EXAMPLES OF BUYING AND SELLING
Religious teaching is often categorized as truth, wisdom and instruction. If such spiritual commodities are provided in the context of a religious organization that demands a fee or solicits donations (i.e. passes the offering plate), the truth is essentially for sale. In the case of church, no one says that the truth is for sale, but in the minds of both the providers and consumers of such truth there is an implicit understanding that there is a cost associated with the creation and distribution of a religious service or product and an implied obligation to pay something (i.e. a tithe or free will offering) for the privilege of consuming that truth. That understanding would not be so clear if no offering was collected, but offerings are always a feature of church gatherings – especially on Sunday mornings.
When the religious teaching is dispensed at conferences hosted by teachers with big name recognition, payment for spiritual commodities is openly and shamelessly practiced. Advertisements will announce the fees that are to be paid in advance along with registration for a seat at an auditorium where only a limited number may attend. Or, if no advance registration is required, the advertisement will communicate that a “free will offering” will be collected. In both cases, a clear statement is made that there is a cost for the event and that those who attend are expected to pay toward that cost.
The practice of paying in advance for a spiritual event is especially evident in the case of musical events hosted by religious leaders who are also musicians. Sometimes these are pitched as worship events and sometimes not. In either case, the attraction to consumers is that they will somehow get closer to God if they attend. To be close to God requires that you know God and to know God means that you need to know the truth about God. Thus these events are also dispensers of truth for which payment is required, in advance, by those who have the ability to pay.
Often instruction and worship are packaged into one event. Big name religious personalities provide the teaching of truth and big name musicians provide the worship music. The advertisements promise that the event will satisfy both your intellectual desire to know more about God and your soulish desire to worship Him intimately with hundreds of other on-fire worshipers. All that and a mighty move of the Spirit and perhaps a personal prophecy just for you! What a deal! A bargain at any price. And it is all totally contrary to what God says about selling truth.
Books and music are other examples where truth is sold. Religious publishing is big business. There is an association of religious retailers that exists to help businesses do a better job of selling books and other religious trinkets. Many mega churches also have their own on-site bookstores that sell religious commodities. These are some of the most visible, shameless selling and buying practices that have become accepted and expected in the religious community.