WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.000 I have to confess something. Oh, yeah. Sometimes 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:04.280 when I can't sleep, you know, it's 2 in the morning, 00:00:04.360 --> 00:00:06.440 the house is totally quiet, and I'm just scrolling 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:09.560 or flipping through channels, I land on that 00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:11.740 side of television. You know the one I'm talking 00:00:11.740 --> 00:00:13.720 about. I think I do. Is it the one with the, 00:00:13.720 --> 00:00:16.440 uh... The shiny suits, the sets that look like 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:18.820 they're from an 80s game show, and an audience 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:21.199 that's just hanging on every single word. Yes, 00:00:21.199 --> 00:00:24.000 that's the one. Exactly. And there's always a 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:26.699 guy on stage, maybe he's sweating a little, pacing, 00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:29.839 talking about how God wants to buy me a new car. 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:33.200 A Mercedes, usually. Or how if I just send in, 00:00:33.259 --> 00:00:36.859 say, $58 right now, all my debt will just vanish. 00:00:37.259 --> 00:00:40.060 And I always stop and watch because, honestly, 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:43.140 to me, it feels like a caricature. It does. Like 00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:45.439 a sketch comedy routine. But then you look at 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:48.460 the crowd and there are thousands of people there 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:50.960 and they are not laughing. No, they're not. They're 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:53.640 taking notes. Some are crying. They're writing 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:56.939 checks. They're all in. They are. And that right 00:00:56.939 --> 00:00:59.859 there is the disconnect we really need to try 00:00:59.859 --> 00:01:02.969 and bridge today. Because it is so easy to turn 00:01:02.969 --> 00:01:05.530 the prosperity gospel into a meme. Right. It's 00:01:05.530 --> 00:01:07.469 easy to look at those preachers and sneakers 00:01:07.469 --> 00:01:10.670 accounts online and laugh at the $5 ,000 shoes 00:01:10.670 --> 00:01:12.969 or to just roll your eyes at the private jets. 00:01:13.230 --> 00:01:15.890 Of course. But if you dismiss it as just a con. 00:01:16.540 --> 00:01:19.739 or just a joke, you're actually missing one of 00:01:19.739 --> 00:01:22.760 the most significant and fastest growing shifts 00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:25.659 in the modern history of religion. See, that's 00:01:25.659 --> 00:01:27.239 what the research you brought in today really 00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:29.239 hammered home for me. I walked into this thinking, 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:31.480 okay, this is a deep dive on greedy pastors. 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:34.359 Simple as that. But you're telling me this is 00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:37.879 a... A structured theology. Oh, absolutely. Like 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:40.319 with footnotes and a logical system that actually 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:42.439 makes sense to the people who are inside of it. 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:46.180 It has an incredibly rigid internal logic. That's 00:01:46.180 --> 00:01:48.959 the key. This isn't just a guy on stage asking 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:51.480 for cash because he wants a new watch. It is 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:54.819 a fundamental, ground -up reimagining of the 00:01:54.819 --> 00:01:57.760 entire relationship between a person and God. 00:01:57.939 --> 00:02:00.500 How so? It takes faith. which is usually this 00:02:00.500 --> 00:02:02.840 abstract, mysterious, spiritual thing, and it 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:05.719 turns it into physics. Physics? Yeah. Input A, 00:02:05.799 --> 00:02:08.439 you get output B. It turns the universe into 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:10.759 a machine that you can operate if you just know 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:13.139 the right code. That's the core idea we're going 00:02:13.139 --> 00:02:15.800 to orbit today, then. Transactionalism. We're 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:17.960 talking about the claimant movement, the health 00:02:17.960 --> 00:02:21.159 and wealth gospel. Or, as the critics, and there 00:02:21.159 --> 00:02:23.460 are many, many critics like to call it, blab 00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:26.090 it and grab it. Right. But for our deep dives 00:02:26.090 --> 00:02:28.069 today, we're going to look past the slogans. 00:02:28.389 --> 00:02:32.150 We have a massive stack of history, theology, 00:02:32.569 --> 00:02:36.009 sociology right here. We're going to trace how 00:02:36.009 --> 00:02:39.330 a, believe it or not, 19th century mind power 00:02:39.330 --> 00:02:42.849 cult sort of crashed into American revivalist 00:02:42.849 --> 00:02:45.830 Christianity to create a global phenomenon that 00:02:45.830 --> 00:02:47.770 tells you God doesn't just want to save your 00:02:47.770 --> 00:02:49.789 soul. He wants to fix your credit score. Yeah, 00:02:49.830 --> 00:02:51.629 he wants to do it right now. Right now, here 00:02:51.629 --> 00:02:53.919 on Earth. Not in the sweet by and by. Right here. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:56.900 So lay out the mission for us because this thing 00:02:56.900 --> 00:02:59.300 is huge. It's not just a Texas phenomenon, is 00:02:59.300 --> 00:03:01.900 it? Far from it. While it feels distinctly American, 00:03:02.039 --> 00:03:04.759 it has the DNA of American capitalism all over 00:03:04.759 --> 00:03:07.939 it. Our sources show that this is actually the 00:03:07.939 --> 00:03:10.259 dominant form of Christianity in massive parts 00:03:10.259 --> 00:03:13.080 of the world. Like where? Nigeria, South Korea, 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:17.319 Brazil, the Philippines. We are talking about. 00:03:17.629 --> 00:03:20.169 tens, maybe hundreds of millions of people. So 00:03:20.169 --> 00:03:22.810 our mission is to unpack the mechanics of this 00:03:22.810 --> 00:03:25.569 belief. We need to understand the contract theology, 00:03:26.050 --> 00:03:28.909 the really strange new thought origins, which 00:03:28.909 --> 00:03:32.050 is a huge plot twist we'll get to. And, you know, 00:03:32.050 --> 00:03:34.490 the real world fallout of believing that your 00:03:34.490 --> 00:03:36.849 bank account is a direct reflection of your faith. 00:03:36.949 --> 00:03:39.189 And we should probably say up front, we are going 00:03:39.189 --> 00:03:41.750 to walk a fine line here. To an insider, this 00:03:41.750 --> 00:03:44.569 is a message of profound empowerment. It's hope 00:03:44.569 --> 00:03:47.509 in what can feel like a hopeless world. It is. 00:03:47.629 --> 00:03:50.710 To an outsider or a critic, it's heresy. It's 00:03:50.710 --> 00:03:53.550 exploitation. We aren't here to preach, but we 00:03:53.550 --> 00:03:55.530 are here to look at the evidence on both sides 00:03:55.530 --> 00:03:57.310 of that argument. So let's start at the very 00:03:57.310 --> 00:03:59.530 bottom of the stack, the theology. Okay, let's 00:03:59.530 --> 00:04:01.590 get into the weeds. You used that word transactional 00:04:01.590 --> 00:04:04.050 a minute ago. But when I look at the source material, 00:04:04.270 --> 00:04:06.669 the word they use is much more... biblical they 00:04:06.669 --> 00:04:09.189 use the word covenant they do now i grew up going 00:04:09.189 --> 00:04:11.650 to church sometimes and covenant usually just 00:04:11.650 --> 00:04:14.409 meant a promise you know like god promises to 00:04:14.409 --> 00:04:16.730 be good to humanity that sort of thing that's 00:04:16.730 --> 00:04:19.949 the traditional mainstream view yes In standard 00:04:19.949 --> 00:04:22.509 Christian theology, a covenant is a relationship 00:04:22.509 --> 00:04:25.069 that's initiated by God. It's vertical. He's 00:04:25.069 --> 00:04:27.509 up here. You're down there. You are the petitioner. 00:04:27.529 --> 00:04:30.430 God is the king. So you ask and maybe he answers. 