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So long as there's been black churches in the United States, there's been a relationship between spiritual well-being and material acquisition. This has always been the case.
Anthony B Pinn -
Perhaps God gives us a hint about whom God favors through physical and material prosperity. So those who are doing well are probably favored by God.
Anthony B Pinn
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Poor people want to be poor; if they just worked harder they could have more.
Anthony B Pinn -
If one has good faith, you can unlock the secrets of scripture, and in unlocking the secrets of scripture, you have access to everything God wants you to have. Ministers of megachurches become examples of the truth of that claim, because they're well paid, living in wonderful homes, driving very nice cars, dressed well. They are doing well, so if you do this, you too can have success.
Anthony B Pinn -
Churches typically argue is that God wants God's people to have a good life, and that a good life involves prosperity. This prosperity is not just emotional well-being, spiritual well-being, or physical well-being - it's also having good stuff. Having a nice house, a nice car, good clothing, etc. It's a package deal.
Anthony B Pinn -
What we ought to be trying to do is limit the harm that Christian communities and other religious communities can do. But we can't rely on them to make a world of difference. It's just not going to happen.
Anthony B Pinn -
Churches can easily bring together, in a short period of time, a substantial number of people, and politicians have to assume that these folks have the potential to vote. Although there's supposed to be a separation of church and state, they want to go to these churches to say hello to the people, and they assume their hello might turn into votes.
Anthony B Pinn -
I think of the US as an empire. The UK at one point, because of its reach, was an empire. But these megachurches - for me the concern is to not assume they have more authority than they actually have, to not give them a kind of reach that they really don't possess.
Anthony B Pinn
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The key figure in the Christian faith involves a story of suffering so that others do well. You're only going to get so much liberation, you're only going to get so much transformation, from a system that is based on suffering.
Anthony B Pinn -
The problem is poverty. And it hides the problem. We often associate black churches with a history of protest. But prosperity gospel and megachurches tend to be rather soft on political issues. T.D. Jakes doesn't take a major stand on political issues. Creflo Dollar certainly doesn't.
Anthony B Pinn