G. Frink's

With the credit bubble burst and the economy struggling, where are the prosperity preachers who promise earthly wealth as the reward of Christian faithful?

University of California Religious Studies professor Jonathan Walton wrote recently of the prosperity gospel:

It goes without saying that the economic boom 90s and financial overextensions of the new millennium contributed to the success of the prosperity gospel message.
Preached within sprawling megachurches that reflect the excessive ethos of corporate greed and "super-sized" America, too many of the otherwise devout in America have been led to believe that luxury goods and material possessions are the marks of Christian fidelity. Narratives of how "God blessed me with my first house despite my credit" were common.
Swank hotel conferences and "gospel cruises" replaced traditional revivals on the church calendar. And sermons declaring "its your season of overflow" supplanted messages of economic sobriety and disinterested sacrifice.
Yet as folks were testifying about "what God can do," little attention was paid to a predatory sub-prime mortgage industry, relaxed credit standards, or the dangers of using one's home equity as an ATM to subsidize cars, clothes and vacations.

There are impassioned theological justifications to be made for the prosperity gospel, but in Walton's eyes and those of others who study the phenomenon, prosperity preachers do have underlying financial incentives.

Some are abusive in in their pursuit of them.

In a Friday Time Magazine article brought to my attention by Melissa Rogers, David Van Biema wrote:

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."

The social psychology of such movements has been studied exhaustively. Although as Van Biema writes, "With the bubble burst, Walton and Butler assume that Prosperity congregants have taken a disproportionate hit," as Walton argues, most will persist in their belief.

They will persist until and unless the pain of doing so becomes extraordinary acute -- and that tells us where we can find the prosperity preachers now, while the economic roof is falling in.

As Walton concluded:

... as long as there is a dollar to be given, a prayer cloth to be sold, or a sermon series to sell that will "miraculously change your life," there will be a prosperity preacher there to proclaim, "Get ready for your breakthrough!" Sadly, it's the American way.