Here’s a potentially interesting topic for discussion. TIME Magazine has a photo essay on Prosperity Preachers.
What do you think of what these folks have to say?
There is no doubt these people are popular and they attract large followings. Do you think that God wants you to be rich?
Most of these folks say some form of “God wants you to be successful.” Are they on target or off base?
The new blog I’ve started up is SuccessCREEations. Do you suppose that means that I am aligning myself with these folks? Or would you say that I’m on some other track?
When you Google “prosperity preacher” Joel Osteen’s name shows up twice in the first ten results. Now I don’t know much about him other than I caught part of one of his messages once when I was getting ready in the morning at my hotel room in Dallas at a conference one time. But apparently folks say his church is growing because he tell them God wants them to be rich.
There are other folks who say that those who oppose the “prosperity gospel” crowd are just selling God short, or maybe they are lazy and don’t want to do their part to be successful.
What do you think?
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS Feed.
Markus says
September 12, 2006 at 6:57 amHi Chris,
here’s a view from your favorite pagan 🙂
I don’t recognize these names, but I have come across a fair share of success teachers (mostly from non Christian background). Mostly I’d say their messages are pretty lame, for the reason that they deal with richness to the exclusion of everything else.
In my view (to pick up on that quote from your article), God does give you choice to be rich or poor and you can be happy either way. Rich in and happy are pretty not connected with each other, all versions are possible (poor/unhappy, rich/unhappy, etc.).
Three’s nothing wrong with rich and nothing wrong with not rich, besides the fact that rich is relative to the person who perceive their own richness. Michael Jackson probably feels pretty poor at the moment, despite the fact that he owns publishing rights to Beatles songs worth more than a billion dollars and an Pakistan beggar may feel rich beyond measure if you give him a hundred dollar bill.
You probably know those polls which indicate that self perceived happyness (how happy are you with life) is a lot higher in what we underdeveloped countries (calling them “underdeveloped” is interesting by itself, because we measure them with our yardsticks).
But what repels me most about success teachers (especially if I consider a religious kind like you describe it) is the following: If they tell you that god wants to be rich, this mostly implies (at least in my impression) that you need to purchase their services in order to please your god, which boils down to: “God wants you to make me (the preacher) rich.” Which of course (again in my view) means that the preacher uses God as a lever to make you make him richer.
And regarding the last paragraph. Lazy and wealthy are also not connected. There are rich people which you would consider lazy and a single mom with three Mac jobs may never get rich but I wouldn’t call her lazy.
I don’t have answers for you (although I may have them for myself), just offering food for thought, as always with my comments.
Markus
Chris Cree says
September 12, 2006 at 8:12 amMarcus, I don’t see any flaws in your reasoning here. My own personal views on the subject are much closer to what you have said than I would have expected.
But what about the rest of the folks out there?
Are the Prosperity Preachers on the right track or charlatans? Or are they somewhere in between?
david says
September 12, 2006 at 12:26 pmFirst of all Chris, there is nothing wrong with being prosperous.
God delights in the prosperity of His people (psalm 35:27).
What is prosperity? I believe that it is more than money but also health, in our realtionships…everything that concerns us.
Unfortunately, there are many who abuse the word of God for their own benefit.
But just because there are some that are out of line, it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want us to be rich.
We also have to realize the reason why He wants us to be rich. Maybe I will write about that on my blog.
Chris Cree says
September 12, 2006 at 12:52 pmI look forward to reading about it, David.
What you say about those looking for their own benefit is nothing new, is it? Those kinds of folks existed even as far back as the book of Acts, eh?
Would you say that our own motives are more important indicator of our success than how prosperous we are?
Dave says
September 13, 2006 at 11:30 amChris I think that’s partially true… but God talks soooooo much about money in the Bible. It’s a very popular topic and principle about what to do with earthly wealth. I think the “prosperity preachers” have been labelled recklessly by those who just look on the surface of the issue.
Giving is fundmental, but when it’s preached about… and because there really is a degree of reciprocity involved in God’s kingdom… human nature looks, reasons, and say’s “You’re conning me out of my money”.
I think that the “prosperity gospel” teaching does get out of balance though, because God does allow us to financially prosper… so that we can sow more… so we can reap more… so that we can sow more… so that….
Chris Cree says
September 13, 2006 at 12:03 pmDave, There’s a principle in there somewhere. Sounds like a topic for another post. Interesting that I was pondering that very thing this morning. Hmmm….
Margie says
September 17, 2006 at 9:42 pmHi, came across your blog on Stumble Upon. I’m in Savannah too! Great post and great all around blog. Very helpful.
Chris Cree says
September 18, 2006 at 5:50 amThanks for the compliments, Margie. If you see any posts that you especially like don’t forget to give us the ole thumbs up! We Savanniacs have got to stick together!
Of course you might think I’ve got some issues… 😉
Carolyn Manning says
September 20, 2006 at 2:31 pmToday is the first I’ve seen your blog. I like it well enough to subscribe and (if I may) trust for a bit of research for a spirituality blog I’ll be starting later this week.
I’d rather not make a comment on prosperity preachers per se, (because I can’t bring myself to like them), but I will say that prosperity is one of our birthrights. I say this with reference to 1Chronicles 4:10 “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!'”
Chris Cree says
September 20, 2006 at 10:22 pmCarolyn, Welcome to CREEations. Feel free to poke around. And I think it was Rick Warren that said something like, “If my bullet fits your gun, shoot it!” (A link back might be nice, though… 😉 )
In our small group tonight we talked about how when John & Andrew first started tagging along after Jesus the first thing he asked them was, “What do you want?” (John 1:38) We found it interesting that Jesus did not ask them first what they needed, but wanted them to tell him instead what they desired.
Not sure how that plays into the prosperity question, but I did find it to be an interesting distinction.
Carolyn Manning says
September 23, 2006 at 5:37 pmChris,
When was the translation “what do you want?” made? My guess is it was sometime way this side of the 12th century, at which time the word meant to lack or to need. Actually, in today’s usage, the 3rd or 4th definition in the dictionary still carries the 12th century meaning.
The distinction is often made (I amended my comment of 9/21 because of it) between a want and a need, when they are, in fact, the same, particularly in a spiritual context. Either word describes something lacking. Somewhere along the line, society made a distinction that a want is necessarily frivilous and a need is something to be reckoned with.
I’m starting to roll here, so I think I’ll take my little soapbox over to my blog and post about this there.
Carolyn
PS You seriously lost me with the bullet and gun quote.