Foreclosures: Did God Want You to Get That Mortgage?

[sinkingfeeling]

Interesting article linking the sub-prime mess with the 'Prosperity Gospel'.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1847053,00.html?cnn=yes

Has the so-called Prosperity Gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants — and hence, victims — of the current financial crisis? That's what a scholar of the fast-growing brand of pentecostal Christianity believes. While researching a book on black televangelism, says Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California Riverside, he realized that Prosperity's central promise — that God would "make a way" for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, toxic expression during sub-prime boom. Walton says that this encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe "God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house." The results, he says, "were disastrous, because they pretty much turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers."

[phantom power]

1. Nobody could have ever predicted religion being used for fraud.

[sandnsea]

2. If they hadn't reset these mortgages

most of these people would still be in their homes.