“Has the so-called Prosperity gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants — and hence, victims — of the current financial crisis?” asks a story on Time.com. Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California at Riverside, says he realized that “Prosperity’s central promise — that God will “make a way” for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, dangerous expression during the subprime-lending boom.”
Prosperity gospel adherents are told to have great faith by giving money to the church. In turn they are promised to be blessed financially themselves. Walton believes that this mentality encouraged people that got suspect mortgages to believe that God caused the bank to ignore their bad credit and bless them. And the results, he says, were disastrous.
Do you think there’s any merit to the argument that the Prosperity gospel is to blame, in part, for the financial crisis?
