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Pneuma 33 (2011) 218-236
Rich and Equal in the Eyes of Almighty God! Creflo Dollar and the Gospel of Racial Reconciliation
Debra J. Mumford
Associate Professor of Homiletics, Louisville Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky
dmumford@lpts.edu
Abstract
Prosperity preachers are generally critiqued by outsiders because of their contention that God wants all believers to be rich. Tey take the money of sincere parishioners and live lavish life- styles while many of their hearers continue to live in poverty. However, there is another danger inherit in prosperity preaching: the denial of the relevance of race to the social existence of all Christians. Tis essay examines the writings and sermons of Creflo Dollar, Jr. to explore his teachings about race. Tough Dollar presents his theology as antiracist in theory, I seek to delineate and disclose the perils of his teachings on racial identity and racial reconciliation in order to demonstrate how he, in fact, sabotages the potential of true racial reconciliation for his adherents. True racial reconciliation acknowledges the existence of not only individual sin but also systemic sin that negatively impacts the lives of all people.
Keywords
Creflo Dollar, racial reconciliation, prosperity gospel, world changers
While sitting in the sanctuary of World Changers Church International in College Park, Georgia in 2006, I became keenly aware of two things: I was worshipping in a black church — yet not. Almost all of the people around me were African American. Te soulful, dynamic, and rhythmic music shared by the praise team was similar to music heard in African American congregations around the country. Te preaching of Dollar himself often echoed the rhe- torical cadences and passion of African American preachers throughout the African Diaspora. Te call and response interactions between Dollar and the congregation were energizing and unceasing. My neighbors clapped, stood, danced, and shouted when the Spirit led them. I was experiencing African American worship and preaching. Yet, the presence of television cameras reminded me that Dollar’s congregation did not consist merely of the eight or
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/027209611X575023
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nine thousand people who attended the eleven o’clock worship service that Sunday, but also included the millions of people of many different races, ethnicities, cultures, and traditions who would watch the sermon (and only the sermon) on the church’s website or on iTunes, hear it through podcast, or order the DVD version. Te bifurcated reality of worship at World Changer’s Church International reflects Creflo Dollar’s ambiguous relationship to race: he knows it exists, even embodies cultural mores associated with people of African American descent, but insists that race is unimportant for Christian people to acknowledge and understand. Part of my uneasiness was caused by Dollar’s theology, which, while purporting to be antiracist, was actually anti- true reconciliation. True racial reconciliation acknowledges the existence of not only individual sin but also systemic sin that negatively impacts the lives of all people. Terefore, by denying the relevance of race to the social existence of all Christians, Dollar’s theology in particular and prosperity theology in general actually sabotages the possibility of true racial reconciliation. Before we delve into Dollar’s understanding of race, however, it is important to understand who Dollar is and something about his journey.
Creflo Dollar, Jr., is the son of Creflo Dollar, Sr. (now deceased), one of the first black policemen in College Park, Georgia, and Emma Dollar, former worker in the Kathleen Mitchell Elementary School cafeteria, also in College Park. Dollar was the first black student to attend Kathleen Mitchell, where he would later start his own church. He played linebacker at Lakeshore High School and also served as the student government president.1 One person who attended high school with Dollar claims, “He [Dollar] was not religious by any stretch of the imagination, but he was a good guy.”2
Dollar did not accept Christ until his freshman year in college. When he entered college, his plan was to become a professional football player. “God, however, had a different course for my life. I ended up getting injured and sit- ting on the bench for much of my college career.”3 While studying education at West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia, Dollar began conducting a Bible study in his room along with his college roommate.4 Te Bible study became very popular and was soon attracting over 100 people. Dollar called
1
John Blake, “Pastors Choose Sides over Direction of Black Church,” Te Atlanta Journal- Constitution (February 15, 2005).
2
Ibid.
3
Dr. Creflo A. Dollar Extended Biography (College Park, GA: Creflo Dollar Ministries, 2006), accessed June 12, 2006; available from http://creflodollarministires.org/about/bio_long.html.
4
Ibid.
2
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D. J. Mumford / Pneuma 33 (2011) 218-236
the Bible study “World Changers Bible Study.”5 Dollar also met his wife, Taffi, at the college.
In 1984, Dollar graduated from West Georgia College with a bachelor’s degree in education. After graduation, he worked as a teen counselor at the Brawner Psychiatric Institute in Atlanta.6 In 1986,
7
Dollar founded World Changers Ministries Christian Center in the Kathleen Mitchell Elementary School with eight people.8 After two years of meeting in the cafeteria, the ministry negotiated for and purchased property that formerly housed the Atlanta Christian Center Church in College Park. Soon after moving into the new church, the ministry added a weekly radio broadcast and four services each Sunday to accommodate its growing membership.
Today, World Changers Church International (WCCI) has a membership of over 20,000, which does not include members at World Changers Church– New York, and World Changers Church–Español. He serves as the Chief Executive Officer of World Changers Ministries, which he founded in 1986, also in College Park.