00:04:30.689 --> 00:04:34.310 You ask and God answers yes, no, or wait. But 00:04:34.310 --> 00:04:37.110 the prosperity gospel completely flattens that 00:04:37.110 --> 00:04:40.660 out. It relies on a very specific, almost legalistic 00:04:40.660 --> 00:04:43.259 interpretation of that word covenant. Legalist 00:04:43.259 --> 00:04:45.899 how? What do you mean? They view the Bible as 00:04:45.899 --> 00:04:49.060 essentially a binding contract. Like a business 00:04:49.060 --> 00:04:51.639 contract. Exactly. Think of it less like a prayer 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:54.579 and more like contract law. If you hire a contractor 00:04:54.579 --> 00:04:57.019 to come fix your roof and you pay him the agreed 00:04:57.019 --> 00:04:59.959 upon amount. He must fix your roof. It's not 00:04:59.959 --> 00:05:02.360 optional. Right. If he doesn't, I can sue him. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:04.439 He's in breach of contract. Exactly. Now, take 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:06.939 that entire dynamic and apply it to the creator 00:05:06.939 --> 00:05:09.500 of the universe. Wow. Prosperity teachers argue 00:05:09.500 --> 00:05:11.939 that God has voluntarily bound himself to these 00:05:11.939 --> 00:05:14.980 rules. If you do your part, if you have the faith, 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:17.300 if you speak the right words, if you plant the 00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:20.319 seed money we'll talk about later, God must respond. 00:05:20.579 --> 00:05:22.629 He doesn't have a choice. He doesn't have a choice. 00:05:22.790 --> 00:05:26.670 He is legally obligated by his own word to bless 00:05:26.670 --> 00:05:29.329 you with health and wealth. That sounds incredibly 00:05:29.329 --> 00:05:32.610 bold. To say God has to do something, that feels 00:05:32.610 --> 00:05:34.670 like it completely flips the power dynamic on 00:05:34.670 --> 00:05:36.490 its head. To a traditional theologian, it sounds 00:05:36.490 --> 00:05:38.769 unbelievably arrogant. It borders on blasphemy 00:05:38.769 --> 00:05:41.490 because it removes God's sovereignty. It implies 00:05:41.490 --> 00:05:43.709 God is no longer the ultimate decision maker 00:05:43.709 --> 00:05:46.600 in the universe. Right. But now... Flip it around. 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:48.519 Look at it from the believer's perspective. Think 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:51.300 about how empowering that is. How so? It means 00:05:51.300 --> 00:05:53.439 the universe isn't random. It means your poverty 00:05:53.439 --> 00:05:55.920 isn't just bad luck. It means you aren't at the 00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:57.879 mercy of some mysterious deity who might just 00:05:57.879 --> 00:06:01.540 be having a bad day. It's a system. And if it's 00:06:01.540 --> 00:06:04.339 a system, you can learn to work the system. It 00:06:04.339 --> 00:06:07.379 turns God into a cosmic vending machine. That 00:06:07.379 --> 00:06:09.680 is the exact metaphor critics use. And you know 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:12.480 what? It fits the theology perfectly. You don't 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:14.610 have a relationship with a vending machine. You 00:06:14.610 --> 00:06:16.670 don't ask the vending machine how its day was. 00:06:16.810 --> 00:06:19.449 You put in the code D4 and you expect to get 00:06:19.449 --> 00:06:21.810 the Snickers bar. If you put in the money and 00:06:21.810 --> 00:06:23.709 the Snickers doesn't drop, you don't think, oh, 00:06:23.769 --> 00:06:25.990 the machine works in mysterious ways. You think. 00:06:26.009 --> 00:06:29.290 The machine is broken or I did something wrong. 00:06:29.470 --> 00:06:32.170 Exactly. The machine is broken or I didn't put 00:06:32.170 --> 00:06:34.610 the money in right. And in this analogy, the 00:06:34.610 --> 00:06:37.250 money you're putting in, is it literal money? 00:06:37.769 --> 00:06:41.490 Very often, yes. But it's also faith and positive 00:06:41.490 --> 00:06:43.639 confession. We'll get to the specific mechanics 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:46.279 of that in a little bit. But this all stems from 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:48.879 how they view the atonement. Yeah. You know, 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:51.459 the cross. Jesus' death. Right. The absolute 00:06:51.459 --> 00:06:54.139 core of Christianity. Forgiveness of sins. That's 00:06:54.139 --> 00:06:56.360 the whole point. Standard theology says Jesus 00:06:56.360 --> 00:06:59.160 died to fix the sin problem between humanity 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:02.639 and God. Prosperity theology takes that and extends 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:05.160 it. They argue that Jesus' death wasn't just 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:07.560 for sin. Okay. It was also for the alleviation 00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:10.029 of sickness and poverty. They view poverty not 00:07:10.029 --> 00:07:13.110 as a systemic economic issue or lack of opportunity, 00:07:13.329 --> 00:07:16.629 but as a curse. A curse, like a literal spiritual 00:07:16.629 --> 00:07:20.149 affliction. Yes, a curse that dates all the way 00:07:20.149 --> 00:07:22.810 back to the Garden of Eden. The argument goes 00:07:22.810 --> 00:07:25.790 like this. Jesus broke the curse on the cross. 00:07:26.589 --> 00:07:29.230 Therefore, if you as a believer are living in 00:07:29.230 --> 00:07:32.029 poverty, or if you are sick, you are living in 00:07:32.029 --> 00:07:34.560 a reality that Jesus already abolished. So you're 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:36.439 essentially leaving money on the table. You're 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:38.740 leaving your inheritance unclaimed. You have 00:07:38.740 --> 00:07:41.980 a legal right to be wealthy and healthy. You 00:07:41.980 --> 00:07:44.480 just aren't activating it. That puts a tremendous, 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:47.899 almost unbearable amount of pressure on the individual. 00:07:48.180 --> 00:07:50.540 If I'm broke, it's not because of the economy 00:07:50.540 --> 00:07:53.420 or my boss or systemic issues. It's because I 00:07:53.420 --> 00:07:56.040 am personally failing to claim my rights. Precisely. 00:07:56.329 --> 00:07:58.209 And that right there is the double -edged sword 00:07:58.209 --> 00:08:00.529 of this theology. On one hand, it offers you 00:08:00.529 --> 00:08:03.449 total agency. I can fix this. But on the other, 00:08:03.550 --> 00:08:06.269 it assigns you total blame. I caused this. But 00:08:06.269 --> 00:08:08.069 they have to be backing this up with the Bible, 00:08:08.230 --> 00:08:10.029 right? They can't just be making it up out of 00:08:10.029 --> 00:08:11.689 thin air. They're reading from the same book 00:08:11.689 --> 00:08:13.970 as the Methodists and the Catholics and everyone 00:08:13.970 --> 00:08:16.050 else. So where are they finding this contract? 00:08:16.470 --> 00:08:19.050 They rely on what theologians call proof texts. 00:08:19.970 --> 00:08:22.470 These are a handful of specific verses that serve 00:08:22.470 --> 00:08:25.069 as the absolute pillars for the entire system. 00:08:25.329 --> 00:08:28.110 You take them out, and the whole building collapses. 00:08:28.370 --> 00:08:30.029 Okay, lay them on us. What are the big ones? 00:08:30.250 --> 00:08:31.850 The heavyweight champion, the one you will hear 00:08:31.850 --> 00:08:33.830 at almost every single offering time in these 00:08:33.830 --> 00:08:36.450 churches, is from the Old Testament. It's Malachi 00:08:36.450 --> 00:08:39.330 3, verse 10. Okay, I think I know this one. Bring 00:08:39.330 --> 00:08:42.350 the whole tithe into the storehouse. That's the 00:08:42.350 --> 00:08:44.720 one. The full verse says, bring the whole tithe 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:47.460 into the storehouse and test me now in this, 00:08:47.539 --> 00:08:50.000 says the Lord. If I will not throw open for you 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.259 the windows of heaven and pour out for you a 00:08:52.259 --> 00:08:54.779 blessing until it overflows. Windows of heaven. 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:57.139 I mean, that's a beautiful image. It is a beautiful 00:08:57.139 --> 00:09:00.620 image. But in this context, it is used as a mechanical 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:05.480 guarantee. God literally says, test me. Prosperity 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:07.200 preachers latch onto that. They'll say, this 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.519 is the only place in the entire Bible where God 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:12.210 tells you to test him. So it's a challenge. It's 00:09:12.210 --> 00:09:15.509 presented as an investment opportunity. Tithing, 00:09:15.509 --> 00:09:18.009 giving that 10 % of your income, is the lever 00:09:18.009 --> 00:09:20.870 that opens the window. It guarantees a return 00:09:20.870 --> 00:09:23.470 on investment. It's not charity. It's a deposit. 