-What do you think of the President?
-What is your position on abortion?
-What do you believe about the legalization of gay marriage?
-Are you in favor of any version of Federally controlled health care?
-What is your church’s definition of the inspiration and authority of scripture?
-What is a brief definition of the Trinity?
-How does your church’s beliefs differ from Roman Catholicism?

Unless your church is very unusual, the first three questions will draw unanimous and vocal responses from everyone. The last three questions will draw considerable silence and much less coherent and confident answers.

Is it an anomaly that the culture-wide impression of Christians increasingly relates to their positions on social and cultural and not to their beliefs about the Gospel?

I’ve explained this many times: the Biblical culture “war” is not a war. It’s the proclamation of a victorious Christ and his ultimate claims over the world, the nations and every person. Jesus created, empowered and invested himself in a movement centered around the Gospel. That movement is a sign of the Kingdom of God and that Kingdom is the triumph of the only “culture” with significant impact on the Christian.

Of course, Christians will have a view of social and political issues that is influenced by the righteousness, justice and compassion of God. Christian vocations in the world should reflect that compassion and justice.

The church is the ultimate counter-culture. It’s been demonstrated more than adequately hundreds of times in history that if the church becomes more concerned with the manifestation of the Kingdom in society than within its own community, worship, discipleship and spiritual formation, it will become a tool of forces in practical opposition to Christ.

The following is an excerpt from my August 2006 post The Tactics of Failure: Why The Culture War Makes Sense To Spiritually Empty Evangelicals.

I am suggesting, therefore, that the increasing interest in the culture war among evangelicals is not an example of a reinvigorated evangelicalism remaking its culture. Instead, I believe the intense focus by evangelicals on political and cultural issues is evidence of a spiritually empty and unformed evangelicalism being led by short-sighted leaders toward a mistaken version of the Kingdom of God on earth.

The Culture War makes sense to Christians who have little or no idea how to be Christians in this culture except to oppose liberals and fight for a conservative political and social agenda- an agenda often less than completely examined in the light of scripture, reason, tradition and experience. Those evangelicals- like Greg Boyd- who have challenged or broken the identification with the political right can testify to how they are immediately viewed. Dissenting evangelicals are labeled as pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage and pro- Democrat instantly. The rhetoric of the culture warriors is relentless in associating dissenting evangelicals of every kind with the issues of abortion and homosexuality. No one could be blamed for believing that evangelicalism was a modestly spiritual movement with the goal of banning abortion and gay marriage.

In this scenario, there are a number of bizarre takes. The SBC’s most well known theologian doesn’t write books of theology. He hosts a daily talk radio program on cultural war issues. Rod Parsley may preach about miracles, but he uses his influence to elect candidates and promote political causes. Politicians elected by evangelicals get re-elected by appealing to the hot button culture war issues, but their positions on issues like gambling or Aid to Africa are unpredictable and often unknown. The Left Behind movies become video games where the godless are shot by Christians defending themselves. And of course, Ann Coulter appears on TBN, promoting her take on why evangelicals ought to care about the influence of real “godless” liberals.

Where is the Gospel? Where is the missional calling of the Christian? Where is the church’s ministry of spiritual formation? Where are ministries of Word and Sacrament? All of these are increasingly buried under doublespeak and culture war rhetoric. Evangelicalism is being betrayed by many of its leaders who are building their “ministries” by the appeal to anything but the Gospel and compassion of Jesus.

The culture war agenda increasingly makes sense to evangelicals who are spiritually unformed, distracted and misled. I cannot approve of Greg Boyd’s theology of God’s knowledge, but I can say that his stand against the encroachments of the culture warriors- encroachments that come from outside the church and seek to dictate the work of the ministry itself- is commendable.

Why is Ann Coulter on TBN? Because we understand her and her war against liberals.

