The prosperity gospel: where credulity meets guile
There’s an article in the New York Times this morning that serves as an appropriate followup to my post yesterday. Because this level of deception and fraud is so vast that it makes fortunetelling seem inconsequential (hat tip to Friendly Atheist):
FORT WORTH — Onstage before thousands of believers weighed down by debt and economic insecurity, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and their all-star lineup of “prosperity gospel” preachers delighted the crowd with anecdotes about the luxurious lives they had attained by following the Word of God.
Private airplanes and boats. A motorcycle sent by an anonymous supporter. Vacations in Hawaii and cruises in Alaska. Designer handbags. A ring of emeralds and diamonds.
Because isn’t that what the Bible is all about?
But seriously, there really is no charitable interpretation of what the Copelands are doing: they are running an enormous scam that is preying on people that simply can’t afford it. They’re parading their own wealth in front of the very people that provided that wealth for them — in order to inspire them to make further donations. This is naked exploitation:
Many in this flock do not trust banks, the news media or Washington, where the Senate Finance Committee is investigating whether the Copelands and other prosperity evangelists used donations to enrich themselves and abused their tax-exempt status. But they trust the Copelands, the movement’s current patriarch and matriarch, who seem to embody prosperity with their robust health and abundance of children and grandchildren who have followed them into the ministry.
“If God did it for them, he will do it for us,” said Edwige Ndoudi, who traveled with her husband and three children from Canada for the Southwest Believers’ Convention this month, where the Copelands and three of their friends took turns preaching for five days, 10 hours a day at the Fort Worth Convention Center.
The Copelands certainly do embody personal prosperity: the New York Times reports that their Newark, TX based ministry has 481 employees and an annual budget around $100 million. They passed the collection buckets at least five times a day at the Fort Worth convention. Despite being under Senate investigation, they seem to be doing quite well!
But what about their followers? They’re not quite in as good a shape. The NYT reporter spoke to a few:
Stephen Biellier, a long-distance trucker from Mount Vernon, Mo., said he and his wife, Millie, came to the convention praying that this would be “the overcoming year.” They are $102,000 in debt, and the bank has cut off their credit line, Mrs. Biellier said.
And even though they are so deep in debt, it turns out that they have given thousands of dollars to the Copelands over the years:
The Bielliers were at the convention a few years ago when a supporter made a pitch for people to join an “Elite CX Team” to raise money to buy the ministry a Citation X airplane. (Mr. Copeland is an airplane aficionado who got his start in ministry as a pilot for Oral Roberts.) At that moment, Mrs. Biellier said she heard the voice of the Holy Spirit telling her, “You were born to support this man.”
She gave $2,000 for the plane, and recently sent $1,800 for the team’s latest project: buying high-definition television equipment to upgrade the ministry’s international broadcasts.
Let’s get this straight: They are now into six figure debt but still have given thousands to the ministry in recent years to buy a private plane and high definition broadcasting equipment!
That offends me to my very core as a human being. These people may be gullible, but that still doesn’t justify their exploitation by the Copelands. After all, faith is still very strongly built into American society. Even though the United States is now trending more secular than in the recent past, most people are still raised in households where they are taught that religious belief must ultimately hinge on faith rather than critical thinking. Indeed, I think that many believers and nonbelievers alike would agree that faith and critical thinking have many incompatibilities. The nature of God is supposed to be ineffable, right?
When you couple that with the fact that religions are interpreted here on earth by other human beings (emissaries direct from Heaven don’t actually show up at the Fort Worth Convention Center to preach, at least, as far as I know), then that is a recipe for exploitation by charismatic people acting with guile. Excessive credulity plus a pleasing message that simultaneously taps both people’s self interest and their desire to give and be charitable is toxic for the financial health of people like the Bielliers.
What’s the answer? As the NYT article mentions, the Copelands may be abusing their tax exempt status as a ministry, and if that is found to be true, then they need to be stopped. That is a short-term solution that may save some of their followers some money. But in the long term, we need to work hard to make critical thinking a centerpiece of education at all grade levels. A little healthy skepticism is the antidote to the prosperity gospel.
People seem to think they can buy their way into Heaven by giving to these Ministries, it’s mans nature to follow the loudest and the proudest, regardless of his real intentions, give him a microphone and a camera and he can reach millions, like they say, a sucker is born every day, in this case, a thousand suckers are born every minute, and we allow them to indoctrinate our children without question, keep in mind, a shepherd owns it’s flock, shaves them bald, profits from them, then eats them!
