The Prosperity Gospel

“My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling. He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block. I don’t know what kind of God the rest of y’all are serving, but the God I serve says, ‘Mary, you need to be the hottest thing this year, and I’m gonna make sure you’re doing that’.” -Mary J. Blige [1]

Prosperity Gospel supporters “believe that faith works as a mighty power or force. That it is through their faith that they can obtain anything they want such as health, wealth, or any form of personal success. However, this force is only released through their faith.” [2] Adherents of the Prosperity Gospel, almost always also part of the word of faith movement, usually hold to the tenet that God never grants suffering or poverty, and that both always should be attributed to sin and Satan in every way, and in no way attributed to God.

This topic hit home for me in July, as my wife almost lost her life in giving birth. She lost 6 units of blood, and had to have a massive blood transfusion and hysterectomy. During the surgery, we were praying fervently for Staica’s life and health, and that God would make it so that she wouldn’t need the hysterectomy. In a short time after the surgery, we were assured that Stacia would be fine. We were both devastated over the hysterectomy though, as it hit head-on our dream of having more biological children. Now we have a beautiful baby boy, and I can’t fully describe how uniquely special and valuable he is to me. He is the only biological child I have or ever will have. He is my son, my only son.