Religious scholar Reza Aslan slams televangelist Joel Osteen and the Christian prosperity movement.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

During a question and answer session, the University of California at Riverside professor was asked about the portrayal of Jesus in movies. 

“I love all fictional presentations of Jesus. I think they are fantastic, whether it is the Last Temptation of Christ or The Passion — both of which are fiction. But — sorry about that, did I break that to you? — but again for me what is fascinating about those is it is just a representation of what I have been talking about all along, which is the incredible malleability of the Christ story, the way that it can become whatever you want it to become.” 

Aslan said his favorite representation of Jesus was from the 1970 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, and then pivoted to the issue of the prosperity gospel. 

“The fastest growing Protestant movement in North America is this movement that is referred to as the prosperity gospel,” he said. “This is the gospel preached by people like Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes — and when I say people, I mean charlatans. The argument of the prosperity gospel, if I can put it flippantly, is that Jesus wants you to drive a Bentley. That is basically what the argument is. That what Jesus wants for you is material prosperity, and that if you literally give, you will literally be given tenfold. That’s not a metaphor, as it is in most churches. It is literal. You give me $10 and Jesus will give you $100.” 

“This is as profoundly an unscriptural interpretation of Jesus that exists,” Aslan remarked. “I mean, if there is one thing that is just so clear cut and just not open to interpretation at all of any kind when it comes to Jesus’s message, it is his condemnation of wealth.” 

“And yet, not only does this version of Christianity exist, as I say, it is honestly the fastest growing version of Protestant evangelical Christianity in North America. That’s because Jesus can be whatever you want him to be, and the Christian message can be whatever you want it to be.”

I have been saying this for years.

I actually find many of the things attributed to Jesus to be quite admirable, but modern Christianity has drifted so far from what he supposedly taught that it bears virtually no resemblance to anything that could have possibly been inspired by his words.

So today, like Aslan says, the Christian message can be whatever those who claim to represent his teachings want it to be.

And sadly they so much more often focused on what using his name can do for them, than in what sharing his teaching can do for others. 

This is not to suggest that he was a demigod, or that he even existed, but there are things of value in the words that they claim he spoke. And the value should not be minimized by reducing it to mere dollars and cents.

Especially when the Gospels specifically condemn that kind of thinking out of hand. 

Paul Crouch, the king of prosperity theology, finally gets his chance to meet God.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Paul Crouch, the televangelist who built what's been called the world's largest Christian broadcasting network, has died. He was 79. 

Crouch died at his home in Orange, Calif., on Saturday after a decade-long fight with degenerative heart disease, his grandson Brandon Crouch told The Associated Press.

"He was an incredible businessman, entrepreneur, visionary; he built something that impacted the world," he said. 

Crouch began his broadcasting career while studying theology at Central Bible Institute and Seminary in his native Missouri by helping build the campus' radio station. He moved to California in the early 1960s to manage the movie and television unit of the Assemblies of God before founding Trinity Broadcast Network in 1973 with his wife, Jan. 

They grew the network into an international Christian empire that beams prosperity gospel programming to every continent but Antarctica around the clock. The programming promises that if the faithful sacrifice for their belief, God will reward them with material wealth. 

Based in Costa Mesa, the network says it has 84 satellite channels and more than 18,000 television and cable affiliates as well as a Christian amusement park in Orlando. 

The Crouches faced criticism for what critics say was their extravagant lifestyle. Ministry watchdogs have long questioned how TBN spends the hundreds of millions of tax-exempt donations they receive from viewers. 

Last year, their granddaughter and her husband's uncle filed lawsuits alleging $50 million in financial improprieties at the network and detailed opulent spending on private jets and 13 mansions and homes around the U.S. for the Crouch family's use. 

Janice Bethany Crouch. Could she be Sarah Palin's fashion role model?

I don't know if I have shared this before but I used to be obsessed with televangelists, and watched their shows religiously, if you will pardon the pun.

Oh I was not a believer in those days, but I WAS fascinated with how these people, who were clearly charlatans, managed to manipulate so many millions of people into believing they had access to God and to send them their money.

My favorite ones in those days were Jim and Tammy Bakker, Falwell, and Jimmy Swaggert.

I saw Paul Crouch on the PTL Club with Jim And Tammy Faye all of the time, and used to think he was more than likely out of his damn mind. But then I thought that about a number of those old time gospel grifters.

I watched with immense glee as the scandals destroyed first the Bakkers and then Jimmy Swaggert, and much later Ted Haggard. In my mind their public humiliation should have helped people see the folly of sending these snake oil salesmen their hard earned money.

And yet still there are still people out there sending their life savings to Jack Van Impe, Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson, John Hagee, Joel Olsteen, and numerous others, in the belief that they are buying their way into heaven.

Makes me sad to think that there are so many people who spend their lives focused on the afterlife, and do not take the time to really appreciate the here and now. 

Study finds that religious more likely to lie for financial gain. So THAT'S why I'm still poor!

Courtesy of Salon: 

In an experiment where lying led directly to financial gain, just over 50 percent of the participants told an untruth. That figure is roughly consistent with previous research. 

What’s new in this study by University of Regina economist Jason Childs is its breakdown of the personality traits of the liars. Unlike some previous research, he did not find men are more likely to lie than women. 

However, he discovered other factors predicted a greater likelihood of telling an untruth—including the assertion that religion plays an important role in your life. 

Somewhere (or not), Christopher Hitchens is chuckling.

Findings of the study were as follows:  

Among those more likely to lie for financial gain were: 

• Business majors. “It could be that these students are more prone to lying by nature or training,” Childs writes. “It could also be that individuals strongly motivated by financial returns, and therefore more likely to lie for a monetary payoff, are more likely to pursue an education in business.” (Previous research has found higher levels of academic cheating among business majors.) 

• Students whose parents were divorced. This is in line with expectations, in thatpast research has found children of divorce are more likely to engage in anti-social behavior. Perhaps the belief they’ve been cheated out of a happy childhood may lead them to feel cheating is OK. 

• Those for whom religion was more important to their lives. “This is surprising,” Childs writes, as most religions “promote honesty as a virtue. It may be that students for whom religion was important feel separate from other students at this largely secular university,” and thus feel less compelled to be honest with them.

You know part of me kind of wants to challenge these findings since I have never found that being religious or not, had any direct impact on a person's honesty.  However I also have to admit that with the preponderance of churches now preaching prosperity theology it might very well have conditioned many religious folks to focus on the acquisition of money above all else.

Personally as an Atheist I don't need to feel more moral or honest than my religious counterparts, I just don't want to be considered less moral or honest simply due to my lack of belief.