Hi! I'm Italian, in my country the vast majority of Christians are Catholic for obvious historical reasons. From my point of view it is quite interesting to observe how many different churches are there in the US. While I was digging into the topic I discovered something called "prosperity gospel". I found it quite fascinating because in Catholicism money is frowned upon and not celebrated at all. Catholics call money the "the feces of the devil" sometimes. I believe this is quite hypocritical but that's not the point.
I'm interested in understanding how popular is prosperity gospel in the community where you live and how does it impact people's behaviour and mentality.
31 comments
I was raised Catholic and have never heard of it.
I’m not a Christian and I live in one of the largest, most ethnically diverse cities in the country. It doesn’t impact my life at all here.
To learn about the historical roots of what you’re talking about, read Max Weber’s *The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism*.
I’m a few miles from Lakewood church, so pretty popular.
I’ve never heard of it before.
Never heard of it until this post
Prosperity gospel has no biblical basis. Paul wrote about people who would take the gospel and shape it to their benefit.
A lot of people are saying they’ve never heard of the “Prosperity Gospel” which is the idea that God rewards people he likes with money, and thus rich people are beloved of God. Which of course is directly in opposition to Jesus’s teachings.
However, the sort of people who attend those Megachurches where they are encouraged to donate their savings to the church leaders so they can fly around in private jets aren’t the sort of people who generally use Reddit, so you’re not seeing a lot of them here.
I’m LDS, and while I’d say I’ve met some people who believe it, most I know tend to be more aware of issues outside of one’s control that get in the way of temporal prosperity. But I’ve also spent most of my life in rural communities so YMMV
I’m shocked that most people here haven’t heard of it until now. I don’t go to church but none of the people that I know who do have ever mentioned anything like it. I’m not even sure if there’s one in my town.
It has a following in the evangelical Christian Central American immigrant community. I’ve never heard a Catholic espouse those beliefs.
I live in Atlanta, so EXTREMELY popular.
The US in general was basically built on a combination of prosperity gospel and Protestant work ethic, but Atlanta’s REALLY got the first one especially going on.
I was raised half-assed Methodist and never heard of it.
I’m in the Bible Belt and I’m honestly not sure how many Christians have heard the actual phrase “Prosperity Gospel.” But any megachurch leader generally fits the bill: God loves me. That’s why I have money. You should send me money, because God loves me, and then you’ll have money, because then God will love you!
However, when I hear “Prosperity Gospel,” I think of [John List](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_List_(murderer)), the family annihilator, because I learned the phrase through a true crime podcast on him.
I was raised Catholic in the Southern US, so I’ve definitely heard of prosperity gospel. It is pretty common, but being Catholic, it doesn’t affect me at all. Catholics definitely don’t emphasize giving and money as much as many Protestant faiths in the US. I remember when we got a new priest as I was leaving for college, and he started preaching about tithing during one of his first homilies with us. It put off many of the parishioners.
I live in Texas. We have the largest number of mega churches. It’s very popular here.
I’ve only heard about it in history classes. I didn’t know it was a thing in the modern day. My area is mostly catholic though.
I’m originally from Western New York and have since moved to New York City. It (as well as any church teaching) has never had an impact on my life in any way. Most of the people I grew up with, know, and assimilate with are not religious at all
I’m Orthodox Christian and we consider it to be completely contrary to the Gospel message. “Prosperity Gospel” is mostly a Protestant televangelist/megachurch scam. The only people getting rich are the people running it.
I live in a pretty rich vacation area which is also in the Bible belt. It is pretty damn popular here as there are a lot of small churches that have closed up or have 10 or fewer cars on Sunday’s while the cops are directing traffic for the prosperity gospel churches. Rich people will make anything successful that tells them they are superior for having more. The poors will go where the rich go to be able to be seen among them.
>I found it quite fascinating because in Catholicism money is frowned upon and not celebrated at all.
You need to read up on the history of the Catholic church. There was a period where selling “indulgences” was a thing. Not to mention how lavish and corrupt they became and why Martin Luther went on to start the Reformation.
Really varies from denomination to denomination, church to church and preacher to preacher. It’s not a thing at all at my Lutheran church.
I think this is mostly just a mega church thing. I have only heard about it, i have never met someone who actually practices it
The term “prosperity gospel” is not particularly well known in the US.
The closest analogue we have are what we call “mega churches”. Basically, a church that uses quite devious tactics to lure in large numbers of people and then guilts them into donating to the church. The more successful ones have mansions, private planes, fancy cars.
They are grifters pretending to promise salvation in exchange for a modest fee.
One of the most notable of which is Joel Osteen. If you care to look him up.
TIL televangelists have rebranded to “prosperity gospel” preachers.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-prosperity-gospel/
Many Christian’s reject prosperity gospel as totally non Biblical. The US Bible Belt Including Texas is where you find that nonsense.
This is Texas it’s a very popular concept. It has no impact on my life at all. I wasn’t raised in that
I am in the San Francisco Bay Area and the prosperity gospel is not popular here. Religion in general isn’t front and center – there are a lot of different religions in my area and people practice what they practice, but religion isn’t super prominent.
The prosperity gospel tends to be a part of the evangelical, mega-church thing – it’s basically a grift.
I’m in northeast Ohio, specifically in Stark County, and yeah, I’ve heard of the “Prosperity Gospel.”
In 2019, at my last job before I retired, a coworker invited me to attend her “Christian” church because her son was playing drums for a Christmas show of some sort.
I would have gone, probably, but then she told me, “The congregation numbers about 3,000 people, and we teach the Prosperity Gospel!”
I did not go. That’s too many people “posing,” and there is no “Prosperity Gospel” in any Bible I’ve ever read — and I’ve read plenty of versions of the Bible. I didn’t say anything about it, I just sent a text to let the woman know I wouldn’t be there that night. (She never replied to the text.)
That bullshit flies in the face of every lesson about Christianity I was ever taught, and I refuse to support that greedy fucking nonsense.
If you want to know how popular the prosperity gospel is here in the United States, just look at any photo of a bunch of frauds standing around Trump and “praying” over him. Every single one of those grifters is a prosperity gospel preacher.
The prosperity gospel has had a profoundly negative impact on the United States. We see it in our politics all the time. Poverty is treated like a moral failing instead of a systemic or economic issue. If you’re rich, you’re blessed by God and more favored by Him. If you’re poor, God has rejected you because you’re a bad person. Greed and accumulating wealth are seen as virtues. The Sermon on the Mount is now seen as “weak” or “too liberal”. It’s led to a complete lack of empathy for others, or for community.
Filipino-American here and yes I was raised Catholic as well. I was also raised Catholic in a very otherwise secular community; my hometown is the headquarters from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. I was likewise taught to always be humble and not get too greedy or consume too much.
When I moved to rural Indiana, I learned what prosperity gospel was but, *thank God*, it’s not a big movement where I live. I think this is because where I live (East Central Indiana), we have a big university culture that protects somewhat from that, and the predominant religion is non-denominational Christianity as opposed to the Southern Baptism which is more associated with prosperity gospel.
The idea that God grants favor and power to certain people by showering them with material rewards is still really foreign and disturbing to me.
I’m in Georgia. It’s a well-known, though I don’t know anyone personally who follows Creflo Dollar or similar leaders. But I live in a rural area, which tends to have more traditional worship.