Te preaching that sets Dollar apart, defines his ministry, and attracts mil- lions of viewers to his broadcasts on television stations around the world is his preaching about money. Were it not for his message of financial prosperity, he would be just another charismatic preacher. His message of prosperity has set him apart by his sheer audacity to claim that God wants Christians to be rich. It is through his preaching that Dollar has risen to such prominence in the Word of Faith movement. Te Word of Faith movement is an American reli- gious subculture made up of denominationally independent churches, minis- tries, Bible training colleges, mass media broadcast networks, and entertainment production facilities.
As a purveyor of the prosperity gospel, Creflo Dollar subscribes to the teach- ings of Essek William Kenyon.9 Kenyon was an evangelist, pastor, and teacher
5
Ibid.
6
Blake, “Pastors Choose Sides over Direction of Black Church.”
7
In the same year that Dollar started the World Changers Ministries, his parents divorced. Te divorce came one year after Creflo Dollar, Sr. was sued by a fellow officer for deliberately shooting him. Officer L. Kendall Hall sued Dollar, Sr. and the city of College Park. Te lawsuit was settled out of court. See Blake, “Pastors Choose Sides over Direction of Black Church.”
8
Jean Gordon, “Dollar Brings Popular Prosperity Gospel to City,” Clarion Ledger (May 13, 2006).
9
Kenyon has sixteen published books and two published Bible courses. For Kenyon, the New Covenant that God established with humanity through Jesus, unlike the Old Covenant God established with Abraham, permanently restored the relationship between God and humanity that Adam’s sin had broken. Te New Covenant entitled believers to certain rights and
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who was born in a lumber camp in Hadley Hills, New York in 1867. Having received an exhorter’s license from the Methodist Episcopal Church in Amster- dam, New York, Kenyon fulfilled his calling to ministry by founding the Bethel Bible Institute in 1898, where he trained students in evangelism, mis- sion and divine healing, and pastoring. During his lifetime, Kenyon developed a metaphysical10 brand of Christianity. He taught that the person and work of Jesus Christ gave Christians access to Christ’s authority. Having access to Christ’s authority meant that believers did not need to ask to be healed, to be made righteous, to be sanctified, to be wise, or to be redeemed.11 Rather, believers had only to confess what they wanted and believe that God would grant their confession. Kenyon believed that the words spoken by believers could either set them free and make them powerful or snare them and render them powerless.12 As a result of positive confession and faith, believers could alter their existential reality. Te metaphysical belief that believers can affect their reality with their words shapes not only Creflo Dollar’s theology but also his beliefs and teachings about race.
Kenyon died in Los Angeles in 1948. Fourteen years later, in 1962, Kenneth Erwin Hagin began preaching and teaching a theology that was very similar to Kenyon’s.13 Tough Hagin claimed that his teachings were inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is believed that Hagin actually plagiarized his teachings from E. W. Kenyon.14 Hagin, a white Southern Baptist, converted to Pentecostalism because he wanted fellowship with people who believed in
privileges that, when claimed and acted upon, allowed believers to live lives of victory and success instead of lives of defeat and failure. Rights to which believers were entitled include: status as the righteousness of God, material prosperity, authority to make confession in the name of Jesus, and victory over sickness and disease.
10
Te term metaphysics has many different connotations and meanings. For Catherine Alba- nese, however, metaphysics embodies an American religious mentality that consists of thoughts, belief, emotional commitment, symbolic and moral behavior. Adherents of metaphysics approach life with a mental consciousness that translates into action and material transformation. See Catherine L. Albanese, A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysi- cal Religion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007).
11
Ibid., 17-18.
12
E. W. and Don Gossett Kenyon, Te Power of Your Words (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1977), 27-28.
13
Milmon F. Harrison, Righteous Riches: Te Word of Faith Movement in Contemporary African American Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 6.
14
D. R. McConnell, A Different Gospel: A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), 8.
4
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divine healing.15 Hagin’s belief in divine healing was undoubtedly influenced by his own divine healing at the age of seventeen. He had suffered from a deformed heart and incurable blood disease all his life. After reading Mark 5:34, however, wherein Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood, he was completely healed.16 Soon after his healing, Hagin began to preach. Hagin published his teachings in the “Word of Faith Magazine,” which subsequently became the name of the movement and is still in circulation today. Hagin also published over one hundred twenty books and numerous audio tapes. He founded Rhema Correspondence School in 1968 and the Rhema Bible Training Center in 1974. Trough these educational endeavors, Hagin trained thousands of new Faith preachers. He died in 2003. Tough most of the theology of the Word of Faith movement was devel- oped by Kenyon and adopted by Hagin, one very important component was developed and popularized by Oral Roberts: the doctrine of divine economy. Te divine economy is an economic system based on the belief that God wants to provide God’s people with material prosperity.17 An alternative to the secu- lar economy, the divine economy is activated by faith in the goodness of God and the law of sowing and reaping or seed-faith.
