The election of Donald Trump has lifted fringe ideologies, such as
the alt-right, and little-known political figures, such as
Trump’s immigration adviser Kris Kobach, to new levels of national
prominence.
It has also elevated a group of evangelical Christian
leaders and traditions that are often treated as marginal.
Specifically, Trump’s victory has been an unlikely triumph for the
prosperity gospel, as well as for a handful of prosperity-oriented
preachers from the world of African American televangelism.
The
president-elect identifies as a Presbyterian. But his rhetoric during
the campaign often reflected the language of the prosperity gospel, a
diffuse American Christian movement that links faith, positive thinking
and material wealth into “the American religion of winning,” as
journalist Jeff Sharlet described it this year.
More
than once, Trump has cited the influence of minister Norman Vincent
Peale, whose concept of positive thinking is a close relative of the
prosperity gospel. And like prosperity gospel preachers, Trump made the
appeal of his personal fortune central to his pitch.
The
prosperity gospel is often associated with ostentatious fundraisers
such as Oral Roberts, Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar, the Atlanta
megachurch pastor who tried to raise $65 million in 2015 to buy a private plane.
These
nondenominational pastors rarely become involved in politics, and they
do not wield the same institutional power as the more conventional
leaders of major evangelical denominations. Perhaps because it has no
single denominational structure, no clear leadership, and a stronger
presence among less-educated Americans and people of color, the
prosperity movement has often been treated as marginal. Read more
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