00:09:23.830 --> 00:09:26.549 Okay, so that covers the money part. What about 00:09:26.549 --> 00:09:28.809 the name it and claim it idea? Is there actually 00:09:28.809 --> 00:09:32.330 a verse for, I want a Lexus and therefore I shall 00:09:32.330 --> 00:09:34.259 have one? Well, the one they would point to is 00:09:34.259 --> 00:09:38.460 Mark 11 .24. It says, Therefore I tell you, whatever 00:09:38.460 --> 00:09:41.100 you ask for in prayer, believe that you have 00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:44.240 received it, and it will be yours. Believe that 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:47.159 you have received it. So past tense. The tense 00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:48.820 is critical. You have to believe you already 00:09:48.820 --> 00:09:51.639 have it, even if you can't see it yet. It sounds 00:09:51.639 --> 00:09:53.779 a lot like modern visualization techniques or 00:09:53.779 --> 00:09:56.399 sports psychology. It really does, like manifesting. 00:09:56.399 --> 00:09:58.580 It's very close to that. Then you have 3 John 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:01.049 1 .2, which says, Beloved, I pray that in all 00:10:01.049 --> 00:10:03.029 respects you may prosper and be in good health, 00:10:03.110 --> 00:10:05.370 just as your soul prospers. Now that just sounds 00:10:05.370 --> 00:10:07.309 like a nice greeting, you know, like in a letter. 00:10:07.370 --> 00:10:09.789 I hope this letter finds you well. To most biblical 00:10:09.789 --> 00:10:11.769 scholars, that is exactly what it is. It's a 00:10:11.769 --> 00:10:14.370 standard ancient greeting, like signing off an 00:10:14.370 --> 00:10:17.710 email with best regards. But in this movement, 00:10:17.830 --> 00:10:20.950 every single word is mined for its literal meaning. 00:10:21.370 --> 00:10:24.929 They interpret prosper as material financial 00:10:24.929 --> 00:10:27.649 wealth. Period. OK. And finally, the big one 00:10:27.649 --> 00:10:30.409 is John 10 .10, where Jesus says he came that 00:10:30.409 --> 00:10:32.649 they may have life and have it to the full or 00:10:32.649 --> 00:10:35.309 abundant life. See, when I hear abundant life, 00:10:35.409 --> 00:10:38.529 my mind goes to, you know, peace, a loving family, 00:10:38.710 --> 00:10:41.830 a sense of purpose, spiritual things. And that 00:10:41.830 --> 00:10:44.269 is the traditional historical view that abundance 00:10:44.269 --> 00:10:48.070 refers to spiritual fullness, grace, a deep connection 00:10:48.070 --> 00:10:50.870 with the divine. Prosperity theology just asks 00:10:50.870 --> 00:10:53.370 why spiritualize it. Right. Their argument is 00:10:53.370 --> 00:10:55.350 if God owns the cattle on a thousand. hills, 00:10:55.470 --> 00:10:58.190 why would his idea of abundance be you living 00:10:58.190 --> 00:11:00.690 in a shack but feeling happy about it? To them, 00:11:00.730 --> 00:11:03.529 abundance means abundance. Cars, houses, health, 00:11:03.690 --> 00:11:06.509 money, influence, all of it. It's a very, very 00:11:06.509 --> 00:11:09.090 literal interpretation applied to verses that 00:11:09.090 --> 00:11:11.090 might be metaphors. It's a very specific lens. 00:11:11.470 --> 00:11:14.190 But, and this is where we have to pivot, we need 00:11:14.190 --> 00:11:16.370 to ask where that lens came from. Because I think 00:11:16.370 --> 00:11:19.029 most people, myself included, before I dug into 00:11:19.029 --> 00:11:22.169 this, assume this is just traditional Pentecostalism 00:11:22.169 --> 00:11:24.460 that got a little too excited about money. Yeah, 00:11:24.559 --> 00:11:27.299 that was my assumption. Old timey revival religion 00:11:27.299 --> 00:11:29.620 that got supercharged by capitalism. That is 00:11:29.620 --> 00:11:32.759 not the whole story. It's not even close. This 00:11:32.759 --> 00:11:35.000 is where the story takes a turn that honestly, 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:37.059 it really surprised me when I first read the 00:11:37.059 --> 00:11:40.450 research. OK. The historian Kate Bowler, who 00:11:40.450 --> 00:11:42.549 has done probably the definitive academic work 00:11:42.549 --> 00:11:46.230 on this, she identifies three distinct streams 00:11:46.230 --> 00:11:48.870 that merge together to form the prosperity gospel. 00:11:49.090 --> 00:11:51.549 Three streams. OK, walk us through them. Stream 00:11:51.549 --> 00:11:53.830 one is Pentecostalism. That's the obvious one. 00:11:53.870 --> 00:11:56.049 That's where the movement gets its energy, its 00:11:56.049 --> 00:11:58.769 belief in miracles, its emphasis on the supernatural, 00:11:59.049 --> 00:12:01.309 the idea that God is active in the world right 00:12:01.309 --> 00:12:03.809 now. OK, that makes total sense. That's the engine. 00:12:03.970 --> 00:12:07.129 Stream two is what she calls American pragmatism. 00:12:07.659 --> 00:12:10.500 This is the whole muscular Christianity of the 00:12:10.500 --> 00:12:13.700 late 19th and early 20th century. Think Andrew 00:12:13.700 --> 00:12:16.659 Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth. It's the ideology 00:12:16.659 --> 00:12:19.799 of individualism, upward mobility, pull yourself 00:12:19.799 --> 00:12:22.299 up by your bootstraps. The American dream, basically, 00:12:22.500 --> 00:12:24.679 wrapped in a sermon. Exactly. The belief that 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:27.580 godliness and financial success are linked. But 00:12:27.580 --> 00:12:29.879 then we hit stream three. This is the plot twist. 00:12:30.039 --> 00:12:32.419 Because if you trace the theological DNA of the 00:12:32.419 --> 00:12:35.539 prosperity gospel back far enough, You don't 00:12:35.539 --> 00:12:37.360 end up in a church. Where do you end up? You 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:39.259 end up in a metaphysical movement from the late 00:12:39.259 --> 00:12:41.799 1800s called New Thought. New Thought. I've never 00:12:41.799 --> 00:12:44.700 heard of that. Is that like a cult? What is that? 00:12:44.860 --> 00:12:48.240 Think more like The Secret or if Ralph Waldo 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.840 Emerson had a fever dream. It was this philosophical 00:12:50.840 --> 00:12:53.779 and spiritual movement in the 1880s and 90s that 00:12:53.779 --> 00:12:55.759 believed the physical world is secondary to the 00:12:55.759 --> 00:12:58.480 mental world. They taught that your mind literally 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:01.460 creates your reality. So think positive. It's 00:13:01.460 --> 00:13:03.700 the great -grandfather of every positive thinking 00:13:03.700 --> 00:13:06.799 and self -help book you've ever seen. But they 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:09.559 took it to an extreme. If you are sick, it's 00:13:09.559 --> 00:13:12.299 because you have sick thoughts. If you are poor, 00:13:12.539 --> 00:13:15.620 you have poverty thoughts. Change your mind and 00:13:15.620 --> 00:13:17.659 you will change your physical reality. Okay, 00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:19.980 but here's the part I don't get. How does that 00:13:19.980 --> 00:13:22.039 connect to Christianity? That sounds like a completely 00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:24.519 different religion. It was. Here's the crazy 00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:28.600 part. This was not Christian. In fact, many New 00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:30.799 Thought teachers didn't believe in a personal 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:33.889 God at all. They believed in a universal mind 00:13:33.889 --> 00:13:37.110 or cosmic intelligence, a force. So wait, hold 00:13:37.110 --> 00:13:39.649 on. You're telling me that a Baptist minister 00:13:39.649 --> 00:13:42.409 in the 1890s was just hanging out with metaphysical 00:13:42.409 --> 00:13:45.649 mind cultists? How on earth did universal mind 00:13:45.649 --> 00:13:48.269 magic get into the Baptist church? Those two 00:13:48.269 --> 00:13:50.070 groups do not seem like they'd hang out at the 00:13:50.070 --> 00:13:52.370 same parties. They absolutely do not. Unless 00:13:52.370 --> 00:13:55.110 you have a man named E .W. Kenyon. Kenyon, I 00:13:55.110 --> 00:13:56.730 saw his name in the notes. He's the bridge figure. 00:13:57.159 --> 00:13:59.580 He is the missing link. He's the patient zero 00:13:59.580 --> 00:14:02.360 of this whole thing. Kenyon was a Baptist minister, 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:06.080 very traditional in some ways. But in the 1890s, 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:07.860 he went to a place called the Emerson College 00:14:07.860 --> 00:14:11.500 of Oratory in Boston. Okay. And Emerson College 00:14:11.500 --> 00:14:14.639 at that time was a hotbed of new thought ideas. 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:18.039 So while he's there, he starts soaking up these 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:21.139 concepts. He hears, your words create your reality. 00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:24.419 He hears the mind has power over matter. And 00:14:24.419 --> 00:14:26.320 a light bulb goes off. He thinks, wait a minute. 