Who's winning the race?

[rrneck]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/us/10prayer.html?_r=1&hp

Founded 12 years ago by Mike Bickle, a self-trained evangelical pastor, with a group of 20, the International House of Prayer, in a former strip mall, now draws tens of thousands of worshipers to its revival meetings. A wholly devoted cadre of 1,000 staff members, labeled missionaries, have given up careers to move here, living off donations and spending several hours a day in the prayer hall to revel in what they describe as direct communication with God. Another thousand students attend the adjacent Bible college, preparing to spread this fervent brand of Christianity.

...

The ministry has also drawn fire for helping Gov. Rick Perry of Texas plan a day of prayer in Houston, which is scheduled for August and will be dominated by ardent opponents of abortion and gay rights. Mr. Bickle said he avoided direct involvement in partisan politics himself, but a member of his leadership group, Lou Engle, has a side group, The Call, that organized stadium revivals to promote California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage.

...

The International House of Prayer is “an important example” of the proliferating nondenominational charismatic churches, said Catherine C. Bowler, a religious historian at the Duke University Divinity School. From megachurches with tens of thousands of members to more intense and unusual ministries like Mr. Bickle’s, these churches, which practice faith healing and speaking in tongues, make up one of the fastest-growing segments of American Christianity, attracting millions.

...

“I felt the emotions of God, that I could actually converse with him and he really loves me,” she said. “Now I believe my prayers will bring more change than what diplomats can do with policies and arms control theories.”

It seems to me that most organized religions, operated as an industry designed to leverage people's emotions for profit, are by far outstripping the efforts of any religious group that might function the way religion is supposed to function. While there can be little doubt that there are many religious leaders who genuinely have the welfare of society and of their fellow believers at heart, their efforts seem to be overshadowed by others who use religion to tap a revenue stream.

Religion seems to be at the forefront of a host of organizations that profit from the production of ideology, and the profit potential is enormous in a country of consumers who cannot distinguish faith from brand loyalty. Then again, is there really any difference?

[xfundy]

1. "International House of Prayer"

I liked 'em better when they did pancakes.

For "man" to consider himself/herself "chosen," and capable not only of discerning the current "will of god," but to also call for retribution, punishment of the "other," whoever that may be; is that not the ultimate obviation of the "religion" they espouse, and command others to believe in, with punishment for unbelievers?

God is all-powerful. God knows everything we will do before it happens. God will punish those who deserve it. True or false?

If God is the ultimate judge, jury and executioner, he doesn't need mere mortals to mete out "justice," no?

And if not, God is too weak or uncaring to intervene?

Or does he require various psychopaths, who use his name to gain profit, fame, wealth, power to do his dirty work? Convincing entire nations to hate, obstruct, enslave and/or kill other humans?

Having grown up very religious, my questions like these were usually rebuffed by questioning my intelligence or even sanity. OK, I'm stupid and crazy.

But "we'll know once we're dead" is a copout, a lazy acquiescence to respect "powers" psychopaths confer upon themselves, even as they cheat on both their partners and congregations, steal whenever they can, molest children, kill and/or order others to kill, and use their status to manipulate the masses. They get rich, while others, who were ostensibly to be given comfort, food, medicine, housing, etc., go without basics and often die alone and hungry and ostracised.

[dimbear]

2. 'far outstripping ........ might function the way religion is supposed to function'

Judgment call. My take is that religion is supposed to support the powers that be and fill its own coffers. That's the historical model and a highly successful one at that.

Since the 1990's there has been a renewed interest in the sociology of religion. Increasingly popular is the analysis of religious groups flat out as businesses.

Historians of the Roman Empire have drawn up long lists of reasons why Christianity triumphed. The lists differ, but they all (AFAIK) contain one bullet point: Christianity offered salvation after you were dead, a good which costs the church nothing, in exchange for mundane things like work, loyalty, and money. Most of the competitors didn't offer salvation. The main exception, Mithraism, (which did) was also the main opponent in the showdown and the most hated by the Christians.

Later arrivals had to up the ante. Islam offered the 72 virgins in heaven, and Mormonism offered to make you a god yourself. That, my friends, is an example of the pressure of competition. The same market forces that brought you the flatscreen TV can now offer you divinity. What is next, fellow truthseekers?

[dmallind]

3. As a corollary, that's one reason to me why the US is so much more religious

when compared to its principal European progenitors. Lots of factors of course, from historical accident to slavery to exceptionalism to a lower scale of horrors inflicted during the two great wars, but the absence of a state church is a part too, albeit a counterintuitive one. Nobody who has dealt with any of the European established (or de facto state established as in Spain or Italy) churches in the last 50-100 years could fail to see the parallels with monopolies in business. Sluggish, tedious, passive, indifferent to the wishes of their customer base. By contrast the US has from colonization on been a hotbed of competing faiths hungry to grab and keep market share. This has not only honed the survivors' evangelical marketing skills, but also resulted in a market space which has many substitute offerings, niche providers and differentiated choices to fill more needs than, for example, bog-standard but subsidized and protected Anglicanism/C of E.

[rrneck]

4. Capitalism at its finest.

Imagine a natural resource that is unlimited and can be extracted with minimal capital investment. Plus, if you need a spike in supply, it can be created pretty much at will: human emotion. It was among the first natural resources to be exploited for profit, and it will be around long after we run out of oil, coal, and natural gas. America's business may be business, but America's biggest business is religion.