We are to be the best possible Christian citizens while we are here. And while we are here, our passionate pursuit is God’s counter-cultural movement. We are to be formed by Christ, not by the culture war. And these days, it’s not hard to see the difference.

This is extracted from the famous 60 minutes interview with Joel Osteen, where the reporter asked the questions most evangelicals ignore. Here’s the entire interview, parts 1 and 2.

I’m suggesting that spiritually empty, poorly led and poorly taught evangelicals are mistaking the Kingdom of God on earth for the victory of their political and cultural preferences. The Culture War is a poor replacement for the mission of the church as a Jesus shaped community, pointing to the eschatological Kingdom of God.

Read: The Tactics of Failure: Why the Culture War Makes Sense to Spiritually Empty Evangelicals.

UPDATE II: Why angry Bob is angry?

Today being election day, and many of my evangelical friends being in somewhat of a foul mood, for reasons that, as of 12:28 p.m., are suspected and not yet clear, I found myself thinking about a fellow I’ll call Bob.

I met Bob while I was on sabbatical. He was a very dedicated conservative evangelical, and a pleasant enough fellow….when he wasn’t angry. And Bob was angry. Angry, afraid, frustrated and ready for a fight.

Bob was your stereotypical culture war evangelical. He was a Jesus follower, but his passion was what was going on in America, particularly the issues we broadly call the culture war: atheistic advances in the public schools, restrictions on Christian practice in the public square, the aggressive agenda of homosexual rights advocates.

Bob was obviously devoted to Christian and conservative media, particularly radio. He believed what he heard. Dobson. Point of View. 700 Club. There was some Michael Savage in there. Some short wave programs from the Art Bell side of the dial. And all the usual culture war channels on Christian radio and television.

In general, Bob was stuffed full of information that was only available through his devotion to a kind of Christian underground pirate radio, web sites and a regular diet of Christian authorities convinced the culture war was all-important.

Bob was mad and he was mad that more people weren’t mad. Of course, most people didn’t know what Bob knew. They had the general outlines of the problems, and sided with Bob on the issues, but few people had Bob’s zealous focus on the culture war. On more than one occasion, Bob’s assessment of the situation of Christians vs militant atheists, homosexual activists and the rising time of Islamists was quite similar to the attitude of the Confederacy. Secede and arm yourselves. This is a real war.

Now…Bob was part of a local church, but as you can imagine, he wasn’t very happy with his church either because…..that’s right, they didn’t see the situation to be quite as dire as Bob did. I had the feeling that more than a few people in Bob’s church might not be looking to share a cup of coffee with him after the service. Intense fellow, that Bob.

I was only around Bob for a few days, but in those few days I saw a kind of Christian for whom the term “culture warrior” and not the term “disciple:” was much more applicable. Emphasis on the “Warrior.” This was Jesus vs Allah; Jesus vs Dawkins; Jesus vs Hollywood…and it’s time for the followers of Jesus to see the most recent Rambo movie or WWE event for some inspiration.

Of course, politics was Bob’s game. Christians had to rise up and vote in order to take back the culture. We are losing because we won’t fight in the arena of political power.

I imagine Bob’s not very happy on this election day. I’m guessing he’s voting for Chuck Baldwin and is upset that more Christians aren’t doing the same. I’m sure he has a small library of information on Obama that none of us have heard, even on Fox. I’m sure he’s alarmed and is frustrated that many of us aren’t taking the threat seriously.

Bob wants good things for his country, family and fellow believers. He sincerely believes those good things are closely related to freedom, conservatism, traditionalism and Christianity. He senses the death of a kind of Christian dominated culture, and he wants to fight with all he’s worth- even with weapons if necessary- to keep his rights and his Christian heritage.

Over at his blog today, Frank Turk basically said this:

Pray. Vote. Then Pray again. Then go live like a disciple of Jesus.

Bob, are you listening?

Michael- and the many readers of this blog- are you listening?

Go live like a disciple.

