« i voted | Main | black republican and talking android massacre! »
November 7, 2006
can the IRS investigate this guy already?
It's late on election night (PST), but this item by Prometheus 6 caught my eye:
And now a message from Rev. Creflo MammonI have disliked this sucker since the first time I saw him on TV. I think this is grounds to pull his tax-exempt status.
Begin by making these confessions:
* In the name of Jesus, I declare that I will not allow any corrupt communication to proceed out of my mouth concerning President Bush or others in leadership (Ephesians 4:29).
* I declare that he is a man of wisdom, and he is strengthened and guided by the Holy Spirit. I wholeheartedly support the decisions he makes for this country (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
* I lift up every man and woman serving in the Armed Forces. I declare that they walk in favor, wisdom and safety and that their lives are redeemed from destruction (Psalm 91:7; Psalm 103:1-6).If you have taken part in any protests or have allowed any corrupt communication to flow out of your mouth concerning the president, repent and begin to show your support for him by calling his name out before God. Pray for wisdom and wise counsel regarding the decisions he must make for this nation. Obey what the Word says in 1 Timothy 1-2 and 1 Peter 2:13 and: 1) continue to pray for those in authority over you; and 2) submit to that established authority. In doing so, you honor God, our president and thousands of service members. When the temptation comes to murmur or complain, rejoice that there is a man in the White House who walks and talks with God daily. Remember, united we stand, divided we fall (Matthew 12:25)!
--Dr. Creflo A. Dollar
Prometheus 6 is referring to this statement put out by Dollar calling on his flock to fall in line or face the divine consequences.
For those who don't know, Dollar is a among the worst of the so-called prosperity ministers, who are basically neurolinguistic programmers with bibles - think it, say it, get it. From a freak theology perspective, the prosperity gospel has fairly interesting echoes of everything from gnosticism to various forms of magic to, like, the word-gun in Dune. It really is among the finest examples of whacked out Americana that you can find.
That said, though, it still kind of amazes me that people continue to treat individual prosperity ministers as if they're anything except the worst kind of self-help, snake-oil salesman. Creflo Dollar is basically a prayer-cloth-selling Armstrong Williams, which is to say he's a money-focused hustler posing as a religious authority. I respect genuine religious sentiment, but a hustler is a hustler is a hustler. In my mind, you give something like the prosperity gospel the same kind of respect as you give the plastic cylinder containing a stool sample: sure, expert analysis of either might shed critically important light on the health of a body or society, but that don't mean they're not both completely and literally full of shit.
Prometheus is right: Creflo Dollar's ministry should have its tax-exempt status yanked.
Posted by ebogjonson in politricknal sciences, talking androids, on November 7, 2006 6:25 PM
Comments
The thing about any/all of these preachers to remember is that THEY are not God. I'm reminded of the Tenacious D song about Dio. When you have no bills and no girlfriend, a Dio album collection is a fun idea. But once puberty passes...19 minute songs about dragons and widerbeasts and Satan...not so hot. So, you respect the fact that he kept people off the streets and you move on. You ignore the "coming soon" stickers about a new album. You ignore it.
But you have to understand that somewhere, someone is hearing Kool Keith for the first time...and they think all hip-hop should sound like this. And they will beat you down if you say otherwise.
People mature. And when they don't, you NEED these types to keep them out of the fast lane.
Posted by: D M Lockhart at November 8, 2006 1:15 PM
I absolutely agree that faith and some measure of authority serves an important grounding context in a lot of folks' lives, especially when their kids. That's why, even though, I'm not a practicing Catholic, I'd consider sending my kid to a Catholic school if the public schools in my nabe sucked and I couldn't afford a snootier private school. I went to Catholic school, and altho I didn't buy very much of the theology, I'm grateful to the nuns for giving me a rock solid education in a safe environment, and I'm also grateful to all the Catholic lay teachers who took an interest in me and encouraged me to use my talents and think about the world. (That's you Mrs. Hobbs, Mr. Castellano, Mr. Milano, Mr. Maselli, Mr. Zientarski, Ms. Roche, Mrs. Ryan and so on.)
All those teachers were committed Catholics, and although I differ from a lot of what they believe from a faith/theological standpoint, one thing I know 1000% for sure is that they weren't crap preacher hustlers trying to sell me bullshit books or trying to force me into donations. I'm not offering the above as any kind of Catholic vs. non-Catholic comparison, just to say that there are lots of ways to keep kids out of the fast lane and Creflo Dollar's is the worst, most exploitative, most dishonest, most selfish way of going about it imagineable.
Posted by: ebog at November 8, 2006 2:22 PM
subscribe to my feed