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VIEWPOINT
Pushovers for Ponzi

Wally Kroeker

Why are so many Christians vulnerable to get-rich-quick schemes? It was called a “gifting ministry”. You make a “gift” now, and a short time later you’ll receive a much bigger “blessing” in return. Donors, most of them Christians, were told they would double their money in 17 months from profits in gold, diamonds and international currency trading. “Give,” they were told, “and it will be given unto you” (Luke 6:38). Not only would they make a killing; there would be enough left over to fund mission projects and homeless shelters.

It never happened. The “gifting ministry” was actually a huge “Ponzi” or pyramid scheme in which early investors were paid with money from newer investors. When the scam collapsed last year, $100 million of investors’ money vanished. The pastor and other officials who ran the scheme were charged with fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.

The pastor tried to justify his actions by citing the New Testament parable of the talents, in which three servants were given varying sums of money to use until the master returned. The judge knew better. In reality, the servant had tried to run away with the talent.

Similar schemes, many less spectacular and more modest in scope, continue to lure the gullible. One recent scheme sought investors for gold coins. Another promised returns of up to 180% a year trading bank debentures. Not all are illegal, but all thrive by promising quick wealth.

What accounts for their appeal to Christians? Here are four possibilities.

1. Suspicion of government

In the scam mentioned above, pitchmen who met with small groups of Christians in private homes said the profits would be tax-free because the contributions were gifts, not investments, and thus beyond the control of securities regulators. Many listeners, already suspicious of a government bureaucracy they considered corrupt, lapped it up.

“This antigovernment message struck a chord among Mennonite and Amish communities in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio,” wrote John Gorham in Forbes magazine (Sept.6, 1999). In one Pennsylvania church, which Gorham described as being “composed mostly of former Mennonites”, two dozen members got stung. Incredibly, he adds, this was their second bitter experience with a Ponzi venture. “In 1995 the congregation was burned by the $354 million New Era Philanthropy scheme.”

2. Desire to do good

Some people, like those who invested in New Era, wanted to help raise money for charitable causes. Individual investors knew from the outset they would not profit personally. Their investments would benefit legitimate Christian ministries. Unfortunately, their zeal to do good clouded their fiscal judgement.

3. The hunger for more

Pure and simple greed is the most common cause. Few of us are immune. Even institutions can be greedy. While the New Era scam was still going strong, a Christian financial advisor who was suspicious of the double-your-money promise went around to evangelical colleges and tried to convince administrators not to participate. “Time and time again,” he says, “I would talk to these people, I would warn them, I would tell them about all the danger signs. I’d look in their eyes, and what I saw was greed. I never saw such greed.”

In his book Money, Sex and Power, Richard Foster quotes a line from Dostoevsky that could have been written today: “Everyone is possessed with such greed nowadays, they are all so overwhelmed by the idea of money that they seem to have gone mad.” That sounds chillingly familiar in our robust economic times when we see stocks going through the roof. Is it surprising that many well-meaning people want to get on the gravy train? After all, if everyone else is getting rich, why not me?

Being a Christian doesn’t necessarily make you smart, but it does put you in touch with a body of holy literature that has a lot to say about greed. Scripture is resoundingly clear that greed is displeasing to God and harmful to our spiritual health.

4. Failure to see work as ministry

If you believe that diligent, daily work is a service performed for God, you likely won’t be tempted by shady schemes that promise returns without effort. When it comes to daily work, many Christians shortchange themselves. They underestimate their importance to God’s plan. God created our world, but depends on us to help sustain it. Our daily work, either as employees or employers, provides goods and services that humanity needs. The outcome of our work is positive, useful and necessary.

Some of our production may seem so mundane it’s hard to imagine how it honours God. Yet, even the mundane was created by God. When we toil to grow crops, make furniture, drive trucks, clean streets or run a business, we are part of God’s ongoing plan to sustain creation. We become co-creators with God. We become God’s junior partners in the ongoing work of sustaining creation, for as we work, we meet society’s needs.

That’s an element that is missing in quick money schemes (even those that are legal). Several centuries ago, Austrian Anabaptist leader Wolfgang Brandhuber, a tailor, wrote, “Blessed is the hand which nourishes itself with its work and produces something honest.” More recently, Richard Foster has challenged Christians to “affirm work that enhances human life and shun work that destroys human life”. Most of us would like to be proud of the work we do, the products and services we help bring into being. When we gamble on an easy-money scam, we are trying to make a profit on something that does no good, and probably does harm.

The desire to get rich quick will always be with us. As you are reading this, another scam may be unfolding just around the corner. One good way to combat such schemes, particularly among Christians, is to demonstrate that the work we do, the products we create and the businesses we run are first and foremost a way to serve God by meeting the needs of our communities. The money we earn is our reward for honest work. Trying to get something for nothing (or worse, at someone else’s expense) severs the link between our daily work and the purposes of God. “Anyone who tills the land will have plenty of bread, but one who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty” (Proverbs 28:19).

Wally Kroeker is Director of Publications for Mennonite Economic Development Associates and editor of TheMarketplace. This article was distributed as a MEDA news release.

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Last modified August 20, 2000.

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