Throughout history, societies facing a crisis have blamed unpopular minority groups, turning them into scapegoats. Jews were the frequent victims. Now, The Atlantic Magazine publishes an article entitled Did Christianity Cause the Crash?.
The thesis is that all of the believers in the “prosperity gospel” were encouraged by their megachurches to take big risks that brought the economy down. The author cites lots of poor people who testified about how God gave them a house, even though they had no money and bad credit.
There may be a point here about the churches in poor communities. But the prosperity gospel is so alien to any kind of orthodox Christianity that to say “Christianity caused the crash” is surely guilt by association, scapegoating a religion by citing people who really don’t follow it.
Still, the article is an interesting window into the prosperity gospel phenomenon. I’ll blog more on that tomorrow.
HT: Jackie
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In