The Wolves in Sheepskin

By Ryan Martin / Fall 2021

Once upon a time, there was a mean, lazy old wolf that got tired of waiting for a sheep to stray away from their shepherd. One day, he was staring at the full moon that was glowing white as snow when it hit him. He said, “I just got the plan…'' The next time his buddies came back with a sheep he told them, “I am not hungry but can you just leave me his fur and skin please?” All his friends laughed at him and made fun of him but gave him the fur and skin.

The next day the wolf dressed up as a sheep and went into the flock. Soon the wolf started taking each sheep one by one into the woods.

A few days go by the Shepherd is having a giant banquet for all his friends and family. He plans to kill the biggest, fattest sheep of all his flock to be eaten for this banquet. He grabs the sheep, kills it, and throws him on the barbecue. As they were eating one of the family members said,” I found a hair in his food and said it looked like a wolf's hair.” They all laughed and went back to eating.

This illustration shows the deceptiveness of the wolf and the irony that greed and selfishness will come back to bite you, no pun intended. All over the United States, we have wolves dressed up in sheepskin. They portray themselves as innocent, but they are in reality, evil in all their ways. These wolves that I am speaking about are the big baller preachers that are manipulating Christians and teaching them false doctrine.

Now let me prove that these so-called “preachers” that are supposed to be the pastors of the flock have gone down a rocky road. They have institutionalized a dominant American ideology into the church. The key concept of a dominant ideology is defined as,” those ideologies associated with a ruling or elite group in society. Dominant ideologies in a field of power and privilege operate to hide contradiction and reinforce social hierarchies” (Twohig Lecture 4).  I must first state that it is not the fault of these specific preachers, but they are only building off of the dominant ideology of capitalism and American progress. This dominant ideology is contrary to the word of God but have many Christians believing that because it is very appealing and attractive.

Now let’s dig deeper into the dominant ideology of competitive individualism that has tainted the word of God and the Gospel of Christ. A definition of competitive individualism is “the ideology that says that one’s hard work, by itself, can lead to success. Failure, according to this ideology, is the result of personal shortcomings “(Twohig Lecture 6). In this case, preaches are said that that your failure is due to sin that you have committed against God. I wanted to bring your attention to this ideology because I want you to know we are not living for the world but for God. These so-called Preachers of the Word of Faith have created a church environment that makes you compete against each other. From whom has the nicest car, to who wears the nicest clothes which is an ironic contest because it is usually these millionaire preachers that got the nicest possessions. They have changed the original message of the gospel and put more emphasis on the work than your faith in Christ. They have created an atmosphere to put you all against each other to see who can give the most money to the church and who can help out the most. Not only have they promoted this, but they have manipulated you in making you believe that God is not going to bless you unless you give everything. They tell you that you are not going to get your healing until you give one hundred dollars as a donation. They have told you that the only reason you’re not getting blessed or getting your healing is that you have not given enough money. They have measured your faith by the amount of money that you give to the church. This competitive ideology is not only putting you against people in the church but also putting you against yourself. 

Now that we have discussed the institutionalized competitive individualism, we must first explore the contradiction of these rich pastors. We have to ask the question why is Wilton Gregory a mega church pastor able to use these “donations” to buy a new private jet for 2.2 million dollars? Why has a new Instagram trend called, Preachers N Sneakers, on a page dedicated to price checking the preachers shoes?  Preachers N Sneakers stated, “If Rich Wilkerson’s $357 Adidas Yeezys sound expensive, what about Chad Veach’s $2,500 Jordan’s?”- Preachers N Sneakers: Hypocrisy’s Newest Scandal. Both of these men are preachers of this gospel. This evidence suggests that these preachers like to flaunt their cash while people in the same congregation require food. When it is obvious most of the congregation are living paycheck to paycheck these wealthy pastors have the audacity ask for more and to give them everything. These big time Pastors, like Joel Osten, Kenneth Copeland, and other televangelists see that there is nothing wrong with taking their hard-earned money and buying their wife a new luxury car or upgrading their house into a mansion. I am not going to go in if this is right or wrong because I think it is clearly seen in these examples. 

Now that we have explored the contradiction in the lifestyle of these preachers, let’s take a deeper look into the contradiction of their preaching. Many of these words of faith preachers are preaching what is called, the attractive gospel, and this type of preaching is wrapped up in being a good person. If you are a good person God will bless you. Now, let me ask the question, what happens if you are not a good person?

