not simply happiness

Joel “happiness” Osteen. He’s the one-stop-shop to happiness and seven steps to a better life now. He is the definition of Marx’s “opium of the people.” If you’ve ever read Marx’s quote beyond the one phrase, there is much more to what Marx is saying, and ironically enough even an average student of religion like myself can easily refute Marx’s statements.

Unfortunately, Osteen’s church has become a catalyst for a watered down Jesus and Christianity that brings well deserved criticism from non-Christians. No wonder in today’s world non-Christians find it hard to distinguish between a liberal non-Christian who seeks out equality and justice and a moral-induced Osteen follower. The essence of Christianity has been left out.

Fortunately, Christianity is more than happiness and fuzzy kittens. It’s more than optimism. It is about hope. It is about the beatitudes that Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 5. A radical way of living that is far from an opium, happiness, or seven steps. Christianity is beyond instant gratification, beyond the American Dream, beyond simple living, beyond ‘going green’, beyond pro-life, beyond day and night, it’s beyond just living. In a world of hurting, suffering, and starving - Jesus brings an alternative.