12 September 2015 A.D. Baptacostal Roger Olsen: Is the “Prosperity Gospel” a Variety of Evangelicalism? Roger's answer: "No"
12
September 2015 A.D. Baptacostal Roger Olsen: Is the “Prosperity
Gospel” a Variety of Evangelicalism? Roger's answer: "No"
Olsen,
Roger. “Is the `Prosperity Gospel’ a Variety of Evangelicalism?” Roger Olsen. 11 Sept 2015. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2015/09/is-the-prosperity-gospel-a-variety-of-evangelicalism/.
Accessed 12 Sept 2015.
Is the “Prosperity Gospel” a Variety of Evangelicalism?
I recently read a news article about “evangelicals” supporting Donald Trump for president of the United States. The focus of the article, its case study, was Florida mega-church pastor and sometime religious television personality Paula White. Her church in suburban Orlando attracts about twenty thousand attenders and thousands more watch her on television and read her writings. She is emerging as a leading spokesperson for “American evangelicals.” According to most sources I read about her, however, her version of evangelical Christianity is what is popularly known as the “Prosperity Gospel.” The thrust of that theology is that God wants his people to be healthy and financially prosperous if not rich. If they have sufficient faith, expressed in the right ways, they can and should overcome poverty, live lives of financial abundance (if not luxury) and be physically well all the time—right up until they die.
I have written
about this “gospel of health and wealth,” this “prosperity gospel,” what some
call “Word-Faith theology,” here and in my recently published book Counterfeit
Christianity
(Abingdon Press, 2015). All across the United States and much of the world
certain “evangelical” evangelists and pastors are promoting this theology as
their primary theme. Its beginnings lie in nineteenth century New Thought—the
movement begun by evangelist Phineas Quimby in England in the early nineteenth
century. Where Quimby got it is unknown, but “mind over matter” philosophies
were “in the air” in both Europe and America—driven at least somewhat by a
vulgarized interpretation of German idealism that metaphysically connected
thought and being as inseparable.
Quimby became
Mary Baker Eddy’s “guru” and she claimed healing through his ministry of
mentalism—mind over matter using positive thinking and speaking. She, of
course, went on to found what is popularly known as “Christian Science”—one of
the first and best known organized forms of New Thought. (The official name of
the organization is, of course, The Church of Christ, Scientist.) But there
were numerous other individual “practitioners” of New Thought and several
religious groups grew out of the movement—Unity, Religious Science, and Divine
Science of the Mind (to name a few). The common idea of all of them was that
God’s power to heal and prosper lies in the human mind because God’s mind and
the human mind are not separate but interconnected.
Several
Christian writers picked up the basic ideas of New Thought without joining any
particular New Thought religious organization. One of the best known and most
influential was Napoleon Hill (1883-1970), author of the best-selling book Think
and Grow Rich (1937). Sometime later several books were published with
titles like Pray and Grow Rich. New Thought’s idea of “prayer” was simply
positive thinking and speaking—a form of magic.
The beginning of
New Thought infiltrating evangelical Christianity has been traced by several
scholars to a healing evangelist and author named E. W. Kenyon (1867-1948). During
the same time that New Thought was growing in popularity and influence, a new
emphasis on healing through prayer was spreading among Holiness
Christians—evangelicals who believed in the power of God to heal sickness
through powerful prayer. Kenyon brought the two together—the evangelical
healing movement and New Thought. To Holiness-Pentecostals who prayed for the
sick to be healed he added the dimension of positive thinking and speaking.
The contemporary
movement known as Word-Faith exists primarily among Pentecostal and charismatic
Christians. The immediate “father” of the movement was Kenneth Hagin
(1917-2003), founder of the very large and influential Rhema Bible Institute in
Tulsa, Oklahoma. Some scholars claim he received his “name it and claim it”
message about health and wealth from Kenyon. Hagin himself denied that and
claimed both received it from the Bible and “revelation”—the “rhema Word” which
is God’s contemporary revelation as distinct from the “logos Word” which is God
revelation in the past—especially in the Bible. Hagin claimed the two are
entirely consistent and that the “rhema Word” of contemporary prophecy is
simply unfolding and giving new impetus to the Bible’s message that God wants
his people to prosper and be in health. The method of prospering and being in
health, according to Hagin and other Word-Faith evangelists is “speaking the
Word.” It is not enough simply to think positively; one must speak health and
prosperity into existence.
