Do Evangelicals PRAY for RECESSIONS?

[Joanne98]

Bad Times Draw Bigger Crowds to Churches

The sudden crush of worshipers packing the small evangelical Shelter Rock Church in Manhasset, N.Y. — a Long Island hamlet of yacht clubs and hedge fund managers — forced the pastor to set up an overflow room with closed-circuit TV and 100 folding chairs, which have been filled for six Sundays straight.

Shelter Rock Church is an evangelical church that has prospered in the wealthy community of Manhasset, N.Y.
In Seattle, the Mars Hill Church, one of the fastest-growing evangelical churches in the country, grew to 7,000 members this fall, up 1,000 in a year. At the Life Christian Church in West Orange, N.J., prayer requests have doubled — almost all of them aimed at getting or keeping jobs.

Like evangelical churches around the country, the three churches have enjoyed steady growth over the last decade. But since September, pastors nationwide say they have seen such a burst of new interest that they find themselves contending with powerful conflicting emotions — deep empathy and quiet excitement — as they re-encounter an old piece of religious lore:

Bad times are good for evangelical churches.


Praying for a Recession: The Business Cycle and Protestant Religiosity in the United States

David Beckworth
Texas State University


March 5, 2008

Abstract:
Some observers believe the business cycle influences religiosity. This possibility is explored in this paper by empirically examining the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and Protestant religiosity in the United States. The findings of this paper suggest there is a strong countercyclical component to religiosity for evangelical Protestants while for mainline Protestants there is both a weak countercyclical component and a strong procyclical component.

http://search.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1103142

This is an OUTRAGE!

:grr:

[dorkulon]

1. Uh...wah?

What's an outrage? That people turn to religion to comfort them in hard times? I'm an atheist, but I am not surprised, nor do I really see a problem here. BTW, they're not praying for a recession (pretty sure that's just a clever title), they're praying for "getting or keeping jobs." And, frankly, praying doesn't do anything anyway.

[Joanne98]

2. It sounds exactly like something they'd do! I don't believe they haven't noticed

that every time THEY vote in large numbers, we get recessions! MIHOP!

[Joanne98]

3. kick

[stray cat]

4. Dems rejoiced when the economy collapsed because it helped elections?

:sarcasm: Most evangelicals are working Americans trying to get by like all of the rest of us.