God’s Profits:
Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters
By Sarah Posner
Published by PoliPointPress
232 Pages
Publication Date 2/08
ISBN: 978-0-9794822-1-2
$19.95, hard cover
- Media Contact:
- Scott Jordan
- 415-339-4108
- s.jordan@p3books.com
- Press Release
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“Word of Faith Christianity, a strand of Pentecostal evangelism that promises health and wealth to those who dig deep and obey their conservative Republican preachers, is brilliantly dissected in Sarah Posner’s God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters.”
—By Eleanor J. Bader - The Indypendent
“Sarah Posner’s reporting on the religious right is dogged, informed, and ceaselessly illuminating. She never condescends to rank-and-file believers; at the same time, she never excuses their leaders’ hypocrisies or fundamental misunderstanding of, and threat to, our constitutional republic.”
—Michael Tomasky, The Guardian
Keenly observed and meticulously reported, God’s Profits examines the unholy alliance between a new breed of corrupt televangelists and the Republican Party, which is eagerly courting “values voters” in the nation’s largest megachurches.
Author Sarah Posner exposes the activities of Kenneth Copeland, John Hagee, Rod Parsley, T.D. Jakes, and other politically connected, skillfully marketed, and increasingly influential religious leader s. Preaching the “prosperity gospel”—the notion that faith and tithing alone can ensure financial security—both in their churches and over the airwaves, these charismatic leaders scam the gullible even as they enjoy unprecedented access to top Bush Administration officials.
Televangelists John Hagee and Rod Parsley have been in the news a great deal in recent weeks, after both men endorsed John McCain for president. God’s Profits chronicles their careers, laying bare their apocalyptic vision of the Second Coming and the influence of Hagee’s Christian Zionist lobbying organization, Christians United for Israel, on neoconservative foreign policy. God’s Profits goes further than any of the news coverage, however, in exposing how these ministries make so much money preaching the “prosperity gospel”: God demands that you tithe to me, the televangelists tell their followers, and you will receive a supernatural return of riches. But while their flocks open their wallets week after week, it’s the televangelists who prosper, living in luxury homes, buying up choice real estate, and traveling the globe in their private jets.
Admired by Republican strategists for their antigovernment ideology and authoritarian leadership styles, these televangelists work together to maximize profits; protect themselves legally; influence elections, judicial nominations, and legislation; and promote their pro-war, apocalyptic ideas about the Middle East and its critical role in the “End Time.”
Sarah Posner is an investigative journalist covering the activities of conservative evangelicals. She has written for The Nation, The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Washington Spectator, and The Gadflyer. She also writes The FundamentaList, which counts down the week’s top news about the religious right, for The American Prospect Web site.
