Is it any wonder that the two most influential definitions of the “good news” in a Western society built on capitalism and retribution would be about people getting paid or being punished?
In conservative evangelicalism, we see a heavy emphasis on the punishment side. But new research shows the getting paid side gaining ground in American life. The two concepts are diametrically opposed but meet in the middle in a strange way because both are built on hierarchies.
When most American evangelicals think about the gospel, they tend to gravitate toward the conservative theology of Jesus “living the life we never could live and dying the death we deserved to die” that is spelled out in the theology of penal substitutionary atonement and eternal conscious torment. This is punishment theology.
But since 2017, the number of American Protestants who claim to hear the prosperity gospel preached in their churches has risen from 38% to 52%, as revealed in a recent survey from Lifeway research. This is getting paid theology.
According to Religion and Public Life, a publication of Harvard Divinity School, the prosperity gospel is “a fast-growing theologically conservative movement frequently associated with Pentecostalism, evangelicalism and charismatic Christianity that emphasizes believers’ abilities to transcend poverty and/or illness through devotion and positive confession.”
Its teaching typically shows up by the preacher inviting people to donate “seed money” to their ministries in exchange for a promise that God will bless their finances and health.
Prominent names associated with this theology include Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Rod Parsley, Kenneth Copeland and Oral Roberts. And while the prosperity gospel has found its way into some non-capitalistic cultures of Latin America and Africa, it started and grew through a marriage of media and megachurches in the United States.
The prosperity gospel in Christian media
The rise in popularity of the prosperity gospel in churches mirrors its ascension in television ratings. Everyone is familiar with televangelists who proclaim to their viewers they can receive “health and wealth” in exchange for donating to their ministries. These prosperity preachers have grown in popularity over the past 50 years on a variety of Christian television networks.
“The rise in popularity of the prosperity gospel in churches mirrors its ascension in television ratings.”
After Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker rose to stardom on Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network in the 1960s, they left to start the Trinity Broadcasting Network in the 1970s. But after falling out with their former pastors Paul and Jan Crouch just eight months into the project, the Bakkers left TBN to start the PTL Television Network.
In the 1980s, Jim Bakker was indicted for fraud and conspiracy after selling tens of thousands of lifetime memberships in order to raise the funds to build a luxury hotel, while keeping two separate sets of financial books, paying off a woman who had accused him of raping her, and personally giving himself $3.4 million in bonuses.
After Bakker’s resignation, the PTL Television Network entered into bankruptcy but was purchased by Morris Cerullo, another Pentecostal preacher. In 1990, PTL’s name was changed to The Inspiration Network. Eventually, Morris’ son David Cerullo took over as the network’s CEO, where he continues to this day.
In 2010, the Inspiration Network changed its name to INSP and began focusing on family friendly programming. It currently ranks as the 16th most-watched network, just two spots down from CNN. Since 2010, INSP’s household ratings have increased by 1,171%.
The rise of Jesus and John Wayne on television
As INSP grew at unprecedented rates, they focused on old classic Western shows, added the tagline “Heroes Live Here,” and even inserted a cowboy hat on their logo.
INSP’s show lineup includes Rawhide, Tales of Wells Fargo, The Magnificent Seven, Laramie, Cheyenne, Wagon Train, Daniel Boone, and Mountain Men. Plus, there are 51 hours of Gunsmoke episodes every week. In 2022, they added an internet streaming service called The Cowboy Way Channel.
“We think that the Western-based and Western-adjacent content really just continues to resonate,” INSP COO Dale Ardizzone said. “Obviously the linear business is morphing and we’re all watching how and where that lands. But I think we start with being very proud that for seven consecutive years we have actually increased ratings over the previous year. And from what our research tells us, we’re one of the only networks that has had that sort of consistent growth.”
“It’s almost as if Kristin Du Mez knew what she was talking about.”
It’s almost as if Kristin Du Mez knew what she was talking about.
Along with its exponential growth from Westerns, INSP provides religious programming that teaches the prosperity gospel. Programs by Medina Pullings, Dave Martin, Mike Murdock and Michael Youssef attract followers of the prosperity gospel and the New Apostolic Reformation, which was a very influential movement of charismatic revival fury responsible for promoting the January 6 insurrection attempt. They also attract those who are caught up in the end times through the dispensationalist preaching of David Jeremiah, as well as conservative Baptists through the preaching of Charles Stanley, each of whom promote the punishment gospel of penal substitutionary atonement and eternal conscious torment.
While major news networks such as MSNBC, CNN and Fox News decreased in viewership between 28% and 38% in 2021, the conservative network Newsmax followed the same trend that INSP had, increasing viewership by 48%.
INSP and Newsmax are the outliers who experienced unprecedented levels of growth, while traditional news media outlets declined. So, is it any wonder, given the interest in INSP and Newsmax’s combination of Westerns, the New Apostolic Reformation, the prosperity gospel, conspiratorial politics and justices of punishment, that we would end up with a gallows outside of the U.S. Capitol building on January 6? And doesn’t it make sense, given the fact that so many conservatives were sitting at home watching television during the COVID-19 pandemic on these particular channels, that the messages of INSP and Newsmax may have influenced the rise of the prosperity gospel in local churches?
