Do you have a minute to talk about the Cult of Isis? 
How the "prosperity gospel" convinces poor people to give everything to grifty millionaire preachers
2 Likes
I’m constantly amazed that those who are so obsessed with the idea of the “Anti-Christ” are also Trump supporters. Here Trump is, his shows of religiosity so clearly bogus and self-serving, his values so perfectly the inverse of Jesus’ in every respect, yet these same so-called Christians are tripping over themselves not just following him, but many actually treating him as a literal messiah. Just for saying that he was going to hurt people they didn’t like. Never has anyone needed a mirror more than these fuckers.
8 Likes
I’m baffled as to how anyone can believe this. Apparently just saying “give me money and you’ll get more probably” and claiming, without even mythological evidence, that Jesus is somehow involved is more than enough to get people to instantly abandon all critical thought. I know religious folk hold faith in high regard, but I didn’t think that meant they’d unquestioningly believe literally anything they’re told.
1 Like
This has long been the case. See also: “D&D requires the Satanic Bible in order to play, and if you play you will go straight to Hell.” I was told that by a youth pastor whose source was his pastor who’d been told by his pastor, therefore it must be true, because it came from a very senior pastor.
I am not fucking kidding. Authoritarianism has been baked into evangelicalism for a very long time. You aren’t supposed to question anything. If the pastor says to give him money and it’s for your greater good, you do so, because he is a good man, because only a good man can be a pastor. God wouldn’t let it be otherwise.
It’s the same thinking and denialism that lets child abuse and sexual assault proliferate as well.
8 Likes
Ah well. One more avenue to getting quickly rich if I can ever convince myself to abandon all morality. I could probably have about 5 entirely legal but totally evil schemes going at once by now.
6 Likes
1 Like
My daughter was an extra in that movie.
4 Likes
I read an online parody of Left Behind in which the Antichrist becomes the US President and effortlessly gets all the Evangelicals to support the Satanic schemes that they used to rail against (the Mark of the Beast, one world currency, one world government, etc.) . Surely someone in the BoingBoing hive mind can remember what it was called.
3 Likes
I’d say the prosperity gospel is arguably worse.
The selling of indulgences at least promised a spiritual benefit through the handing over of wealth.
It still required repentance and forgiveness so at least if you complied with those bits, you wouldn’t be harming your spiritual outcome by handing over money to a conman.
With the prosperity gospel, the money is handed over on the strength of being required to believe that by doing so God will ensure physical prosperity and benefit for you in the material world.
It seems to me to take an extremely convoluted reading of the New Testament (of any version I’ve come across) (as @moortaktheundea ably summarises) to support an argument that Jesus was in favour of his followers actively seeking to increase their material wealth, let alone promising that following his teachings would lead to a material reward.
If anything, the exact opposite.
So by following such a doctrine any believer can only be harming both their material wellbeing and their spiritual wellbeing.
(Note: that’s not to say any of this is correct but if you tie into the belief system, it seems to follow.)
1 Like
Organised religion of any sort thrives most where there are desperate, ignorant, and lonely people. These particular scumbags prey on the elderly and infirm and know to the last penny how much they can ask for and how to connect with their victims over the TV.
Their other major marks of the prosperity gospel hucksters are the grifter’s favourite, the greedpig. In that scenario, it’s an MLM pitch coated in an ooze of Calvinist moral rectitude.
3 Likes
See, you don’t understand the Bible like I do. That’s okay. As someone that believes the in the unerring literal truth of the Bible, it’s not actually referring to a needle, but rather a gate, that camels could pass through rather easily. All they had to do is bow their heads. So if you bow before THE LORD, you’ll have no problem.
I hope you’ll find it in your heart to put something in the plate (or my Venmo account so it were). GOD BLESS!
———
I wish I was being more snarky, but that bullshit is the actual argument.
4 Likes
I’m pretty sure the ones who straight-up demand 10% of your income are up there as well.
They’re all grifters, charlatans and hucksters- truly the lowest of the low.
I mean, you’re really beyond the pale of civilised society if you can get people to come together and say- “You know, 1980s-era Phil Collins had a good point…”
For a lot of people religion is just superstition, so it’s like tossing a coin in a fountain and making a wish, just on a much larger scale.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