It’s hard to say this, but Bob isn’t seeing the big picture. Our American culture war is not worth the demise of authentic discipleship. Trading following Christ in love, even in post-Christian times, for fighting and defensiveness, is a bad trade. Bob is frightened. Our faith says “Fear not.” Bob says prepare to fight. Our faith says prepare to love.

I am particularly impressed that these days should call us together in real community, not separate us according to Christian media audience niche. There are some helpful voices out there in the culture war, but I’d like to suggest that it’s time to listen to your pastor- assuming he’s showing you how to follow Jesus- more than James Dobson or some angrier, more paranoid manipulator of fear.

I really is time to go Biblically deep into Jesus shaped spirituality, and not into the spirituality of fear and misbegotten patriotic fervor.

Unfortunately, Bob is not a rarity. He’s not a majority report among evangelicals by any means, but he represents a significant number of Christians who are pursuing a very different kind of Kingdom than what we see in the book of Acts, the epistles and Revelation.

Jesus’ told his disciples that to follow him a lot has to die. We find a new life in Jesus, but it comes at the expense of the old life. I can’t help but believe that Bob, for all his zeal, his holding on to some of the old creation. There are some good things in this American Christian heritage of ours, and no one wants to see it taken away.

But it may happen, and if it does, Frank is right: Pray, then go live like a disciple.

Don’t feed the voices of anger, fear and the justification of violence. These were the same choices that the Zealot movement presented to Jesus; the same Zealots to whom Jesus said “Love your enemy. Don’t resist the evil-doer. Pray for those who persecute you.”

I’m sure it sounded ridiculous at the time, but in the end it was another invitation to discipleship, to Jesus shaped spirituality, to taking up the cross and finding a new life beyond it.

Those choices come to us every day. They sometimes come to us when we are tightly holding on to things we believe enough to be angry.

Put them all down. Pray. Go be a disciple of Jesus.

A good word for a chastened evangelicalism.

Resource: IM lurker Pastor Scott sends along Greg Boyd’s sermon/prayer guide for a current emphasis in his church called “The Great Reversal: The Upside Down Kingdom of God.” Woodland Hills Church media for the series will be here starting Oct. 5.

UPDATE: Read IMB Missionary in the comment threads.

I can’t blog what I want to blog on this post. Wouldn’t be prudent, as George H. W. Bush often said.

I’ve just spent the last 30 minutes looking through this Prayer Guide promoting the current big emphasis in the Southern Baptist Convention, The “40/40″ Prayer emphasis.

The 40/40 Emphasis is for “Personal Revival and National Renewal.” It’s as big a focus on the culture war as I’ve seen in the SBC, straight up.

Reading this promotional piece, I learned a lot about where the Southern Baptist Convention is right now, and where its leadership wants to go in the future. I learned a lot about my denomination, and what it wants to emphasize and teach as election time approaches.

And there’s a lot I want to say. But I can’t. A lot. It’s very hard not to write the post I want to write, but I have to be realistic.

But you can. If you are a Southern Baptist, layperson or minister, download this pdf. Look through it in detail. Get the feel for what it’s telling us about the church, the Gospel, the relation of church and state, the SBC and the culture war…..there’s a lot to keep you busy.

If you have some thoughts, use the comments here and share them. If you have a blog, take it there and I’ll link it here, up top, and drive you some traffic. If you are an SBC employee, use an alias and share your feelings.

I can’t blog about this one, but you can.

UPDATE II: So many good Osteen pieces on there. Denny Burke zeroes in on Osteen’s glad admission that he does not preach the Bible’s main message.

UPDATE III: Slate Magazine on Osteen’s God.

