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TIME Magazine: Did the Prosperity Gospel Have Anything to do with the Economic Breakdown?

Posted by: Todd
Posted on: Mon, October 06, 2008
Viewed 81
(11) comments so far

What do you think?

From the most recent issue of Time: "Has the so-called Prosperity gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants — and hence, victims — of the current financial crisis? That's what a scholar of the fast-growing brand of Pentecostal Christianity believes. While researching a book on black televangelism, says Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California at Riverside, he realized that Prosperity's central promise — that God will "make a way" for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, dangerous expression during the subprime-lending boom. Walton says that this encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe "God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house." The results, he says, "were disastrous, because they pretty much turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers."

Comments

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Josh R on Mon, October 06, 2008

I think that the prosperity Gospel is a reflection of our cultures values, not the other way around.

It probably was not a significant contributor to the collapse, but certainly folks who buy that stuff where likely to be suckered in. They likely would have been suckered in anyway, because In consumer church we tend to pick the preacher that reflects their values.

I think that there is a danger in even the statement of “God opens doors” —Usually God’s way is not the easy way.
Karl on Mon, October 06, 2008

The prosperity Gospel is actually syncretism—between the dominant values of our culture (consumerism, wealth, comfort, convenience and the American dream) and Christianity. The prosperity Gospel has made Christianity a strategy for becoming what our culture admires. It is no different than mixing animism with Christianity in some of the Global South. It just looks different in the USA and it may be a bit more sophisticated.
Leonard on Mon, October 06, 2008

Karl, that is brilliantly put. thanks
Peter Hamm on Mon, October 06, 2008

Very quotable, Karl!
ADH on Mon, October 06, 2008

That’s right, it’s the fault of some Christians rather than the irresponsibility of those that approved the loans or those that could not afford the loans. It’s not the fault of the sleeping members of Congress who failed to heed warnings about the unethical lending practices of the companies that bundled the paper and sold it to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It’s not the fault of the leaders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who restructured their bonus structures to be based on how many loans were insured allowing all of them to leave these institutions bankrupt while they enriched themselves. It’s not the fault of the greedy CEO’s who bailed out with millions while watching their stock holders take massive hits in their portfolios. It’s not the fault of the SEC leadership and subordinates who looked the other way while this was going on. It’s not the fault of some members of Congress who pushed and in some cases threatened some lenders to open home ownership to those they knew could not afford it. It’s not the fault of our artificial economy built and run on debt from the Federal Government to the corner drug store.

Further, the message of God’s provision is a covenant issue grounded not in American pop religious culture but deeply grounded in the Hebrew traditions and writings, originating from the Ancient Near East (not the U.S.). Additionally, the message does not trumpet debt as a substitute for prosperity, but rather identifies debt with man’s attempt to prosper himself.

Therefore, God’s provision for man is far from an American Syncretism. It is in fact part of the Gospel and part of our redemption. Abuse of a particular doctrine or practice does not discount the truth. Theologians abuse the doctrine of salvation (adding to or taking away from the Biblical pathway), but we don’t rail against and reject the salvation message. In fact, the bath water surrounding almost every doctrine is clouded by the distortion of some party, but we are wise not to start throwing out the baby with it and we certainly should stay away from characterizing something incorrectly as a near jerk reaction to some loaded (but often inadequately defined) term like prosperity.
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wow nice post…and wonderful article
divorce solicitors London on Tue, January 06, 2009

I thought that Jesus preached a life of restriant and good deeds, camels and eye of the needle etc..have never worked out how huge wealth and savation pair up…
Condos on Tue, March 10, 2009

Australia’s previous Liberal Party Prime Minister John Howard “came out swinging” last night in support of the policy agenda his government shared with the preceding Labor Party government of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating: ”neoliberalism” (for non-Australian readers, the Australian Liberal Party is closer to the US Republican Party or the UK’s Tories than the US vision of the word “Liberal”, while the Australian Labor Party is akin to the US Democratic Party or the UK’s Labour Party).In Five great reforms are an essential legacy, Howard defends “neoliberalism”, and argues that the financial crisis was actually the result of distortions to the financial system by well-meaning but ill-advised government tampering with the financial system….read more in….<a href=http://www.toronto-condominiums.ca/toronto_condos.php>Condos Toronto</a>..!!
Condos on Tue, March 10, 2009

This perverse combination of incentives encourages both home buyers and speculators to compete against each other with leveraged funds on the Australian housing market.Howard himself contributed to this farce by introducing the First Home Buyers Grant in the first place, never removing this “temporary” scheme after the GST adjustment phase was over, doubling its rate as an economic incentive during the 2001 downturn, and by setting the capital gains tax rate at half the income tax rate. His attribution of blame for the financial crisis to government intervention would have been somewhat more believable if his speech had included a “mea culpa” for his….own contributions.get more…

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Jan Ewans on Wed, December 30, 2009

Wow. I am really interested in this article. As I said earlier, or implied, I spent a period of the 70s seeking ecstatic experiences in literature, and believe I achieved it a couple dozen times.
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