Reaganomics, Dubya, and the Gospel of Wealth

Posted by Maria Luisa Tucker at 3:39 PM on January 18, 2006.

God wants you to be rich. If you believe in God enough, fortunes will follow … or so some evangelical preachers successfully convinced their congregants during the 1980s. It was during that era of televangelism and the rise of the Christian Right that these messages about wealth were espoused by a evangelical preachers who taught the so-called "gospel of prosperity." According to the prosperity gospel—also called the Word-Faith Movement, gospel of Wealth, Health and Wealth Theology, Name it and Claim it, or Seed Faith Theology—the Bible promises material wealth to true believers.

Well, according to the New York Times, this "gospel of prosperity" is back in fashion. And I believe the ebb and flow of prosperity teaching has something to do with our national politics.

In the 1980s, the religious message of prosperity fit well into the political context of the Reagan years. Both Reaganite Republicans and prosperity preachers viewed wealth as the visible proof of God's blessing on America, and as the ultimate fulfillment of the American Dream. Conversely, poverty was viewed by both groups not as a failure of an economic structure, but as a result of sin. For Republicans, the sin was a lack of a strong (Protestant) work ethic; for prosperity theologians, poverty was proof of a lack of faith in God. (I have a whole theory of how Reaganomics and prosperity preaching went hand-in-hand, which I may write about at a later date.)

The prosperity gospel went out of fashion, largely due to high-profile scandals by prosperity preachers, such as the 1989 conviction of millionaire preacher Jim Bakker on fraud charges. Slowly, the prosperity preachers found themselves with fewer congregants, and lots of suspicious looks. For about a decade, the prosperity gospel was out of the limelight and many downsized from megachurches to online ministries. But, reportedly, the ridiculous prosperity gospel is picking back up.

Today, George W. Bush's worship of both wealth and "Christian" values has re-created the environment where prosperity preaching thrives. It even thrives inside the White House: In 2002, one of Bush's "spiritual advisors," prosperity preacher Kirbyjon Caldwell, stayed in the Lincoln bedroom.

The loudest message of prosperity preachers is that money must "flow." You must give in order to get. Famed prosperity preacher Kenneth Copeland wrote once that the way to "kill the Body of Christ financially" is to "pile up all the money in reservoirs and stop it from moving." Copeland explicitly states "give, and after a while it will get back to you again" then urges his reader to give, and give NOW. As to whom, exactly, we should be giving, Copeland writes: "People are starving and dying throughout the world... There are even preachers going hungry! The biggest complaint from people is that all the preachers are wanting money. Do you know the best way to stop that complaint? Give to them!" Yeah, right.

But then, the prosperity preachers were only following the tenents of trickle down economics: put money into the top echelons of the power structure, i.e. give money to God via your preacher, and that money will miraculously reinvigorate faithful people's own piggy banks. Those that keep their money to themselves are supposedly working with Satan.

Similarly, Bush shares an economic outlook that calls for faith in consumers, investors and businesspeople who, due to tax cuts and deregulation, will supposedly reinvest in the economy and miraculously, prosperity is supposed to follow. Of course, that's not what happens. Congregants who give all their money to their church don't automatically become millionaires; they just go broke. Reagan's economic "faith" resulted in a national debt that had doubled by the end of his time in the White House. And Bush's prayer for prosperity is only working for those who are already prosperous.

Maria Luisa Tucker is a staff writer at AlterNet and associate editor of the Columbia Journal of American Studies.