It goes without saying that the economic boom 90s and financial overextensions of the new millennium contributed to the success of the prosperity gospel message. Preached within sprawling megachurches that reflect the excessive ethos of corporate greed and “super-sized” America, too many of the otherwise devout in America have been led to believe that luxury goods and material possessions are the marks of Christian fidelity. Narratives of how “God blessed me with my first house despite my credit” were common. Swank hotel conferences and “gospel cruises” replaced traditional revivals on the church calendar. And sermons declaring “its your season of overflow” supplanted messages of economic sobriety and disinterested sacrifice. Yet as folks were testifying about “what God can do,” little attention was paid to a predatory sub-prime mortgage industry, relaxed credit standards, or the dangers of using one’s home equity as an ATM to subsidize cars, clothes and vacations.
But at a time of rampant home foreclosures, soaring jobless rate and crumbling Wall Street firms, I have begun to wonder: Where are the prosperity preachers? What do they have to say as the American economy tumbles and their parishioners watch their net worth evaporate like the mid-morning dew? I mean they have taught us for the past few decades that by faith we can transcend the economy of the natural realm. If you walk with God and live the higher life in Christ, you don’t have to worry about the “world’s order.” And they have encouraged churchgoers to believe that poverty and economic lack is a mindset to be overcome, not a structural reality to be fought against. Wasn’t it the bastardized theology and perverted biblical hermeneutics of these jingoistic American patriots that reinforced the notion that difficult economic times signify a lack of faith at best, and a sinful spirit at worst?
So where are they now? Where are these preachers as parishioners’ mortgages continue to default and gas prices bust the average working family’s budget? Where are they as families fall into an economic tailspin due to unforeseen job losses and out of control healthcare costs? And where are they as parishioners increasingly discover that the extravagant luxury items that they once considered a blessing from God have now become a helluva burden?
One would think that it would be impossible today for such entrepreneurial evangelists to continue parading on television as high-powered Christian captains of industry while confusing vanity for dignity and pomposity for social respectability. The simulacrum of being a CEO has surely lost its illusion now that the prophets of Wall Street find themselves looking like the new government welfare kings. And any reasonable person might suggest that this is the opportune time to pull the rug from up under their alligator shoes and reexamine the theological premise of such a gospel of greed and get-rich-quickness.
Then maybe these snake oil salesman will climb back under the rock they slithered out of. But I doubt it. That would be too much like right; not to mention too pessimistic concerning the possibility and potentiality of what it means to be American. As John McCain reminded us, the fundamentals of the American economy are strong because we have the best (read: optimistic) workers (read: human beings) in the world! In other words, government-speak for what prosperity preachers would consider, “God being on our side!”
Therefore, if you want to know where the prosperity preachers are during this time of economic turmoil, one need look no further than the same congregations and networks where they have always resided. Same theology, same sermons, and same results. If folks ever desired to hear a message of health and wealth, they desire it now. And as long as there is a dollar to be given, a prayer cloth to be sold, or a sermon series to sell that will “miraculously change your life,” there will be a prosperity preacher there to proclaim, “Get ready for your breakthrough!” Sadly, it’s the American way.