This isn’t just about the Copelands. The late Reverend Ike was recently mourned in the media though he too was a prosperity gospel preacher. I attended one of his presentations in San Diego back in the 1970s. He was most entertaining the way he showed off his bling and gave a humorous pep talk full of memorable motivational quips, but he was also, in my view, a scam artist. And worse, his target victims were black people. He allowed them to feel wealthy, vicariously, and they made him very rich, in reality, for that. This was exploitation at its very worst, dressed up in cleverly-designed entertainment. And after all this, Jet magazine wants us to remember him fondly. No thanks!
This is such an obvious perversion of Christianity that you would think normal Christians would publicly denounce the Copeland message as heresy. But very few do. We should be talking to our Christian friends about this. Why don’t they speak out against the prosperity preachers? We should encourage them to do this.
Look how our legal system protects the prosperity gospel. First, the prosperity preachers have a First Amendment right to preach their message and no one can sue the preacher for false and deceptive business practices. (Actually, anyone can sue anyone–but the suit would be dismissed on First Amendment grounds.) Second, Copeland’s organization is tax-exempt and would not have to file an annual Information Return (Form 990) if it is classified as a “church” (most tax-exempt organizations file IRS Form 990).
Third, when a follower of Copeland files for chapter 13 bankruptcy (I am thinking about the trucker mentioned in the article whose debt exceeds $100,000), he or she can tithe up to 15 percent of GROSS income earned while in bankruptcy, thereby ensuring that creditors receive “pennies on the dollar.” Senators Obama and Hatch sponsored a 2006 bankruptcy law amendment that guarantees the right of the debtor to tithe as much as 15 percent of gross income. The credit card companies should have objected, but they didn’t because they knew this bill was sure to be enacted no matter what they did. I am no defender of the credit card companies, but this is ridiculous. The whole point of chapter 13 bankruptcy is that the debtor pays as much of his or her debts as possible while being allowed to keep the car and the house. I love the way Congress “improved” the Bible (which speaks of a 10 percent tithe, not a 15 percent tithe).
Brother Gompertz comment that then Senator Obama was a co-sponsor of the legislation allowing a debtor to tithe 15% of his or her income while going thru bankruptcy is but one more example that President Obama is a big disappointment when it comes to separation of church and state. He’s doing as much if not more damage to the First Amendment than King George did — just not wearing fundamentalism on the sleeve. Perhaps Obama is a closet fundamentalist.
yeah… I wonder whether it would be possible to convince these people they are, in fact, STEALING. That when you are 100,000 dollars in debt, and are drawing out more lines of credit to give even more to the church while simultaneously considering bankruptcy, you are, in fact, a THIEF. The fact you’re giving the proceeds away, doesn’t change that.
Giving away debt money does NOT a generous person make. That actually isn’t your money. Giving away money BEFORE you go into debt, now then you can consider yourself legitimately generous.
I like to call these people, only on my cell phone, because if they get your home phone they never leave you alone, and I tell them what they are! MONEY GRUBBING MOTHER-F–kers!!!!!
I agree with the person who said that people need to be taught how to think critically. I also believe that the televangelists should be taxed as businesses. If people want to buy what these people are selling, these purveyors of wealth should have the right to sell their wares–even if these wares are under the guise of religion. However, it is unfair to other businesses when these prosperity televangelists are allowed to “sell” their product–in this case “Religion”–tax free. As long as this is a free-market society, people have the right to buy what is legally permitted by the government–and that includes prosperity religion.
OK!
Finally We all agree on something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The problem with the followers of these people is clearly doctrinal ignorance. Trust when I say I hate these motherfuckers (neckbone & hoopandholla), and yes God hates them as well.
Michael Gompertz said:
“I love the way Congress
This is for BFBF
Finally We all agree on something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The problem with the followers of these people is clearly doctrinal ignorance. Trust when I say I hate these motherfuckers (neckbone & hoopandholla), and yes God hates them as well.
I think your language is offensive and unnecessary, but you have that First Admenment right. However, since you are soooooooo good at quoting Scripture how do you support your claim “and yes God hates them as well.” You think making ignorant statments makes you better that the people you diss or worse?? Yes. That’s a question–just in case you were wondering. It’s people like you that need you check yourself before you check others. Here’s a bible verse to back that up Matthew 7:3
I’m not going to even get into tithing, but I hope you did the world a favor by learning something today.