The prosperity gospel’s grip on black churches

The prosperity gospel is taught everywhere, but in a recent interview with Melissa Dougherty on “Relatable,” Allie Beth Stuckey pointed out that it’s interestingly prevalent in many majority-black churches as well.

As no truth goes uncontested, Stuckey’s comments sparked some controversy — but she has the stats to back her claims up.

“I started getting some random messages on Instagram from people who didn’t follow me, maybe a week or so after that episode came out, saying basically, ‘Where do you get off on saying that the prosperity gospel is in the majority of black churches?’” Stuckey explains, adding, “Which is not what I said.”

After a little digging, she realized the negative reaction was ignited by a post on X by Pastor Eric Mason.

“I just watched a clip with two white women saying that the majority of black churches are prosperity churches and theologically unsound,” Mason wrote.

“If you do an etymology of the prosperity movement which @PreachDamon did in our book on urban apologetics you’d see that it began and was spread by whites for the last 100yrs. This type of stuff makes me angry. Y’all pray for me bc I get in the flesh and wanna say unwholesome things …”

“This is not 2020. That finger-wagging and manipulation doesn’t work around here, and I encourage all of you out there to take that same position,” Stuckey says, before diving into some statistics to back up her case.

According to a 2023 study by Lifeway of Protestant churchgoers, roughly 71% of black American churchgoers report their church teaches aspects of the prosperity gospel.

In a 2021 Pew Research study, roughly 60% of black American churchgoers attend a majority-black church, and an additional 25% attend a multicultural church. And in a 2015 YouGov study of 1,000 American adults who described themselves as born-again Evangelicals, 45% of black Americans believe that prayer can make one wealthier compared to 19% of all churchgoing Americans.

On the question of whether or not wealth is a sign of God’s favor, 9% of white Americans agreed, while 34% of blacks and 24% of Hispanics said definitely or probably.

“So of those surveyed, black Christians are most likely to say that wealth is a sign of God’s favor,” Stuckey comments.

And in an article from the Gospel Coalition by Joe Carter, he claims that black evangelicals held more favorable opinions of prosperity preachers who were not black.

“Many of these white prosperity preachers have congregations that are largely black, which is interesting,” she says, noting that in another survey, black Christians were more likely to have a very or somewhat favorable view of Joel Osteen at 51%, while only 22% of white Christians view him favorably.

All these stats back up Stuckey’s initial comments, which is why she’s not apologetic in the slightest for asking questions.

“The data backs up this observation, by the way, and if you care about the souls of people, if you care about the lives of people, if you care about the gospel, you should be saying yes and amen when anyone, especially someone with a platform, no matter the color of their skin or their ‘suburban face,’ ‘two white ladies,’ according to Eric Mason, that makes him want to say ‘unwholesome things’ in his ‘flesh,’” Stuckey says.

“You should be rejoicing that this is something that is being discussed,” she adds.

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