[Magdalen] Prosperity Gospel

[Jim Guthrie]

>>Yeah, wow.

>And WEIRD.

I realize it's a far different theological world than the one we inhabit 
here and in Mainline (or even RC Churches), but it's also a widely-held 
belief system fundamental to many popular/mega churches.

There's considerable difference between Christianity inspired by 
American History and Mythology and the "Faith of our Fathers" our 
ancestors brought with them from Europe.

I sometimes get a sense that we don't equip our parish members to handle 
the differences, and so some people leave for what they see as a 
positive approach, while others drift away because they don;t think the 
Prosperity Gospel approach is right, but they aren;t being fed in a way 
that keeps them in the fold.

Cheers,
Jim :
> Y
> On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 1:29 PM, Kate Conant <kate.conant at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Wow!
>>
>> And yikes.
>>
>> Kate
>>
>> "What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love mercy, and walk
>> humbly with your God?"
>> Micah 6:8
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 1:13 PM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Some of us have discussed this on fb, but I thought listsubs might find
>>> this article both interesting and enlightening (for those not familiar
>> with
>>> the concepts of Prosperity Gospel)
>>>
>>> Durham, N.C. — ON a Thursday morning a few months ago, I got a call from
>>> my doctor’s assistant telling me that I have Stage 4 cancer. The stomach
>>> cramps I was suffering from were not caused by a faulty gallbladder, but
>> by
>>> a massive tumor.
>>>
>>>   *
>>>   *
>>>   *
>>>   *
>>>
>>> I am 35. I did the things you might expect of someone whose world has
>>> suddenly become very small. I sank to my knees and cried. I called my
>>> husband at our home nearby. I waited until he arrived so we could wrap
>> our
>>> arms around each other and say the things that must be said/. I have
>> loved
>>> you forever. I am so grateful for our life together. Please take care of
>>> our son./ Then he walked me from my office to the hospital to start what
>>> was left of my new life.
>>>
>>> But one of my first thoughts was also /Oh, God, this is ironic. /I
>>> recently wrote a book called “Blessed.”
>>>
>>> I am a historian of the American prosperity gospel. Put simply, the
>>> prosperity gospel is the belief that God grants health and wealth to
>> those
>>> with the right kind of faith. I spent 10 years interviewing
>> televangelists
>>> with spiritual formulas for how to earn God’s miracle money. I held hands
>>> with people in wheelchairs being prayed for by celebrities known for
>> their
>>> miracle touch. I sat in people’s living rooms and heard about how they
>>> never would have dreamed of owning this home without the encouragement
>> they
>>> heard on Sundays.
>>>
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>> The riddle of a Mennonite megachurch became my intellectual obsession. No
>>> one had written a sustained account of how the prosperity gospel grew
>> from
>>> small tent revivals across the country in the 1950s into one of the most
>>> popular forms of American Christianity, and I was determined to do it. I
>>> learned that the prosperity gospel sprang, in part, from the American
>>> metaphysical tradition of New Thought, a late-19th-century ripening of
>>> ideas about the power of the mind: Positive thoughts yielded positive
>>> circumstances, and negative thoughts negative circumstances.
>>>
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>> One of the most endearing and saddest things about being sick is watching
>>> people’s attempts to make sense of your problem. My academic friends did
>>> what researchers do and Googled the hell out of it. When did you start
>>> noticing pain? What exactly were the symptoms, again? Is it hereditary? I
>>> can out-know my cancer using the Mayo Clinic website. Buried in all their
>>> concern is the unspoken question: Do I have any control?
>>>
>>> I can also hear it in all my hippie friends’ attempts to find the most
>>> healing kale salad for me. I can eat my way out of cancer. Or, if I were
>> to
>>> follow my prosperity gospel friends’ advice, I can positively declare
>> that
>>> it has no power over me and set myself free.
>>>
>>> Read it all at:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/opinion/sunday/death-the-prosperity-gospel-and-me.html
>>> Cheers,
>>> Jim
>>>