Many critical
observers noticed strong similarities between this Word-Faith teaching and the
ideas of a New Thought group called Unity headquartered in Lee’s Summit,
Missouri. Unity was founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore (1854-1948 and
1845-1931 respectively) who, like Eddy, were influenced by Quimby (although
less directly). Perhaps the leading New Thought popularizer was a man named
Ernest Holmes (1887-1960) who many scholars of the New Thought movement regard
as its purest and best thinker. His influence on the movement in the 20th
century was pervasive and profound.
The precise
mechanisms of influence of New Thought on Pentecostal-charismatic Word-Faith
theology is much debated, but there is general agreement on Kenyon as a major
player in blending them and transmitting that hybrid theology to twentieth
century Pentecostal-charismatics like Hagin who, in turn, passed it on to
popularizers such as Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen.
Another “strain”
of New Thought entered into so-called “mainstream” Protestantism through
popular Reformed pastor and writer Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993), pastor of
the historic Marble Collegiate Church (New York City) and author of The
Power of Positive Thinking. A favorite saying of Peale’s was “Change your
thoughts and you can change your world.” Peale is generally considered to have
been Robert Schuller’s inspiration. He founded the wildly popular magazine Guideposts.
Again, the
precise mechanisms of New Thought’s influence on Peale are unknown, but by the
time he wrote The Power of Positive Thinking elements of New Thought
were simply “in the air” in American culture. But Peale seems to have drawn on
New Thought for his basic philosophy of success in life, blending it
with “mainline Protestantism,” and handed that on to people like Robert
Schuller. (Peale and Schuller belonged to the same denomination, the old Dutch
Reformed Church now known as the Reformed Church of America.)
My question is
whether this “gospel of health and wealth” through positive thinking and
speaking, this “prosperity gospel,” this “Word-Faith movement,” this “name it
and claim it” teaching, is authentically evangelical. It is a valid
evangelical option? Apparently the national news media thinks so. They are
labeling prosperity gospel preachers like Paula White “evangelicals.” And most of
them do claim to be evangelical in some sense.
As often in
these blog posts, I will include a personal sidebar here. As my faithful
readers know, I grew up Pentecostal—within what scholars call “classical
Pentecostalism.” We strongly opposed fringe movements such as the Latter Rain
Movement that included belief in “manifest sons of God” (modern day apostles
capable of living independently of natural laws). When the prosperity gospel
first burst on the scene in the 1970s through books such as How to Live Like a King’s Kid by
Harold Hill (1974) we “classical Pentecostals” by-and-large rejected it. That
led to numerous Pentecostal and charismatic churches dividing. Suddenly, in a
matter of a decade, most cities had at least one “Word-Faith church” dedicated
to the gospel of health and wealth through positive thinking and speaking. Most
of them looked to Hagin and his enormous ministry in Tulsa. Hagin himself was
already well-known to most classical Pentecostal pastors in the U.S. He had
been an Assemblies of God minister with a radio program. I used to listen to it
(around 1970-1971) on Christian radio station KDMI in Des Moines—when I was
just entering Bible college. I remember wondering why God would speak directly
to a contemporary American evangelist in King James English. The Assembliesof
God and other classical Pentecostal groups distanced themselves from Hagin and
other Word-Faith evangelists and “teachers,” but their influenced grew
nevertheless and many classical Pentecostal churches were eventually infiltrated
with Word-Faith, prosperity gospel teachings.
Many, perhaps
most, evangelicals and classical Pentecostals came to think of the Word-Faith
movement, the prosperity gospel, as “our lunatic fringe.” A comparison would be
the 1950s Latter Rain Movement which swept American Pentecostalism and divided
it with the result that virtually every city of any size had at least one “Full
Gospel” church that was influenced by it. (These Latter Rain churches claimed
that they frequently had visible visitations by angels during worship services
and that they saw “glory clouds” and “holy oil” appearing during them. But the
heretical teaching at the heart of the movement was that of the “manifest sons
of God” who, they claimed, rose above normal humanity—a kind of realized
eschatology.)
I lived through
the rise of the Word-Faith prosperity gospel among Pentecostals in the 1970s
and 1980s. I observed churches being torn apart by it. For the most part
classical Pentecostal leaders distanced themselves from it and many even
condemned it as heresy. But many accommodated to it—to hold onto many of their
members rather than lose them to the new upstart Word-Faith “ministries” being
founded mostly by graduates of Rhema Bible Institute.
