{"id":379,"date":"2014-10-07T19:53:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/10\/the-suffocation-of-black-women-in-the-age-of-prosperity-theology.html"},"modified":"2014-10-07T19:53:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T19:53:00","slug":"the-suffocation-of-black-women-in-the-age-of-prosperity-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/10\/the-suffocation-of-black-women-in-the-age-of-prosperity-theology.html","title":{"rendered":"The Suffocation of Black Women in the Age of Prosperity Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We live in the age of prosperity preachers: Joel Osteen, Paula White, T.D. Jakes. These well known pastors, along with others, have helped usher an age in the Church where teachings of wealth-building reign supreme. Before I go into why this branch of theology robs congregants of benefits from the institution, it\u2019s best that I provide definitions of what exactly the \u201cprosperity gospel\u201d is. <\/span><\/p>\n

In an article for BeliefNet<\/a>, Scot McKnight is frank with his explanation of prosperity teachings. He writes, \u201cFor the prosperity gospel, God could be seen as The Vending Machine God: put in faith and out pops blessings\u2014money, homes, cars, beautiful spouses, clever kids, good neighbours, big churches, and plush vacations.\u201d It is the belief that God blesses those who are faithful with material wealth. American Christianity has experienced a great increase in the preaching and belief of this form of theology, leading many pastors of mega churches to incorporate it into their Sunday sermons. The more you believe, the more you tithe, the more God will bless you. No longer is the \u201cso the last will be the first\u2026\u201d lesson being taught, but a new, louder message of \u201ckeep your eyes on wealth, this is what God wants for you.\u201d <\/p>\n

One of these pastors McKnight generally refers to is famous televangelist, Pastor Joel Osteen. In a conversation with Marc Lamont Hill<\/a> for Huffington Post Live, Osteen strongly defends his embracing of prosperity gospel by stating, \u201cI think there\u2019s a group that says, \u2018Well, to be a Christian, to be a real believer you\u2019ve got to be poor, you\u2019ve got to be humble.\u2019 I don\u2019t see that. I think we should be leaders in the community, we should be able to bless others.\u201d This all sounds good\u2026 I mean, after all, how many of us don\u2019t ask God for a better job or more money to live the lives we believe we deserve? But if we look a little closer, we see how such rose-colored glass teachings leave most congregants, and Black women in particular, with dreams that may never be obtained.
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Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We live in the age of prosperity preachers: Joel Osteen, Paula White, T.D. Jakes. These well known pastors, along with others, have helped usher an age in the Church where teachings of wealth-building reign supreme. Before I go into why this branch of theology robs congregants of benefits from the institution, it\u2019s best that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Suffocation of Black Women in the Age of Prosperity Theology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We live in the age of prosperity preachers: Joel Osteen, Paula White, T.D. Jakes. 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