00:14:26.669 --> 00:14:29.269 What if I combine that with Bible verses? Oh, 00:14:29.450 --> 00:14:32.850 wow. So he essentially laundered occult mysticism 00:14:32.850 --> 00:14:35.950 through Christian theology. He would never, ever 00:14:35.950 --> 00:14:37.649 have admitted that, of course. He claimed it 00:14:37.649 --> 00:14:40.419 was all just direct revelation from God. But 00:14:40.419 --> 00:14:42.460 historians like Kate Bowler have put his writing 00:14:42.460 --> 00:14:44.500 side by side with new thought literature from 00:14:44.500 --> 00:14:46.580 the time. And the parallels are obvious. The 00:14:46.580 --> 00:14:48.240 phrasing is almost identical in places. He just 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:50.100 rebranded it. It's a genius piece of branding. 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:52.279 He took the law of attraction and he renamed 00:14:52.279 --> 00:14:54.779 it the law of faith. He took a concept that was 00:14:54.779 --> 00:14:57.779 kind of elitist and weird metaphysical mind power. 00:14:57.899 --> 00:15:00.519 And he packaged it in language that a revival 00:15:00.519 --> 00:15:02.899 tent congregation could understand. So instead 00:15:02.899 --> 00:15:05.539 of manifesting, you're confessing or decreeing. 00:15:05.539 --> 00:15:07.940 Exactly. Instead of mental magnetism, it's faith. 00:15:08.519 --> 00:15:10.500 And suddenly you have the theological engine 00:15:10.500 --> 00:15:12.960 for the entire prosperity gospel. And this was 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:15.500 a huge shift, right? Because the early Pentecostals, 00:15:15.500 --> 00:15:17.659 the people speaking in tongues at Azusa Street 00:15:17.659 --> 00:15:20.659 in the early 1900s, they weren't exactly chasing 00:15:20.659 --> 00:15:23.600 Ferraris. Far from it. The early Pentecostals 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:25.820 were often extremely poor. They were marginalized. 00:15:26.179 --> 00:15:28.399 And they viewed the world as a sinking ship. 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:31.259 They were focused on heaven. They thought worldly 00:15:31.259 --> 00:15:34.779 wealth as a distraction. Or worse, a dangerous 00:15:34.779 --> 00:15:37.580 temptation. Right. Kenyon's influence completely 00:15:37.580 --> 00:15:39.940 flipped that script. He taught that believers 00:15:39.940 --> 00:15:42.679 have a legal right to divine healing and prosperity. 00:15:43.019 --> 00:15:45.000 It wasn't something to hope for. It was something 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:47.620 to demand. So we have the theory, the divine 00:15:47.620 --> 00:15:50.000 contract. We have the origin story, this hybrid 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:53.019 of the Bible and mind power. Now let's talk about 00:15:53.019 --> 00:15:56.000 the mechanics. If I'm a believer in, say, 1950 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:59.519 or 1980, how do I actually do this? How do I 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:01.659 work the system? You need a mechanism. You need 00:16:01.659 --> 00:16:03.759 a way to activate the contract. Yeah. And that 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:06.480 brings us to the post -World War II era and a 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:08.940 man who became a household name, Oral Roberts. 00:16:09.419 --> 00:16:11.940 Oral Roberts University. That's the name I know. 00:16:12.059 --> 00:16:15.139 He is the pivotal figure in taking these ideas 00:16:15.139 --> 00:16:19.519 mainstream. He took Kenyon's concepts, which 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:22.799 were still kind of on the fringe, and he operationalized 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:25.440 them for the masses. He introduced a concept 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:29.559 that would define the movement, seed faith. Seed 00:16:29.559 --> 00:16:32.110 faith. This metaphor is everywhere in this world. 00:16:32.269 --> 00:16:34.990 And it's brilliant marketing, honestly. Roberts 00:16:34.990 --> 00:16:37.149 taught that your donations to his ministry were 00:16:37.149 --> 00:16:39.629 not just charity. They weren't just gifts. They 00:16:39.629 --> 00:16:42.070 were seeds. Think about the farming metaphor. 00:16:42.570 --> 00:16:44.990 If you want a harvest of corn, what do you have 00:16:44.990 --> 00:16:47.110 to do? You have to plant the corn kernels in 00:16:47.110 --> 00:16:48.590 the ground. You have to give up the kernel to 00:16:48.590 --> 00:16:51.029 get the stalk. Exactly. You don't hoard your 00:16:51.029 --> 00:16:53.789 corn seed. You bury it in the ground, expecting 00:16:53.789 --> 00:16:56.529 a much bigger return. Roberts taught what he 00:16:56.529 --> 00:16:59.320 called the blessing pact. He told his followers 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:01.240 that if they gave money to his ministry, they 00:17:01.240 --> 00:17:04.019 were planting a seed in the good soil of God's 00:17:04.019 --> 00:17:06.599 work. And God would provide the harvest. God, 00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:09.000 as the soil, would be obligated to return it 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:11.240 a hundredfold. I read in the notes that in the 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:13.299 early days, he actually offered a money -back 00:17:13.299 --> 00:17:16.160 guarantee. Is that true? He did. It's incredible. 00:17:16.359 --> 00:17:19.460 He offered to return donations if the donor didn't 00:17:19.460 --> 00:17:21.720 receive an unexpected payment from some other 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:25.079 source within a year. That is unbelievably bold. 00:17:25.259 --> 00:17:28.019 And it also... It must completely change the 00:17:28.019 --> 00:17:31.079 psychology of the person giving the money. It 00:17:31.079 --> 00:17:33.279 changes everything. Giving is no longer an act 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:35.940 of selfless support. I want to help this ministry 00:17:35.940 --> 00:17:38.480 do its work. It becomes an investment strategy. 00:17:38.539 --> 00:17:41.099 You aren't losing money. You are investing it 00:17:41.099 --> 00:17:43.660 for a guaranteed high yield. Right. If I told 00:17:43.660 --> 00:17:46.539 you that for every dollar you gave me, a magic 00:17:46.539 --> 00:17:49.019 ATM around the corner would give you $7 back, 00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:51.200 how much money would you give me? Everything 00:17:51.200 --> 00:17:53.750 I had. And I'd probably go take out a loan. Exactly. 00:17:53.910 --> 00:17:56.289 It gamifies tithing. It makes it a financial 00:17:56.289 --> 00:17:58.170 transaction. So that's the money part of the 00:17:58.170 --> 00:18:00.390 machine. What about the speech part? You mentioned 00:18:00.390 --> 00:18:03.170 words creating reality. Right. That brings us 00:18:03.170 --> 00:18:05.369 to the second major mechanism, which is called 00:18:05.369 --> 00:18:09.130 positive confession, or more broadly, the word 00:18:09.130 --> 00:18:11.670 of faith movement. The father of this particular 00:18:11.670 --> 00:18:14.549 branch is generally seen as Kenneth Hagin. He 00:18:14.549 --> 00:18:17.490 took Kenyon's ideas and he codified them into 00:18:17.490 --> 00:18:20.490 a system. He taught that faith is not just a 00:18:20.490 --> 00:18:24.690 belief. It's a law, like gravity. The sources 00:18:24.690 --> 00:18:26.630 mention a distinction they make between rhema 00:18:26.630 --> 00:18:29.049 and logos. We should probably define those because 00:18:29.049 --> 00:18:31.150 they sound like they're straight out of a Greek 00:18:31.150 --> 00:18:34.529 philosophy class. They are Greek words, but the 00:18:34.529 --> 00:18:36.529 concept they built around them is fairly simple. 00:18:36.990 --> 00:18:40.109 In their teaching, logos is the written word, 00:18:40.250 --> 00:18:42.769 the Bible sitting on your shelf. It has potential 00:18:42.769 --> 00:18:46.250 power. Okay. But rhema is the spoken, activated 00:18:46.250 --> 00:18:48.990 word. It's when you take a promise from the logos 00:18:48.990 --> 00:18:52.160 and you speak it out loud. Proponents claim that 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:54.900 speaking a rhema word is what releases the power 00:18:54.900 --> 00:18:57.059 into the physical world. So you can't just think 00:18:57.059 --> 00:18:59.019 it. You have to actually say it out loud. You 00:18:59.019 --> 00:19:00.859 have to speak it. You have to say, by his stripes 00:19:00.859 --> 00:19:03.779 I am healed. You have to say, my God shall supply 00:19:03.779 --> 00:19:06.599 all my needs so I am rich. They believe that 00:19:06.599 --> 00:19:10.019 faith in its essence is a confession. And this 00:19:10.019 --> 00:19:13.500 is crucial. It works in reverse. If you say, 00:19:13.579 --> 00:19:16.059 oh, I'm so sick or I'm always so broke, you are 00:19:16.059 --> 00:19:18.779 confessing lack. You are literally creating sickness 00:19:18.779 --> 00:19:21.099 and poverty with your own mouth. You're speaking 00:19:21.099 --> 00:19:23.680 a curse over your own life. That sounds exhausting. 