Righteous Riches: The Word of Faith Movement in Contemporary African American Religion PDF
Preview Righteous Riches: The Word of Faith Movement in Contemporary African American Religion
Righteous Riches: The Word of Faith Movement in Contemporary African American Religion MILMON F. HARRISON OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Righteous Riches This page intentionally left blank Righteous Riches The Word of Faith Movement in Contemporary African American Religion milmon f. harrison 1 2005 1 OxfordUniversityPress,Inc.,publishesworksthatfurther OxfordUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellence inresearch,scholarship,andeducation. Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright(cid:1)2005byOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NewYork10016 www.oup.com OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Harrison,MilmonF. Righteousriches:theWordoffaithmovementincontemporaryAfrican Americanreligion/MilmonF.Harrison. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13978-0-19-515313-2;978-0-19-515388-0(pbk.) ISBN0-19-515313-8;0-19-515388-X(pbk.) 1. AfricanAmericans—Religion. 2. Faithmovement(Hagin). I. Title. BR563.N4H3782005 277.3'083'08996073—dc22 2004017069 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper This book is dedicated to my wife, Suzette Denise Harrison This page intentionally left blank Preface Ididnotgrowup“inchurch,”aspartofaformalreligiousbodylike manyofmyclosestAfricanAmericanfriendsandacquaintances.As onewhocametoorganizedreligioninmymid-twenties,Ifound thattherewasmuchtolearnthatsomanyofthoseinmyimmedi- atecirclealreadyknewandtookforgranted.Inearly1987Iwasa newconvertbeginningtheprocessofsocializationintotheworldof ChristianityinaWordofFaithMovementchurch.Thiswasthe samechurchinSacramento,California,thatservesasthebackdrop forthisbook.Asanexcited,bornagain,“baby”Christian(asnew convertsareoftenreferredto),Ispentmanyhoursinchurchser- vices,Biblestudies,andotherstructuredactivitieslearningtheba- sicsofChristianbeliefandpractice.Duringthisperiodofaccultura- tionintothissubcultureIalsolearnedwhatwasexpectedofmein mynewroleas“churchmember.”Iservedasavolunteerinthe ministryinanumberofcapacities,spendinginnumerablehours working,andintheprocessIlearnedthecultureofmylocalchurch andthelargermovementfromtheinsideoutandcametoidentify myselfaspartofthisworld.TheWordofFaithMovementandthe FaithMessageinmylocalchurchformedmyfirstimpressionof whatitactuallymeanttoliveaChristianlife.ItwastherethatImet, andlatermarried,mywife.Afewyearslater,asanundergraduate sociologymajorattheUniversityofCalifornia,Davis,Ifoundthat myexperienceasachurchmembershapedmyinterestinthesocio- logicalstudyofreligion.Ihadtolooknofurtherthanmyowncom- viii preface munityoffaithasIbegantoformulatetheresearchquestionsthateventually ledtomydoctoraldissertationandthisbook. ButalthoughIhavepersonalknowledgeand“insider”experiencewiththe Word of Faith Movement and the local church that served as the setting for this book, my intention was not to write an expose´ of the movement,itsdoc- trine, or its members or leaders. There are plenty of other places for readers togoifthatiswhattheyareseeking.Ratherthisbookismyattempttoinitiate constructiveinquiryintoacontemporaryreligiousmovementthathasreceived a considerable amount of attention in the popular Christian press while, for some reason, scholars of religion have left it relatively untouched. The target audienceforthisbookisthereaderwhoisnotanexpertinthisareaofstudy but who is, nevertheless, interested in learning more about the movement without being subjected to a theological apologia or a delineation oftheways it is doctrinally in error. For this reason some of my observations have been written less for sake of argumentation or to advance sociological theory,than to help expose the reader to some of the details about this movement, its doctrines, and some of its most prominent figures. Many of these are recog- nizable personalities readers may have already encountered via the broadcast media but until now have not had the larger context in which to place them. Theaimofthisbookistoprovidesuchacontext. A major goal of this book is to providea venue for theopinionsand per- spectives of “ordinary” members of a congregation within thelargerWord of Faith Movement to speak on various issues concerning their own faith and theirapplicationofit.Iwantedreaderstobeabletogaininsightintotheways membersactivelystruggletomakemeaningoftheirbeliefsandwhattheyare beingtaught,inthecontextoftheireverydayexperience.Inthedailyroundof everyday experience is where religion loses its abstraction and becomes real foritsadherents.Forthisreason,Ihavelimitedabstracttheoreticaldiscussions and tried to write in language that is straightforward, clear, and as free of sociological jargon as possible. As a researcher and a writer, the accessibility of my work to as broad an audience as possible is an important part of my valuesandmypolitics,andIhopethatIhaveremainedtruetoboth. Finally,althoughIamnolongeramemberofaWordofFaithMovement congregationasIwaswhenIbeganthisresearch,havingbeenamemberhas beenatonceanassetandaliability.Myrelativeinsiderstatusprovidedaccess andacertaindegreeofinsightintotheworldaboutwhichIhavewritten.Along with those I interviewed for the book, I have personally lived and witnessed manyofthetypesofthingsIhavewrittenabouthereevenbeforebecominga sociologist. But just as much as it has helped me in this project, my insider status has also been a hindrance inasmuch as it produced in me a strong
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