Shady Pastor to Pray With Trump At Inauguration

[Rollo]

Folks, can't make this stuff up.

From the sound of this, we are headed to a new (old) era of divine right Presidencies...

Shady Pastor to Pray With Trump At Inauguration

In 2007, TV preacher Paula White got investigated by the U.S. Senate for her shady fundraising practices.
Ten years later, she will pray at Trump’s inauguration. Yes, really. White is a televangelist with a huge audience and a knack for stirring controversy. She’s been a Trump booster for years, and she helped organize a summit for him in the early days of his presidential campaign with other televangelists. Her presence at the inauguration is a very strong indicator that Trump’s White House will be a safe space for the Christian right’s most controversial characters.

Think of Paula White’s ministry as the church version of Trump University. She preaches the prosperity gospel, an approach to Christianity that is, shall we say, unorthodox. Prosperity gospel preachers teach that God wants people to be rich, and that he makes them wealthy as a sign of his blessing and favor; the richer you are, the more God loves you.

Because, you know, Jesus wore wingtips and a Rolex. These preachers also teach that the way to become wealthy is—you guessed it!—by giving them money. If you make a so-called “seed offering”—and the bigger the better—then preachers like White say the Lord will repay your generosity with bounteous riches. White’s website promises that such seed offerings will help givers get immediate word from God. “When we receive your seed we have a very powerful Word from the Lord that we will send to you,” the site says. “We want to show our Gratitude to you and to help you grow in your Attitude of Gratitude.” The Word from the Lord, in this case, is delivered via internet download, unless your seed is $50 or more, in which case you’ll get your Word of the Lord in the form of five DVDs....

[smirkymonkey]

1. Oh god, puke!

Can it get any more disgusting?

[TreasonousBastard]

2. And, speaking of "seed", she's been known to have screwed around during at least one of her...

several marriages.

Now, if we could get some video of her and the orange crotchgrabber...

[TexasProgresive]

3. This prosperity gospel has it's roots in Calvin, the Puritans and

came to a head in Russell H. Conwell's "Acres of Diamonds (1890).

In A People's History of the United States, historian Howard Zinn comments that the message was that anyone could get rich if they tried hard enough, while implying that Conwell held elitist attitudes by selectively quoting the following from his speech:

I say that you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich ... The men who get rich may be the most honest men you find in the community. Let me say here clearly ... ninety-eight out of one hundred of the rich men of America are honest. That is why they are rich. That is why they are trusted with money. That is why they carry on great enterprises and find plenty of people to work with them. It is because they are honest men. ... I sympathize with the poor, but the number of poor who are to be sympathized with is very small. To sympathize with a man whom God has punished for his sins ... is to do wrong. ... Let us remember there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings...[12]
---"Acres of Diamonds" Russell H. Conwell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Conwell

This has poisoned the whole of American life from the very beginning. It is part of why we became a great nation but it has come with a load of problems that has plagued the way we as Americans think and judge others. If you are poor it's your own fault because, to quote Mr Conwell, Let us remember there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings
Link to pdf of the lecture:
http://soilandhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/0304spiritpsych/030414.Conwell.Acres.of.Diamonds.pdf

[Vinca]

4. It's all starting to seem like the Firesign Theatre . . .

[Paladin]

9. Truly. (nt)

[badhair77]

5. John Oliver did a great segment on the phoniness of the prosperity pastors.

He even collected seed money and actual seeds. Maybe he'll return to that subject in Jan. Wish he'd be on every week - he's desperately needed now.

[SamKnause]

6. Neither one will be 'praying'.

They are both con artists.

The only thing they 'pray' for is money and power.

They don't give a damn about this country or the people who live in it.

Their actions prove this everyday.

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. They certainly will be preying.

[SamKnause]

11. Exactly.

[zipplewrath]

7. Rick Warren

What am I to infer from White's participation that I WASN'T to infer from Pastor Warren's?

[Arazi]

13. Lol, yup

[Paladin]

10. Gotta love how the white evangelicals sold their souls to trump.

trump, a guy with the personal morals of an alley cat in heat, and negligible experience with religion ("Corinthians Two&quot .

[MineralMan]

12. Freaking prosperity ministry people!

"Here, give me your money and God will make you successful and wealthy."

What a scam! Such people are evil. Most are actually non-believers, in the first place. If they were believers, they'd find plenty in the Bible to tell them that their behavior is completely wrong.

[Rollo]

14. It's one of the oldest cons...

Small wonder Trump likes it.

His own history is, of course, of a man who was born into wealth. Trump personally believes this makes him superior to just about everyone else, and no doubt he believes poor people are poor by their own fault; even though his own riches initially had little to do with his own worth as a human.

Let us not forget Trump's downfall in the early 1990's, when his profligate spending and poor business decisions nearly made him bankrupt.

The hypocrisy of someone who claims to be a Christian pastor while equating wealth with God's love is stunning:

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

- Mark 10:25

[RavensChick]

15. Amen!

nt