Oral Roberts was a licensed minister in the Holiness Pentecostal tradition.18 Like Hagin, Roberts’ belief in divine healing was greatly influenced by his own healing. When Roberts was seventeen years old he was healed from tuberculo- sis in a revival meeting.19 He believed that God commanded him to take God’s message of divine healing to people of his generation. Roberts conducted heal- ing crusades across the country and is believed to have personally touched more than two million people while praying for their healing.
Tough not officially affiliated with the Word of Faith movement, Roberts had close associations with many Word of Faith preachers. Word of Faith preachers such as Creflo Dollar serve on the Oral Roberts University Board of Regents.20 Word of Faith preachers such as Jesse Duplantis, Frederick
15
Kenneth E. Hagin, “Healing and Miracles through United Prayer,” Te Word of Faith Mag- azine (August 1998), 4-8.
16
Kenneth E. Hagin, New Tresholds of Faith (Tulsa, OK: Rhema Bible Church, 1985), 3-4.
17
Andrew Perriman, Faith, Health and Prosperity: A Report on ‘Word of Faith’ and ‘Positive Confession’ Teologies (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2003), 51.
18
David Edwin Harrell, Oral Roberts: An American Life (Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univer- sity Press, 1985), 37.
19
“Oral Roberts: Celebrating the Life of Oral Roberts: Te Man Who Obeyed God” (Tulsa, OK: Oral Roberts Ministries), accessed March 22, 2010; Available from http://oralroberts. com/oralroberts/.
20
Dr. Creflo A. Dollar Extended Biography.
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K. C. Price, and Creflo Dollar have received honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from Oral Roberts University. Roberts died in 2009.
Dollar, Preaching, and Race
One way to clarify Dollar’s beliefs and teachings about race is by understand- ing his purpose for preaching. During Black History Month in 2005, the Atlanta Journal Constitution published an article about the future of the black church. Citing the title of Martin Luther King’s book, Where Do We Go From Here? as a point of reference, the article contended that black church leaders were locked in a bitter debate about the black church’s mission. Some leaders felt that parts of the church were abandoning their prophetic core “by no lon- ger confronting political or economic institutions of power.” Others believed they were extending King’s ministry, Dollar fits in the latter category:
Dr. King stood for the freedom of all people, and I believe that deliverance from debt is an integral part of that freedom. When a man is out of debt, he is better able to accomplish God’s divine purpose for his life by being a blessing to others.21
Dollar believes that, among other things, his prosperity gospel teaches people how to get out of debt.22 While he believes that his ministry also helps people achieve freedom, he admits that his approach is very different from King’s:
Rather than focus on what’s wrong with our society, we choose to focus on sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with every person we possibly can . . . if people would make a decision to live their lives by the principles of the Word of God, all of the social ills in our society would cease to exist.23
Dollar’s entire ministry, and therefore his preaching as well, focuses on trans- formation of the individual. As individuals change and decide to live their lives according to the will of God, the world will change accordingly. For Dollar, the belief that the social ills of society will change with individual transformation includes the realities of racism and poverty.
In relation to poverty, when a reporter asked, “Why are you so open about taking advantage of the wealth this church has given you?” Dollar responded,
21
Ibid.
22
See section 4.5 for information for details about Dollar’s definition of the kingdom of God and understanding of divine economy.
23
Blake, “Pastors Choose Sides over Direction of Black Church.”
6
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“Because the Bible says so. It’s amazing the number of people who say they read the Bible, and I think, ‘what are you reading?’ Te Bible makes it so very clear: Preach the Gospel to the poor. What’s the Gospel to the poor? You don’t have to be poor anymore!”24
For Dollar, among other doctrines such as salvation, righteousness, and unconditional love, the good news of the gospel for the poor is they do not have to be poor anymore. Because Christ died for their sins, all followers can be free of poverty. In fact, God wants all followers to be rich. While Dollar believes that poverty can be eliminated when people change their thinking, he also believes that racism can be dealt with in a similar manner.
In his book Te Color of Love, Dollar addresses the issue of racism. For Dollar, racism is a spirit of division that manifests itself in conflict when one race rises up against another race.25 He is very clear in the book that he is not writing to address the existence of racism in the world in general, but in the church in particular.26 Dollar is not concerned about racism outside of the church because “[i]n the eyes of God, there are only two races: believers and unbelievers.” Dollar is only concerned about believers.27 Dollar believes that racism creates division in the church.28
As he begins his work, Dollar makes the mistake of equating the Greek word ethnos with race: “Ethnos means a race, a tribe, a non-Jewish one, a Gentile.” As a result, he takes Matthew to mean, “Race shall rise up against race.” Terefore, according to Dollar, racism is predicted in the biblical text. What Dollar does not seem to understand is that race is a social construct that was created during the Enlightenment, hundreds of years after the writing of the New Testament.
Tough Frenchman Francois Bernier is believed to have been the first per- son to use the term race as a means of categorizing people by skin color and other physical attributes in 1684, philosopher Immanuel Kant, in 1775, is credited with being the first person to generate a scientific definition of race.29
24
Patricia O’Connell. Te Church of the Mighty Dollar (New York: Businessweek, 2005), accessed October 11, 2006; available from http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/ 05_21/b3934016_mz001.htm.
