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Posted on 12/28/2007 7:37:39 AM PST by NYer
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 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 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."
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 Regent University, founded by Pat Robertson. "It's a growing problem."
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 Oral Roberts University board.
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 Tulsa, Okla. — that "health and wealth" theology became a fixture in Pentecostal and charismatic churches.
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 Africa and other developing parts of the world.
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 Atlanta, has written that God told him to get rid of the "ungodly governmental structure" of a deacon board.
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 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 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. Joyce Meyer Ministries, for one, enacted financial reforms in recent years, including making audited financial statements public.
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."
Without a doubt the biggest ignored scandal in all of Christianity is the bilking of people using God for profit.
Amen to that!!!!
Joyce Meyers doesn’t preach “prosperity gospel” and her messages are very good and she’s very funny. BUT, I would NEVER give money to her. She takes a six figure salary and her husband has a $500,000 salary from the ministry etc. . . . she’s getting prosperous for sure. The trick is this. She could not take a dime from the ministry at all and have a millionaire lifestyle from her books and tapes. So in my view she has succumbed to greed. It pains me because she is so talented.
"Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Any day of reckoning in the courts or public opinion will pale in comparison to the real day of reckoning for these wolves.
People have to be smart enough to protect themselves.
--why doesn't this grandstanding SOB look into congressional waste??? At least the funds given to phoney preachers are voluntary, instead of being extracted at the point of the government gun---
bttt
I’ve seen Pat Robertson promote this message as well using people who claimed to GET OUT OF DEBT this way -which I think is very dangerous.
I like the advise of the money manager David Ramsey...it is a christian’s duty to first get out of debt - and then there will be plenty of money leftover to make decisions regarding charity.
Otherwise the christian will waste many years giving a little here - a little there OR they can get their finances in order NOW - so they can give alot later.
>>People have to be smart enough to protect themselves.<<
You would think that after the Jim and Tammy Faye Baker scandal, people would have wised up to this kind of fraud.
P.T. Barnum once famously said that there was a sucker born every minute. This story proves it!
Would that AP and the other leftists outraged at the donations to wealthy TV evangelists by poor or middle income people, question forced "donations" through our tax dollars by the same "government officials holding hearings."
Instead, why not hold "hearings" into government sponsored waste, fraud, abuse and scams perpetrated by our elected officials.
To use faith as a way to scam people, will receive it's ultimate punishment - HELL for which there will be no pardon.
Governments who drive people into poverty through taxation and scams go unquestioned each and every day by our so-called "watch dogs" in the media, who in reality are in bed with the same pols who pull these never ending, unconstitutional scams.
We have Hollier than Thou Freepers, without any facts, jumping on Christians like a pack of liberals going after a pro-life conservative.
Envy is worse than greed and FR Mountebacks are practicing it with ardor.
The Book of Job is a case study in piety unrewarded...
I'm not defending these prosperity guys at all, but you can't criticize them for playing loose with Bible verses if you do the same or worse:
Job 41:10-12
10After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first.
Which is why it is so important to be "in the Word", so that when others would try to twist God's word for selfish reasons you would know The Truth.
I feel sorry for those that have been bilked, but God gave (most of) them sound mind and the ability to discern His will, but they seem to have chosen the easy, softer way which is to have someone else think for them and tell them what to do.
They have also taken their focus off of the face of Jesus and put in on the face of Grant, Jackson, et al.....
“Governments who drive people into poverty through taxation and scams go unquestioned each and every day by our so-called “watch dogs” in the media”.
A fundamental truism that bears repeating.
Let’s start with the Department of Education and HUD.
Good advice, honey. Seems she learned the hard way.
"A fool and his money are soon parted."
Ugh.
Watch the video. It's a scream. Robert Tilton Is Pastor Gas
If you think the point of the book of Job is that those with the most faith get the most stuff, you might want to read it again.
And some of you wonder why the “Religious Right” is a thorn in the side of the Republican Party. The same morons that give all their money away to TV evangelists are the same ones voting for Huckabee.
Used to be a big joke at the small business complex where her offices used to be and my employer's office was. I always like the way she'd try and get the UPS driver fired for commenting on her jewelry and fur coats.
Yes I worked out the Fenton, MO Biltmore Business Park. Joyce built a HUGE Office and Television Studio to the south of it. Not bad for the 15 minute "prayer videos" she was hustling in the nineties.
Well, who then CAN be saved?
‘At first she believed the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn’t strong enough.’...this is a well-used catch-all for when things don’t go as advertised. Certainly can’t dispute it, how would anyone know, unless everything goes as desired.
If only Congress would take a similar critical eye to the world’s largest religious scam - environmentalism. Tens of millions of lives have been saacrificed to malaria in response to their required banning of DDT alone. Countless millions of others will lose their lives into the future as they are denied the benefit of modern hygiene because a claque of enightened overseers forbids them from developing industry and creating profitable jobs.
Everybody can be saved, but it seems to be quite misleading to say that God wants you to be rich with Earthly goods, and even more misleading to say that claim is based on scripture.
Is Joel Olsteen on this list? He’s a wind-up little cyborg of a man who seems less than human. Pastor Plastic, and I’m sure he takes plenty of plastic into his enormous coffers.
As someone on another site mentioned, Christianity looks like it’s become nothing but the money lenders in the temple.
What’s the cut-off amount for being a rich man and getting into heaven?
