"And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man
brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall
I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This
will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I
bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou
hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be
merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich
toward God. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take
no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye
shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.
Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have
storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than
the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one
cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye
thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they
spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day
in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he
clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what
ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the
nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need
of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things
shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms;
provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that
faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Luke 12:16-34, KJV

"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come
upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your
gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against
you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure
together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have
reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the
cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of
sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have
nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and
killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren,
unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious
fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the
early and latter rain."
James 5:1-7, KJV

Following is the news article in question:


Believers Invest in the Gospel of Getting Rich

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN - NYT

August 15, 2009


FORT WORTH -- Onstage before thousands of believers weighed down by debt and
economic insecurity, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and their all-star lineup
of "prosperity gospel" preachers delighted the crowd with anecdotes about
the luxurious lives they had attained by following the Word of God.

Private airplanes and boats. A motorcycle sent by an anonymous supporter.
Vacations in Hawaii and cruises in Alaska. Designer handbags. A ring of
emeralds and diamonds.

"God knows where the money is, and he knows how to get the money to you,"
preached Mrs. Copeland, dressed in a crisp pants ensemble like those worn by
C.E.O.'s.

Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the "prosperity gospel" movement
are drawing sizable, adoring audiences. Their message -- that if you have
sufficient faith in God and the Bible and donate generously, God will
multiply your offerings a hundredfold -- is reassuring to many in hard
times.

The preachers barely acknowledged the recession, though they did say it was
no excuse to curtail giving. "Fear will make you stingy," Mr.
Copeland said.

But the offering buckets came up emptier than in some previous years, said
those who have attended before.

Many in this flock do not trust banks, the news media or Washington, where
the Senate Finance Committee is investigating whether the Copelands and
other prosperity evangelists used donations to enrich themselves and abused
their tax-exempt status. But they trust the Copelands, the movement's
current patriarch and matriarch, who seem to embody prosperity with their
robust health and abundance of children and grandchildren who have followed
them into the ministry.

"If God did it for them, he will do it for us," said Edwige Ndoudi, who
traveled with her husband and three children from Canada for the Southwest
Believers' Convention this month, where the Copelands and three of their
friends took turns preaching for five days, 10 hours a day at the Fort Worth
Convention Center.

The crowd of more than 9,000 was multiracial, from 48 states and 27
countries. There was no fee to attend. There were bikers in leather vests,
pastors, blue-collar workers, professionals and plenty of families with
children.

A large contingent came in wheelchairs, hoping for miraculous healings. The
audience sat with Bibles open, flipping to passages cited by the preachers,
taking notes on pads and laptop computers.

"The folks who are coming aren't poor," said Jonathan L. Walton,
a professor
of religion at the University of California, Riverside, who has written
about the movement and was there doing research. "They reside in that
nebulous category between the working and the middle class."

Sitting in Section 316, eight rows up, making peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches on a Bible at lunch time, was a family who could explain the
enduring loyalty the prosperity preachers inspire.

Stephen Biellier, a long-distance trucker from Mount Vernon, Mo., said he
and his wife, Millie, came to the convention praying that this would be "the
overcoming year." They are $102,000 in debt, and the bank has cut off their
credit line, Mrs. Biellier said.

They say the Copelands rescued them from financial failure 23 years ago,
when they bought their first truck at 22 percent interest and had to rebuild
the engine twice in a year.

Around that time, Mrs. Biellier first saw Mr. Copeland on television and
began sending him 50 cents a week.

Others who bought trucks from the same dealer in Joplin that year went
under, the Bielliers said, but they did not.

"We would have failed if Copeland hadn't been praying for us every day,"
Mrs. Biellier said.

The Bielliers are now among 386,000 people worldwide whom the Copelands call
their "partners," most of whom send regular contributions and merit special
prayers from the Copelands.

A call center at the ministry's 481-employee headquarters in Newark, Tex.,
takes in 60,000 prayer requests a month, a publicist said.

The Copelands' broadcast reaches 134 countries, and the ministry's income is
about $100 million annually.

The Bielliers were at the convention a few years ago when a supporter made a
pitch for people to join an "Elite CX Team" to raise money to buy the
ministry a Citation X airplane. (Mr. Copeland is an airplane aficionado who
got his start in ministry as a pilot for Oral Roberts.) At that moment, Mrs.
Biellier said she heard the voice of the Holy Spirit telling her, "You were
born to support this man."

She gave $2,000 for the plane, and recently sent $1,800 for the team's
latest project: buying high-definition television equipment to upgrade the
ministry's international broadcasts.

Mrs. Biellier said some friends and relatives would say the preacher just
wanted their money. She explained that the Copelands did not need the money
for themselves; it is for their ministry. And besides, even "trashy people
like Hugh Hefner" have private airplanes.

"I remember Copeland had to once fly halfway around the world to talk to one
person," she said. "Because we're partners with Kenneth Copeland, for every
soul that gets saved, we get credit for that in heaven."

But while a band primed the crowd, Professor Walton called the prosperity
preachers "spiritual pickpockets."

"To dismiss and ignore the harsh realities of this economic crisis," he
said. "is beyond irresponsible, to the point of reprehensible."


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