25
Creflo Dollar, Jr., Te Color of Love: Understanding God’s Answer to Racism, Separation and Division (Tulsa, Okla.: Harrison House, 1997), 16.
26
Ibid., 6.
27
Ibid., 49.
28
Ibid., 79-80.
29
Robert Bernasconi and Tommy Lee Lott, eds., Te Idea of Race, Hackett Readings in Phi- losophy (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2000), viii. Bernasconi contends that Kant wrote his essay “Of the Different Human Races” to combat polygenesis and to help organize the vast amounts of
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Kant classified humans into four racial categories: the white race, the Negro race, the Hun race, and the Hindu race.30 For Kant:
Races are deviations that are constantly preserved over many generations and come about as a consequence of migration or through interbreeding through other devia- tions of the same lines of descent, which always produces half-breed offspring.31
Kant argued in a series of essays that just as the animal kingdom consisted of a variety of species whose characteristics varied according to their environ- ments, so did humans.32 He believed that all human evolved from the same human family, genus, or line of descent. Since, according to Kant, all human beings were born with “numerous seeds and natural predispositions” that enabled them to acclimate to different climates, human deviations or differ- ences (physical and mental) could be accounted for by differences in climates and diets.33 For example, Kant believed that the hot, humid climate of African countries was responsible for the development of the Negro’s “thick, turned up nose and thick, fatty lips.”34 Tough he affirmed that Negroes were well suited for their environments since they were “strong, fleshy and agile,” he also believed Negroes were “lazy, indolent, and dawdling [trifling].” In other words, since Negroes did not have to work very hard to supply their basic human needs, they became lazy.
Kant believe that white people, on the other hand, had the good fortune of inhabiting regions of the world that had the best combination of hot and cold climates. Tese regions were in Europe. As a result, whites diverged least from the original human genus form. Kant described whites, particularly those in the northern regions of Germany, as characterized by “tender white skin, red- dish hair, and pale blue eyes.”35 Kant believed that it would be through white people and white culture that the world would be brought to perfection.36 While Kant believed that the white race contained within itself all the motiva- tions and talents needed to benefit the world, Negroes could only be trained
materials he received about people in distant lands from European explorers. Polygenesis is the belief that different races descended from different ancestors.
30
Immanuel Kant, “On the Different Human Races,” in Te Idea of Race, 11.
31
Ibid., 9.
32
Ibid., 8.
33
Ibid., 14.
34
Ibid., 17.
35
Ibid., 20.
36
J. Kameron Carter, Race: A Teological Account (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 89.
8
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as servants.37 During a time when the debate on whether or not to end slavery was raging, highly respected academics and scientists such as Kant produced scholarship that reinforced existing racial prejudice and stereotypes.38
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, race became the paradigm for instituting and preserving the social reality of inequality as a naturally occurring phenomenon and a product of human biological differences.39 Racial ideology became a means of restricting access to privilege, power, and wealth.40 Before the advent of race, people were identified by ethnicity. Eth- nicity refers to groups of people who share cultural traits such as language, religion, geographic location and place of origin, traditions, values, beliefs, and food preferences.41
Dollar believes that people no longer need to identify with their natural heritage once they are born again because they have a new spiritual heritage with which to identify.42 By natural heritage, Dollar means racial or ethnic heritage. When believers identify with their new spiritual heritage, they can create their own realities in which racism is no longer an issue. Dollar cites 1 Corinthians 1:11-13 as Paul’s critique on racial identification:
For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
For many people reading this text, the point that Paul is trying to make is that the people of Corinth should not take sides and divide themselves accord- ing to which apostles proselytized them. Rather, they should identify with Christ, the one about whom all of the apostles preach. Dollar has a different interpretation of the text. He believes that Paul is admonishing the people to
37
Ibid., 91.
38
Bernasconi and Lott, Te Idea of Race, vii.
39
Audrey Smedley and Brian Smedley, “Race as Biology Is Fiction: Racism as a Social Prob- lem Is Real,” American Psychologist 60, no. 1 (2005): 20.
40
Ibid., 22.
41
Ibid., 17.
42
Dollar, Te Color of Love, 79. In the chapter entitled “Is Christ Divided?” Dollar uses Paul’s admonition of the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:11-12 as an example of how race divides the church. For Dollar, just as the Corinthians allowed their allegiances to various apostles to divide them when they should have all been focused on Christ, the contemporary church also allows race to divide us.
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identify no longer with their natural heritage. Notwithstanding the problems with interpretation, identifying with one’s natural heritage for Dollar is no longer necessary once one is converted.
In his book, Dollar critiques those who try to discover the ethnic and/or racial identities of people in the Bible or who espouse black images of Jesus. For Dollar, these people are creating division in the church. To the people who believe that knowing the ethnic identity of people in the Bible could help some people to build the self-esteem of people in our contemporary times, Dollar responds, “Tey need to get saved.” Te problem of self-esteem can be resolved when people know who they are in Christ Jesus.
