Theo-Assessment of Economic Meltdown.

Has the so-called Prosperity gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants — and hence, victims — of the current financial crisis? While researching a book on black televangelism, I realized that Prosperity's central promise — that God will "make a way" for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, dangerous expression during the sub prime-lending boom. This encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe "God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house." The results, I says, "were disastrous, because they pretty much turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers."

            But on the hindsight i think "The pastor's not gonna say, 'Go down to Wachovia and get a loan,' but I have heard, 'Even if you have a poor credit rating, God can still bless you — if you put some faith out there [that is, make a big donation to the church], you'll get that house or that car or that apartment.' ""It definitely goes on, that a preacher might say, 'If you give this offering, God will give you a house.' And if they did get the house, people did think that it was an answer to prayer, when in fact it was really bad banking policy." If so, the situation offers a look at how a native-born faith built partially on American economic optimism entered into a toxic symbiosis with a pathological market.

            Although a type of Pentecostalism, Prosperity theology adds a distinctive layer of supernatural positive thinking. Adherents will reap rewards if they prove their faith to God by contributing heavily to their churches, remaining mentally and verbally upbeat and concentrating on divine promises of worldly bounty supposedly strewn throughout the Bible. Critics call it a thinly disguised pastor-enrichment scam. Some expert note that for all its faults, the theology can empower people who have been taught to see themselves as financially or even culturally useless to feel they are "worthy of having more and doing more and being more." In some cases the philosophy has matured with its practitioners, encouraging good financial habits and entrepreneurship.   

            But i suggests that a decade's worth of ever easier credit acted like a drug in Prosperity's bloodstream. "The economic boom '90s and financial overextensions of the new millennium contributed to the success of the Prosperity message, "Narratives of how 'God blessed me with my first house despite my credit' were common. Sermons declaring 'It's your season to overflow' supplanted messages of economic sobriety," and "little attention was paid to ... the dangers of using one's home equity as an ATM to subsidize cars, clothes and vacations."

            With the bubble burst, i assume that Prosperity congregants have taken a disproportionate hit, and they are curious as to how their churches will respond. Even some of the flashier ministries will shrink along with their congregants' fortunes. "You would think that the current economic conditions would undercut their theology." But i predict they will persevere, since God's earthly largesse is just as attractive when one is behind the economic eight ball. For those who elides more on the anointing of its pastors than on Scriptural promises of God. A client in America replied, who you can say the believer's note to his minister illustrates how magical thinking can prevail even after the mortgage blade has dropped. "Last Sunday, You said if anyone needed a miracle to come up. I went home feeling something good was going to happen. On Friday the 28th of September I got a phone call from my mortgage company and they came up with a new payment for the next 3 months of only $200. My mortgage is usually $1,020. Praise God for his Mercy & Grace."

 

And pray that the credit market doesn't tighten any further.

-As Published in Washington Post.