“Choose Faith in Spite of the Facts”

[cleanhippie]

I usually don’t think it’s worth beating up on the purveyors of popular evangelical feel-goodism, for the same reason I don’t get in boxing matches with life-size Jell-O sculptures. But I had to make an exception for this tweet from human tooth-whitening strip Joel Osteen:

The facts may tell you one thing. But, God is not limited by the facts. Choose faith in spite of the facts.

Osteen is most famous for his surgically implanted smile and his prosperity-gospel theology which teaches that Jesus is a jolly, rosy-cheeked Santa Claus who’s eager to shower you with wealth, happiness and worldly success, if you only ask. His relentlessly upbeat preaching style, which has all the forced cheerfulness of a singing animatronic display in a mall, has given rise to a brutal satire, Third World Osteen, which juxtaposes the preacher’s blandly positive pablum with stark images of destitution and violence. For the record, Osteen himself owns a multimillion-dollar mansion in a rich Houston suburb. (You’d think prosperity-gospel believers would realize, eventually, that the only ones getting rich off this theology are the preachers who write the books about it; but somehow they never do.)

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2014/12/choose-faith-in-spite-of-the-facts/

more at link

[FiveGoodMen]

1. That's always been religion's pitch

It's just up against a bigger and bigger mountain of facts as time goes on.

[bvf]

5. Agreed.

When you have to tell your devotees outright, "ignore the facts," hopefully it's a sign the facts are winning.

Gambit designed to make people proud of their ignorance and make irrationality cool.

[FiveGoodMen]

7. "make people proud of their ignorance and make irrationality cool"

Nailed it there!

That's exactly the way I remember my conditioning all those years in church, Sunday School, etc.

[delrem]

2. Reminds me of tracts I read long ago

from the "full gospel prayer breakfast" movement.

It's a self-justification, self-glorification movement. Very political. I think it still exists and is still very political.

[nightscanner59]

3. LMFAO that's hilarious!

Thanks I needed a good laugh today.

[bvf]

4. sigh.

"But God is not limited by the facts. Choose faith in spite of the facts."

Wow. The message is "revel in your ignorance," and people respond by mailing in checks.

[longship]

6. And don't forget to tithe!!!

Osteen is a douche.

Enough said.