Who caused the recession? The latest Hanna Rosin article in The Atlantic (recommended by my Episcopalian friend Mr. Price) suggests part of the blame may lie with the prosperity gospel, the warped theology of many American Christians who conflate Jesus with Santa Claus:
Demographically, the growth of the prosperity gospel tracks fairly closely to the pattern of foreclosure hot spots. Both spread in two particular kinds of communities—the exurban middle class and the urban poor. Many newer prosperity churches popped up around fringe suburban developments built in the 1990s and 2000s, says Walton. These are precisely the kinds of neighborhoods that have been decimated by foreclosures, according to Eric Halperin, of the Center for Responsible Lending.
Zooming out a bit, Kate Bowler found that most new prosperity-gospel churches were built along the Sun Belt, particularly in California, Florida, and Arizona—all areas that were hard-hit by the mortgage crisis. Bowler, who, like Walton, was researching a book, spent a lot of time attending the “financial empowerment” seminars that are common at prosperity churches. Advisers would pay lip service to “sound financial practices,” she recalls, but overall they would send the opposite message: posters advertising the seminars featured big houses in the background, and the parking spots closest to the church were reserved for luxury cars [Hanna Rosin, "," The Atlantic, December 2009].
Read Rosin's full article for some insight on the God=Mammon mindset that pervades too many American churches. Only in the prosperity gospel could a pastor happily moonlight as a loan officer for subprime lender Countrywide. Only in the prosperity gospel could craving a really big house be seen by mega-preachers like Joel Osteen as God's calling to goodness.
Fortunately, not all of the faithful are fooled by filthy lucre. Rosin points to a 2006 Time interview with Rick Warren (no poor preacher himself), who rightly laughs at the prosperity gospel:
This idea that God wants everybody to be wealthy? There is a word for that: baloney. It's creating a false idol. You don't measure your self-worth by your net worth. I can show you millions of faithful followers of Christ who live in poverty. Why isn't everyone in the church a millionaire? [Rick Warren, quoted in David Van Biema and Jeff Chu, "Does God Want You to Be Rich?" Time, 2006.09.10].
The next time you hear a preacher telling you that wealth is a sign of God's favor, remind him of Matthew 19:24—you know, the camel and the eye of the needle.
Here endeth the homily. Go forth and proclaim the good news... and hold the materialism.
Cory,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the premise of prblem with so-called prosperity churches. But tying it to the recession is lacking truth. The housing bubble was created by the Federal Reserve System interference with interest rates, and the federal government's direct interference via Freddie and Fannie. Yes, prosperity churches maybe a false religion, but so is the religion of the Progressives.
Are you ready for true Christian principles and the restoration of God's Natural Law in America?
If I didn't have my sermon all ready for tonight, I could have echoed yours.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the good words!
In Exodus 20:2-3, the First Commandment informs us "thou shalt have no other gods before Me."
ReplyDeleteJesus also said in Matthew 22:36-38, the First Commandment is the most important one. "Love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
In reality, we are all guilty of worshipping other gods, whether it is building a house that is larger than what we actually need in these new developments, having too many possessions or padding a bank account, but I don't think churches built among expanding population bases have anything to do with the recession. That dog doesn't bark.
Every major housing development sets aside space for churches and often times churches build before the homes go up in anticipation of the population growth. Maybe you can create a correlation between the two, but doubtful.
Greed, theft and deception in the mortgage world caused the housing effects of the recession. Churches and religion had nothing to do with it.
Thanks, Pastor E!
ReplyDeleteRod, I beg to differ. I don't deny the role of other factors. I don't seek to indict all churches or Christianity in general. But Rosin offers evidence that Christianity done wrong—the Joel Osteen prosperity gospel that makes a false idol of money—may have a connection to risky financial behavior. Tell a bunch of people that God wants them to be rich, convince them that a subprime lender overlooking their bad credit and approving their loan is divine blessing rather than shady business, and you have a recipe for more bad financial choices. Someone needed to tell those folks, "You really shouldn't get that loan. You can't afford that house." Instead, their pastors said, "God wants you to have that house! That loan is the Lord's blessing!"
I don't say churches and religion had everything to do with it. I contend bad churches and shoddy theology that seeks to affirm American materialism had something to do with it.
Cory,
ReplyDeleteJust because they call themselves Christians does not mean that they are following Christian principles. The Bible warns of following false prophets. And since research proves that less than 10% of self-described Christians actually follow a Christian worldview, then we need to take a closer look at what caused so many to follow false prophets. The top problem is the secular progressive movement that are the ones primarily responsible for setting up the corrupt financial system. That problem was caused by those who rejected God, just as you have done. To fix the problem, one needs to turn their lives over to Jesus Christ and stop following false prophets and their idols.
Cory, you stated, "convince them that a subprime lender overlooking their bad credit and approving their loan is divine blessing rather than shady business, and you have a recipe for more bad financial choices." I don't know about religious leaders saying that,but I do know that Acorn did! How about the title here should be, "Who caused the recession? How about community organizers,i.e. Acorn and Obama, with bad theology, aided and abetted by Bawney Frank and other certain Dems when they declared there to be no problem with Fannie and Freddie?" Kinda long title but more appropos actually.
