Gospel according to the dollar
p2pnet news | TV:- Can you buy God?
You can, according to messages hammered home relentlessly to the gullible by TV preachers and other proponents of the gospel according to the dollar.
It’s a religion with a powerful following and last month, US senator Charles Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, launched an investigation into the activities of some of these not so holy rollers.
And his probe has, says Associated Press, "brought new scrutiny to the underlying belief that brings in millions of dollars and fills churches from Atlanta to Los Angeles" —- the notion that "God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches".
"The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor’s living room each night," says the story, going on:
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 Tampa, Fla., area pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering from childhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn (right) and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White.
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."
The "modern-day prosperity movement" largely harks back to evangelist Oral Roberts’ teachings, says AP.
"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 Oral Roberts University board."
Grassley wants financial records on salaries, spending practices, private jets and other perks and 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, says the story, continuing:
"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."
But, "even some prosperity gospel critics – like the Rev. Adam Hamilton of 15,000-member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in suburban Kansas City, Mo. – say that the investigation is entering a minefield."
How do you, "determine how much money a minister … 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."
Also See:
gospel according to the dollar – Investigate TV holy rollers: Grassley, November 7, 2007
Associated Press – `Gospel of Wealth’ Facing Scrutiny, December 27, 2006
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December 28th, 2007 at 7:14 am
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RTrYE4a1BmE