N.V. Peale Redux

Prosperity theology has disgusted and amused us for years. We used to receive the free Norman Vincent Peale pamphlets every quarter, which we read strictly for masochistic purposes, kind of like watching bad variety shows from the 1970s. The whole idea of taking a poor, mocked, and tortured God and turning him into the symbol of prosperity has always flummoxed us. What's next? Making Francis of Assisi the patron saint of cock fights?

Anyway, prosperity theology is still with us and it's most potent force today is a movement known as "Word of Faith." It's really not worth exploring, except as an exercise in the ugly, but Christianity Today has a good piece about it. Link. Excerpt:

Still, it is clear that in addition to providing a repertoire of rights, the Word of Faith movement prescribes new ways of using old words, and freely, recklessly adapts language to serve doctrinal and ideological purposes.

For instance, what's a Word of Faith worship leader to do with songs that imply humankind's fallen state? Simple–edit them. In a Word of Faith song service, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound / that saved a wretch like me" becomes "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound / that saved someone like me." If positive confession can produce victory, then negative confession can produce defeat, even in the most mundane matters, and the belief that words have creative power means that language is always under the microscope. Harrison recounts a time he mentioned that his hair was thinning on top, only to be rebuked for making a negative confession. "We're believing for you a full head of hair," his friends responded. "You're not going to lose your hair, in Jesus' name!"