Posted on 11/12/2009 12:23:27 PM PST by honestabe010
America’s mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated—one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now. Known as the prosperity gospel, and claiming tens of millions of adherents, it fosters risk-taking and intense material optimism. It pumped air into the housing bubble. And one year into the worst downturn since the Depression, it’s still going strong.
Like the ambitions of many immigrants who attend services there, Casa del Padre’s success can be measured by upgrades in real estate. The mostly Latino church, in Charlottesville, Virginia, has moved from the pastor’s basement, where it was founded in 2001, to a rented warehouse across the street from a small mercado five years later, to a middle-class suburban street last year, where the pastor now rents space from a lovely old Baptist church that can’t otherwise fill its pews. Every Sunday, the parishioners drive slowly into the parking lot, never parking on the sidewalk or grass—“because Americanos don’t do that,” one told me—and file quietly into church. Some drive newly leased SUVs, others old work trucks with paint buckets still in the bed. The pastor, Fernando Garay, arrives last and parks in front, his dark-blue Mercedes Benz always freshly washed, the hubcaps polished enough to reflect his wingtips.
It can be hard to get used to how much Garay talks about money in church, one loyal parishioner, Billy Gonzales, told me one recent Sunday on the steps out front. Back in Mexico, Gonzales’s pastor talked only about “Jesus and heaven and being good.” But Garay talks about jobs and houses and making good money, which eventually came to make sense to Gonzales:
(Excerpt) Read more at thewoodwardreport.com ...
Shoosh, I thought it was Islam, who knew?
And here I thought it was the banks giving out bad loans and being forced to do so by the government.
Sounds more like Christian bashing.
Barney Franks, Chris Dodd, among others are Christians?
it was the Mayans....those ‘yank the beating heart outta ya” b@$t@rd$...
....they are preventing me from flippin houses....
Shades of Emperor Nero.
Silly me for thinking it was the Fed's easy money policies and both the Fed and politicians pushing for more lax mortgage standards. It was those eevil Christians all along! I told ya that Creationism was going to be the death of us all!
Hey maybe that's a song idea for Taylor Swift:
"He ripped out my heart, but that's just fine,
He said it's no longer yours, now it's Mayan...."
The “name it claim its” aren’t much different from “the Secret” folks, so all manner of scape goats could be blamed IF they want to go there.
“Did Christianity Cause the Housing Crash”
No.
It was Bush’s fault, and he’s a Christian. So, indirectly, I’d have to say “yes”. ;-)
You will be hard pressed to convince me that those that espouse "prosperity gospel" are anything more than people claiming to be Christian, and not true believers.
Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?
I’m sure the “prosperity gospel” encouraged some Christians to get involved in foolish real estate deals, that they might not otherwise have entered into. However, I’m sure this would account for only a very small part of the problem.
Even if the “prosperity gospel” had been 100% responsible for the mortgage mess, the blame could not be placed on “Christianity”, because Word of Faith/Prosperity Gospel teachings are NOT Christian, but rather unbibilical, pseudo-Christian, money making schemes.
The housing mess was caused by greed and foolishnesses at all levels, from low income borrowers taking out loans they knew (or should have known) they could not afford, to middle class and upper middle class borrowers paying WAY more for homes than they were worth and in many cases borrowing more than they could afford to repay, to mortgage brokers and lenders making loans they knew were bad, to Wall Street types foolishly buying these loans and bundling them in MBS, to those who foolishly invested in those MBS, to government officials who encouraged this behavior, rather than trying to stop it.
If Christianity is to blame, why is the foreclosure rates the highest in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida????
No, don’t be distracted by interesting stories, the housing bubble was caused by minorities who have never been very good at paying bills regularly on a monthly basis.
You are quite correct. There is plenty of blame to go around.
It is difficult to extract this level of concern for getting rich from the Bible. It is generally concerned with more important things. That these preachers spend so much time talking about wealth implies they don’t view it as really less important.
You'd be referring to my good buddy Joel Osteen.
"Prosperity gospel" preachers have been around a long time, and I think hit it's max during the 1980's with the TV preachers. What evidence does this guy have that
Prosperity gospel preachers don't tell their followers that they should go in debt and buy a huge house. They tell them that if they will donate all their money to their church (i.e. their preacher), God will make them prosperous.
“Prosperity Gospel”?
Whatever happend to camels more easily passing through the eyes of needles than greedy people getting into the kingdom of heaven?
On the other hand, maybe there’s been a recent break-through in the development of the genetically engineered micro-camels or something.
Liberals caused it. Barney Frank required banks to lend to unqualified minorities.
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