One consequence of racism in the church for Dollar is a cessation of increase.43 By increase, Dollar means blessings of God that are manifested in the lives of believers such as physical health and financial prosperity. When divisions such as those caused by racism exist, then God is not able to bless individuals or ministries plagued by racism as much as God would like. For Dollar, the solution to the racism problem that exists in the church is forgiveness and reconciliation:
If you are white, I want you to go to a black person. I want you to look that person square in the eyes, then I want you to repent and to apologize for the sins of your ancestors against black people. Be willing to say from your heart, “I am sorry.” If you are black, I want you to go to a white person. I want you to look that person square in the eyes, then I want you to repent for the years of unforgiveness towards white people that you have carried in your heart.
If you, as a believer, have had feelings of hate, distrust or hostility towards people of any other race, it’s vitally important that you go to some member of that race and repent of those feelings.
44
Dollar expects repentance (admitting one’s prejudices and past transgressions and asking for forgiveness) to lead to reconciliation (a change of attitude and behavior). Similar views of repentance can be found in the teachings of many white evangelical Christian churches and para-church organizations such as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Promise Keepers, an evangelical Chris- tian men’s movement. In some Promise Keepers’ events, men are encouraged to go to their brothers of another race and confess the prejudice they harbor in their hearts and ask for forgiveness.
45
Often these confessions are laced with
43
Ibid., 241.
44
Ibid., 264.
45
Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 66-68.
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tears and hugs. While the hugs and tears may reflect sincere sorrow and regret, repentance without concrete action on all levels can leave intact the racist systems and structures that continue to negatively affect the lives of blacks and other minorities.
Michael Emerson and Christian Smith argue that the cultural tools through which some white evangelicals interpret the world — accountable freewill indi- vidualism, relationalism, and antistructuralism — render them incapable of a more critical analysis of racial issues.46 Accountable freewill individualism is the belief that individuals exist independently of institutions, have free will, and are each individually accountable for their own actions. Relationalism is the belief that one’s relationships with Christ and healthy relationships with family, friends, and other church members help Christians to make the right choices in life. Evangelicals who ascribe to relationalism view poor relation- ships and negative influences as the root of social problems. Antistructuralism is the belief that sin is limited to individuals (versus institutions or other social structures). Terefore, some white evangelicals equate racial issues solely with individual sin. As a result, when all individuals are converted, all racial prob- lems will be resolved.
Pentecostals and Charismatics who gathered for what would become known as the Memphis Miracle in 1994 believed true reconciliation required more than tears and hugs. More than three thousand people attended the confer- ence themed “Pentecostal Partners: A Reconciliation Strategy for 21st Cen- tury Ministry.”47 Te goal of the conference was to reconcile and reunite black and white Pentecostals who had worshipped separately for almost fifty years.
46
Ibid., 76-80. In addition, for some white evangelicals, when people blame social structures for their issues, they are simply in denial of their own sin and seeking to shift to blame some- where else. Among those white evangelicals who were willing to admit the existence of institu- tional problems, some felt that government programs such as affirmative action simply exacerbate race problems that would, if left unaddressed, completely disappear. Emerson and Smith fail to point out the many shortcomings that belief in “accountable freewill individualism,” “relational- ism,” and “antistructuralism” present. An example of the shortcomings of these beliefs can be found in the existence of the institution of slavery and systems of racial discrimination such as Jim Crow. Both slavery and Jim Crow laws were supported by Christians and each created social conditions that subjected the daily lives of blacks to overt and covert discrimination and severely limited opportunities for blacks to pursue happiness in the American land of opportunity. In addition, by denying the existence of systemic injustices, white evangelicals can also deny the degree to which they may be complicit in and beneficiaries of existing systems. For example, when banks and other lending institutions redline certain districts by denying loan applications for people in certain geographical locations, more money is then available for people in other geographical areas, so that more opportunities for other applicants are created.
47
Vinson Synan, “Memphis 1994: Miracle and Mandate,” Reconciliation 1 (1998): 14-15.
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229
Tough the Pentecostal movement had started as an interracial movement at the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1906, the ethos of the movement gradually assumed the segregated nature of the dominant culture. Te formal separation of black and white Pentecostals was accomplished in 1948 when the all-white Pentecostal Fellowship of North America was founded without any black churches having been invited to join.
At the conference in Memphis in 1994, in addition to tears and hugs and a mighty movement of the Holy Spirit, a “Racial Reconciliation Manifesto” was born. Attendees who wanted to become part of the new multi-racial Pentecos- tal/Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA) were asked to abide by the Manifesto. Two of the mandates included in the Manifesto are:
I. I pledge in concert with my brothers and sisters of many hues to oppose racism
prophetically in all its various manifestations within and without the Body of
Christ and to be vigilant in the struggle with all my God-given might. II. I am committed personally to treat those in the Fellowship who are not of my race
or ethnicity, regardless of color, with love and respect as my sisters and brothers in
Christ. I am further committed to work against all forms of personal and institu-
tional racism, including those which are revealed within the very structures of our
environment.48
Te Manifesto acknowledged not only the need for personal repentance and reconciliation, mutual respect and love, but also the need to dismantle sys- temic structures of racism both inside and outside of the church.