Well said. Anyone who has read the Gospels under the influence of the Spirit would instinctively recognize the fraud of the prosperity gospel. Jesus' discourse on "treasure in Heaven" addresses this directly. In fact, pursuing the spiritual over the material is a central element of virtually everything Christ ever preached. This leads me to believe those who pursue the prosperity gospel just what their ears scratched not their souls lifted.
Amen to your post.
One can be wealthy and "saved" but one has a much greater responsibility to be a good steward of the blessings one receives. And riches can be a trap to the spiritual wellbeing of a person or family.
Amen to your post also. This is why the Lord says his people perish for lack of knowledge. Know the Bible and God’s teachings and you will not be so gullible and will be able to discern the truth.
Religion has always had the “wealth” component, along with these riches comes power.
The old Roman Church had power because of money, same thing for the various churches of today. The aacATHOLIC cHURCH OF bOSTON PAID TENS OF MILLIONS NEARING HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IN CHILD ABUSE CASES, COUNTRYWIDE IT’S IN THE billions.
I say give enought to keep the lights on and give the pastor a comfortable life, anything more is excessive.
What ever happened to vows of poverty???
ya missed the wide open invitation!
...what is impossible with man is possible with God.
As an aside...I think that God has a special Bible study prepared for those who have deceived His children.
Better that a millstone be put around their neck...
Jesus He Knows Me
Genesis
You see the face on the TV screen
coming at you every Sunday
see that face on the billboard
that man is me
On the cover of the magazine
there’s no question why I’m smiling
you buy a piece of paradise
you get a piece of me
I’ll get you everything you wanted
I’ll get you everything you need
don’t need to believe in hereafter
just believe in me
Cos Jesus he knows me
and he knows I’m right
I’ve been talking to Jesus all my life
oh yes he knows me
and he knows I’m right
and he’s been telling me
everything is alright
I believe in the family
with my ever loving wife beside me
but she don’t know about my girlfriend
or the man I met last night
Do you believe in God
cos that’s what I’m selling
and if you wanna get to heaven
I’ll see you right
You won’t even have to leave your house
or get out of your chair
you don’t even have to touch that dial
cos I’m everywhere
And Jesus he knows me
and he knows I’m right
I’ve been talking to Jesus all my life
oh yes he knows me
and he knows I’m right
well he’s been telling me
everything’s gonna be alright
Won’t find me practising what I’m preaching
won’t find me making no sacrifice
but I can get you a pocketful of miracles
if you promise to be good, try to be nice
God will take good care of you
just do as I say, don’t do as I do
I’m counting my blessings,
I’ve found true happiness
cos I’m getting richer, day by day
you can find me in the phone book,
just call my toll free number
you can do it anyway you want
just do it right away
There’ll be no doubt in your mind
you’ll believe everything I’m saying
if you wanna get closer to him
get on your knees and start paying
Cos Jesus he knows me
and he knows I’m right
I’ve been talking to Jesus all my life
oh yes he knows me
and he knows I’m right
well he’s been telling me
everything’s gonna be alright, alright
Jesus he knows me
Jesus he knows me, you know...
This is exactly why the apostle Paul warned of those who bring “another gospel” which is no gospel at all, certainly not what Jude described as the “faith once delivered to the saints.” Jude also described these false teachers as brute beasts destined for destruction. The Chief Shepherd has a way of taking care of wolves...
There is no quid pro quo with God. He doesn’t owe us anything. The Prosperity Gospel is an attempt to manipulate God. He will not bless it.
“The Prosperity Gospel is an attempt to manipulate God.”
I absolutely agree.
Christians do have an obligation to give - but not with expectation of receiving wealth in this life.
We are supposed to be concerned with true wealth - a loving relationship with God.
Meyer is a true snake. She has even stated she does not sin....Google it if you want proof.
Some of the others may be simply misguided. I am a little nervous about the govt. checking into churches, but I could see this as being okay because of the churches involved. It is tough.
Certainly a big scandal. Not sure about the biggest. One could argue that sex predators (of all types) using God is a bigger scandal, but all such scandals are bad.
And none of those scandals were invented in this century. Or on this continent.
Worth repeating.
I said "ignored" scandals. You can hardly say the HOMOSEXUALITY scandal in the Catholic Church has been ignored. U.S. Army Retired |
Sex or money, it’s still using people for suckers.
Post 5 is a good example of just how deceptive Meyer is....she is very, very cunning and really is good at pulling the wool over many eyes, even Freepers.
True, you did say “ignored.” Guess I “ignored” it. Apologies. :-”/
“the “Gospel of Prosperity,” or the notion that God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches.”
Anyone that’s ever bothered to read the New Testamant should already know what a lie this notion is. Some people give the Catholic Church crap for its wealth, but that money goes for church use. Catholic priests still take a vow of poverty.
Now I’m all for preachers making a decent living, but no man that pays his bills by being a professional preacher should get rich doing it (unless he writes books that sell well...in that case, he’s really making his money as a writer, and I don’t have a problem with that. That income isn’t tax exempt). But these guys that are getting rich by preaching to people with a message of “give me your money and God will bless you”....well, I have a big problem with them. The Swaggarts and the Warrens and the Schulers of the world make me deeply suspicious.
I don't know about him, but two people who should definitely be on the list is Jesse Duplantis and John Hagee.
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