2008年11月アルカディア課題 会場:大向区民会館 和室2号
②『Others think he may be
right. Says Anthea Butler, an expert in Pentecostalism at the University of
Rochester in New York: "The pastor's not gonna say, 'Go down toWachoviaand
get a loan,' but I have heard, 'Even if you have a poor credit rating, God can
still bless you — if you put some faith out there [that is, make a big donation
to the church], you'll get that house or that car or that apartment.' " Adds J.
Lee Grady, editor of the magazineCharisma:"It definitely goes on, that
a preacher might say, 'If you give this offering, God will give you a house.'
And if they did get the house, people did think that it was an answer to
prayer, when in fact it was really bad banking policy." If so, the situation
offers a look at how a native-born faith built partially on American economic
optimism entered into a toxic symbiosis with a pathological
market.』
③『Although a type of
Pentecostalism, Prosperity theology adds a distinctive layer of supernatural
positive thinking. Adherents will reap rewards if they prove their faith to God
by contributing heavily to their churches, remaining mentally and verbally
upbeat and concentrating on divine promises of worldly bounty supposedly strewn
throughout the Bible. Critics call it a thinly disguised pastor-enrichment
scam. Other experts, like Walton, note that for all its faults, the theology
can empower people who have been taught to see themselves as financially or
even culturally useless to feel they are "worthy of having more and doing more
and being more." In some cases the philosophy has matured with its
practitioners, encouraging good financial habits and
entrepreneurship.』
⑤『With the bubble burst,
Walton and Butler assume that Prosperity congregants have taken a
disproportionate hit, and they are curious as to how their churches will
respond.Butlerthinks some of the
flashier ministries will shrink along with their congregants' fortunes. Says
Walton: "You would think that the current economic conditions would undercut
their theology." But he predicts they will persevere, since God's earthly
largesse is just as attractive when one is behind the economic eight
ball.』
A
recent publicly posted testimony by a congregant at the Brownsville Assembly of
God, nearPensacola,Fla.,
seems to confirm his intuition.Brownsvilleis
not even a classic Prosperity congregation — it relies more on the anointing of
its pastors than on Scriptural promises of God. But the believer's note to his
minister illustrates how magical thinking can prevail even after the mortgage
blade has dropped. "Last Sunday," it read, "You said if anyone needed a miracle
to come up. So I did. I was receiving foreclosure papers, so I asked you to
anoint a picture of my home and you did and your wife joined with you in prayer
as I cried. I went home feeling something good was going to happen. On Friday
the 5th of September I got a phone call from my mortgage company and they came
up with a new payment for the next 3 months of only $200. My mortgage is
usually $1,020. Praise God for his Mercy & Grace."
And
pray that the credit market doesn't tighten any further.
最終更新:2008年10月29日 22:37