00:19:23.799 --> 00:19:25.940 You'd have to police every single sentence that 00:19:25.940 --> 00:19:27.619 comes out of your mouth. It creates a tremendous 00:19:27.619 --> 00:19:30.180 amount of anxiety. You're constantly terrified 00:19:30.180 --> 00:19:33.339 of saying the wrong thing and negating your blessing. 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:36.799 This all leads to what is maybe the most radical 00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:39.500 theological claim in the entire outline, the 00:19:39.500 --> 00:19:42.259 little gods doctrine. This sounded absolutely 00:19:42.259 --> 00:19:44.859 wild to me when I read it. It is the most controversial 00:19:44.859 --> 00:19:47.299 aspect of the movement, and it's where many other 00:19:47.299 --> 00:19:49.700 Christians draw a hard line and say, this has 00:19:49.700 --> 00:19:52.559 gone too far. What is it? Leaders like Kenneth 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:55.240 Copeland and Frederick Casey Price have taught 00:19:55.240 --> 00:19:57.660 that because the Bible says humans are made in 00:19:57.660 --> 00:20:00.720 God's image, that means we are essentially duplicates 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:03.339 of God. We are little gods with a lowercase g. 00:20:03.579 --> 00:20:05.359 Meaning what? That we have the same power to 00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:07.200 create with our words that God had when he said, 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:09.779 let there be light? That is precisely the argument. 00:20:10.019 --> 00:20:13.069 They argue that God is a spirit. But he has a 00:20:13.069 --> 00:20:16.390 body, and he created Adam to be a physical reproduction 00:20:16.390 --> 00:20:19.650 of himself on Earth. And therefore, believers 00:20:19.650 --> 00:20:24.109 have that same creative ability. Okay. Frederick 00:20:24.109 --> 00:20:27.329 Casey Price has a quote that is honestly shocking 00:20:27.329 --> 00:20:31.170 to traditional Christian ears. He said that whether 00:20:31.170 --> 00:20:33.950 you succeed or fail in life is not up to God. 00:20:34.170 --> 00:20:36.970 Not up to God. How can it not be up to God? His 00:20:36.970 --> 00:20:39.769 reasoning was, and I'm paraphrasing here, God 00:20:39.769 --> 00:20:42.630 is on vacation. Excuse me. God is on vacation. 00:20:42.869 --> 00:20:45.769 God is on vacation. Meaning God has already done 00:20:45.769 --> 00:20:47.930 his part. He created the world. He established 00:20:47.930 --> 00:20:50.809 the spiritual laws. He sent Jesus to die. He 00:20:50.809 --> 00:20:53.049 built the machine and plugged it in. Now it is 00:20:53.049 --> 00:20:55.900 up to you. to work the levers. So if you fail? 00:20:56.019 --> 00:20:57.480 If you fail, it's because you didn't pull the 00:20:57.480 --> 00:20:59.660 lever correctly. It removes God's active moment 00:20:59.660 --> 00:21:02.180 -by -moment will from the equation almost entirely. 00:21:02.500 --> 00:21:04.460 That puts an immense amount of agency on the 00:21:04.460 --> 00:21:06.519 individual. It's the ultimate form of empowerment, 00:21:06.660 --> 00:21:08.279 but it's also the ultimate form of loneliness. 00:21:08.460 --> 00:21:10.940 If the machine breaks, it's all on you. Exactly 00:21:10.940 --> 00:21:13.119 right. Let's shift gears a bit and talk about 00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:15.839 how this message spread. Because ideas are one 00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:18.180 thing, but the delivery system is everything. 00:21:18.539 --> 00:21:20.700 And this movement found the perfect delivery 00:21:20.700 --> 00:21:25.700 system for the 20th century. The medium really 00:21:25.700 --> 00:21:28.859 is the message here. In the 1960s, Oral Roberts 00:21:28.859 --> 00:21:31.839 made a brilliant strategic move. He transitioned 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:34.740 from his tent revival meetings, which were dusty, 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:38.940 hot, and reached a limited audience. To syndicated 00:21:38.940 --> 00:21:41.319 television. He cleaned up the image. He absolutely 00:21:41.319 --> 00:21:43.700 cleaned it up. He put on a suit. He built a nice 00:21:43.700 --> 00:21:46.180 set. He realized that to reach the American masses, 00:21:46.359 --> 00:21:48.700 he had to look prosperous and successful. Right. 00:21:48.859 --> 00:21:51.079 But then you get figures like Reverend Ike in 00:21:51.079 --> 00:21:53.539 the late 60s and 70s. Now, Reverend Ike is a 00:21:53.539 --> 00:21:55.279 character. He was based in New York and he was 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:58.019 completely unapologetic about wealth. He didn't 00:21:58.019 --> 00:22:00.279 hide it. He flaunted it. The flashy suits, the 00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:02.460 Rolls Royces. All of it. He preached what he 00:22:02.460 --> 00:22:04.460 called the science of the mind. He's basically 00:22:04.460 --> 00:22:07.140 saying, look at me, look at my success. God did 00:22:07.140 --> 00:22:09.440 this for me and he'll do it for you too. It was 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:13.319 aspirational. He famously said, the best thing 00:22:13.319 --> 00:22:15.579 you can do for the poor is not be one of them. 00:22:15.740 --> 00:22:18.680 It's a shocking line, but it perfectly encapsulates 00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:22.019 his philosophy. Then in the 1980s, you have the 00:22:22.019 --> 00:22:24.539 explosion of cable television and with it, the 00:22:24.539 --> 00:22:27.799 Trinity Broadcasting Network. TBN. Right. TBN 00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:30.920 created a 247 ecosystem for these preachers. 00:22:31.079 --> 00:22:33.000 Suddenly they weren't just on for an hour on 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:35.539 Sunday morning. They were always on. This is 00:22:35.539 --> 00:22:38.319 the era of Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. And the 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:40.819 PTL scandal where he famously went to prison 00:22:40.819 --> 00:22:44.039 for fraud. Right. But despite the scandals, this 00:22:44.039 --> 00:22:47.480 era established prosperity theology as the default 00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:50.400 setting for Christian television. If you turned 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:53.380 on religious TV in 1988, this is almost certainly 00:22:53.380 --> 00:22:55.519 what you saw. And that brings us to the modern 00:22:55.519 --> 00:22:58.640 faces, because the style has changed again, hasn't 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:00.759 it? It's not all shouting and sweating and asking 00:23:00.759 --> 00:23:03.099 for money for a new jet anymore. No, the modern 00:23:03.099 --> 00:23:05.559 version is much more polished, much more palatable. 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:07.200 You have to look at someone like Joel Osteen. 00:23:07.259 --> 00:23:09.839 The smiling face of Houston's Lakewood Church. 00:23:10.460 --> 00:23:12.599 Osteen represents what you might call a soft 00:23:12.599 --> 00:23:16.200 prosperity gospel. He rarely gets into the deep, 00:23:16.220 --> 00:23:19.200 weird, doctrinal stuff about being little gods. 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:21.059 He doesn't talk about contracts. He talks about 00:23:21.059 --> 00:23:23.700 optimism. The name of his most famous book says 00:23:23.700 --> 00:23:26.779 it all. Your Best Life Now. Which sold millions 00:23:26.779 --> 00:23:29.299 and millions of copies. Because it's an appealing, 00:23:29.460 --> 00:23:32.079 non -threatening message. It feels more like 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:34.640 a Tony Robbins seminar than a Pentecostal revival. 00:23:35.279 --> 00:23:38.500 It's often described as moderate. But the underlying 00:23:38.500 --> 00:23:41.660 premise that God wants you to be happy, healthy, 00:23:41.740 --> 00:23:44.740 and successful now is exactly the same. It's 00:23:44.740 --> 00:23:46.960 prosperity light. And you'd contrast that with 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:49.299 someone like Creflo Dollar. Who is much more 00:23:49.299 --> 00:23:51.640 hardline. I mean, his name is literally Creflo 00:23:51.640 --> 00:23:53.900 Dollar, which you just can't make up. He preaches 00:23:53.900 --> 00:23:56.000 the strict contract theology. And then you have 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:58.119 phenomena like Bruce Wilkinson's book, The Prayer 00:23:58.119 --> 00:24:00.279 of Jabez. Do you remember that? Oh, I do. It 00:24:00.279 --> 00:24:02.180 was everywhere in the early 2000s. It was this 00:24:02.180 --> 00:24:04.160 tiny little book. You could read it in 20 minutes. 