The mentality that thinks in terms of marketing Jesus inevitably moves toward progressive distortion of him; the pursuit of the next emotional round of experience easily degenerates into an intoxicating substitute for the spirituality of the Word. There is non-negotiable, biblical, intellectual content to be proclaimed. By all means insist that this content be heralded with conviction and compassion; by all means seek the unction of the Spirit; by all means try to think through how to cast this content in ways that engage the modern secularist. But when all the footnotes are in place, my point remains the same: the historic gospel is unavoidably cast as intellectual content that must be taught and proclaimed. -D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God

A few thoughts on tonight’s 60 Minutes’ piece on Joel Osteen.

1. Byron Pitts, the reporter doing the piece, was simply superb. To the point. Unmoved by show. Understood the problem. In fact, probably understood far more than Osteen himself does about Christianity.

2. As much as I would like to join those who say that Osteen is a simpleton who doesn’t know what he’s doing, a close examination will show that at every point where there is a choice between being part of the church or departing into heresy, Osteen sticks with the church where there is money to be had and departs from the church where there is a faith to be confessed. He’s could be called a heretic by some, even if he is a believer, and he communicates a purposefully false trivialization of the person and work of Jesus Christ in favor of a man-centered motivational message of self-improvement.

Again, as I’ve said before, every evangelical leader needs to personally and by name repudiate and separate from Osteen, and call upon him and his followers to come back into the faith that is articulated in the Apostle’s Creed.

3. Osteen’s 73 million dollar cash cow is making a lot of people wealthy. This is about money, and Osteen is smart enough to know there is more money to be had by avoiding begging on TV. This doesn’t change a thing, however. He’s taking enough money to fund a huge part of the modern missions movement and using it to put on a show and promote materialism.

4. The line about getting people into “church” who have been out of “church” is simply crap, to be polite. No one in this movement is in church. They’re in the worst form of the prosperity Gospel, they are abandoning the God of the Bible, and they are glorifying a man who is assisting in the humiliation of the Gospel of Jesus. Osteen is a motivational speaker, and he uses only enough Christianity as necessary to get in the pockets of the gullible. Osteen is a Gospel preacher like Col. Sanders is an army officer.

5. Osteen’s tears of gratitude over being part of “changed lives” shouldn’t erase the fact that he is responsible for the spiritual delusion of millions, and his dressed up denial of the Biblical Gospel will be judged for the lie that it is on the day of judgement. I’ve got hundreds of letters from people telling me that IM essays “changed” or “helped” them. Send me 73 million bucks and I’ll be grateful, too.

6. The piece got what it needed out of Dr. Horton, but you should read Made In America to get the whole picture of what Horton would say if he had more time.

7. Evangelicals: Want to know why thousands of us are looking toward Rome? How bad can Marian dogmas and purgatory be in comparison to a movement that has tens of millions of people hailing Osteen as the great Christian proclaimer of our age? From Graham to Osteen. God help us. You cannot help but feel dirty.

8. Osteen probably doesn’t have the knowledge to be able to judge his own errors in the light of Biblical truth. Sad, but true. He simply has no idea that he has no idea. He thinks Jesus, the Holy Trinity and the Holy Scriptures are all means to the end of having a better paycheck. According to Osteen tonight, you can get the same truths from any psychologist or motivational speaker.

9. The story no one seems to want to tell: Osteen never used the principles that are in his books in order to succeed. He dropped out of college after one year at ORU. (Too academic?) He was a media guy at his dad’s church. He was brought into the pulpit by his dad’s sudden death, and he was clueless. Parroted his dad’s methods for a couple of years, then found Norman Vincent Peale’s positive thinking and abandoned the Gospel for “life coaching.” In other words, he stumbled into daddy’s pulpit and found what drew the crowds. A guy with a message of personal improvement like Tony Robbins? Hardly.

Note: My previous essays on Osteen are available if you search “Osteen” on the search engine. For more substance, go over to Westy Seminary and read some of Horton’s Osteen writing, especially the “Glory Story” piece.

