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    GeorgeGeoffersonLivesHamilton Nolan
    1/12/16 1:54pm

    The ‘prosperity gospel’ is a lie from the pit of hell, as they would say, and one of the more innovative scams in centuries for (Protestant Evangelical) Christianity if you ask me.

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      dothedewGeorgeGeoffersonLives
      1/12/16 2:10pm

      I mean, he has “Dollar” in his name!! He must be legit. And he’s a doctor.

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      XrdsAlumGeorgeGeoffersonLives
      1/12/16 2:16pm

      Since Martin Luther and their other founders cut them off from that sweet Indulgences racket they had to find another grift.

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    GeorgeGeoffersonLivesHamilton Nolan
    1/12/16 2:05pm

    To add, I have to say that I find the prosperity gospel one of the more disgusting movements within evangelical Christianity. It’s about as opposed to the actual economic teachings of Jesus as one can get. There is much hypocrisy in Christianity, but at least in America, this is one of the the more venal and nasty examples.

    I’m not a Christian, but from my education in it, it’s pure, baldfaced heresy as far as I’m concerned.

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      toscatiosiGeorgeGeoffersonLives
      1/12/16 2:14pm

      It’s Christianity without the reading.

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      ReverandRichardWayneGaryWayneGeorgeGeoffersonLives
      1/12/16 2:22pm

      I could not agree more.

      Jesus clearly states that rich people will not enter the kingdom of heaven (unless there are some needle-eye sized camels out there I don’t know about).

      By any reckoning, a middle to upper class citizen of the good ole USA is rich compared to the rest of the world...therefore we ain’t God’s chosen country people.

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    jezbannedHamilton Nolan
    1/12/16 2:13pm

    I love that you used a lowercase “g” throughout.

    Prosperity gospel is a bigger scam than the lottery and Scientology, to take two seemingly unrelated things. At least with the lottery, you actually have a chance of winning, and with Scientology you get some serious entertainment industry networking opportunities. Prosperity is just a vacuum for the money of the poor.

    These preachers have stumbled onto a perfect scam. They get to demand that poor people give them money. They get to show off their wealth, because God WANTS them to be wealthy. And when the poor stay poor, they get to play on their guilt to make even more money (“Are you giving everything you can to the Lord?”). These preachers have no discernible skill other than charisma and exploiting hope, and they parlay it into million, or even billion dollar empires while their followers starve. If they were in any other business, they’d be in jail, but they are in religion, so they don’t even pay fucking taxes.

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      Nicojezbanned
      1/12/16 2:57pm

      The fact that they don't pay taxes is what p*sses me off the most. You want to take advantage of idiots, fine, but why the f*ck is your snake oil tax exempt?

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      Akat101jezbanned
      1/12/16 2:58pm

      I think what infuriates me most about these people, is that not only do they scam poor/desperate/ sick people out of money, but also they imply that if there is something wrong in your life (lack of money, health issues, etc.) then that is because you are a “bad Christian,” either because you are sinning somehow or you just don’t have enough faith. I would love to ask one of these dicks what they would say to an Assyrian Christian who’s living in a refugee camp and had everything taken from them by ISIS or the civil war, but chances are their answer would lead to me getting arrested for assault.

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    ARP2Hamilton Nolan
    1/12/16 2:14pm

    White this is particularly enraging, there is a much more popular superset of these people that believe that being rich is God blessing you, being rich is good, the Bible supports free market capitalism, etc.

    There’s a Megachurch in the wealthy Chicago burbs, Willow Creek (a/k/a Willow Freak), that were particularly insidious about this perversion of the the Bible’s teachings.

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      ReverandRichardWayneGaryWayneARP2
      1/12/16 2:23pm

      They also feel that poverty is God striking down the wicked, which explains how easy it is for certain types to hate the poor while pretending to be “Christian”.

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      SprocheteARP2
      1/12/16 2:52pm

      It’s an extension of a very old philosophy of the divine right of kings. Kings are kings (and rich people are rich and good-looking people are good-looking.) because God likes them. If God liked you, you’d be rich and pretty too. Poverty is a moral failing, as is physical handicap or unattractiveness.

