Here is an excerpt from an interesting article I read a few days ago:
Says Anthea Butler, an expert in Pentecostalism at the University of Rochester in New York: “The pastor’s not gonna say, ‘Go down to Wachovia and get a loan,’ but I have heard, ‘Even if you have a poor credit rating, God can still bless you — if you put some faith out there [that is, make a big donation to the church], you’ll get that house or that car or that apartment.’ ” Adds J. Lee Grady, editor of the magazine Charisma: “It definitely goes on, that a preacher might say, ‘If you give this offering, God will give you a house.’ And if they did get the house, people did think that it was an answer to prayer, when in fact it was really bad banking policy.” If so, the situation offers a look at how a native-born faith built partially on American economic optimism entered into a toxic symbiosis with a pathological market. …
“Narratives of how ‘God blessed me with my first house despite my credit’ were common. Sermons declaring ‘It’s your season to overflow’ supplanted messages of economic sobriety,” and “little attention was paid to … the dangers of using one’s home equity as an ATM to subsidize cars, clothes and vacations.”
Read the rest of it here.
In addition to Wall Street, it looks like the faith business also needs a little more scrutiny. Apart from that, I am always surprised at how gullible people can be when it comes to being sold out divine rhetoric.
If we keep up with this even God will need a bailout someday!
Finally, God helps those who help themselves, for everybody else there is Mastercard everybody else needs to clearly understand the meaning of the words “deliquency” and “foreclosure”.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Brave post! I love it though
Well said — whatever happened to “divine poverty?” A little bit of self-denial used to be considered good for one’s soul… not a way to ingratiate oneself with a deity in order to receive more material goods.
I had an in depth study on this subject, and surprisingly stumbled upon a post here. Do read this post.
Nice post, luv the little slippage of mastercard in…did it help you save a fortune on car insurance?
heeh
Golbguru,
Perhaps the same can be said about politicians.
In the quotes above, if you replace “God ” with “government,” and replace”offering” or “faith” with “your vote,” it seems many political campaigns are covered
stumbled on you because my own blog is ‘athgarvan musings’. I write it because I am old and my memory is failing fast. I review my posts to see what was happening in my life last week or last month. I think your posts are interesting. I live in Ireland.
Michael
There is really a lot more to say about this topic these days than ever before. I salute you for speaking out on it and making your site informative. Thanks
Truth be told, it’s the first time I’ve heard of the idea that pastors will use “God” with direct regard to financial issues. My parish priest surely tells us to be frugal, simple and to be persevering and hardworking if we want to prosper and then to leave the rest to God after we’ve done our part, but never saying that “God will buy you a house if you do this and this…”
—I’m just a bit surprised, so I had to comment. But I agree that we have to help and work hard ourselves if we want something to happen. Blind faith is not always a good thing.
Nice article. Thanks.
Eugene
Another informative, thought provoking post that speaks to what’s really going on in the religious community when it comes to faith and money.
Great piece, continue with more inspiring post.Mon
great post. I think this kind of situation exist in all religious communities.. mmm… what can you say? I believe people should come free from this kind of limiting believes…
Anyway, since you touched the topic on God, I’ve got a post too on my site: http://moneychurner.blogspot.com/2008/11/god-and-money.html
@t-luck ..Now that is a great post on God and money but I guess this will have a whole bunch of controversy online. What matters is you having your point across in a very ethical and respectful manner.
Those people’s money would be better spend on learning about how to properly manage money, and a finance course, then they will be rewarded very much in the long run for it!
Till then,
Jean
just because of your simplicity of your thought, every step of this blog makes the users aware. how to use the money to lead their life.
I’m working to formulate a research programme on the Japanese Financial Crisis, and I am trying to discover what role the Japanese Financial Crisis of the early ’90s played in the subsequent E.Asian financial crisis.
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