| Harry Potter and the Pyramid Scheme
I've always known that many fundamentalists are offended by anything that sounds occult. But why Harry Potter in particular and so fiercely? Was it just because of the popularity? I mean, Sponge Bob Squarepants is a little out there for some of them. Yet after reading God's Profits, I'm convinced that at least some Word of Faith ministries see it as direct competition.
Indeed, Rod Parsley and T.D. Jakes, two Word of Faith televangelists that feature prominently in the book, are reported to have joined in enthusiastically condemning the Harry Potter stories for their sinister spiritual danger. But consider: they really do believe that you can speak an incantation (sort of a prayer, but not quite), perform a ritual action (send them money, or "sow a seed" as they say), and mold reality to your wish for health and wealth.
They tell their audiences this in all seriousness. The money rolls in. The politicians roll in afterwards, looking for endorsements. Money and power, theirs for the speaking into being.
It hardly seems far-fetched that they'd believe anyone could read a children's book, one devoid of religious content, and worry that it'd inspire the idea that it's possible to make the 'magic' happen without God and these clerical intermediaries.
At least J.K. Rowling doesn't claim that if you send her money, you might get a faith healing and a Cadillac. She's just offering good, honest fiction.
I was thinking about how their recipe differs from prayer as other denominations practice it. I'd say in every other faith I know of, Christian or not, you allow for the possibility that God or the powers that be might say 'no' because they disagree with your aims. It's a request, a statement of intent to seek a result. The prosperity gospel teaches people to make demands of God and expect them to be met; an Almighty as a grocery manager who'll sell you whatever you like if you give the cash to the clerk.
In Word of Faith, God's will is considered identical with that of the believers', those of the faithful who tithe big enough. Rod Parsley and John Hagee offer the chance to prove your love for God by paying them off, before paying rent, buying groceries or taking care of medical bills. And many of their audience struggle with their health and their bills, just people do everywhere.
Kristy Beach tells how her mother, Bonnie Parker died of breast cancer in 2004, after spending nearly ten years - without her family's knowledge - waiting for Kenneth and Gloria Copeland's messages to heal her. Beach is certain that Parker became entranced with the Copelands through television. She has calculated that her mother sent tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of dollars in donations to the Copelands over a ten-year period in hope of a phenomenal healing of her cancer. Notes she left behind indicate that she was always worrying that she wasn't giving enough.
... When Parker revealed her cancer to the family - too late for treatment - and Beach was taking care of her, she asked her mother why she had not sought medical care. According to Beach, her mother "simply said she had not sowed enough seed yet, but when she did she would be healed. - God's Profits
"The average church member in America gives only about 2.6 percent of family income to the local church. ... The numbers tell a shameful story - as the average income of Americans has increased, their spending on anyone but themselves has plummeted. I am compelled to ask: How is God going to use us to impact a generation if He can't even get us to be obedient with finances?" - Rod Parsley, Culturally Incorrect: How Clashing Worldviews Affect Your Future, as quoted in God's Profits
Alongside the usual social conservative checklist, the only sin they're big on preaching against is envy of the wealthy.
The Antichrist
"It's Antichrist, these spirits that hate it when you drive a nice car, look at you when you wear nice clothes," said Mark Hanby, an influential Word of Faith preacher. They teach that wealth is a mark of divine favor, and that its lack is a sign of insufficient faith and obedience.
Maybe they use an expurgated Bible. No beatitudes.
I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. - Matthew 19:24
Hagee is also described as obsessed with the idea that Satan hates the Jews because they're rich, also connecting this other thread of tortured logic to the idea of the Antichrist. He fosters something called Hebraic Christianity, which seems to involve getting his flock to celebrate fake Jewish holidays and load up on Israeli knick knacks ... in preparation for the day when Armageddon, the final battle, will be waged starting in an undivided Jerusalem.
