A big and growing theme in christian circles today is the idea that god wants you to be rich, and if you just do it all right, he'll shower you with riches. Here's what they say:
“We’re going to show you how to get wealth and use it for the building of his kingdom,” [Ephren] Taylor shouted to the congregation one morning in 2009. It was all part of what he called his “Building Wealth Tour,” which crisscrossed the country touting his investments and financial advice."
Quite an attractive message, isn't it? You can combine the pleasure of getting good with god with your earthly desire to get rich and have the best of both worlds! Right? Right? Or, maybe not:
"But according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, what Taylor was actually peddling was a giant Ponzi scheme, one aimed to “swindle over $11 million, primarily from African-American churchgoers,” that reached into churches nationwide, from [Eddie] Long’s megachurch in Atlanta to Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church congregation in Houston."
The problem with religion is the fact that it touts the use of "faith" in believing. One is taught not to question the teachings of one's "elders" in the church, but to simply believe. This kind of scam illustrates the failure of that paradigm. All it does is to enrich the man at the top, at the expanse of everybody else.
From ABC News
2 comments:
Quite a few took the wealth thing literally....Jim & Tammy Baker, among others...I remember always questioning that faith thingie...it never quite made sense to me.
Good christian = rich folk is ingrained in protestant culture vs being poor and catholic for example. In any case, if I new how much money was in histrionics, I'd have taken drama classes and then dedicate my time at preaching. Alas, I am incapable to pretend that care a damn about fairy tales.
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