00:24:04.440 --> 00:24:07.160 It was a cultural phenomenon. And all it was 00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:09.980 was an invitation for readers to pray a specific 00:24:09.980 --> 00:24:13.599 Old Testament prayer every day, explicitly asking 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:17.119 God to enlarge their territory. It mainstreamed 00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:19.319 the idea of asking for personal expansion and 00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:22.680 prosperity as a core spiritual discipline. So 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:25.299 we have this massive American export. Let's get 00:24:25.299 --> 00:24:28.200 to the why. Why does it stick? Especially when, 00:24:28.299 --> 00:24:30.220 let's be honest, the mat doesn't always work 00:24:30.220 --> 00:24:32.440 out for the people in the pews. Most people who 00:24:32.440 --> 00:24:35.299 tithe don't end up with a Ferrari. So why is 00:24:35.299 --> 00:24:38.059 this message so popular, particularly among the 00:24:38.059 --> 00:24:40.799 poor and working class? This is a crucial question. 00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:42.740 And it's easy to be cynical and just say, well, 00:24:42.779 --> 00:24:44.720 people are greedy or people are gullible. Yeah. 00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:47.359 But the sociologists who study this say it's 00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:49.980 much, much deeper than that. It's about empowerment. 00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:53.039 Empowerment in what way? If you are poor, if 00:24:53.039 --> 00:24:54.839 you're marginalized, if you feel like the entire 00:24:54.839 --> 00:24:56.720 economic system is rigged against you and you 00:24:56.720 --> 00:24:59.440 have no way out. Yeah. The prosperity gospel 00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:02.440 offers you a key. It fundamentally rejects a 00:25:02.440 --> 00:25:04.400 victim mentality. It tells you that you have 00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:06.359 direct control over your circumstances. It creates 00:25:06.359 --> 00:25:08.440 a sense of agency. I can change my situation 00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:11.839 by speaking and sowing. Precisely. It gives you 00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:14.680 a lever to pull in a world that feels chaotic 00:25:14.680 --> 00:25:17.930 and uncontrollable. The Jesuits Antonio Spadaro 00:25:17.930 --> 00:25:21.130 and Marcelo Figueroa wrote a fascinating analysis 00:25:21.130 --> 00:25:23.230 where they describe it as a reductive version 00:25:23.230 --> 00:25:26.369 of the American dream. The idea that prosperity 00:25:26.369 --> 00:25:28.930 is the direct result of faith, not just hard 00:25:28.930 --> 00:25:32.049 work or luck or privilege. It's the spiritualization 00:25:32.049 --> 00:25:34.329 of the American dream. And honestly, for someone 00:25:34.329 --> 00:25:36.309 who feels like they have nothing, a lottery ticket 00:25:36.309 --> 00:25:39.670 that says God guarantees this will pay out. That's 00:25:39.670 --> 00:25:42.450 a very powerful thing to hold on to. It is hope. 00:25:42.569 --> 00:25:45.700 It's a tangible strategy for a better life. And 00:25:45.700 --> 00:25:48.140 while it has its roots in American economic booms, 00:25:48.140 --> 00:25:51.180 it has now found incredibly fertile ground in 00:25:51.180 --> 00:25:53.099 the global south. Let's talk about that. Nigeria, 00:25:53.380 --> 00:25:55.119 South Korea, the numbers and the sources are 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:57.160 just staggering. In Nigeria, you have figures 00:25:57.160 --> 00:25:59.180 like David Oyedepo, who's one of the richest 00:25:59.180 --> 00:26:02.400 pastors in the entire world. The growth of Pentecostal 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:05.680 prosperity churches there is explosive. And scholars 00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:08.440 point out a fascinating paradox. Which is? The 00:26:08.440 --> 00:26:10.720 high levels of government corruption and economic 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:13.559 inequality. in a place like Nigeria, actually 00:26:13.559 --> 00:26:16.559 fuel the desire for miracles. How does that work? 00:26:16.859 --> 00:26:18.740 Well, when the government fails you and the banking 00:26:18.740 --> 00:26:20.839 system fails you and the infrastructure fails 00:26:20.839 --> 00:26:23.720 you, where do you turn for help? You turn to 00:26:23.720 --> 00:26:26.240 the supernatural. If the earthly contract is 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:28.259 broken every day, you start looking for a divine 00:26:28.259 --> 00:26:30.720 one that can't be broken. That makes a lot of 00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:32.799 sense. It's a direct response to instability. 00:26:33.460 --> 00:26:35.980 What about South Korea? The story there is a 00:26:35.980 --> 00:26:38.359 bit different. In South Korea, you have the Yoido 00:26:38.359 --> 00:26:40.920 Full Gospel Church, which was founded by Cho 00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:43.319 Yong -gi. At one point, it was the single largest 00:26:43.319 --> 00:26:45.880 church congregation in the world with hundreds 00:26:45.880 --> 00:26:48.619 of thousands of members. And the sources note 00:26:48.619 --> 00:26:50.480 a really interesting cultural parallel there. 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:53.579 Something about shamanism. Yes. Anthropologists 00:26:53.579 --> 00:26:56.240 have noted that in traditional Korean shamanism, 00:26:56.359 --> 00:26:59.220 there is a practice of paying a shaman to perform 00:26:59.220 --> 00:27:02.220 rituals to secure blessings or healing or success. 00:27:02.519 --> 00:27:04.980 It's a very transactional spiritual practice. 00:27:05.220 --> 00:27:07.640 I pay the money. The spirits bless my business. 00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:11.059 So the prosperity gospel with its transactional. 00:27:11.079 --> 00:27:14.019 seed faith nature, it mapped almost perfectly 00:27:14.019 --> 00:27:16.819 onto that existing cultural framework. Exactly. 00:27:16.819 --> 00:27:20.460 It didn't feel foreign. It felt like a Christianized, 00:27:20.460 --> 00:27:23.259 modernized version of a spiritual system that 00:27:23.259 --> 00:27:25.920 was already deeply embedded in the culture. Wow. 00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:28.640 And you see it everywhere. It's huge in the Philippines 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:31.339 with the El Shaddai movement, which blends it 00:27:31.339 --> 00:27:34.599 with Catholic charismatic traditions. It's massive 00:27:34.599 --> 00:27:37.400 in Australia through Hillsong Church, which even 00:27:37.400 --> 00:27:39.640 had a prime minister, Scott Morrison, as a member. 00:27:40.299 --> 00:27:43.880 It is a true global phenomenon. But there is 00:27:43.880 --> 00:27:46.940 a darker side to this belief, beyond just disappointed 00:27:46.940 --> 00:27:50.000 hopes. The outline mentions a connection to the 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:53.579 2008 financial crisis in the U .S. Now that feels 00:27:53.579 --> 00:27:56.079 like a stretch, blaming a theology for the housing 00:27:56.079 --> 00:27:58.680 market crash. It sounds like a stretch, but listen 00:27:58.680 --> 00:28:00.579 to the argument that Hannah Rosen made in the 00:28:00.579 --> 00:28:03.240 piece for The Atlantic. She went out and interviewed 00:28:03.240 --> 00:28:05.579 homeowners and pastors in communities that were 00:28:05.579 --> 00:28:08.500 hit hard by foreclosures. And she argued that 00:28:08.500 --> 00:28:10.660 prosperity theology was a contributing factor 00:28:10.660 --> 00:28:13.519 to the subprime mortgage bubble. How so? Because 00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:15.799 it actively encouraged people to take on huge 00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:18.720 financial risks based on faith. People were taking 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:20.539 out adjustable rate mortgages they knew they 00:28:20.539 --> 00:28:22.519 couldn't afford on paper. Why would they do that? 00:28:22.700 --> 00:28:24.900 They were operating on the belief that God would 00:28:24.900 --> 00:28:27.359 provide the payment. They would sign the papers 00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:30.700 for a massive house and say, I am claiming this 00:28:30.700 --> 00:28:33.799 house in faith. They believed God would miraculously 00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:37.750 provide a raise or a bonus or a new job. to cover 00:28:37.750 --> 00:28:40.789 the payments when they reset. So you sign a predatory 00:28:40.789 --> 00:28:43.009 loan because you genuinely believe divine intervention 00:28:43.009 --> 00:28:45.549 will pay it off. And the banks at that time were 00:28:45.549 --> 00:28:48.069 more than happy to give them the loans. But when 00:28:48.069 --> 00:28:50.430 the economy crashed and the payments ballooned, 00:28:50.450 --> 00:28:53.329 God didn't make the payments. The foreclosures 00:28:53.329 --> 00:28:56.130 happened. It shows how this theology, when it 00:28:56.130 --> 00:28:58.349 intersects with high stakes finance, can have 00:28:58.349 --> 00:29:01.150 absolutely devastating real world consequences. 