The Flaws of the Gospel of Greed Exposed

When I'm not an amateur left-of-center pundit, I tend to be an amateur sociologist, particularly in the realm of religion (all thanks to the great Menno Froese, my collegiate mentor, friend and fellow son of the working-class intellectual set). I've spent a lot of time fiddling with theories on the intersection of marketing and religion, work and religion, and wealth and religion (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism remains one of the most influential books of my adult life). My thesis was on marketing techniques used by televangelists and ended turning out an A in my course where I was seriously struggling following the death of my grandmother. I actually use this stuff in game design (no, I'm not kidding).

So I like the study of religion and the relation to American life. One of the uniquely aspects of American faith is the splinter Protestant beliefs, and of those the most disgusting/scary is the Prosperity Gospel. If you don't know what I'm talking about, flash back to the late 80's and the many scandals that arose with televangelists, who preached 'planting the seed' within a ministry to reap 'great rewards,' often financial, because, what kind of God would leave his faithful destitute? Well, there's an enlightening article that discusses how this ideology may have encouraged poorer parishoners to enter into predatory mortgages.

A lesson to the naive - God may want you to be well, but he also doesn't want you to be stupid.