes.

Recently “word of faith” and prosperity teacher Joyce Meyer’s teachings got a public nod from an elated celebrity known for her explicitly raunchy music. Had the message of sin, righteousness and judgement self esteem, health and wealth  struck a chord of contention or agreement?

Rihanna’s spiritual beliefs may have raised questions for some in the past, but the 24-year-old singer is not afraid to admit that she is a fan of Christian minister and author Joyce Meyer.

    This month, the record-breaking Barbadian singer has been using her Twitter account to spread Meyer’s teachings.

    “If Satan can defeat you in your thoughts then he can defeat you anywhere else as well,” reads a message written by Meyer and re-tweeted by Rihanna on June 4.

    To underline her point, the singer sent a tweet to Meyer directly.

    “@JoyceMeyer you’re awesome,” Rihanna told the minister via Twitter on the following day.

    When one of Rihanna’s fans tweeted about Meyer being “one of the few with the non-corny quotes on Twitter,” the singer retweeted the message and gave the person some advice.

    “Get into her books,” Rihanna told the fan.

    The singer stayed on the topic of spirituality, tweeting her own wisdom to followers.

    “The devil wants to steal your joy because he knows that joy is your strength,” Rihanna tweeted. “That is why sometimes we need each other.

I still believe there is no joy without the message of the gospel. Many of the teachers will want every one to believe that every one has this joy. Self esteem pep talks, motivational clichés and prosperity gospel (are rightly called gospelites). They do not talk about sin, righteousness and judgement and will only lead many to damnation.

How I wish Joyce would tell Rihanna she can find real joy in knowing that her sins are forgiven through repentance and faith in Christ alone. Self esteem and prosperity are flitting and temporal and will vanish like a foundation of sinking sand. Surely Joyce will boldly tell her new adoring fans what the gospel says. Won’t she? 😉

Oh Dear Rihanna, I hope you find this joy that no devil can ever steal (and when you do, please send me a tweet) and I plus many other Christians who are praying for you will rejoice as we sing together the words of that old Edward Mote hymn:

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

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