November 9, 2009

The Prosperity Gospel in Africa: “Did Jesus Wear Designer Robes?”

The November issue of Christianity Today (pp. 38–41) offers an important new article about the damage wrought by the Prosperity Gospel on Africa. You can read the article here, watch the related video here, and go “behind the scenes” with the filmmakers here.

Excerpt: “The gospel of Jesus Christ—with its promise of liberation, deliverance, forgiveness, grace, and restoration—can never be a gospel of poverty. But just as the Bible does not glorify poverty, neither does it glorify greed. Scripture consistently warns that the pursuit of worldly interests can lead us to neglect the deeper values of the kingdom of God. Yet this is exactly what happens in the biblical interpretations favored by prosperity teachers.”