One of the most popular marketing strategies currently assumes widespread allegiance to something called “The Law of Attraction.” It’s based on the new age belief that we personally determine our wealth or poverty.
I grew up in the heart of “The Bible Belt,” granddaughter of a popular evangelist whose “Daily Bible Lessons” on WLAC kept Middle Tennessee spellbound from 1928 – 1935. My mother claimed if you were shopping downtown in Nashville at noon you could walk from store to store following the sermon as it played on every shop-keeper’s radio. The broadcast became the longest continually running religious broadcast and set a standard for the nation.1
I left that congregation long ago, but certain teachings New Testament teachings remain the rudder of my core beliefs. They probably explain why I find The Law of Attraction distressing – even blasphemous. (See my blog “Equal Opportunity” which directs readers to early Church teachings far removed from grandiose “Papal Trappings.”)
One of the most influential bestsellers that illustrates how the New Thought movement’s shifted toward individual prosperity was Ralph Waldo Trine’s “In Tune with the Infinite.” A popular writer and lecturer, Trine taught that the ability to channel positive thoughts leads to success. Published in 1897, the book sold millions of copies and gained Trine a wide following, including automobile industrialist Henry Ford.
Trine emphasized that happiness was largely a matter of positive thinking. As he noted in his book,
“If one holds themselves in the thought of poverty they will be poor, and the chances are that they will remain in poverty. If one holds themselves, whatever present conditions may be, continually in the thought of prosperity, they set into operation forces that will sooner or later bring them into prosperous conditions.”
By the 1920s, the New Thought phenomenon had splintered into numerous small organizations. However, its’ belief that individuals possessed a God-given facility to change their life through positive thinking became embedded in mainstream Christianity.
New Thought ideas about individual happiness and wealth are seen above all in a movement called “prosperity gospel.”
The prosperity gospel refers to a belief that religious faith can lead one to personal health and material wealth. In the early 20th century, this movement depicted Jesus as a guide to economic success. Indicative of this trend was the publication of a 1925 book by Bruce Barton, “The Man Nobody Knows.”
Barton was a highly successful advertising executive and future Republican congressman, who characterized Jesus as the prototype of the modern business executive.
“He picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that conquered the world.”
So there you have it -The Corporate Messiah. To find out more about what Jesus actually thought, read Reza Aslan’s book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Probably not what you were taught.