Let’s say that you are not perfect and let’s “pretend” that we make mistakes. This means that we are not as good as we think we are. let's take a deeper look at what happens when you tell an individual that they have to live this unattainable perfect life filled with expectations. In the article by Niall Twohig, Ph.D. Professor at the University of California San Diego supports my claim about how imposing standards and the expectation of society can be harmful. In his article, “Beyond a Life in the Red”, he stated, “on my path, everything around me told me that success equated to making a name for myself. It meant personal growth, being well-balanced, gathering things that proved my worth” (Twohig). These expectations that Professor Twohig mentioned are socially constructed by an American ideology that is built on progress and manifest destiny. These top preachers are taking this same ideology and preaching how to be a perfect person and just giving you motivation but not preaching the grace of God.

Many of you are trying to live for God but keep failing and you feel like quitting because these preachers are trying to tell you that you just have to think positive, and life will be easy by your effort. This is not true. Even the bible tells us that “There is no one righteous, not even one “(Romans 3:10) in God's sight. No one is perfect and trying to live up to something you are not a lie. This is why we are in need of a savior and the only one that was sinless was Christ. He was the only one that could have died for our sins so that we don't have to live a lie but be empowered through Jesus and to walk in purpose.  Now I want to turn you to an illustration that will make my point clearer.

I want you to close your eyes and now imagine with me a single mother that has to take care of her two children. While working full time has time to spend with her children. Now she may attend church and go to a megachurch. With the stresses of the world weighing heavy on her heart, she goes to church to find some way out of the drama and a tool that she could use to cope with the pain and stress. She attends church, putting her kids in Sunday school because they have so many programs at the church. Now this church is a megachurch, and she never really met the pastor and there are so many people she is counted as a number and for attending church for a few weeks no one has said much to her, and she never met the pastor. The Pastor is preaching that you haven't given enough. You have not given enough of your time and money and because of this, you have not got an answer for your worries. Do you see the problem here? The mother is struggling to pay the bills and take care of her kids and her pastor is saying that she is not trying enough.

Again, back to this superficial way that many people view there walk with God. This superficial way is measuring their walk with God with how successful they are and how much money they have in the bank. This is a dominant ideology that society has developed and now the church in the United States has adapted. This is an illusion that American Christianity has institutionalized in these megachurches to make you believe. Let's explore the ideology that if you are rich, it is because you are a good person and if you are poor, it is because you do not work hard enough, and it is a sin to you.

As we proved that no one is a good person no matter how hard they try. This idea that you have sinned if you are poor will be the next false claim that I will clear up.  For example, Christian Russel Cowell said in his writing that, “The men who get rich may be the most honest men you find in the community. I sympathize with the poor, but the number of poor who are to be sympathized with is very small. To sympathize with a man whom God has punished for his sins'' (Cowell ch.11).  Author Cowell suggests that this was a dominant ideology for a while, but if we look deeper, we see that this ideology of poor is a cause of sin is wrong. The amount of money you have does not express the worth of your life and it does not measure how much faith you have. This could not be further from the truth. I would say that this is not just aimed at your money but also if anything goes wrong in your life that you must have sinned.

Now that we’ve examined this ideology that poverty is a cause of sin, we can consider a Man named Job in the bible. In the book of Job, Job is tested by God, and the devil wrecks his life. God allows the devil to attack his health, riches, and family. At a point of desperation and depression, his friends come to check on him. When this could have been a perfect chance for his friends to bed meal friends and comfort their friend that has had everything taken away from him. All three of his friends accuse him of sin and tell him that God would not allow this to happen to an innocent man. These were fake friends and did not give him godly counsel but instead tried to make sense of the very worldly situation. At the end of Job's life, he regains everything and a double portion of everything. These can I say fake pastors are preaching that your life is not perfect because you have done something wrong. At the end of the day God has a plan for you and it might not be something you wanted or planned but God knows best what is for you and your family. (Job)

The shallow view of seeing this story as just preachers wanting to butter up their audience and get their audience fired up like motivation speech sends the wrong message of what Christianity is.  Not only are these preaches leaving you hopeless when you go home but also taking advantage of by these people that are barely getting by.

We can say that some of these megachurch preachers are taking advantage of their congregation because they are consumed by greed and self-ambition. This deeper story of preachers is taking advantage of the poor will be seen in the following example by a true preach of the Gospel. One of the most prominent civil rights leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior said, “The way to end poverty is to end the exploitation of the poor” The exploitation of the poor is a systemic problem that is not just in the church but is ingrained in society.  The depths of this problem are deeper than preachers just taking money from these families, but it is a systemic pattern. This systematic problem of the church that has been taking advantage of the poor is an attack to the core values of Christianity. American preachers have used the ideology of American dream and used it to manipulate their congregation into sacrificing more for their church. This manipulation has caused the congregation to believe that if they truly love God then they will give everything they have to their rich pastor and in return, they will be blessed. 

