22AR27-16

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AR 27:16 - The prosperity gospel's "dangerous lie that must be exposed”

In this issue:

WOKEISM - "little wonder that the woke have routed the old Left"

WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT - survivors offer timely advice

Apologia Report 27:16 (1,569)
April 26, 2022

Please note: Our office will be closed for the week. The next issue of AR is scheduled for the week beginning May 8th.

WOKEISM
"Jonathan Rauch's The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth <www.bit.ly/3qYV8OT> perfectly reflects the liberal dilemma. The author, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributor to the Atlantic, is trying to fight a two-front war against Trumpism and identity politics to preserve Western institutions."

Richard Hanania (president, Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology <cspicenter.org/about-us>) titles his review (in Claremont Review of Books, Fall '21): "Terms of Surrender: Liberal commitments to science and viewpoint diversity are in tension." He explains: "Liberalism legitimizes race- and gender-based criticism of Western society, then finds itself unable to resist that criticism when it is turned inward against liberalism itself. Feeling guilty about how white and male their movement is, more tolerant liberals have two options. They can bend over backward for diversity, which often means compromising their principles to achieve the right demographic balance. Or they can ignore the issue, having no good answer to the question of why people should join a movement in which white males predominate."

Hanania finds that "Over the past decade, practically every institution controlled by liberals - from universities and non-profits to the Democratic Party - has been taken over by political correctness. The identarian Left has managed to radicalize even those institutions that were once relatively apolitical. Free speech, academic freedom, and colorblindness - long considered foundational principles of the Left - have become as much right-wing clichés as American exceptionalism or free market economics. This total victory of identity politics over its side of the political spectrum was no accident."

He points to the example of "When Harper's Magazine published an open letter <www.bit.ly/36Tl8EM> from liberals last summer expressing concern about censorship and cancel culture on the Left, its organizers had to go out of their way to find women and minorities to sign."

Rauch "inadvertently reveals that criticism of cancel culture is powerless when made without challenging the Left's deepest beliefs about identity. ...

"Rauch's very safe, very establishment criticism of cancel culture is that institutions are important. ...

"From reading Rauch, one gets the impression everything was fine with the 'reality-based community' (yes, he uses that term) until some Yale undergraduates appeared on camera <www.bit.ly/3vdm2oN> in 2015, surrounding and screaming at Professor Nicholas Christakis, whose wife, Erika, drew the ire of undergraduates when she dared to suggest that adults should exercise their own discretion in selecting Halloween costumes. But for decades before the Yale fiasco, absurd falsehoods had already become doctrine among many in the press and academia. ...

"Rauch is correct that conservatives have often indulged in fake news and conspiracy theories, and the right-wing epistemological bubble isn't something any intelligent conservative should be proud of. But it still remains true that institutions dominated and staffed by liberals have been broken for at least a few generations now. ...

"Like social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and other moderate liberals, he considers diversity of viewpoints central to an epistemologically healthy system of knowledge creation. Yet he also believes in institutions that by necessity raise up some voices and exclude others. ... Rauch would like a place for conservatives; the woke would not. This doesn't seem to be an issue of deep principle, but a question of where we draw the line.

"Whether he realizes it or not, Rauch's commitments to science and viewpoint diversity are in tension. ...

"Given their internally coherent message and willingness not to flinch from the radical implications of their principles, it is little wonder that the woke have routed the old Left so completely. Ironically for Rauch, it was the academy - the institution that puts the most faith in peer review and subject-matter expertise - that seeded the ideas that would ultimately undermine the liberal project." <www.bit.ly/35DL2M8>

Hanania is an outspoken critic of Wokeism: <www.bit.ly/3K5PzWm>

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WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT

The usual book-length responses to the Word-Faith gospel focus heavily on those that target the aberrational history behind the movement. Here's a recent exception.

Blogger/apologist Tim Challies reviews the work of authors Sean DeMars and Mike McKinley, both of whom left the movement and wrote Health, Wealth, and the (Real) Gospel. <wwwbit.ly/36gEqn2> They explain that the "prosperity gospel" (their preferred term) "originated in the United States, made vast inroads in North America, and then traveled far beyond so that no continent and no country is untouched by it."

The authors "write for two audiences: those who belong to churches that faithfully embrace the true gospel of Christ Jesus but who may have friends or family members who have been drawn into the false gospel of prosperity, and those who know or suspect they belong to a church that advocates it. For both audiences they want to ensure they know how to identify this false gospel and, at the same time, how to identify the true message of the Bible and the true promise of the Christian faith. 'If prosperity gospel teachers aren't teaching what Jesus taught, then we absolutely cannot afford to coddle them or tolerate their message. ... We intend to make the case that the prosperity gospel is a dangerous lie that must be exposed and resisted.' ...

"DeMars and McKinley first expose the heart of the prosperity gospel by describing its four common teachings: that God wants to bless us materially, that God wants us to speak with power, that God does not want for us to suffer, and that God wants us to live the victorious, prosperous life. After describing and briefly countering these teachings, they show how the prosperity gospel misuses the Bible by reading it through a man-centered perspective.... In chapter three they address promises of health and happiness and in chapter four the promises of wealth. ...

"Chapter five asks whether TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) viewers go to heaven" in order to clarify the authentically biblical salvation message. "Chapter six asks whether we should pray or do other forms of ministry with those who teach it and chapter seven encourages introspection by showing how those who are theologically astute — and even those who hold to reformed theology — can succumb to soft forms of the prosperity gospel." <www.bit.ly/3EgmllM>

In a publisher's promo, DeMars includes some sound advice for using the book. Something essential is the emphasis from Scripture that health and wealth too easily lure believers away from appreciating their primary focus: "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Philippians 1:29).

He also makes suggestions, including: "On the subject of physical healing, you can also ask questions like, 'If all believers are supposed to be able to access healing in the atonement, then why does God give the "gift of healing"?' Or you can read James 5:14 and simply ask, 'If all Christians have the ability to claim healing in Jesus's name, then why does the book of James instruct Christians to go to the elders of the church and ask for prayer?'" <www.bit.ly/37nr60L>

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