In an article written for Reconciliation published by the PCCNA, Bishop George D. McKinney wrote that for far too long evangelical Christians have ignored contemporary justice issues. He contended that evangelicals have been guilty of the sin of referral. Instead of actively working to right social injustice in every part of society, evangelicals have referred the job of working for justice to legislatures, courts, educational institutions, and big businesses.49 McKin- ney called for the corporate church to repent:
We must repent of the sin of referral and recover our rightful role as the salt of the earth, change agents and preservatives of the earth; as the light of the world, giving life and illuminating the dirty and scandalous behavior of those who don’t know God.50
48
Ibid.
49
George D. McKinney, “A God of Justice,” Reconciliation 1 (1998). 50
Ibid.
12
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D. J. Mumford / Pneuma 33 (2011) 218-236
For McKinney and those adopting the mandates of the Manifesto, racial rec- onciliation was a complex and ongoing process that required intentional effort and critical engagement from the people of God. For Dollar, racial reconcilia- tion is a one-time event that would naturally lead to changes in the individual immediately and society eventually. Dollar’s brand of reconciliation could be deemed “cheap” if we used Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s definition of cheap as it relates to grace. For Bonhoeffer:
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field. For the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of a great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ for which a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble. It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel that must be sought again and again, the gift that must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.51
Dollar seems to want “cheap” reconciliation without the sacrifice of power and privilege that are required of those who oppress or are beneficiaries of systemic oppression. Costly reconciliation requires people of God to embody and seek justice and liberation for all people again and again.
Dollar’s belief that Christians do not need to be concerned with their natu- ral heritage is also reflected by what he does not preach. Dollar does not preach about racial pride, though his College Park congregation is primarily African American. He does not preach about the existence of racial injustice, even in the wake of tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina, though some of his congregants and many in his television audience may be directly affected by it. Dollar prefers to preach that all Christians share a common spiritual heritage and that spiritual heritage supersedes any other.
Dollar and Hurricane Katrina
Te headquarters for Creflo Dollar’s World Changers Church International is located about five hundred miles north of New Orleans, Louisiana. During the week of August 29, 2005, hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast leaving thousands homeless and hundreds of people dead and missing. Katrina was
51
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Te Cost of Discipleship (New York: Touchstone 1995), 45.
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the most devastating storm in U. S. history. According to one CBS News report, seventy-five percent of the areas devastated by Katrina in the city of New Orleans were black.52 Tis report also communicated that the odds of living in damaged areas were greater for blacks, renters, and poor people.53 In the days and weeks following Katrina, Americans nationwide were horrified by the lack of response of city, state, and national agencies to the needs of people on the Gulf Coast. Americans were demanding to know why the peo- ple had not been assisted in a timely fashion.
Te president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, Aaron Broussard, was literally in tears on Meet the Press on Sunday, September 4, 2005, when he told the story of a mother who had drowned in New Orleans because she received no help. Broussard repeated over and over again, “Nobody’s coming to get us! Nobody’s coming to get us!”
On the same Sunday on which Broussard made this passionate appeal, Dol- lar’s broadcast sermon was entitled, “Levels of the Anointing Part 1.”54 In this sermon, not only did Dollar not critique the neglect of the people on the Gulf Coast, he did not even mention that Katrina had taken place. He used Psalm 4 as his opening scripture. In Psalm 4, the writer praises God for bring- ing him out of a desolate pit and setting his feet upon a rock where he was now secure. Dollar interprets the text as saying that the hearers cannot allow their circumstances to keep them down.
It is likely that this sermon was scheduled for broadcast before Katrina dev- astated the Gulf Coast. Some ministry broadcasts, however, such as T. D. Jakes’ Potter’s House, edited their regular broadcast to insert footage about their ministry’s responses to Katrina and offer prayers for the victims. Creflo Dollar and the Changing Your World Broadcast remained silent. Even on broadcasts in the weeks following Katrina, Dollar made no mention of the tragedy.
In the days following Katrina, Dollar, along with other religious leaders, was invited to the White House to meet with President Bush. Te purpose of the meeting was to strategize about responses to Katrina. Tough World Changers Church International undoubtedly provided aid to Katrina victims, Dollar’s omission of the tragedy from his preaching is telling.
52
Elliott Stonecipher, “Study: Te New Orleans Population in Peril” (Providence, RI, Jan. 27, 2006), http://cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/27/katrina/main1247418.shtml, accessed February 18, 2006.
53
Ibid.
54
Creflo Dollar, “Levels of the Anointing Part I,” at http://interactive.creflodollarministries. org/broadcasts/archives2005_t.asp?site=CDM, accessed February 18, 2006.
