Simony in the Evangelical World

Simon Magus
Simon Magus, in Acts 8 offered the apostles money in return for the spiritual gift of laying hands on people for them to receive the Holy Spirit. In other words he wanted to buy spiritual favour with money.

From this story arose the sinful practise called "Simony." Simony is when someone wants to influence the church with money.

Simony in the medieval church
Simony was common in the corrupt medieval church. You could buy an office, for example, you could become a bishop, by handing over money. In the same way that political influence could be purchased in the world, so spiritual influence could be bought in the church.

Of course we don't do that anymore?
We tidy Evangelicals like to think that simony is unknown among our churches. We reject it, we say, as vehemently as we reject priests, dressing up in daft frocks, smells, bells, smoke and so on. etc.

Except that Simony is well and alive in evangelical circles. Every time we allow money to influence an appointment or a decision we are guilty of Simony. Here are some examples:

• A rich man comes into the local church and is appointed to an office, deacon or elder, because he is rich. If the decision has not been made on account of character or giftings, but has been influenced in any way by his wealth, that is Simony
• A rich church gives to a poor church and expects influence in return. The money has not been given freely but has strings attached
• A rich man approaches an evangelical organisation and gives it a large amount of money. But in return he expects his name to be mentioned or expects his viewpoint to be made known or propogated

I know personally of examples of all three versions of Simony.

How to avoid Simony
How do we avoid the evil practise of Simony?

First, we make it a practise that when a rich man comes into our church, we treat him no different than a poor peasant. We make ourselves dollar blind. We may even have to tell him this right at the start, so he is under no illusions (delusions).

Secondly, we teach our church that Christ forbids favouritism to the rich. Rich people then will either melt away to simony-accepting churches, or humbly confess that they should be treated the same as the poor.

We never accept any gifts with strings attached, no matter how seductive those strings are. If someone has told you that they are giving you  money, that, already is a subtle string - why do they need to tell you? Anonymity is the only way to give Christianly.

We teach our people to give anonymously, not even letting their left hand know what their right hand is doing. 

I will never forget a man coming to me as a church pastor and telling me that he was going to give a large amount of money to the church every month. It was code for "I want an office here." In due time when after further less subtle prompts for a certain office none was given, he quietly slipped away.

Rich Christians who use their money anonymously can be a great blessing to the church. Rich Christians who want to use their money in exchange for influence of any kind are a menace in the church, and no church should be seduced by their offers.

Office should be given to those who have godliness, alone, not to the Simon Magus's of the world.

Occasionally, of course, those appointed to office may be wealthy, but their wealth had nothing whatsoever to do with their appointment. It was and is their godliness that counts.