UPDATE II: Can anyone in a Lifeway Store or working for Lifeway confirm that Lifeway is selling this book? Please tell me it isn’t true. If TIME Magazine can tell us this fraud is a prosperity preaching wolf in sheep’s clothing, what does CBD know that TIME doesn’t? UPDATE: Ed Stetzer is in the comments with a response. Short version: They will order it, but they want to recommend customers avoid it. That’s about a C+, but I’m glad it’s not what I was afraid I’d hear. Thanks Dr. Stetzer.

UPDATE: My infamous Joel Osteen post. With lots and lots of links. Read the Harry Smith Interview. Also, read Ben Witherington on Osteen. Here’s Osteen from the Harry Smith interview:

Smith compared Osteen’s preaching to Norman Vincent Peale’s, and Osteen agreed.

“It’s amazing,” Osteen said. “I was preaching two or three years when someone gave me one of his books. I was going to say, ‘He thinks like me.’ I think like him. It seems like it’s the same base there. God is on our side and if you think right, I believe, like Norman Vincent Peale did, that your life follows your thoughts. You get up negative, oppressive, you’re (sic) day will go that way.”

Did someone once say “I find Peale appalling and Paul appealing?” Not Osteen.

Dear CBD,

I just received your September-October 2007 catalog, and on the front cover, top of the first column, is the new book by Joel Osteen, Become a Better You. Forty percent off. You obviously want a lot of people to buy it.

On your web site, you feature Mr. Osteen’s new book with a video, an endorsement from Osteen himself and the following endorsement from you.

How often have you said to yourself “I can do better” and yet, for some reason you never seem to achieve the “better”. Instead you settle for what you have and refuse to let go of the disappointments and failures that seem to plague you. Well Joel Osteen is here to help. In his much anticipated book Become a Better You he reminds us that God does not want us to settle. His plan is to have us continually rise to new levels even if we are thriving and enjoying life. Using 7 simple keys, devotions and personal testimonies, Joel will show you how to discover your unique purpose and destiny so you can leave a lasting impression on generations to come.

I wonder if you have noticed that Mr. Osteen is not a teacher of the Gospel of Jesus, but a motivational speaker and the primary promoter of the American prosperity Gospel that is poisoning millions of minds all over the world?

Why is Mr. Osteen pre-featured on your front page? Why is his book highlighted? Is it because Mr. Osteen’s power to create sales is the “golden goose” in publishing and you are going to ride his sales as far as possible? I can’t believe it’s because, as a business serving Christians, you actually believe that what’s best for us is the teaching of Mr. Osteen, who has said that the cross of Jesus and the historic orthodox Christian message are of no interest to him. I can’t believe it’s because Mr. Osteen represents a message that should be heard in every pulpit in America. I can’t believe it’s because Mr. Osteen’s prosperity Gospel is what we should be giving to our children and to new believers.

No, it must be because it’s going to make you a lot of money.

If CBD now believes that motivational speakers are communicating the Gospel, please say so, because millions of people trust your business and endorsement. If you believe Mr. Osteen is good for evangelicalism, despite his devotion to materialism, prosperity and self-improvement, perhaps you should explain who the “evangelicals” are that you are seeking to serve? I would assume that a whole warehouse of motivational, positive thinking, New Age books would now find a way to fit into CBD’s definition of “helpful.”

In your endorsement, you are quite specific about this book and how it will help us. How do we know God wants us to “rise to new levels?” I thought the Gospel was about stepping down to serve, not stepping up to prosperity and wealth? Was I wrong? Where does Jesus talk about 7 Simple Keys to understanding my destiny? Do you really mean to say that disappointments and failures occur because we “hold on to them?” Could you explain this to the parents sitting in the children’s ICU?

I guess I’m more disappointed with your endorsement of the book than I am your decision to sell the book. I like to think that organizations like yours don’t fall under the mantle of “sell anything for the profits, even if it’s spiritual poison,” but it seems you will not only sell anything, you’ll cook up an endorsement and say whatever it takes to lure in the hurting, the poor and the disadvantaged to the book. False hope is a small price to pay for big sales.

