I was listening to Chip and Joanna Gaines on “How I Built This” —a podcast about entrepreneurs and their stories about the businesses they have built.
I didn’t know much about the Magnolia brand or Chip and Joanna Gaines before listening, though apparently, they are quite well-known throughout the country. In addition to their home renovation and retail business, they had a popular show on HGTV and now own a television network.
I liked their story a lot.
They struck me as good, humble, hardworking people who genuinely care about others.
But one part of their story bothered me. I’m not a religious person, so perhaps I come from a different position than some or most, but it did not sit well with me.
Joanna Gaines attributes much of her success to her faith in God. She talks about how her trust in God’s wisdom and her belief that if she listens to God and allows him to guide her life, he will lead her to success and happiness.
This all sounds lovely, but Joanna Gaines has achieved remarkable success.
Life is working out really well for her.
What about the people whose faith in God is even stronger than Joanna Gaines, who are even more willing to allow God to guide them, but who are not wildly successful?
How does a person feel when they listen to Joanna Gaines credit God for so much of her success while they are struggling mightily despite their deeply held belief and limitless faith in the very same God?
I’m not a religious person, so when Joanna Gaines credits God for her success, it holds no meaning for me.
I hear a woman who isn’t taking enough credit for her hard work, business savvy, collaborative partnership with her husband, and willingness to take risks.
But to someone who shares the same faith as Joanna Gaines and works just as hard or even harder and maybe even smarter every day of their life, but still struggles to put food on the table for any number of understandable reasons, how does her credit to God make them feel?
If you’re born in South Sudan, Burundi, or Papua New Guinea — impoverished countries that are overwhelmingly Christian — how are you expected to feel listening to Joanna Gaines speak about how God will guide you to success as long as your faith is strong and you’re willing to walk the path he sets before you?
If Joanna Gaines were born in Burundi, she would almost certainly not be the success she is today. Her family would’ve been earning pennies a day, and she wouldn’t have had access to education, capital, or the markets needed to be successful in business.
Yet most of that country’s population is Christian.
Many, many places around the world are like this.
Geography plays an enormous role. Being born in the United States is like winning the lottery.
Other factors play a significant role, too:
Physical and mental health, the socio-economic class that you’re born into, the quality of your education, the stability of your family, inheritance, and sometimes, your sex, the color of your skin, your sexual orientation, your immigration status, and much more.
If I were not a white, straight, neurotypical American man with no physical disability or mental illness, my road to success would have been far more difficult, and I am certain I would not enjoy the success I have today.
I’m not opposed to people having faith in an otherworldly spirit. I often describe myself as a “reluctant atheist.”
I wish I believed. I wish I possessed the same faith in God as Joanna Gaines.
Truly.
But for those who share her faith but will never achieve a fraction of Joanna Gaines’s success, how do they feel when they listen to her credit her enormous fortune, wild popularity, and happy life to a God who seems to ignore them at every turn?
I wish she had left that part out of her story.
Not for me, but for the people of faith who listen to her speak but live in circumstances that never allow them to get ahead or even live a happy life because of circumstances that faith cannot change.
