Off for the weekend

Hey guys. Got some other writing to deal with, so I'll be checking in lightly (monitoring comments) but likely not posting much. I wanted to leave you with a wonderful piece by Barbara Ehrenreich. What I love most about her is, despite digging into weighty issues, she never ever loses a sense of humor. Here is she is on "prosperity gospel," the Osteens, and the flight attendant that's suing them:

I would be more sympathetic to the flight attendant, Sharon Brown, if she weren't demanding 10 percent of Osteen's fortune to compensate for injuries including a "loss of faith" and hemorrhoids somehow incurred from a frontal assault. But it isn't easy being a flight attendant in this era of layoffs, pay cuts and packed planes--certainly not compared to being a millionaire on her way to Vail. Whatever dubious substance Victoria Osteen faced on that first-class armrest, she should have been able to derive some serenity from the fact that the church she co-pastors draws 40,000 worshippers a week and that her husband has been dubbed "America's Most Influential Christian."

Comments

Not big on the "prosperity gospel." Just seems like another class-based theory used to justify materialism. Just seems odd when Jesus was broke as a joke.

Posted by Groove | August 16, 2008 12:44 PM

Groove writes: "Just seems odd when Jesus was broke as a joke."

If you take the Gospels seriously then Jesus led quite the life of leisure. No job and a gang of sycophants around to do his bidding. Plus he had magic powers and could whip up anything he needed (fish, bread, wine). I'm not seeing the dire poverty there.

By the way, the lawsuit's over and the jury gave the plaintiff nothing. The flight captain testified that he saw nothing and a couple of passengers said they didn't think an assault took place. Oh well. Queen Victoria is a haughty, nasty harpy but perhaps not a violent one.

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | August 16, 2008 2:06 PM

I'd think that the Osteens would appreciate, even admire what Brown was doing--after all, Brown was trying to use her religiously affected experience to benefit herself financially. They sound like kindred spirits.

Posted by Incertus | August 16, 2008 5:18 PM

If you take the Gospels seriously then Jesus led quite the life of leisure.

Yeah, dude, leisurely to the end.

Posted by southpaw | August 17, 2008 6:58 AM

southpaw replies: "Yeah, dude, leisurely to the end."

Actually, yeah. It could take days to die on the cross. If you take the Gospels seriously it only took 3 hours for Jesus, and then he didn't even stay dead. In the annals of human suffering that doesn't even crack the top billion.

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | August 17, 2008 12:27 PM

She nails it pretty well. I’ve always wondered how the prosperity gospel people manage to live with themselves. The idea that God wants them to be rich, and is working for them specifically (at the expense of others) is about as childishly self-centered as you can get. Not to mention the superficial materialism. Jesus was not a Republican.

Posted by downstreamer | August 18, 2008 7:58 AM

Deleted Fred. That was a cheap and nasty shot.

Posted by Fred | August 18, 2008 8:51 AM