I’m not an agent of God’s judgement, but I’m fairly certain that when God judges the works and deeds of all persons in the light of Jesus, the words you’ve placed in the service of Joel Osteen, and the credibility you’re giving to him and his motivational, non-Gospel message of prosperity, will come back to you. I’m also modestly sure you know that, and it doesn’t matter much, because you’re going to sell some books in the meantime. It’s your best life NOW, so to speak. Hang the “later.”

Joel Osteen on the front page of your catalog says volumes about your business and what you love. If you believe Jesus has a neutral view of a message that hides the cross behind promises of real estate and American-style prosperity, you should revise your version of Jesus.

What an embarrassment to your business and to all of us who have purchased from you.

Sincerely,

Michael Spencer

P.S. I count 6 grammatical errors in the endorsement. Become A Better Proofreader might be a book to look for.

I’m rewriting it.

Tyler Wigg Stevenson is a writer, preacher and political activist with credentials as wide-ranging as a Yale Divinity M.Div., a year as an assistant to John Stott and being part of the beginnings of a Strategic Security think-tank with the late Senator Alan Cranston.

He’s also part of the new voices within evangelicalism that defy easy categorization as “left” or “right,” but who are offering evangelicals a new, more honest, view of themselves as Christians living in “the empire” that is the modernized west. The discussion of Christians and empire involves mostly scholars from the center/left of the evangelical spectrum- Wright, Crossan, Walsh and Keesmaat- but the applications of that study are desperately needed among Christians and churches that are unlikely to ever hear it from their pastors.

Stevenson’s new book Brand Jesus: Christianity in a Consumerist Age, is perhaps the most accessible and convincing recent critique of consumerism in American religion that you could give to a layperson, minister or college student. Beginning with a well-illustrated and convincing historical analysis of why we find ourselves addicted to mammon, Stevenson then moves to an exegesis and application of Romans 1, 2 and 12. In those chapters, his debt to John Stott is obvious, as he cuts no corners in establishing that the worldview-shaping potential of the Roman empire parallels our own situation as loyal members of the American, western empire of materialistic identity and fulfillment.

Evangelicals like their guilt in small doses, generally aimed at predictable places and never challenging their folk theology. Stevenson skips the guilt entirely, and instead builds the case where Romans does: what is idolatry- and mammon is idolatry- doing to us? How is it shaping and changing us? His answers are powerful and undeniable, and by including us in the Romans diagnosis, right down to hyper-sexuality in the church, Stevenson opens the door for the help that comes from Romans as well.

Because evangelicals are so imitative of the culture, the issues raised by Stevenson become quite fundamental. Have we joined the life of Jesus or asked Jesus into our consumerism? Are evangelicals Christians in the New Testament sense or a niche market with particular loyalties to religious brands? Have we really grappled with the collective expressions of consumer culture that go down to the most basic levels of our economic life? Have we considered how the Lordship of Jesus Christ changes economics for anyone in any empire?

These are questions that younger evangelicals are ready to ask. Many other evangelicals might be tempted to throw this book into the bin alongside Ron Sider and Jim Wallis, but Stevenson is quite different in tone and approach. He is not advocating the predictable entrenched positions on issues relating to cultural issues- and some on the right will quickly note that- but he is walking us through the awareness of spiritual compromise that can bring the first steps of repentance and reformation. This isn’t a rant or a condemnation, but a helpful diagnosis and prescription for a cure.

When Stevenson does critique the Religious Right for their implication in a consumerist Christianity, he can fall short of the kind of convincing case he makes in the rest of the book. When he takes off on examples of specific kinds of Christian materialism, like t-shirts, you might wonder if the point is solidly founded as the material from Romans. These parts of Stevenson’s case may not be quite as convincing to all who need to read this book, but Stevenson’s application of Romans 12 is solid and the examples of Christian consumerism do give evidence of a 7 billion dollar business that evangelicals have created. You and I might want to look away, but that’s not the way of wisdom.