After leaving
Pentecostalism and becoming Baptist, I thought I had left that particular
controversy behind. However, my first full-time teaching position was at Oral
Roberts University where I tried my best to counter the pervasive influence of
the Word-Faith prosperity gospel teaching among students, many of whom were
transfers to ORU from Rhema. Many Word-Faith evangelists spoke in ORU’s
required chapel services. Oral Roberts himself seemed to be adopting elements
of Word-Faith teaching. The university faculty, however, by-and-large opposed
it which created tension on campus. One of my theology colleagues, Charles
Farah, wrote one of the best books critical of Word-Faith prosperity teaching—From
the Pinnacle of the Temple—in which he helpfully distinguished between faith
and presumption. At that time many, very many, followers of the
Word-Faith teaching were refusing medical treatment and discarding their
much-needed glasses—as expressions of their “absolute faith” in God’s healing
power. Many were racking up huge credit card debt and buying houses beyond what
they could really afford—as evidences of their total trust in the power of God
to provide wealth.
I thought this
Word-Faith teaching, rooted as it is in New Thought and as strange and
fanatical as it is, would never be taught at a “mainline” Protestant seminary.
But a couple of years ago I was surprised, even shocked, when I sat in on a
church history class at a so-called mainline Protestant seminary and heard a
Hispanic professor, herself of Pentecostal extraction, extol the Word-Faith
prosperity gospel as something very positive and good—especially for oppressed
Hispanics and African-Americans. She asked the class of seminarians “What other
theology can give them hope for a better life?” I quickly jotted down on a
piece of paper “liberation theology?” and showed it to the student sitting next
to me. He raised his hand and the professor called on him. He said “liberation
theology?” She simply dismissed it as irrelevant without even attempting to
discuss the pros or cons of liberation theology.
Now, according
to news reports I have read, a leading Word-Faith, prosperity gospel
pastor-evangelist named Paula White (pastor of a mega-church with about twenty
thousand attenders and host of a religious television talk show) is being
labeled “evangelical” by the media and being connected by them with Donald
Trump—as his religious “point person” to connect him with “evangelical”
Christians. This raises so many questions I don’t even know where to begin.
Strangely, however, I think I do see a connection—between the prosperity gospel
of health and wealth (as God’s blessings) and religious support for Trump.
As an
evangelical theologian and church historian, however, my main interest lies in
exposing the Word-Faith “gospel” of prosperity as non-evangelical and even
non-Christian—at least insofar as it focuses with heavy emphasis on manipulating
God to give one financial wealth, material abundance, and guaranteed health.
This is a theology that blatantly denies God’s sovereignty, God’s freedom,
God’s holy otherness, turning God into a cosmic slot machine. And it distorts
prayer into magic. The whole focus of the Bible shifts and becomes human
centered rather than God centered. And it is rooted in extra-biblical
“revelations” themselves rooted in New Thought—a philosophy that teaches that
the power of God to create reality lies dormant within the human mind and
mouth.
I call on all
evangelical leaders, influencers, to take a strong public stand against
this alternative gospel and reject it as non-evangelical. It is, in my
opinion, cultic in the theological sense. That the media are beginning to treat
Word-Faith promoters of the “gospel” of health and wealth through magic as
evangelicals is scandalous. The movers and shakers of evangelical Christianity
in America and everywhere need to band together in spite of our differences and
say to the media “They are not us; stop calling them ‘evangelicals’.”
I anticipate
some objections. Some may recall that I have argued that evangelicalism
is not a “bounded set category” but a “centered set category.” But I have also
always offered the caveat that being “evangelical” is not compatible
with anything and everything. There is a center and that center can be
corrupted to the point where people claiming to be evangelical cannot be
recognized as evangelical. The prosperity gospel of health and wealth is such a
mutation of classical evangelical Christianity that it is unrecognizable as
that; it is “different gospel,” one that holds out false hope to desperate people
about a god who can be manipulated to, about “prayer” as magic, and about
guaranteed health and wealth through pretending it exists when it doesn’t. I
substitutes faith with presumption and places material
“abundance” at the center in place of God who calls us to service rather than
greed.
I am not saying followers of the Word Faith “gospel”
are not Christians, but I do wonder about some of their leaders and their true
motives. It’s the promoters of this false gospel I aim criticism at, not the
masses of deluded followers many of whom are simply desperate people being
seduced into false hope and counterfeit Christianity.
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