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    TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)Hamilton Nolan
    1/12/16 2:01pm

    My parents are United Methodist, and took a long time to find a church that suited their (decidedly liberal) preferences when they moved to Kansas. One, in an upper-middle class part of town, preached the prosperity gospel. The pastor started his sermon with “Money... Is GOOD!” It went downhill from there.

    We did not return.

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      theYoungOctogenarianTRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
      1/12/16 4:39pm

      Looking for a liberal church in kansas? They have more faith than I could possibly imagine.

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      TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)theYoungOctogenarian
      1/12/16 9:01pm

      They did eventually succeed.

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    notfromvenusHamilton Nolan
    1/12/16 2:58pm

    These guys are all fucking huge con artists, it makes me so mad. A regular church (or whatever your house of religion is called), where the preacher gets up and leads some prayers and tells people they should help the poor, and please donate because we need a new water heater ASAP, that’s fine. Those guys visit sick people in the hospital and counsel people and do other things that provide emotional support and community for people. There’s social utility in that. But this stuff, ugh, it’s such an obvious scam to prey on desperate people. Terrible.

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      Wookin Pa Nubnotfromvenus
      1/12/16 5:28pm

      My Episcopalian church recently decided that spending money on weekly floral arrangements for the altar isn’t “being a good steward of our money”. If nobody donates the flowers that week (which happens a good portion of the time, in honor of somebody, or if there was a funeral) then...we just don’t have flowers. Because you don’t need flowers to make the Eucharist more profound, or whatever. The remaining flower budget got used to buy paint for the renovation of the children’s Sunday School room.

      I just find name it and claim it Christianity completely inscrutable, coming from the sort of church where we have deep discussions about how to shave budget dollars to improve our food pantry.

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      2016Wookin Pa Nub
      1/12/16 6:17pm

      What about potted flowers? I’ve seen several churches growing flowers in pots; as long as someone waters them, it makes a pretty sustainable decoration.

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    ThrumbolioHamilton Nolan
    1/12/16 2:11pm

    Not much, if anything, offends me. These motherfuckers are on that list. If a shovel or lightning bolt were to find its way to their faces, I wouldn’t shed a tear.

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      Gail-BabiakThrumbolio
      1/12/16 3:41pm

      I keep picturing a bolt of lightning bearing a shovel and that makes me so happy.

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    Dave Hamilton Nolan
    1/12/16 2:07pm

    Of all the cons running in Christianity this is the most disgusting. I want to vomit every time I see one of these fuckers. A few years ago, I found a Creflo Dollar book in my parents home and quietly starting looking for homes to place them in.

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      Akat101Dave
      1/12/16 2:50pm

      I would lose my shit if I found that in my mom’s house. I have plenty of issues with her and her conservative American Christian views, but I’m at least grateful that she hates this deceptive, manipulative, exploitative prosperity gospel garbage as much as I do.

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      notGeorgeLucasDave
      1/12/16 3:23pm

      Quite a while back I discovered that my mother, who was once as cynical as they came, was donating money to Joyce Meyer’s group (I refuse to call that a ‘ministry’). Since they’re not too far from where I live, I knew damn well what she was about and raised hell with Mom about it. Her reply: “But she makes me feel so good.”

      I’m agnostic but in my heart I sincerely pray there’s a special wing of hell reserved for these thieving bastards.

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    GregoireHamilton Nolan
    1/12/16 2:00pm

    So when the Rev. Gary Whetstone leaves his booth selling DVDs in the lobby long enough to take the stage and order this distinctly not wealthy group of people to make sure their donation is large enough to “create a want in your life,”

    Pretty sure I know what Gary Whetstone wants. He has gayface that would make Bruce Vilanch blush. Gay escort scandal in 5, 4, 3......

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      XrdsAlumGregoire
      1/12/16 2:18pm

      That looks like a depraved version of Pat Sajak and the Wheel of Fortune set.

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    Sid and FinancyHamilton Nolan
    1/12/16 2:25pm

    Still tryin’a get my Bourbon and Blowjobs Gospel movement off the ground here.

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