The trickle-down gospel of punishment
In the American Gospel: Christ Alone documentary, conservative evangelicals attempt to distance themselves from the prosperity gospel.
These men also like to say their substitutionary punishment model of justice is what the church always has believed. But there has been far more cultural influence on Christian definitions of the gospel throughout history than these men seem willing to admit.
Referring to atonement theology from the 11th century, church historian Roger Olson explains in The Story of Christian Theology: “In Anselm’s age, most Christians in the West thought of Christ’s great sacrifice on the Cross along the lines of what is known as the ransom theory. It was laid out in its clearest form by Pope Gregory the Great around 600, although many before him and after him put their own individual touches on it. Gregory used many images to explain the effect of Christ’s death on the Cross upon humanity, but his favorite one was the Cross as the ‘fishhook’ upon which God placed the ‘bait’ of Jesus Christ in order to snare the devil and free humanity held captive by him.”
Olson explains that Anselm found this definition of the gospel to be offensive. So Anselm came up with a different idea. “Anselm’s alternative to the ransom theory has come to be called the satisfaction theory of the atonement because it centers upon the Medieval concept of a vassal paying ‘satisfaction’ to a lord when he has broken the feudal contract,” Olson explains. “The theory says that Christ paid a debt that all humanity owes to God because of disobedience.”
Later, Olson says that while “the satisfaction theory virtually replaced the ransom theory in Roman Catholic theology because of Anselm,” John Calvin developed the penal substitution theory of the atonement “in many ways (as) simply an updated version of Anselm’s theory stripped of feudal imagery.”
“However one communicates the concept of substitution, the fundamental framework is one of hierarchy.”
However one communicates the concept of substitution, the fundamental framework is one of hierarchy — with God the Father at the top punishing Jesus or sinners below, and Jesus becoming the seed money payment to guarantee favor from God for the spiritually poor at the bottom of God’s glory hierarchy.
The trickle-down gospel of prosperity
Despite the fact that the prosperity gospel feeds the coffers of rich preachers with the money of far-less-wealthy donors, the prosperity gospel resonates with many at the bottom of the prosperity hierarchy.
According to the research by Lifeway, 81% of 18- to 34-year-olds and 85% of 35- to 49-year-olds resonate with aspects of the prosperity gospel, compared to just 68% of people over the age of 65. Additionally, African Americans resonate with aspects of the prosperity gospel more than white Americans by an 86% to 73% margin.
Despite holding out promises that God at the top of the hierarchy will trickle down prosperity to those below who submit, the prosperity gospel is built on assumptions that feed hostility to the poor.
Jason Matter, who is the son of one of the New Apostolic Reformation’s most highly followed prophets, wrote in May that Christians are not “under any obligation to help indolent bums. Such people are not entitled to our generosity. They have chosen the path of poverty.”
Because the gospels of trickle-down punishment and prosperity are both hierarchies, they create a relational dynamic of retribution and spiritual belittling over those at the bottom of each hierarchy.
A difference in currency
While many conservative evangelicals who promote a gospel of punishment want to differentiate themselves from charismatic evangelicals who promote a gospel of prosperity, the reality is there are many similarities between their relational frameworks to go along with the differences.
“There are many similarities between their relational frameworks to go along with the differences.”
Writing for the North American Mission Board, the domestic missions agency of the Southern Baptist Convention, Ryan Rice says, “Within the prosperity gospel, possessions are the goal interwoven with why Jesus came. On the other hand, the biblical gospel does not exclude the poor, nor does it promise that the poor will become wealthy in this life. However, as a result of having new life in Christ, according to Ephesians 1:3, every believer is given, ‘every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.’”
According to Ligonier, the teaching ministry founded by R.C. Sproul, “While Jesus does secure everlasting blessings — including physical healing — for his people through his death on the Cross, believers will come to enjoy the full benefits of the death of Christ only in the resurrection on the last day.”
In the gospel of prosperity, you sow financial donations in order to reap financial blessings in this life.
In the gospel of punishment, you sow repentant faith in order to reap the rewards of crowns, mansions, robes and pleasures forevermore in the next life.
In the gospel of prosperity, the earnings of those at the top of society’s hierarchy theoretically trickle down to those who invest their finances at the bottom.
In the gospel of punishment, the earnings of Jesus theoretically trickle down to those who invest their faith at the bottom.
The difference is simply one of currency and timing of return on investment. The gospel of prosperity promises a financial currency before death, while the gospel of punishment promises a spiritual currency after death.
Because the gospel of punishment has existed far longer than the gospel of prosperity, the gospel of punishment is the one that bears the responsibility for setting up the relational framework of hierarchy that Christian and politically conservative media could exploit. The prosperity gospel, as much as its conservative opponents may wish to deny, is simply fitting into the hierarchical societal values that conservative Christianity has spent centuries shaping.
If we’re going to free ourselves of the power dynamics and the spiritual belittling that is happening in the rise of the prosperity gospel, we’re going to have to start being honest about how conservative evangelical theology, politics and media cultivated the cultural norms for it to grow in.
Rick Pidcock
Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He recently completed a Master of Arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.
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