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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Cheap Prosperity Gospel of Trump and Osteen
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/opinion/trump-osteen-harvey-church.html?smid=tw-shareWon't let me copy and paste, but it is good read and should be shared.
QED
(2,753 posts)Here's an excerpt:
So while the storm churns through Texas and Louisiana, causing floods, death and misery, it is time to consider the damage the prosperity gospel has done to America. Mr. Trump and Mr. Osteen unwittingly revealed its ugly underbelly: the smugness, the self-aggrandizing posturing. It has co-opted many in the Republican Party, readily visible in their relentless desire to strip Americans of health care, disaster relief and infrastructure funding.
Response to QED (Reply #1)
Orrex This message was self-deleted by its author.
Orrex
(63,261 posts)I'm not the smartest guy in the world (hell, I'm not sure that I'm the smartest guy in my cube) but even to me, the hollow charlatanism of these leering hucksters is obvious from their very first glance and syllable.
These are rich assholes who became richer assholes by bilking their victims out of millions, and no matter how many times they're exposed as frauds, people line up to pry open their wallets for them at the very next opportunity.
While we're at it, tax their fucking "churches."
yardwork
(61,751 posts)Many people in this country are eaten up with rage and resentment that unworthy "other" people are getting something for nothing. As a result, they vote against their own interests. Of course this rage is stoked by the powerful wealthy who have an incentive for keeping everybody else at one another's throats.
It's hundreds of years of rage and resentment at this point. I don't think that our nation, as we know it now, will survive.
Orrex
(63,261 posts)but you're almost certainly correct.
It's a bizarre function of our ape brains that, rather than blaming the people who are subjugating us, we blame the people who are subjugators tell us to blame. Madness.
I'm sure that I do it to some extent as well, though I try at least to be as conscious of it and to avoid it when I can.
IronLionZion
(45,615 posts)and you too can enjoy the blessings of wealth if you give them your money and do as they tell you.
There are many small community churches that do help people and do good things. Megachurches that have stadiums, TV broadcasts, and millionaire pastors should certainly be taxed.
Orrex
(63,261 posts)If a church owns property, then that property should be subject to taxation.
And if a "church" engages in shenanigans to avoid paying taxes, then all assets should be seized and liquidated.
I agree with you about small churches, but lots of small businesses do help people and do good things, and those businesses are taxed.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,031 posts)The Cheap Prosperity Gospel of Trump and Osteen
By ANTHEA BUTLERAUG. 30, 2017
Before it began to rain in Houston last week, the spectacularly wealthy pastor Joel Osteen could have opened up his megachurch to serve as a logistics center. He could have announced that evacuees were welcome to take shelter there when Hurricane Harvey landed. Instead he wrote tweets like Gods got this and dont drift into doubt and fear
stay anchored to hope. Only a couple of his posts on Twitter offered prayers.
On Sunday, Mr. Osteens church announced that it was inaccessible because of flooding. But intrepid journalists proved otherwise. After Mr. Osteen was humiliated on social media, he finally opened the 16,800-seat church to the public on Tuesday. When asked about the delay, Mr. Osteen said that the city didnt ask us to become a shelter.
President Trump, too, revealed his morally bankrupt soul during the storm when he said that he timed his pardon of the racist former sheriff Joe Arpaio to coincide with the hurricanes landfall because he assumed that it would garner far higher TV ratings than usual. Mr. Trump did visit Texas, but there was apparently no mention of dead or displaced Texans, and no expressions of sympathy.
Joel Osteen at his Lakewood Church in Houston on Tuesday. Credit LM Otero/Associated Press
Mr. Trump and Mr. Osteen are mirrors of each other. Both enjoy enormous support among evangelicals, yet they lack a command of biblical scripture. Both are among the 1 percent.
snip - the rest at your link
nyrnyr1994
(623 posts)Is long overdue for a... beatitudes adjustment...
annabanana
(52,791 posts)Skidmore
(37,364 posts)on twitter using vicious Trump supporting memes and comments. I RT with a sarcastic mocking of how well their Christlike attitudes worked in getting the nation a president who is a Nazi and KKK sympathizer. One RT is all it tales to get the tweet deleted. If the repost, I do a second comment. Usually they block me right away.