Prosperity Gospel Network

The prosperity gospel — also called Word of Faith, Name It and Claim It, or Health and Wealth theology — has roots in Oral Roberts's healing ministry (1950s) and Kenneth Hagin's Word of Faith movement (1960s–1970s), but became a dominant force in American evangelical and charismatic Christianity through the 1990s and 2000s via television broadcasting, megachurch culture, and publishing. Key figures: - Kenneth Copeland (b. 1936): Fort Worth, Texas-based televangelist. Flagship prosperity gospel figure. Claimed during COVID-19 that God would destroy the virus and that believers who donated to his ministry would be protected. His ministry's aviation fleet, estimated value over $100 million, includes multiple private jets justified as necessary for ministry uncontaminated by 'demons' on commercial flights. The Senate Finance Committee (2007–2008, chair: Sen. Chuck Grassley) investigated Copeland and five other prosperity gospel ministries for potential tax violations. Copeland refused to provide financial records. No charges resulted. - Joel Osteen (b. 1963): Senior pastor, Lakewood Church, Houston. His father John Osteen founded the church; Joel succeeded him in 1999. Lakewood holds services in the former Compaq Center arena (capacity 16,000), making it the largest congregation in the United States. Osteen's books — including 'Your Best Life Now' (2004) — have sold tens of millions of copies. His theology is prosperity gospel in a softer, more therapeutic register: God wants you to thrive, think positively, and expect abundance. Osteen supported Proposition 8 (California's anti-gay marriage initiative) in 2008 and has consistently held traditional views on sexuality. - Creflo Dollar (b. 1962): World Changers Church International, College Park, Georgia. Asked followers in 2015 to fund a $65 million Gulfstream G650 private jet. - Paula White (b. 1966): See separate node. Trump's 'spiritual advisor.' The political alignment between prosperity gospel and Trumpism is not accidental: 1. Both frame wealth as validation of virtue and God's approval. 2. Both frame regulation, taxation, and redistribution as interference with divine economic order. 3. Trump's visible wealth — which prosperity gospel theology frames as evidence of divine favor — made him theologically legible to prosperity gospel audiences as a blessed man. 4. Paula White's role as Trump's primary religious confidante brought the prosperity gospel network into direct White House access. 5. Kenneth Copeland publicly 'prophesied' Trump's 2020 election victory and claimed the media who called Biden's win were 'lying demons.' The prosperity gospel audience is distinct from but overlapping with the Reformed evangelical TGC audience: it skews more toward charismatic and Pentecostal, more racially diverse (Black megachurches have a distinct but related prosperity gospel tradition), and more toward lower-income aspirational believers rather than educated professionals. Both audiences, through different theological channels, arrived at alignment with Republican economic policy and Trump support.

Documented themes

• Christian Nationalism
• Political Strategy

Connections from Prosperity Gospel Network

• influenced → National Religious Broadcasters (1980) — Prosperity gospel preachers — Kenneth Copeland, Oral Roberts, Jim Bakker, Paul Crouch (TBN), Joel Osteen — built and dominated the Christian television broadcast infrastructure. Trinity Broadcasting Network, the largest Christian television network in the world, was founded by Paul and Jan Crouch on prosperity gospel theology and became the primary distribution platform for prosperity gospel content. The fundraising model of prosperity gospel (seed faith donations, sowing and reaping financial miracles) was also the fundraising model that sustained broadcast ministries. National Religious Broadcasters, as the trade association for Christian broadcasters, operated in an ecosystem where prosperity gospel ministries were among the largest and most financially powerful members.
• influenced → Trump Evangelical Advisory Board (2016) (2016) — Prosperity gospel theology — which frames material wealth as evidence of God's blessing — made Trump's visible wealth theologically legible to prosperity gospel audiences as a sign of divine favor. Paula White, Trump's personal prosperity gospel pastor and primary religious confidante, provided the direct institutional connection between this theological tradition and the evangelical advisory board, translating Trump's billionaire identity into spiritual vocabulary.

Connections to Prosperity Gospel Network

• Paula White influenced (2002) — Paula White is one of the most prominent prosperity gospel preachers in the United States. Her theology — that faith produces material wealth, that financial giving to ministries is a spiritual investment with guaranteed return, that God's blessing is measurable in worldly success — is prosperity gospel in its clearest form. Her Without Walls International Church in Tampa (co-founded with ex-husband Randy White) and her New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida operated on the prosperity gospel fundraising model. Her role as Trump's primary religious advisor brought prosperity gospel theology directly into the White House, reinforcing the theological framework in which Trump's visible wealth demonstrated divine favor.

Sources

• Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel — Kate Bowler (2013), pp. 1–280
• Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation — Kristin Kobes Du Mez (2020), pp. 262–280
• Did Christianity Cause the Crash? — The Atlantic (2009)