“Just Plant a Seed”: An Anglican Priest Says Houses, Cars and Land Take Work, Not Magic Offerings

• Fr Sean Major-Campbell took aim at the prosperity gospel in the Gleaner
• He said houses, cars and land come through study, work and time
• He called some pastors’ boasting about their wealth obscene
• He said it is okay to live simply, without great wealth

An Anglican priest has told Jamaican Christians that there is no spiritual shortcut to owning a home. Writing in the Gleaner, Fr Sean Major-Campbell challenged the prosperity gospel, the teaching that faith and generous giving to a ministry will bring material reward, and argued that it contradicts the teaching of Christ.

“Just plant a seed and you will see your fortunes multiplied, is the mantra of the prosperity gospel,” he wrote. He described people who keep “sowing a seed of faith” in hope of a change in their circumstances, and said plainly: “God does not work that way.”

Instead, he set out an ordinary, practical path. Achieving goals takes study, time and work, he wrote. “It will also take some time before a car and house and land and so on are acquired.” He was also critical of how some preachers present their own lives. “It gets obscene to the point where some pastors boast of their material wealth as a sign of how blessed they are because of their great faith in God,” he wrote, adding that some of the wealthy people who are admired are immoral and greedy.

At the heart of the column was a call back to the cost of discipleship: those who follow Jesus “must deny self, take up their cross and follow Christ”. He urged readers to persevere through hardship, noting that many successful people pressed on with faith in God when the way ahead was uncertain. “It is okay to live simply, humbly, and without great wealth,” he wrote.

For Jamaicans trying to buy a first home, the argument matters. Money given in the hope of a miracle is money not saved for a deposit, closing costs or a surveyor’s fee. A theology that treats property as a reward for giving can leave families poorer and more in debt. The alternative Fr Major-Campbell describes, patient saving, steady work and realistic expectations, is slower, but it is the route by which most families at home and in the diaspora have actually come to own a house and a piece of land.

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