ReplyDeleteLinda, you would know about religious readers saying things like that if you read the original article that I linked. Pastors were saying just that. Subprime lenders were enlisting pastors and holding workshops at churches to help sell their flawed product. What I said is exactly what happened.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't know about those type of "preachers" and their part in the recession because I don't listen to them and they are a lot of hype. I won't disagree that if they push the philosophy you state above they are part of the problem and prey on the weakest among us, and shame on them. But that does not excuse the larger part that Obama, Acorn, et al played in the recession forcing banks to loan to people who obviously would not be able to repay the loans and most probably enlisting the help of the "preachers" to promote this policy. There is blame to go around to all who preyed on the weak in their attempt to gain power and control. I stand by my post above (and on it and under it too).
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't know about those type of "preachers" and their part in the recession because I don't listen to them and they are a lot of hype. I won't disagree that if they push the philosophy you state above they are part of the problem and prey on the weakest among us, and shame on them. But that does not excuse the larger part that Obama, Acorn, et al played in the recession forcing banks to loan to people who obviously would not be able to repay the loans and most probably enlisting the help of the "preachers" to promote this policy. There is blame to go around to all who preyed on the weak in their attempt to gain power and control. I stand by my post above (and on it and under it too).
ReplyDeleteCory,
ReplyDeleteRemember "It's a Wonderful Life"?
George Bailey goes round and round with old man Potter about poor people saving up enough money to buy a house. Potter wants the poor man to save all of the money and then pay up front while George Bailey thought the common man should have a chance at a home of his own while his kids were still young.
I say enjoy the life you have today. Love those around you. Serve your fellow man.
It's your choice whether you are miserable of happy.
Cory,
ReplyDeleteThis is also from your link:
"But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated"
Again, I repeat the false religion. This is not true Christianity, no more than today's corporations represent free-market capitalism. Again, less than 10% of those who call themselves Christian actually follow the Christian worldvidew. If America was followuing a Christian worldview, there would be no Federal Reserve, no Fannie, and no Freddie. Those are the real villians of the housing bubble, along with Obamas' community organizers who used liberal churches to push their Marxism.
Steve. that's exactly my point, that the church that would promulgate bad financial practices, like the church discussed in the article that Linda doesn't want to read, is not following healthy Christian theology. THe prosperity gospel is bad for Christianity, and the Rosin article makes a reasonable argument that it's bad for the economy as well.
ReplyDeleteMichael: huh? I enjoy the life I have today. I love those around me. I serve my fellow man. I choose to be happy. And I can still recognize that the prosperity gospel is not good theology. Please restate your point.
"is not following healthy Christian theology"
ReplyDeleteThen it would be wrong to blame Christians for the recession, as the article does with its title, but instead those who are not following the true Christian worldview. And it is also sad that Islam uses the acts of America's immoral entertainment as evidence that Christianity is an evil religion.
So for Steve, this is just a word game to prove that all Christians are good. To win his word game, he judges probably the vast majority of Christians to be unworthy of the title.
ReplyDeleteThis article is not anti-Christian. Rosin makes the same careful distinction I do, pointing at an anti-Christian, unscriptural muddle of ideas, the prosperity gospel, that many Christians follow. We can reasonably argue that such bad ideas contributed to the recession, just as other bad ideas have led Christians to do bad things.
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” —Mohandes Gandhi
OK,I read most of the article. This reminds me more of Amway philosophy than it does Christianity. Christianity never promises wealth; in contrast true Christianity preaches love, not greed. There are many false gods and pastors out there who prey on people desperate to believe in anything that promises more stuff/money in their lives if they just believe enough (and send in plenty of cash to help the pastor with their "ministry"). But don't equate Christianity with these "pastors' preaching." Greed is greed, whether for money (false prophets) or power (Obama et al) or both.
ReplyDeleteLinda, for the umpteenth time, I don't equate prosperity gospel with "true" Christianity. Unfortunately, Joel Osteen and many other prominent preachers, along with millions of Christians, do. This atheist already gets the distinction, Linda, and I want to help you spread the message that the prosperity gospel is false Christianity to your fellow Christians. Don't you get we're on the same side here?
ReplyDeleteCory,
ReplyDeleteYou and Obama are on the same side as the Prosperity Gospel non-Chrsitians. Here is an excerpt from a February 2008 NYT report regarding the mortgage scandal:
" “They don’t know what to do, and they don’t trust anyone anymore,” Senator Charles E. Schumer said today in a telephone interview. “And they are all embarrassed, frankly, since they were taken so advantage of.”
The church is offering a broad network to reach them, Mr. Schumer said. “They will trust their parish and they will trust their minister,” he added.
Acorn Housing Corporation, a housing advocate group, is the lead agency for the Brooklyn parish while the Neighborhood Housing Services of New York is the lead agency for the Queens parish."
Schumer & ACORN were in the churches preaching their greedy Marxist based redistritubion with violates God's Law regarding coveting. It was the Progessive left and their Big Government that created the meltdown. And then they used it as an excuse to take public money and enrich Goldman Sachs with it. The very people that profited from the subprime loans. What a rip-off!
I spoke with a pastor today and he confirmed that the Prosperity Gospel is not Christianity. It is a false religion used by ACORN to push sub-prime loans. It is very sad to see the Atlantic use this anti-American and anti-God Progressive based rip-off and blame on Christians.