The American Christian Prosperity Gospel Ribbon Fish

14 Responses to "The American Christian Prosperity Gospel Ribbon Fish"

• Comment by: Staci

  1 03/19/07 1:48 PM | Comment Link |

  Just before I saw this, Sojourners emailed the following quote of the day:

  It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticism, that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the gospel. It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hollow-hearted prosperity.
  - Frederic D. Huntington, Forum magazine, 1890

  Makes me think there isn’t much new under the sun.

  “Prosperity gospel” has always been a pet peeve. Anytime I’ve heard a sermon that hints of this, I ask the minister what receiving has to do with giving? There shouldn’t be such a fine line between faith and greed. Anyone is willing to give in order to get back even more. If that is the goal, there is a Nigerian Prince ready to help you out via email.

• Comment by: April Terry

  2 03/19/07 4:43 PM | Comment Link |

  It makes me think of all the Christians in the world who believe that they are truly prosperous and yet they don’t drive an Escalade or Lexus and never will.

• Comment by: Brianmpei

  3 03/19/07 6:36 PM | Comment Link |

  Funny, I just talked about this Sunday. It came under the heading of how the world’s values have been coopted by the church. I also shared my own results from the Global Rich List you posted. I’m stinkin’ wealthy! I read a note from a missionary in Africa who shared how they came upon a make-shift camp of thousands displaced by flooding. They gave them all they had to give of food and other supplies, sang with them, prayed with them, shared Jesus and saw some healed and helped in various ways. I said that if the prosperity message is true, the best thing they could’ve done for those brothers and sisters would’ve been to take up an offering and forget about giving them any food.
  And then today I read an article about a church in Detroit buying their pastor a $3.6 million parsonage. sigh.

• Comment by: Deryll

  4 03/20/07 12:01 AM | Comment Link |

  Frankly, my opinion is that the book of Jude is a sermon “against” the prosperity Gospel lie.

• Comment by: Jim

  5 03/20/07 12:31 AM | Comment Link |

  I am patient with poor people who are drawn into the prosperity gospel because they are sick of being poor. I am not patient with the originators of the idea.

  Those of us who have never truly wondered where our next meal is coming from can not understand why poor people are “tricked” into this idea but when you have nothing and no hope of getting something. And when you have no power - you will try and believe anything .

  Until “normal” Christians can sell hope prosperity Christians will get a hearing

• Comment by: Staci

  6 03/20/07 12:05 PM | Comment Link |

  Thanks for making this important distinction, Jim.

• Comment by: amy

  7 03/20/07 8:41 PM | Comment Link |

  can i get that in bracelet form?

• Comment by: benjamin ady

  8 03/20/07 9:03 PM | Comment Link |

  Yeah–I want the bracelet too

• Comment by: benjamin ady

  9 03/20/07 9:09 PM | Comment Link |

  It seems easy to criticize this, doesn’t it? But I certainly often buy into the idea that my life would be a lot easier if I had, in the words of Tevye, a “small fortune”. Those I speak to who have a good deal more money than me say it simply isn’t true. Seems easy to say from their perspective. Martin Seligman found that people who suddenly get a lot richer have a huge spike in happiness level, but by the end of one year, they have leveled back to their pre windfall happiness level. Which is kind of a bummer because it proves that it doesn’t work for happiness to get richer.
  It seems so clearly not based on the Bible, and not based on the teachings or life of Jesus. But then hey, what largish majority of typical christian doctrine does that describe?

• Comment by: Rachel

  10 03/21/07 8:54 AM | Comment Link |

  On a related note, check out Helen’s post on the “new self-help book” called The Secret over on Conversation at the Edge.

• Comment by: HereandNow

  11 03/21/07 8:56 AM | Comment Link |

  Prosperity theology is the churches equivalent to the lottery. A system for an organized state/denomination to tax it’s constituency by tantalizing them with the promise of great wealth, when the odds are incredibly against anyone but the state/denomination recieving any wealth. And, as you say, Benjamin, wealth is not the key to happiness anyway. Since the word for blessing is on some level equivalent to happiness in NT greek, prosperity theology is a bottle of snake oil being sold to mostly American church members looking for the wrong kind of blessing.

• Comment by: John Lamoreau

  12 03/22/07 5:24 PM | Comment Link |

  The concept of prosperity theology has been around for a long time. I remember some 30 years ago hearing a “guest speaker” stating that if we are poor materially it was quite simply because we don’t have enough faith. He asked the entire church in attendance to write three things down they wanted and to come back and see how they did.

  I can still remember my list: $1,000,000, a thousand concubines and a machine gun. I didn’t get any of them so that tells you where my faith was/is.

  A little over a year ago I had the opportunity to take a motorized canoe into a road less area in the jungle near the head waters of the Amazon.

  In my American stupidity I was amazed at how nicely kept the yards were of a very poor population. There wasn’t any trash any where. Simple reason. They were to poor to have trash. We were invited in to a two room house (boards with ½ inch spaces between them, windows with no glass and no screens) . Eleven people lived there. No beds, no chairs, no manufactured toys, a few pots and bowls but no dishes and no forks or spoons. There was about a change and a half of clothes for everyone but not enough shoes to go around. No towels, no toilet paper, no running water.

  They didn’t have much but what they had they gladly shared. Very humbling. I will always remember the smiles on their faces. Made me ask who was really poor?

  Prosperity theology flies in the face of how Jesus lived , what he taught and how he lived.

  Did God have little faith because his Son was born in a manger and not a castle? Did Jesus have little faith because he died on a cross? Did the apostles have little faith because they lost almost all of their material goods and most died violent deaths?

  Jesus spoke about how hard it would be for the rich person to get into heaven in Matthew Chapter 19: verse 16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” 17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”[ 20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

  Today the man Jesus describes would be considered a model of faithful member of most congregations. He follows all the commandments and obviously has rewarded with great possessions. That was the thought then and the thought today.

  The more you have the more you will be tempted to sin. More money will be wasted on alarms and locks and insurance. The richer you get the more material “needs” you will have. Better cars, homes, TV’s… You might even be tempted to kill if someone dares tries to take your treasures.

  Jesus turned the world upside down. There was a reason for it.

  St. Francis of Assisi is one of my heroes. But as he died poor there will be those who insist he had little faith. I just wish I had more of his “little faith“.

• Comment by: Clay Connell

  13 10/13/07 2:28 PM | Comment Link |

  it is a very sad time in the history of the church,people fill them up every Sunday needing friends, money, social standing etc. My heart is heavy because our “DADDY” in heaven sees his children getting spiritually bullied by these goof ball preachers that they voted into the position.
  People, “GET SAVED AND BEHAVE!!!”
  PRAY TO BE BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND MAKE A CHANGE.
  IT IS RELEVANT. GOD BLESS

• Comment by: benjamin ady

  14 10/13/07 4:36 PM | Comment Link |

  clay. thankyou for your comment! Welcome to Justice and compassion!

  what do you mean when you say “get saved and behave”? Saved from what?

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