UCA News
Contribute

Gospel of Prosperity, the oft-trodden path to salvation

Just as investments are expected to yield dividends, the believer who pays generously expects to see a return
Gospel of Prosperity, the oft-trodden path to salvation

Pastor Chris Oyakhilome has more than two million followers and an estimated net worth of US$30-50 million. (Photo from YouTube)

Published: October 18, 2019 02:43 AM GMT
Updated: October 18, 2019 02:43 AM GMT

Prosperity theology, the engine that powers the health and wealth gospel across the globe, is nothing new in India, at least not in some prosperous pockets of states such as Kerala. However, time and again, some of these groups, more often than not run by televangelists, come under the scanner for tax evasion or some other kind of scam.

So much is the sheer money power they garner, collectively and individually, that the hand of even the Catholic Church has been forced. Result: retreat centers, also called charismatic centers, flourish with the blessing of the Church. In the bargain, quite a few televangelists have been spawned from within the Church’s fold. Some are getting to be better at this than their counterparts from the Pentecostal fold.

The concept

Charismatic Christianity advocates the Gospel of Prosperity covertly but Pentecostal Christianity does it overtly. Catholic preachers usually abstain from explicit money mongering, but the bitch, avarice, leers “enviously out of everything they do,” to borrow a phrase from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. If the preacher remains a fantastic repressed desiring-machine of the market, the preaching will only produce money.

This form of Catholicism then becomes a variant of conservative Protestantism. The Catholic charismatic movement has taken Marian devotion and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, but its fundamental doctrine of Pentecostal theology remains. It proposes that “faith is the key that opens the door to prosperity.” Luther’s concept of calling (vocation) and Calvin’s doctrine of predestination are basic to the Pentecostal movement.

Who is predestined is unknown, but worldly activities like business entrepreneurship became accepted as the medium whereby such surety of being chosen could be demonstrated. The grace of God made manifest in health and wealth. Significantly, Prosperity Gospel churches espouse a contrary paradigm of poverty alleviation, against one maintained by the Catholic Church and other historical missionary churches.

The American thought that pious religious belief should obtain material wealth for the faithful stretches much further back. Even ignoring the Puritans and the Quakers, noted Baptist minister Russell Conwell directly preached prosperity more than 100 years ago. As commercialized Christianity gained social approval, pseudo-Christian occult prosperity rhetoric began flourishing throughout the early 20th century.

These emergent religious movements regard the social teaching of the Catholic Church as somewhat demonizing wealth as well as glorifying poverty. Their version of social doctrine proposes prosperity and abundance as God’s design that favors every faithful Christian believer. A true Christian believer is entitled to material abundance and must necessarily become wealthy and successful.

The Prosperity Gospel preachers validate their creed by flaunting prosperity — wealth, health, success and ever-soaring profits in business. They portray poverty as the work of Satan, hence to be demonized. They describe poverty as a sign of one’s sin and insufficient faith.

The history

From the 1950s, when Pentecostals in America first preached the Prosperity Gospel, it has grown exponentially across the world, finding a particularly receptive audience in the developing world. In countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, South Africa and Uganda, where neo-charismatic movements flourished, the Prosperity Gospel also grew through televangelism and social media activities. Poverty and disease afflict many African nations. They struggle with high unemployment rates and political instability.

Given that there are limited institutional resources to resolve health problems and other difficulties, many Africans seek succor in spirituality. Chris Oyakhilome, known as Pastor Chris of Nigeria, disseminates his charismatic credo. He has more than two million followers and his estimated net worth is reported to be US$30-50 million. The expansion of churches promoting the Prosperity Gospel has been almost impossible to thwart and is not limited to Africa.

In Latin America too, this seductive theology has found notoriety and success. Brazil’s controversial Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has been at the vanguard of propagating prosperity theology throughout the region. The Church was founded in the late 1970s by a former employee at the state lottery of Rio de Janeiro, Bishop Edir Macedo, now a billionaire.

Since the 1990s, the health and wealth gospel has grown in influence within Catholicism, most significantly through the Charismatic Renewal, which has adopted myriad Pentecostal beliefs and practices. Some Catholic churches in Brazil now hold “tithers’ Masses,” which imitate Pentecostal fundraising tactics, albeit with a less hard-sell approach. We do have our Indian versions of the same hard-sell approach.

Theological deviation

There is a severe theological deviation in the movement. The Gospel of Christ is deformed. If liberation theology edited the Gospel according to a communist manifesto, charismatic theology edited it according to a capitalist manifesto. The American dollar deformed Christianity.

Charismatic preaching and retreat centers can become an easy way of making money for self-proclaimed godmen and their religious institutions. It is this worldly religion made according to the Gospel of Max Weber’s book The Protestant Ethic and the Rise of Capitalism. Pope Francis has often warned against the perils of this theology that can “overshadow the Gospel of Christ.”

Thus, Christianity becomes an ideology of individualism that takes one to salvation. It eliminates the crucified from the centrality of the Christian life. It is a belief in blind fatalism of Calvinist predestination. Solidarity, with Jesus, God made man, “draws humanity to become with him the heirs of God.” The consequence of this solidarity would mean “whatever is done to human beings is done, in a certain way, to Christ,” as Yves Congar wrote. His thought is above all for those “who suffer destitution in all its forms” or, even more precisely, for “so many poor people who, throughout the centuries, have been beaten, hanged, crucified.” The Prosperity Gospel stands against this solidarity with the “poor of God.”

The Prosperity Gospel mimics the markets of capitalism. Just as investments are expected to yield dividends, the believer who pays generously, prays regularly and proselytizes expects to see a return on investment in the form of abundant health and wealth. For them, the poor constitute a contradiction of the very essence of the Gospel.

The Church poses the question in terms of survival. But this is not the question. The point is not to survive but to serve. Gospel radicalism converges in a mighty embrace of the poor and the suffering in a tragic sense of the crucified Lord.

Father Paul Thelakat is a Catholic priest of the Eastern Syro-Malabar rite and former spokesman of its synod of bishops. He is editor of Light of Truth, a church-run biweekly from Kochi. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of ucanews.

Help UCA News to be independent
Dear reader,
Lent is the season during which catechumens make their final preparations to be welcomed into the Church.
Each year during Lent, UCA News presents the stories of people who will join the Church in proclaiming that Jesus Christ is their Lord. The stories of how women and men who will be baptized came to believe in Christ are inspirations for all of us as we prepare to celebrate the Church's chief feast.
Help us with your donations to bring such stories of faith that make a difference in the Church and society.
A small contribution of US$5 will support us continue our mission…
William J. Grimm
Publisher
UCA News
Asian Bishops
Latest News
UCA News Catholic Dioceses in Asia
UCA News Catholic Dioceses in Asia
UCA News Catholic Dioceses in Asia