00:29:01.589 --> 00:29:04.309 Speaking of high stakes finances, we have to 00:29:04.309 --> 00:29:06.339 talk about the lifestyle. This is the stuff that 00:29:06.339 --> 00:29:08.839 makes the news, the jets. The jet lifestyle. 00:29:08.900 --> 00:29:11.559 It is the most visible and most criticized symbol 00:29:11.559 --> 00:29:14.559 of the movement's excess. The outline lists Creflo 00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:16.740 Dollar campaigning to his followers for a new 00:29:16.740 --> 00:29:20.119 Gulfstream G650. Which at the time was a $65 00:29:20.119 --> 00:29:22.920 million aircraft. This isn't a little Cessna 00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:25.680 to hop between cities. It's the top of the line 00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:29.180 corporate jet. And Jesse Duplantis asking his 00:29:29.180 --> 00:29:32.839 followers to buy him a $54 million jet. What 00:29:32.839 --> 00:29:35.380 was his justification for that? They often argue 00:29:35.380 --> 00:29:37.700 it's about efficiency for their global ministries. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:40.200 I need to travel the world to spread the gospel, 00:29:40.359 --> 00:29:42.859 and I can't be waiting in TSA lines with everyone 00:29:42.859 --> 00:29:45.500 else. But Kenneth Copeland went even further. 00:29:45.740 --> 00:29:48.099 What did he say? He was famously recorded in 00:29:48.099 --> 00:29:50.259 an interview saying that flying in a commercial 00:29:50.259 --> 00:29:52.799 airplane is like getting in a long tube with 00:29:52.799 --> 00:29:54.819 a bunch of demons. He called the other passengers 00:29:54.819 --> 00:29:57.220 demons. He implied that the spiritual atmosphere 00:29:57.220 --> 00:29:59.559 was polluted and that he couldn't get his sermon 00:29:59.559 --> 00:30:02.150 prep done in that environment. He needed the 00:30:02.150 --> 00:30:05.069 sanctuary of his private jet to do God's work 00:30:05.069 --> 00:30:08.509 effectively. That is certainly a take. But this 00:30:08.509 --> 00:30:10.490 kind of excess did eventually catch the attention 00:30:10.490 --> 00:30:14.069 of the government. In 2007, Senator Chuck Grassley 00:30:14.069 --> 00:30:17.279 launched a probe into six major ministries. He 00:30:17.279 --> 00:30:19.579 did. It included Copeland, Dollar, Benny Hinn, 00:30:19.579 --> 00:30:21.640 and others. He wanted to know where the money 00:30:21.640 --> 00:30:24.019 was going. Were these tax -exempt nonprofits 00:30:24.019 --> 00:30:27.059 being used as personal piggy banks for the pastors 00:30:27.059 --> 00:30:29.039 and their families? And what was the result of 00:30:29.039 --> 00:30:30.960 that investigation? Were there any major changes? 00:30:31.400 --> 00:30:33.759 Not really. The conclusion, which came out in 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:38.170 2011, was honestly pretty underwhelming. The 00:30:38.170 --> 00:30:40.630 ministries mostly refused to cooperate, citing 00:30:40.630 --> 00:30:42.490 religious freedom and the separation of church 00:30:42.490 --> 00:30:45.150 and state. And Senator Grassley's final report 00:30:45.150 --> 00:30:47.109 basically said that there's no real mechanism 00:30:47.109 --> 00:30:50.509 for government regulation and that self -regulation 00:30:50.509 --> 00:30:52.849 by the churches themselves was the preferred 00:30:52.849 --> 00:30:55.890 option. Self -regulation. So essentially, please 00:30:55.890 --> 00:30:58.640 police yourselves. Which? Given that the theology 00:30:58.640 --> 00:31:00.940 itself says that extreme wealth is a sign of 00:31:00.940 --> 00:31:04.359 God's favor is highly unlikely to happen. If 00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:06.359 you believe your jet is a gift from God for your 00:31:06.359 --> 00:31:08.539 faithfulness, you're not going to apologize for 00:31:08.539 --> 00:31:10.680 it. You're going to see it as a trophy. In the 00:31:10.680 --> 00:31:12.680 UK, however, the sources note they've been a 00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:15.079 bit stricter. Yes, there was a major case with 00:31:15.079 --> 00:31:17.220 a London -based church called Kingsway International 00:31:17.220 --> 00:31:20.720 Christian Center and its pastor, Matthew Ashimoluo. 00:31:21.289 --> 00:31:23.769 The UK's Charity Commission investigated and 00:31:23.769 --> 00:31:26.309 found serious financial misconduct, including 00:31:26.309 --> 00:31:29.049 the pastor using church funds for a luxury car 00:31:29.049 --> 00:31:32.150 and a timeshare in Florida. It involved millions 00:31:32.150 --> 00:31:34.509 in losses, some of it tied to a Ponzi scheme 00:31:34.509 --> 00:31:37.650 run by a church trustee. A literal Ponzi scheme. 00:31:37.910 --> 00:31:40.789 Yes. So the regulators there have shown more 00:31:40.789 --> 00:31:43.950 teeth. But in the U .S., the most effective critique 00:31:43.950 --> 00:31:46.529 has largely been left to satirists. You mean 00:31:46.529 --> 00:31:48.690 John Oliver? The segment he did on Last Week 00:31:48.690 --> 00:31:50.849 Tonight is legendary. He legally established 00:31:50.849 --> 00:31:54.049 his own church, Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption. 00:31:54.309 --> 00:31:57.410 Right, to prove how absurdly easy it is to set 00:31:57.410 --> 00:32:00.029 up a tax -exempt church and solicit money with 00:32:00.029 --> 00:32:03.390 very little oversight. He exposed the predatory 00:32:03.390 --> 00:32:06.690 nature of the seed faith requests and the incredibly 00:32:06.690 --> 00:32:09.829 loose tax laws perfectly. He asked people to 00:32:09.829 --> 00:32:12.400 send him their seed. which was just single dollar 00:32:12.400 --> 00:32:15.359 bills, and he received thousands of dollars and 00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:17.299 other strange items. He showed the absurdity 00:32:17.299 --> 00:32:20.039 of it by highlighting the very real harm it causes. 00:32:20.259 --> 00:32:22.640 But satire is one thing. What about the theological 00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:25.220 pushback? The critics from within Christianity 00:32:25.220 --> 00:32:27.680 must be pretty fierce. That's a really important 00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:30.079 point. This is not just atheists or secular media 00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:32.980 attacking these preachers. Mainstream evangelicalism, 00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:35.799 for the most part, absolutely detests this theology. 00:32:36.039 --> 00:32:38.200 They see it as a dangerous distortion of the 00:32:38.200 --> 00:32:40.339 Christian gospel. Who are the big voices pushing 00:32:40.339 --> 00:32:42.960 back? Influential leaders like Rick Warren, who 00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:45.480 wrote The Purpose Driven Life, and the theologian 00:32:45.480 --> 00:32:47.619 John Piper. Piper has a very famous quote where 00:32:47.619 --> 00:32:50.220 he says, the prosperity gospel will not make 00:32:50.220 --> 00:32:52.839 anybody praise Jesus. It will make people praise 00:32:52.839 --> 00:32:56.000 prosperity. The argument being that money, not 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:58.619 God, becomes the real object of worship. You're 00:32:58.619 --> 00:33:01.140 just using God as a means to get stuff. Exactly. 00:33:01.279 --> 00:33:03.799 And they have a very strong biblical rebuttal. 00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:07.400 They point to the life of Jesus himself. Jesus 00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:10.359 was poor. He said, foxes have holes and birds 00:33:10.359 --> 00:33:12.880 have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to 00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:15.319 lay his head. And the Apostle Paul. He's a central 00:33:15.319 --> 00:33:17.519 figure in the New Testament. Paul is the ultimate 00:33:17.519 --> 00:33:19.920 counter -argument. If anyone had enough faith, 00:33:20.039 --> 00:33:23.059 it was Paul. And what was his life like? He describes 00:33:23.059 --> 00:33:25.660 being shipwrecked, beaten with rods, stoned, 00:33:25.700 --> 00:33:28.380 imprisoned, constantly in danger. If the contract 00:33:28.380 --> 00:33:31.059 actually worked, if faith automatically guarantees 00:33:31.059 --> 00:33:33.750 health, wealth, and safety. then Paul was doing 00:33:33.750 --> 00:33:36.150 it completely wrong. So his life of suffering 00:33:36.150 --> 00:33:38.890 directly contradicts the always healthy, always 00:33:38.890 --> 00:33:42.250 wealthy mandate. It shatters it. And they also 00:33:42.250 --> 00:33:44.930 point to verses like Jesus is teaching about 00:33:44.930 --> 00:33:47.450 the eye of the needle, that it's easier for a 00:33:47.450 --> 00:33:49.769 camel to go through the eye of a needle than 00:33:49.769 --> 00:33:52.420 for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The 00:33:52.420 --> 00:33:54.900 prosperity gospel essentially spends all its 00:33:54.900 --> 00:33:57.940 time trying to widen the needle. Even the Assemblies 00:33:57.940 --> 00:34:00.240 of God, which is the world's largest Pentecostal 00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:02.579 denomination, they issued a formal paper on this, 00:34:02.599 --> 00:34:05.559 didn't they? They did, way back in 1980. They 00:34:05.559 --> 00:34:08.019 saw this positive confession theology growing 00:34:08.019 --> 00:34:10.260 in their ranks, and they issued a major critique. 