Suffering, the Protestant Ethics and Capitalism

We can suffer for Christ but not be happy in Christ. I did not come up with that; that had been an observation made by a pastor in my church one time. I just happen to agree with him. He said it during Easter when we could not sing one happy hymn properly. He went: it is a matter of concern when we can cry for (and with) Jesus during Good Friday but can’t rejoice in His resurrection at Easter.

Piety in the Christian world is a strange desire to be persecuted just so we can show how good a martyr we are. Up to a reasonable degree, of course. No one should die or go to jail, but basically someone should suffer.

I had this epiphany about the constant desire to suffer back in college during my second year majoring in Sociology. We were reading Max Weber’s Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber talked about how the concept and belief in Predestination – that heaven is reserved for an elite and predetermined few – had necessitated the Protestant church to exhibit God’s favour in this material world. How? By succeeding. Logic being that God shows that He loves people by allowing them to succeed. And how to succeed? Amass wealth. Meanwhile, the Calvinistic God also does not like pompous displays of grandeur and wealth. So what was the pious Christian to do? Invest! Hence, the seeds of capitalism.

I read this book and thought to myself: my lawd, Christians really are pretty much the same worldwide. I would think this again when I watched the excellent US TV sitcom Good Christian Bitches starring Kristin Chenoweth later on. For similar yet not the same reasons. There is a constant need to display piety and God’s favour among Christians. And the easiest path to take is to share in the Messiah’s suffering. It almost seems like we think joy and happiness, especially the kind as displayed by the youth by yells and shrieks, is a sacrilege. After a point, it feels like as though to suffer is to be moral. Like we enjoy playing martyrs. Even when we have no cause.

Rebels without a cause? They got nothing on suffering Christians.

I’m not saying don’t suffer or anything, but just… I mean, be happy in the faith! And in the Salvation. And in the peace. And in the promise of a Good Afterlife. But no, we want to suffer because Jesus suffered. More a grand display than anything else. But then again, Jesus didn’t suffer for 33 years! (Interestingly, I was told during my Srinagar trip by a local there that Muslims believe that in heaven, we all get to be 33 because that is the prime of our lives! I don’t know if that’s true but I found it fascinating.) I like to believe he took some time in recreation; fishing comes to mind. He even had a job – carpentry. Some say he took to travelling; they say he even reached Tibet. He seemed to have liked bread and fishes and wine; no one who didn’t like those foods would ever have multiplied them after all. I don’t mean to treat the situation lightly or contemptuously. I just think it seems to be a misreading of the signs to think the only way to be a good Christian is to suffer.

There is a lot of good and beauty in this world that in no way contradict the fruits of the spirit as the Bible lists them out. Sometimes it is good to just enjoy them.