The Antichrist spirit, Hagee's intimated, is the will to advance the peace process in the Middle East. Like Bill Clinton tried to. Hagee viewed his actions as contrary to God.
Much more to Hagee's liking, John McCain and Newt Gingrich's repetition of his insistence in 2006 that World War III was going to be started over the Israel-Lebanon conflict. Posner refers to Israeli Knesset member Benny Elon quotes in the Jerusalem Post, saying that the two politicians got their ideas from a book of Hagee's, and used such incendiary rhetoric "because they think it will lead to Iran getting involved, which they believe will set off World War III."
Clearly, only the Antichrist would be interested in stopping a third World War that Hagee and company believe would obliterate Jerusalem, and its wealthy Jewish inhabitants. It probably won't surprise you to learn that many powerful Word of Faith movement preachers support bombing Iran as soon as possible.
Rebellion
The same Satan who hates the supposed wealth of his Jewish fetish objects, Hagee says, is the source of all criticism of his religious hucksterism. Also criticism of what they consider rightful authority, like their own, like that of men over their wives, like that of believers over the worldly, these preachers do not tolerate. It's like a Russian doll set of interlocking hierarchies.
Posner described how Parsley blamed the Clintons for the lack of a nationwide revival, saying that it didn't happen "because Ahab and Jezebel were sitting in the White House." This criticism was more than an accusation of insufficient Christian faith on both the Clintons' parts. In their worldview, it was an indictment of Hillary Clinton's character as a woman, for being powerful and independent.
Hagee maintains that "the feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family." God's plan, Hagee insists, "is for the wife to submit to the loving husband." Women who are "spirit-filled," he says, won't have a problem submitting. "But if you are controlled by the spirit of rebellion and the spirit of witchcraft and the spirit of carnality, ... get ready for a fight." He commands, "Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands," ... Reiterating the common theme in authoritarian Word of Faith churches - that people who question the inerrancy of the pastor have a "rebellious spirit" - Hagee asserts that people don't read the Bible "because it convicts you of your sin and your carnality and your rebellious lifestyle. ..." - God's Politics
Even when her husband is an unbeliever and makes decisions contrary to their faith, as Hagee's wife, Diana, is quoted saying, "Based on the Word of God, she does not have many options. She must be obedient to her husband's decision."
That's a surefire recipe for abuse, where it exists, to flourish. Which is really the point.
The 'rebellion' women are never supposed to raise against men, parishioners are never to raise against their pastor. And unbelievers are never supposed to raise against God's annointed, which is to say, people like Rod Parsley, or Paul and Jan Crouch of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).
"Kingdom Dominion - Your Right as a Believer" - Title of a video correspondence program offered through Rod Parsley's World Harvest Bible College, where students are taught to "recognize the attributes and manifestations of rebellion and the spirit of submission."
Posner says that around the same time in 2004 when Rod Parsley was criss-crossing Ohio with Kenneth Blackwell to support a gay marriage ban in the state, and fellow prosperity gospel preacher Eddie Long was doing the same in Georgia, the Los Angeles Times revealed that Paul Crouch had made a $425,000 payout to a former chauffeur to hide that he forced the man into having sex with him.
That was the work of Satan. Not, mind you, that Paul Crouch sexually preyed on a down and out employee that he'd hired from an unlicensed drug treatment center owned by TBN. No, it was the work of Satan that it had been discussed. The same for employees of Parsley's church who complained about his financial dealings with them. Or when several of Earl Paulk's female parishioners came forward with stories of sexual manipulation.
Rebellious. Work of Satan. How dare anyone complain about God's annointed, these would-be witches and wizards, conjuring money out of people's pockets.
Any questions?
Sarah Posner has been covering the conservative evangelical beat for a while now, and her previous writing has appeared in such venues as The Nation, The American Prospect, AlterNet, the Washington Spectator and at The Gadflyer. You can read her regular news reviews, The FundamentaList, on the Christian Right at The American Prospect Online. |
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