Anthony Balcomb, University of KwaZulu-Natal

News of the passing of South African pastor Ray McCauley on 8 October was met by a flood of tributes from across the spectrum of society, from President Cyril Ramaphosa to everyday worshippers at the Rhema Bible Church. McCauley established the influential church in 1985. It has since attracted a vast and racially mixed profile of worshippers, even during apartheid, an era of white minority rule.

McCauley would become a prominent public figure and his church a space where upwardly mobile South Africans congregated as Pentecostalism spread in the country and, along with it, the prosperity gospel.

As a Pentecostal pastor myself in a previous life and now a theologian who has studied evangelicalism and democracy in South Africa, I reflect here on the passing of McCauley. One of the most prominent Pentecostal pastors in South Africa with an influence that extended into the political arena, his legacy is as remarkable as it is controversial and has many lessons to teach us.

Who was Ray McCauley?

McCauley was born in Johannesburg on 4 October 1949. He had rather a rough childhood, with drinking and gambling problems in the house. At an early age he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his idol, Reg Park, a British bodybuilder and businessman who was Mr Universe in 1965. McCauley dropped out of school early, took up bodybuilding, and made it to the Mr Universe competition in 1974, where he came third.

But he was “left feeling empty” and decided to answer a higher call to the ministry. He became the founder of Rhema Bible Church which is reported to have over 45,000 members. It was an early adopter of televangelism in South Africa, reaching many more people through its broadcasts. While there are bigger churches in the country, Rhema is one of the most influential.

Prosperity

Rhema Bible Church is based in Johannesburg and has satellite congregations around the country. It is part of a global network of churches affiliated with the Rhema Bible Training College in Tulsa in the US, formerly under the leadership of Kenneth Hagin, the “guru” of a theology that is known as the “prosperity” or “health and wealth” gospel.

This doctrine is based on the principle that believers have the divine right to prosper financially, to be healthy, and to be successful in all areas life. McCauley introduced this theology to South Africa in 1979 after two years of study in Tulsa. He became its most successful and articulate exponent in southern Africa. His church was started at his parents’ house, but had to move to progressively bigger premises because of its growth.

There was increasing unrest in the country during the 1980s as the struggle against apartheid grew. The Rhema Bible Church has always been involved in a plethora of outreach programmes aimed at supporting and uplifting communities and addressing social issues. But McCauley was not interested in politics as such until 1990 when the Rustenburg Church Conference took place.

Politics

In 1990 Nelson Mandela had been released and there was great turmoil in the country as it was transitioning towards democracy. Over 230 representatives of a wide spectrum of Christian denominations met in a mining city called Rustenburg to reflect on the role of the church during the apartheid era and beyond.

McCauley, with many others, realised how compromised his church had become under apartheid. It had taken a policy of apolitical non-involvement which amounted to complicity with the regime. He recognised the necessity to confess his guilt and work towards reconciliation and democracy. He became more actively involved in the political transformation of the country.

He was instrumental in establishing the National Religious Leadership Forum to foster unity among the different religious communities and contribute to nation building. This became the Interfaith Leaders Council, which he co-chaired.

But his inexperience in this field emerged when Jacob Zuma was campaigning to become president of the country in 2009. Zuma tried to coopt religious leaders because he knew how influential they were. The South African Council of Churches refused his advances but he found the National Religious Leadership Forum far easier to cozy up to. So much so that McCauley invited Zuma to address the Rhema Bible Church just before the elections.

Zuma spoke about how important the church was for giving moral guidance to the nation even though he himself was far from a shining example. Among other things he had been accused of rape and corruption. This was a hugely controversial decision by McCauley. It was suggestive of the fact that the Rhema Bible Church was “the ANC at prayer” and that McCauley could too easily have the wool pulled over his eyes by unscrupulous politicians seeking to enhance their power.

Pastor Ray and a consumerist society

Pastor Ray, as his thousands of followers liked to call him, had a very simple message for people: God loves you and wants what is best for you. In itself there is surely nothing wrong with this. People throughout the history of Christianity have been transformed by this message.

But when it is interpreted as God wants you to be healthy, prosperous and successful then some obvious problems arise. First of all, it raises the question of how does God then see the sick, the poor and the unsuccessful? Secondly, who defines what it means to be prosperous and successful?

The truth is that the doctrine is not adequately able to deal with the issue of pain and suffering as a fact of life. And the default interpretation of what it means to prosper and be successful will be based on the values that are being promoted in the (consumer) society where the message is being preached.

It was speculated that McCauley received a monthly salary of over US$ 5,685 (R100,000) which was decided, presumably by the church leadership, on the basis of a senior executive salary of a medium sized company. He proved to be a shrewd businessman. The Rhema Bible Church had an annual turnover of $5.68 million (R100 million). The level of opulence of McCauley’s lifestyle is demonstrated by his luxury mansion in the beachfront suburb of Umhlanga Rocks in Kwazulu-Natal, right next door to the home of billionaire mining magnate Harry Oppenheimer.

Towards the end of his life he handed the church over to his son Joshua. This merely reinforced the notion that the corporate model was being followed and that the “business” was being inherited by the eldest son.

Reflecting on his legacy

Ray McCauley had an enormous love for South Africa, enormous charisma, and made an enormous impression on many people. But, arguably, he was a little too similar to the scores of powerful “men of God” that are making their presence felt all across Africa.

Surrounded by poverty they live rich lifestyles, drive fancy cars, and wield enormous spiritual power over their credulous followers. They demonstrate that religion in Africa can mean big business for those who know how to scratch where it itches. And this is surely an obscene contradiction of the life and message of Jesus of Nazareth, the founder of Christianity.

Anthony Balcomb, Senior Research Associate, School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics, University of KwaZulu-Natal

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.