Admittedly I did a cursory perusal of the links provided, but I got the gist of some of it. As far as the Prosperity Gospel issue I can remember being taught that people who suffered weren't necessarily suffering because they were "bad." "Good" people suffered too, and the same applied to wealth. I was brought up in a very mainstream protestant sect for what that's worth.

And another thing which makes me wonder why Christians would accept that explanation (especially from filthy rich televangelists--and I most definitely do NOT mean that as a slam on the religion either) is the passage in the NT about the poor woman giving what few pennies she had to her synagogue. And if I recall correctly it was Jesus who said that her few pennies meant far more than huge donations from rich parishoners since she was actually sacrificing by making the donation she did.

Granted I'm a former Christian but I'm wondering if some Christians aren't being suckered by it.

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