In the Christian faith and tradition, money has never been glorified. I shall dare to venture, even assert, that money has often been looked down upon. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus made himself very clear about storing our riches in Heaven and not on Earth. Christ proclaims, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” He means what he said. However, over the summer, Pentecostal Christian and Prosperity Preacher Creflo Dollar offered a radically different message in his two-hour sermon at the RBC Center. With Dollar’s overwhelming focus on God’s apparent (though I cannot find it) “promise” of financial abundance, the two-hour service appeared to be more closely related to a 50 Cent concert than that of Christendom. Dollar is considered the most prominent prosperity preacher around, building his career around some “theological premise” that God wants people to be extravagantly rich. With his lavish lifestyle that includes Rolls Royces and million-dollar homes in both Atlanta and Manhattan, Dollar leads by example. With an audience full of the struggling middle-class, Dollar filled the blue-collar crowd with hopes of rolling in money, because according to Creflo Dollar, that is what God wants. With his ministries appearing on both BET and the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Dollar has become a renowned icon in the “Money Making Ministry.” And I naively thought this was supposed to be about God. The service began with a passage from John 10:10, in which Christ says “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” However, Creflo Dollar added onto Jesus’ words, “to the full, ’til it overflows.” It is strikingly obvious, at least it should be to the educated Christian, that Jesus and Creflo are discussing matters from two entirely different perspectives. In proper and intended context, Jesus is referring to God’s plan of his coming and dying, so that we might come to know and believe in him, with the promise of eternal life flowing therein and outward from it all. But in Dollar’s context, it seems that Jesus came not for eternal life, but rather that we might stack Gs (lots of them) and drive Mercedeses. To be fair, Dollar did seem to get something right, and that is his one message of “By staying centered on love, God will bless you.” That is of course, if one believes in him. But if one does, then this devotion to love will certainly bring about blessings, whether that is in the form of Gucci suits and 22s or eternal communion with God and all the company of heaven, I know not for certain. However, I am theologically inclined to side with the latter. After revealing to the enchanted crowd the fact that he had just signed a $1 million book contract, Dollar appealed to the audience for money. “The lord told me to start this offering at $16,000,” he said. I find it shocking and absolutely appalling that the rich Dollar even thought to ask the financially distressed for donations of $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 as plastic buckets circled through the arena. If this is Dollar’s lucid idea of an offering, then I simply abjure. Many of those in attendance, like one postal worker, are unfortunately convinced that Dollar’s message is that of the Gospels. The man was convinced that if Dollar’s message wasn’t true, then God wasn’t being truthful either. “Give and it shall be given unto you. If that’s not true, then God is a liar,” he stated. Well, if we are talking about our judging others and ourselves, then the Mailman is correct. But if one thinks that by praying and maintaining a humble relationship with ******The First Cause of All Things******** that he will in turn reciprocate with stocks and bonds, then I am skeptical to agree. As for all the Dollar disciples out there, I ask you only to consider this question: Is it, as Dollar has made it seem, more important what God can do for us, or what we can do for God? Remember, Christ himself once said, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

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