Passions over 'prosperity gospel': Was Jesus wealthy?

[n2doc]

By John Blake, CNN
December 25, 2009 4:12 a.m. EST

(CNN) -- Each Christmas, Christians tell stories about the poor baby Jesus born in a lowly manger because there was no room in the inn.
But the Rev. C. Thomas Anderson, senior pastor of the Living Word Bible Church in Mesa, Arizona, preaches a version of the Christmas story that says baby Jesus wasn't so poor after all.
Anderson says Jesus couldn't have been poor because he received lucrative gifts -- gold, frankincense and myrrh -- at birth. Jesus had to be wealthy because the Roman soldiers who crucified him gambled for his expensive undergarments. Even Jesus' parents, Mary and Joseph, lived and traveled in style, he says.
"Mary and Joseph took a Cadillac to get to Bethlehem because the finest transportation of their day was a donkey," says Anderson. "Poor people ate their donkey. Only the wealthy used it as transportation."
Many Christians see Jesus as the poor, itinerant preacher who had "no place to lay his head." But as Christians gather around the globe this year to celebrate the birth of Jesus, another group of Christians are insisting that Jesus' beginnings weren't so humble.
They say that Jesus was never poor -- and neither should his followers be. Their claim is embedded in the doctrine known as the prosperity gospel, which holds that God rewards the faithful with financial prosperity and spiritual gifts.

more:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/12/25/RichJesus/index.html

[CJCRANE]

1. "Mary and Joseph took a Cadillac to get to Bethlehem".

I thought I was reading the Onion!

[SpiralHawk]

2. "So all you poor people can just STFU and sit down." - Anderson

"Rich Republicons are holier than you noisy Proles, so just STFU and put your few skanky dollars into my collection plate so I can make myself an even holier Republicon preacherman. Smirk."

- Anderson

[sendero]

3. The Prosperity Pimps..

.. had their hand in the current economic mess. By convincing so many of their flocks that god wants them to be wealthy and that wealth is god's reward for a virtuous life, I'm totally convinced that this mindset contributed greatly to folks tendency to take on way more debt than they could handle. God will pay it off huh.

That didn't work out too well for them and that's only right, Jesus couldn't have been less about material possessions and anyone who thinks otherwise might want to actually read the Bible.

[Turbineguy]

4. This guy is

filled with shit. And on Christmas yet.

[baldguy]

5. Jesus was unemployed & homeless.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. God hates poor people.

How Calvinistic.

[Stevenmarc]

7. "gambled for his expensive undergarments", so THAT'S Victoria's secret

[shadowknows69]

8. It could be argued that Jesus' family, if they and he even existed, might have been well to do.

Certainly a carpenter would be a highly skilled and needed trade in those days. Sorry, the message was never "Believe in me and you'll be rich" or there are a whole lot of Christians getting cheated by the Holy Payroll department. Someone in accounting is embezzling from the Big J.

[Fumesucker]

9. Ah, another seeker of truth has found the Gospel of Supply Side Jesus..

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/09/17_franken.html

[arcadian]

10. So Jesus was rich and he also liked to make war...

Jesus is George W. Bush!

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

11. Well, he had an infinite supply of wine, bread and fishes

So, yeah... he did okay. And that health plan was way better than mine.

<joke>

[MineralMan]

12. Nah...Jesus wasn't rich. It took a while after his death

before the evangelists started raking it in. Jesus wouldn't have approved, I think.

[aquart]

13. I want the evidence for donkey eating.

That's not something I have ever heard of.

And only an idiot would call donkey transport "luxury" when the wealthy owned and rode horses.Does this ill-educated twit NOT know that horses were in the Roman-controlled area? That both the Egyptians and Alexander the Great used horses?