00:34:10.730 --> 00:34:13.130 They argue that prayer should be a humble request 00:34:13.130 --> 00:34:16.190 to a sovereign God, not a demand. And they strongly 00:34:16.190 --> 00:34:18.389 affirm that suffering is a normal and sometimes 00:34:18.389 --> 00:34:21.329 necessary part of the Christian life, not always 00:34:21.329 --> 00:34:23.710 a sign of personal sin or lack of faith. That 00:34:23.710 --> 00:34:25.869 brings up the big ethical concern, the blaming 00:34:25.869 --> 00:34:29.070 the victim aspect of it all. To me, this is the 00:34:29.070 --> 00:34:31.869 cruelest part of the theology and the part that 00:34:31.869 --> 00:34:34.289 causes the most profound psychological and spiritual 00:34:34.289 --> 00:34:38.789 damage. If the system is a law, If faith always 00:34:38.789 --> 00:34:41.610 equals wealth and health, then what does it mean 00:34:41.610 --> 00:34:44.190 if you are poor or if your child gets cancer? 00:34:44.389 --> 00:34:46.570 It means it's your fault. It means it must be 00:34:46.570 --> 00:34:50.289 your fault. It implies you lack faith or you 00:34:50.289 --> 00:34:54.030 have some hidden sin in your life. Or you accidentally 00:34:54.030 --> 00:34:56.530 made a negative confession by telling your friend 00:34:56.530 --> 00:34:59.480 you felt sick. I've read heartbreaking accounts 00:34:59.480 --> 00:35:02.219 of people dying of a terminal illness and their 00:35:02.219 --> 00:35:04.199 well -meaning church friends are standing over 00:35:04.199 --> 00:35:06.860 their bed telling them, stop saying you're sick. 00:35:06.880 --> 00:35:09.320 You need to claim your healing. So instead of 00:35:09.320 --> 00:35:11.039 receiving comfort in their suffering, they get 00:35:11.039 --> 00:35:13.519 guilt and condemnation. It strips away comfort 00:35:13.519 --> 00:35:15.860 from those who are suffering and replaces it 00:35:15.860 --> 00:35:18.400 with a terrible burden of blame. It's a heavy 00:35:18.400 --> 00:35:21.019 burden to carry. Now, before we wrap this up, 00:35:21.059 --> 00:35:23.039 we have to look at how this theology intersects 00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:25.539 with politics and culture today, because this 00:35:25.539 --> 00:35:27.500 isn't just happening inside the four walls of 00:35:27.500 --> 00:35:30.159 a church. Not at all. The most obvious connection 00:35:30.159 --> 00:35:32.219 in recent American politics was during the Trump 00:35:32.219 --> 00:35:35.599 presidency. Paula White, who served as Donald 00:35:35.599 --> 00:35:38.559 Trump's spiritual advisor, is a prominent prosperity 00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:41.920 preacher. She gave the invocation at his inauguration. 00:35:42.139 --> 00:35:44.400 She did. And when you look at it, there's a natural 00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:47.559 synergy between prosperity theology and a certain 00:35:47.559 --> 00:35:49.800 kind of laissez -faire deregulated capitalism. 00:35:50.239 --> 00:35:53.159 How so? They both seem to love deregulation and 00:35:53.159 --> 00:35:55.619 the idea that personal wealth is a sign of virtue. 00:35:55.960 --> 00:35:58.460 It creates a powerful moral justification for 00:35:58.460 --> 00:36:01.519 extreme wealth inequality. If the rich are rich 00:36:01.519 --> 00:36:04.019 because God has blessed them, Because they have 00:36:04.019 --> 00:36:07.320 the right faith or the right mindset, then any 00:36:07.320 --> 00:36:09.599 attempt to tax them or regulate their businesses 00:36:09.599 --> 00:36:11.800 can be framed as fighting against God's will. 00:36:12.019 --> 00:36:14.659 It's an attack on God's chosen vessels of blessing. 00:36:14.840 --> 00:36:16.960 That is a very powerful political narrative. 00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:20.059 It makes capitalism a divine institution. And 00:36:20.059 --> 00:36:22.420 interestingly, the outline also notes some parallels 00:36:22.420 --> 00:36:25.050 with Mormonism. Oh, right. The prosperity cycle. 00:36:25.150 --> 00:36:27.369 What's that? The LDS Church has a concept in 00:36:27.369 --> 00:36:28.989 its teachings, often derived from the Book of 00:36:28.989 --> 00:36:31.369 Mormon, called the prosperity cycle, which suggests 00:36:31.369 --> 00:36:34.090 that righteousness and obedience to God's laws 00:36:34.090 --> 00:36:37.050 lead to physical prosperity, which can then sometimes 00:36:37.050 --> 00:36:39.429 lead to pride and a downfall. And what about 00:36:39.429 --> 00:36:42.210 the man -to -God progression? The LDS theological 00:36:42.210 --> 00:36:45.489 idea that humans can progress to become like 00:36:45.489 --> 00:36:48.300 God. to become gods themselves certainly echoes 00:36:48.300 --> 00:36:50.300 the little gods doctrine that we talked about 00:36:50.300 --> 00:36:52.579 from Kenneth Copeland. Though, to be fair, the 00:36:52.579 --> 00:36:54.760 LDS leadership has pushed back on the prosperity 00:36:54.760 --> 00:36:57.300 gospel label recently. They have. An apostle, 00:36:57.519 --> 00:37:00.280 Dallin H. Oaks, gave a major speech explicitly 00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:03.139 preaching against what he called prosperity theology. 00:37:03.780 --> 00:37:06.840 But the cultural overlap, this deep -seated American 00:37:06.840 --> 00:37:09.860 religious idea that righteousness equals success. 00:37:10.829 --> 00:37:13.289 is very, very strong. It's the old Protestant 00:37:13.289 --> 00:37:15.849 work ethic on steroids. So we've covered a huge 00:37:15.849 --> 00:37:18.130 amount of ground here, from 19th century mind 00:37:18.130 --> 00:37:21.269 cults to private jets to the White House. How 00:37:21.269 --> 00:37:23.230 do we synthesize all of this? What's the big 00:37:23.230 --> 00:37:26.849 takeaway? It's a complex, uniquely American cocktail. 00:37:26.969 --> 00:37:30.329 It's American optimism and individualism fused 00:37:30.329 --> 00:37:32.829 with metaphysical mind power. all wrapped in 00:37:32.829 --> 00:37:35.050 biblical language. And it appeals to that deep, 00:37:35.050 --> 00:37:38.289 fundamental human desire for control. I think 00:37:38.289 --> 00:37:40.730 that's the absolute key. We live in an uncontrollable, 00:37:40.869 --> 00:37:44.449 often scary world. Poverty is terrifying. Illness 00:37:44.449 --> 00:37:46.929 is terrifying. This theology hands you a remote 00:37:46.929 --> 00:37:48.829 control for the universe. It says if you just 00:37:48.829 --> 00:37:50.489 push these buttons in the right order, you can 00:37:50.489 --> 00:37:53.130 control the outcome. That is an incredibly seductive 00:37:53.130 --> 00:37:55.369 promise. It turns faith from a relationship of 00:37:55.369 --> 00:37:58.070 trust into a mechanism, a lever you can pull 00:37:58.070 --> 00:38:01.039 to get a result. But the question... and this 00:38:01.039 --> 00:38:02.699 is the thought we should probably leave you with, 00:38:02.800 --> 00:38:05.199 is about what this does to the nature of God 00:38:05.199 --> 00:38:09.059 himself. Go on. If faith is treated as a binding 00:38:09.059 --> 00:38:13.380 contract, if I input my belief and my seed money, 00:38:13.559 --> 00:38:17.449 and I am guaranteed an output of wealth, Does 00:38:17.449 --> 00:38:20.090 that make God a sovereign, mysterious being to 00:38:20.090 --> 00:38:22.650 be worshipped and adored? Or does it just make 00:38:22.650 --> 00:38:24.929 him a cosmic vending machine to be operated? 00:38:25.090 --> 00:38:27.110 A vending machine. You put in the dollar, you 00:38:27.110 --> 00:38:29.150 push the button, you get the candy bar. And if 00:38:29.150 --> 00:38:32.150 God is just a vending machine, what happens to 00:38:32.150 --> 00:38:34.309 the spiritual lives of the millions of people 00:38:34.309 --> 00:38:37.889 who pull that lever again and again and get nothing 00:38:37.889 --> 00:38:40.690 in return? That is the question. Thank you for 00:38:40.690 --> 00:38:43.269 joining us on this deep dive. It's a heavy topic, 00:38:43.309 --> 00:38:45.329 but one that really explains so much of the world 00:38:45.329 --> 00:38:47.449 we see around us. My pleasure. It was fascinating. 00:38:47.690 --> 00:38:48.809 We'll see you next time. Stay curious.