This is a subject that church growth, seeker sensitive churches won’t get near. It’s a subject that conservative evangelicals avoid because of an assumption it leads to liberal politics. It’s a subject that young people need to hear about, but once the issue is raised, the application and actions that might follow make many parents and churches uneasy. All that being true, this is a book that needs to be reviewed, read and distributed now. It’s time for the American church to face its own failure and a more hopeful future.

The book is close to 200 pages. It’s well-written and a good first book. Pick it up for yourself or start a discussion group at your church or ministry. It’s very provocative book and it will do everyone good to grapple with the issues Stevenson raises.

I believe it is critical that every pastor take this subject on directly, and that we speak clearly about it. The prosperity message is not the Biblical gospel and is a distorted, spiritually dangerous muddle at the very least, and a damning spiritual cyanide at the worst. This is an error that is consuming millions of evangelicals around the world as it is propagated by way of TBN and so forth. Clarity and Biblical faithfulness are important at this moment.

[As is true so often, John Piper is to the point and on target with what's wrong with the Prosperity message.]

What is the Prosperity Gospel?

The Prosperity Gospel…

1) is NOT God’s promise to meet the needs of his people as an expression of his Fatherly kindness within his sovereign will.

2) is NOT God’s old covenant physical blessings to Israel and its kings.

3) is NOT the Bible’s teaching of blessing by the will of God expressed through the consequences of wise choices or the consequences of obedience.

4) is NOT the reasonable implication of Biblical stories of miraculous provision.

The Bible teaches us that if “we seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, all these things will be added..” This is not, however, an appeal to materialism or the desire for wealth. It is dependence on God- and on the freedom of God- to provide in whatever situation we find ourselves. God’s provision is not a promise to enrich, but to provide as needed for our lives as we live out his Kingdom’s purposes.

The Prosperity Gospel….

A) is the presumption that God wants us to be rich.

B) is the assumption that the blessings of the Gospel are a guarantee of material and financial blessings now. (The mediation of Jesus makes all blessing possible, but it does not guarantee wealth or health, etc.)

C) is a denial and replacement of the true meaning of “give us this day our daily bread.”

D) is the replacement of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught in the New Testament with a method that causes God to bestow material and financial blessings on anyone who uses the method.

Why does the Prosperity Gospel appeal to American Christians?

a) American Christians are focused on money as a symbol of the “good life.”

b) American Christians tend to focus on God as a problem solver above any other role.

c) American Christians have a strong preference for legalism and transactionalism.

d) The Prosperity Gospel (or elements of the message) appeals to particular churches:
-Suburban churches stressing the teaching of “life principles.”
-Church growth churches interested in drawing crowds.
-Word-Faith and TBN influenced churches.
-Churches led by faddish pastors.
-Churches that emphasize miracles.

e) American Christians generally fail to distinguish between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The best example of this is the emphasis on tithing that persists in many churches though it is not a New Covenant teaching. (I agree that tithing may be a useful spiritual discipline, but I do not believe there are New Covenant blessings attached to the practice.)

f) American Christians are unable to distinguish between law and Gospel.

g) American Christians prefer manipulation and transactionalism as ways of dealing with God to confessing dependence on his sovereignty.

h) Cultural factors cause some groups of the historically poor and economically disenfranchised to be very open the the Prosperity message.

i) The Prosperity Gospel seems to “prove” that God exists and that faith “pays off.”

j) Many American Christians do not know the Biblical Gospel and, therefore, cannot spot a counterfeit.

k) Christian publishers have published books like “The Prayer of Jabez” in order to enrich themselves.

l) False teachers and greedy ministries abound in America.

m) The teaching of Jesus on material possessions, money and discipleship are generally ignored or reinterpreted in American Christianity.