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Dollar, Biblical Interpretation, and African American Prophetic Preaching
In the tradition of the Hebrew Bible prophets, black prophetic preachers have in the past, and continue today, to speak truth to and about power while call- ing for reform of systems, communities, and individual behavior. Black prophetic preaching enabled blacks in the United States to maintain their humanity when the dominant culture sought to deny it. Inspired by black prophetic preachers, people of African descent were able to reject the oppres- sive preaching and biblical interpretations of the dominant culture in the eigh- teenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries that sought to keep them enslaved and/or relegated to second-class citizenry. Te preaching of ministers such as Henry McNeal Turner and Anne Pauli Murray, combined with grass roots organizing that grew out of the preaching of the Civil Rights movement, pro- duced social gains for blacks such as the right to equal education (Brown vs. Board of Education) and repeal of Jim Crow laws (equal access to public spaces) and culminated in 1956 in the U. S. Supreme Court ruling that segre- gation was unconstitutional. Other Supreme Court decisions repealed laws in many states that prevented blacks from voting and enjoying basic civil liber- ties. Te black prophetic preaching tradition that critiques and works to elim- inate societal injustices is still needed in the twenty-first century.
Historically, black prophetic preachers have created sermons by carefully examining the situations and circumstances of the people in the biblical text. Te examination is done with the intent of understanding what God is doing in the text, which may in turn help the preacher to understand what God is doing in contemporary times. Black prophetic preachers highlight(ed ) God’s continual call for justice and liberation for all people. In a classic black prophetic sermon entitled “How Far is the Promised Land,” Pentecostal preacher and scholar Leonard Lovett looked deeply into Deuteronomy 34:1-4, researched and comprehended the complex context of the text, and then drew parallels. Lovett found parallels between the children of Israel in their quest for the promised land with Moses as their leader to African Americans and their quest for the promised land with people like Harriet Tubman, Henry High- land Garnett, and Martin Luther King as their leaders.55 Lovett spent time painting a picture for his hearers of Moses contemplating his fate and the fate of his people while surveying the surrounding landscape from Mount Pisgah.
55
Leonard Lovett, “How Far Is the Promised Land?” in Milton E. Owens, ed., Outstanding Black Sermons (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1982), 41-42.
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He contemplated how Moses must have felt when God told him that he (Moses) would not see the promised land. However, Lovett made it clear that the dreams of visionary leaders do not die with the dreamers. Rather, the dreams “rearrange themselves in the consciousness of another dreamer.”56 For Lovett, when the question was asked, “How Far Is the Promised Land?” it had to be answered by a critical look at the state of contemporary society in light of the promises and will of God. Lovett contended that the promised land was as far away as the willingness of all oppressed people to work harder in coalition politics. It was as far away as the willingness of all people to expose sophisticated forms of discrimination and institutionalized racism. It was as far away as this nation understanding the breadth of the term violence. Lovett believed violence occurred when people were paid not to farm and the poor went hungry. Violence occurred when half of the nation’s budget was spent on defense. For Lovett, the promised land could be reached; but reaching the promised land would take prayer, faith, and action by faithful people of God. It is important to note that Lovett’s sermon critiqued both the systems of oppression and the behaviors of the oppressed. Good black prophetic preach- ing does not always place blame on others. Rather, good black prophetic preaching speaks truth about sin and injustice wherever it is found and admon- ishes hearers to live according to the will of God.
Dollar believes his preaching is prophetic. However, his view of the pro- phetic is very different from classic views of the black prophetic tradition, such as Lovett’s. Earlier in this article, I quoted Dollar saying that his preaching was prophetic because he teaches people to be free from debt. Two components that shape Dollar’s approach to preaching are his view of prophecy and his approach to Scripture as an heir to the World of Faith tradition.
On Dollar’s website there is a section labeled “prophecies.” Below is a proph- ecy shared by Dollar with his congregation in November 2008, entitled “At Last, At Last, At Last”:
Tese are your efforts; this represents your sweat. Tis is your time, and as you sow, I’ll begin to bless you because you’re Mine. As you begin to have confidence in My Word and understand that this is true, I’m going to bring to pass great and won- derful things — watch out — even things that you have already known and the things that you knew. Oh, it’s a time of rejoicing and rejoice you must! And give Me praise and gratitude. Oh yes! For these days are times of greatness for thee. I’m gonna open your eyes, cause manifestations, and you’ll begin to see. So sow with joy and be exceed- ingly glad because all that the devil had will be transferred. I’ll cause these things to be
56
Ibid., 40.
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so and you’ll begin to know, and it’s through what you know that you’ll go, and I will bring these things to pass. And you’ll say, “At last, at last, at last.”57
Te words of this prophecy, and the other fourteen prophecies posted on the site, were imparted by Dollar to his congregation as God gave them to him. Dollar tells believers: what God will do in the lives of individual believers if they live Godly lives, to praise God before blessings are received and to believe that God is able to do all things. Tis particular prophecy also encourages believers to give money with joy knowing that God will bless them. For Dollar, prophecy predicts God’s future actions, calls believers to be obedient to God, and assures believers that they will be blessed, often in material ways, when they follow God.
