Hip-hop soul legend
Mary J. Blige has always let it be known that God was an important part of her life and upbringing. From vignettes on her album to her oft-present cross, the born-again Christian insists that God wants her to have nice things. In a recent 'Blender' magazine article, the sometimes downtrodden diva stated:
"My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling. He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block. I don't know what kind of God the rest of y'all are serving, but the God I serve says, 'Mary, you need to be the hottest thing this year, and I'm gonna make sure you're doing that.'"
Could Mary J. be a proponent of what many term ''The Gospel of Prosperity?"
Though not an organized religion, the prosperity gospel is an increasingly-popular view commonly found in televangelical preachings and in Pentecostal churches; it claims God wants Christians to be successful in every way, especially in their finances. Given face by African-American television minsters such as
Creflo Dollar and Rev. Frederick K.C. Price (real names), prosperity proponents state that the true Christian has only to ask for material wealth and it will be granted.
Yet, if a Christian is not enjoying these benefits, then it's because they either have not asked for them or because they have some blockage in their lives which is preventing God from blessing them. Furthermore, some critics of these individual preachers and the movement itself say the only ones becoming prosperous are the ministers themselves.
"It's materialism, it's the marketplace, it's also about the black middle class trying to alleviate its conscience about dealing with those who are less fortunate," says minister, author and professor for Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania,
Michael Eric Dyson. "Why didn’t we have the Gospel of Prosperity during King's day? All of a sudden, we can track it. The expansion of the black middle class has also created the necessity for a theology that will justify our status."
Dollar, 41, who is not obligated to disclose his finances because his church is tax-exempt, appears to be financially fit. His World Changers megachurch, founded in Atlanta in 1986, now has over 25,000 members with an annual operating budget of over $80 million. Dollar, who has a multi-million dollar mansion in Atlanta and two Rolls Royces, flies on his private jet every Saturday to New York City, where in October 2004, he started a congregation.
He owns a $2.5 million Manhattan apartment in the exclusive Time Warner Center, and collects over $345,000 a month for the New York church, which he says stays there to build it. Before making the physical move to New York, the city was Dollar's largest television market.
Packed to the rafters with people of all ages and races, Rev. Dollar's World Changers New York fills Madison Square Garden's Theater each week. Dollar's affable manner, clever witticisms ("I'ma preach a wig off your head tonight!") and clear rules for living based on the Bible make for good television and an even larger congregation.
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