`Gospel of wealth'
facing scrutiny
By ERIC GORSKI, AP Religion Writer
Dec 27, 2007
This is
a God send – I hope and pray for the fall of evil and perverse evangelists that
have made a prey of the elderly, the sick, and the poor robbing and spoiling
them with lies of their getting wealthy, their receiving healing, and receiving
a higher place in heaven all because they pour in the laps of these wolves
their money for food clothing and shelter.
And the greatest evil of this is that the pastors and teachers of these
people do not cry out against this rape and plunder of their flocks.
The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor's living room each night: Be faithful in how you
live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you
with material riches.
And so the 53-year-old accountant from the
Only the blessings didn't come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and payday
loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she believed the explanation
given on television: Her faith wasn't strong enough.
"I wanted to believe God wanted to do
something great with me like he was doing with them," she said. "I'm
angry and bitter about it. Right now, I don't watch anyone on
TV hardly."
All three of the groups Fleenor
supported are among six major Christian television ministries under scrutiny by
a senator who is asking questions about the evangelists' lavish spending and
possible abuses of their tax-exempt status.
The probe by Sen.
Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking
Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has
brought new scrutiny to the underlying belief that brings in millions of
dollars and fills churches from Atlanta to Los Angeles — the "Gospel of Prosperity," or
the notion that God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches.
All six ministries under investigation
preach the prosperity gospel to varying degrees.
Proponents call it a biblically sound
message of hope. Others say it is a distortion that makes evangelists rich and
preys on the vulnerable. They say it has evolved from "it's all right to
make money" to it's all right for the pastor to drive a Bentley, live in
an oceanside home and travel by private jet.
"More and more people are desperate
and grasping at straws and want something that will alleviate their pain or
financial crisis," said Michael Palmer, dean
of the divinity school at
The modern-day prosperity movement can
largely be traced back to evangelist Oral Roberts'
teachings. Roberts' disciples have spread his theology and vocabulary (Roberts
and other evangelists, such as Meyer, call their donors "partners.")
And several popular prosperity preachers, including some now under
investigation, have served on the
Grassley is asking the ministries for
financial records on salaries, spending practices, private jets and other
perks. The investigation, coupled with a financial scandal at ORU that forced
out Roberts' son and heir, Richard, has some wondering whether the prosperity
gospel is facing a day of reckoning.
While few expect the movement to disappear,
the scrutiny could force greater financial transparency and oversight in a
movement known for secrecy.
Most scholars trace the origins of
prosperity theology to E.W. Kenyon, an evangelical pastor from the first half
of the 20th century.
But it wasn't until
the postwar era — and a pair of evangelists from
Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin — and later, Kenneth Copeland
— trained tens of thousands of evangelists with a message that resonated with
an emerging middle class, said David Edwin Harrell Jr., a Roberts biographer.
Copeland is among those now being investigated.
"What Oral did was develop a theology
that made it OK to prosper," Harrell said. "He let Pentecostals be
faithful to the old-time truths their grandparents embraced and be part of the
modern world, where they could have good jobs and make money."
The teachings took on various names —
"Name It and Claim It," "Word of Faith," the prosperity
gospel.
Prosperity preachers say that it isn't all
about money — that God's blessings extend to health, relationships and being
well-off enough to help others.
They have Bible verses at the ready to make
their case. One oft-cited verse, in Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians,
reads: "Yet for your sakes he became poor, that you by his poverty might
become rich."
Critics acknowledge the idea that God wants
to bless his followers has a Biblical basis, but say prosperity preachers take
verses out of context. The prosperity crowd also fails to acknowledge Biblical
accounts that show God doesn't always reward faithful believers, Palmer said.
The Book of Job is a case study in piety
unrewarded, and a chapter in the Book of Hebrews includes a litany of believers
who were tortured and martyred, Palmer said.
Yet the prosperity gospel continues to draw
crowds, particularly lower- and middle-income people who, critics say, have the
greatest motivation and the most to lose. The prosperity message is spreading
to black churches, attracting elderly people with disposable incomes, and
reaching huge churches in
One of the teaching's attractions is that
it doesn't dwell on traditional Christian themes of heaven and hell but on
answering pressing concerns of the here and now, said Brian McLaren,
a liberal evangelical author and pastor.
But the prosperity gospel, McLaren said, not only preys on the hope of the vulnerable,
it puts too much emphasis on individual success and happiness.
"We've pretty much ignored what the
Bible says about systemic injustice," he said.
The checks and balances central to
Christian denominations are largely lacking in prosperity churches. One of the
pastors in the Grassley probe, Bishop Eddie Long of suburban
Some ministers hold up their own wealth as
evidence that the teaching works. Atlanta-area pastor Creflo
Dollar, who is fighting Grassley's inquiry, owns a Rolls Royce and
multimillion-dollar homes and travels in a church-owned Learjet.
In a letter to Grassley, Dollar's attorney
calls the prosperity gospel a "deeply held religious belief" grounded
in Scripture and therefore a protected religious freedom. Grassley has said his
probe is not about theology.
But even some prosperity gospel critics —
like the Rev. Adam Hamilton of 15,000-member
"How do you determine how much money a
minister like this is able to make when the basic theology is that wealth is
OK?" said Hamilton, an Oral Roberts graduate
who later left the charismatic movement. "That gets into theological
questions."
There is evidence of change.
Meyer, who has promised to cooperate fully
with Grassley, issued a statement emphasizing that a prosperity gospel
"that solely equates blessing with financial gain is out of balance and
could damage a person's walk with God."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071227/ap_on_re_us/prosperity_preachers