Te tradition of biblical interpretation that Dollar inherited is one of propo- sitional revelation. In God, Revelation and Authority, Carl F. H. Henry defines propositional revelation a s “[a] verbal statement that is either true or false; it is a rational declaration capable of being either believed or doubted.”58 Henry argues that the entire Bible is God’s propositional revelation , which God super- naturally communicated to chosen people in the form of “cognitive truths.” Te God-inspired prophetic-apostolic proclamation of the Bible articulates the cognitive truths “in sentences that are not internally contradictory.”59 Terefore, for Henry, every sentence of the Bible stands as a truth of God on its own.
Since Dollar approaches the Bible as God’s propositional revelation, he cites individual verses or short pericopes within the sermon as proof of the truths that God wants the people to hear. In a sermon entitled “Corresponding Action,” Dollar teaches his hearers that their faith and actions should corre-
57
Prophecies (College Park, GA: Creflo Dollar Ministries), accessed March 25, 2010; available from http://creflodollarministries.org/BibleStudy/Prophecies.aspx.
58
Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation, and Authority , vol. III (Waco, TX: Word Incorporated, 1979), 456. At the core of Henry’s writing about propositional revelation is a high view of the authority of Scripture manifested in a belief that God reveals Godself by revealing God’s own mind and God’s intentions toward humanity in the Bible. Henry writes, “. . . Te bible is a propositional revelation of the unchanging truth of God.” Alister McGrath also attempts to explain why evangelicals have such a high view of scriptural authority when he writes, “Te Christian insistence upon the authority of Scripture reflects a determination not to permit any- thing from outside the Christian heritage to become the norm for what is truly ‘Christian.’ ” In other words, McGrath contends that the evangelical view of the authority of Scripture is a defen- sive position assumed to safeguard Christianity from unchristian influences. See Alister McGrath, A Passion for Truth: Te Intellectual Coherence of Evangelicalism (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 59.
59
Ibid., 457.
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spond. Tis sermon, like all of his sermons, is topical. He uses six different texts as evidence of biblical truths: Hebrews 11:1, Romans 10:17, James 2:14- 17, Mark 4:26, Hebrews 4:2, and Matthew 17:20. Each of these texts does address the importance of faith. Each of these texts was used as evidence of what individuals should do to increase their faith. Dollar encourages hearers to meditate on the word so that they can develop confidence and assurance in God’s ability to do all things. When referring to Mark 4:26 (the parable of the sower), Dollar told hearers that the seed he was speaking of was a seed of faith. God wants Christians to farm the seed, water it, and fertilize it. When they farm their faith it can grow.
Tere are similarities and differences between Lovett’s preaching and Dol- lar’s. Lovett used one text for his sermon, researched the context, and then drew parallels between the people in the text and contemporary world. Dollar used several texts, ignored context, then applied text to the contemporary world. Lovett challenged his hearers to pray, have faith, and act to make the promised land a reality for all people. Dollar challenged his hearers to build on their faith to ensure that the promises of God were manifested in their per- sonal lives. Lovett’s preaching was communal. Dollar’s was individualistic.
Te Demise of the African American Prophetic Tradition
Ignoring the existence of racism in preaching while confessing racial harmony, without critical analysis of underlying issues, is consistent with the positive confession teachings of Word of Faith theology. Positive confession teaches believers to ignore reality or the what is of their existence while confessing and believing in what can be with divine intervention. While Dollar and many other preachers teach that positive confession before manifestation is an act of faith, positive confession can also be an act of denial. When issues of oppression are confronted, with the power of God they can also be critiqued, disempowered, and dismantled, and true healing can begin.
Unfortunately, Dollar’s failure to acknowledge the existence of racism does not change the fact that his hearers may be victims. As victims of racism, their self-esteem may be impacted even though they know who they are in Christ. Tough Dollar’s listeners may be saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Spirit, they still may be greeted with barriers when they try to access goods and services in the public square.
Dollar, born in 1963, grew up in the late ’60s and ’70s after many civil rights battles had been waged and won. Tanks to the Brown vs. Board of
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Education Supreme Court decision of 1954, and subsequent state and local enforcement, segregation in public schools was ruled unconstitutional, mak- ing it possible for Dollar to become the first black student to attend the Kath- leen Mitchell Elementary School in College Park. Tanks to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed race-based and other types of discrimination, and subsequent state and local enforcement, Dollar is able to purchase air time to broadcast his television program, purchase land and build a church wherever he wishes, and live in any neighborhood he can afford.
On a daily basis, Dollar takes full advantage of the opportunities which the hard-fought civil rights victories of his ancestors have afforded him. Yet, he chooses to publicly adopt the uncritical and limited beliefs of some white evangelicals who espouse accountable freewill individualism, relationalism, and antistructurlaism while also consciously choosing not to pursue issues of justice.60 Dollar’s decision to adopt white evangelical mores in his preaching, which is reflected throughout his ministry, has far-reaching implications because of the range of his influence. Blacks who watch and internalize Dol- lar’s preaching take his theology into their churches. As a result, Dollar’s preaching influences not only people in his church or other Word churches, but also large and small churches of various denominations. Even black churches that have traditionally espoused communal/prophetic preaching may be unduly impacted by Word of Faith theology.
60
Emerson and Smith, Divided by Faith.
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