Now that we see the depths of the problem, we can consider what made the original gospel different than today's modern American gospel. The gospel nowadays preaches to stay in the moment and live for today, stacking as many houses, and cars as you can, like a game of monopoly. The true gospel is not about this life but is about the next life. Historically the perspective of the afterlife and revelation of the true gospel was enticing to the listener. The gospel which meant the good news would dramatically affect listeners and propel them to put their life at risk even if this meant death. This point becomes clear when we turn to the following example, it was said that new converts, “Men and women who were ordinary[...] seem to have found the secret of living. They enviced a [...] cheerfulness that their hearts had nowhere else encountered” (Smith 331).  The author sheds light on the true power of the gospel. No matter what circumstance the earlier Christians were in they learned to find joy in life. They were not living for themselves or the moment, but they were living for God. Spectators were astonished that these ordinary people who were struggling to live had so much joy in their life. This brought many people to the gospel which would eventually change the people's thinking and lifestyle. We even still see this today with people who testify that Jesus Christ has changed them. They see life as a privilege that Jesus Christ has given them.

Let's turn our attention to a possible reason why modern Christianity is what it is today. Modern Christianity has been evolving around all kinds of cultures. The social context of an individual's life will determine what effect the gospel will have on their life. Jonathan Allbaugh researched Christianity's prominent figure, Saint Augustine, and analyzed the effects of the modern institutionalization of Christianity. Allbaugh concludes:

“ecclesial leaders and family members often create an environment of cultural absolutism that demands compliance to the normative behavior of the foundational Church culture[...] these dispositions will increase the likelihood that the cultural migrant will spiritually stall outside of all Church cultures and thus experience a season of crisis” (Allbaugh).

This information allows us to evaluate the social relationship schemas of Christianity that are being adopted by an individual. Whatever culture is preaching this glorious gospel will sadly put its twist on it. Understanding that these mega preachers are not just rich but they have power. Think about it, Joel Osteen at the Lakewood church can contain over 16,000 people. Joel Osteen and other mega preachers have power politically, socially, and economically. Now with an honest heart, people are telling their friends and family. These people then start to attend the church, getting indoctrinated by these lies, and getting manipulated. No matter what the teachings are the more others will be influenced the more it starts to become a dominant ideology. These megachurches institutionalized this monarchy order that puts the pastor at the top of the social hierarchy.

Times and seasons change but Jesus states that “heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35). It is important for us to know that America has implemented its ideologies into the religion of Christian. It's nothing new to us but what can we do and stop this from happening is able to distinguish the wolves from the sheep even when the wolves are wearing sheepskin.

Let's finish by going back to the story that I mentioned in the beginning, about the wolf disguises himself as a sheep. These preachers have disguised themselves by using the dominant American ideology. These preachers have turned the true gospel into competitive individualism. They have blended in with all the other religions appealing to moralism. The wolves did not act like sheep, they just intimated the sheep. These preachers try to act innocent but when you take a second look, you see that they are wolves in sheepskin. They not spending the money intended to further the gospel but spending it on themselves. The wolf was able to trick the sheep into the woods so that he may devour them. These preachers have taken you too, they have taken you far away from the truth of the gospel and have tricked you believe in the American hegemony. At the end, the wolves are fat, and grown out of the sheep skin. Then the wolves are cooked for the shepherd of the flock. These preachers might be able to fool the people, but they cannot fool God. I would like to end this by stating the words of the bible, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7).

Works cited

Allbaugh, Jonathan. Augustine as a Culture Migrant: An Integral Historical Analysis with Contemporary Applications. Emerging Leadership Journeys, Vol. 9 Iss. 1, pp. 74-105. 2016.

Conwell, Russell. “Robber Barons and Rebels.” Historyisaweapon.com, 2019.

Hlavaty, Craig. “10 Years Ago: Lakewood Church, Joel Osteen Move into Houston’s Compaq Center.” Chron, 14 July 2015.

Holy Bible : NIV : New International Version. Durbanville, Christian Media Bibles.

Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam. New York: Columbia          University Press, 2008. Print

MacDiarmid, Ryan. “Preachers N Sneakers: Hypocrisy’s Newest Scandal.” Jackass Theology, 8 Apr. 2019. Accessed 10 Dec. 2021.

TPNS. “If You Think You Know Martin Luther King Think Again.” MLK Global, 3 Apr. 2018. Accessed 10 Dec. 2021.

Twohig, Niall. “Beyond a Life in the Red | the Triton.” Https://Triton.news/, 7 Jan. 2019. Accessed 10 Dec. 2021.

Twohig, Niall. University of California San Diego. Lecture 4

Twohig, Niall. University of California San Diego. Lecture 6