Melissa Dougherty (24:51)

Yeah.

Ali Stuckey (24:51)

I don't know. I don't know if you've ever talked about the roots of that or why that is.

Melissa Dougherty (24:55)

It's interesting you bring that up. That is a controversial question, especially today's political climate. But I guarantee there's a lot of people watching that are like, ali's not wrong. You know, there's something there. And I was reading Kate Bowler's book. Do you know who that is?

Ali Stuckey (25:09)

Yeah.

Melissa Dougherty (25:10)

And there's a whole section on this that she talks about with the black church and the prosperity gospel and all these other theologies that kind of entered into the black church. I mean, Carlton Pearson is one of them. Carlton Pearson was a Pentecostal word of faith preacher, Reverend Ike. And both of them were very off when it came to a lot of their teachings. That's like an origin there in that regard. I haven't looked too much into it, but you're not wrong.

Ali Stuckey (25:41)

Okay. So I had no idea that that was going to cause any controversy. I started getting some random messages on Instagram, though, from people who didn't follow me maybe a week or so after that episode came out, saying, basically, where do you get off on saying that the prosperity gospel is in the majority of black churches? That's what I kept hearing that you said the majority of black churches preach the prosperity gospel, which is not what I said, but I just ignored it. I didn't think anything of it, but I did. Usually when that happens, when I keep getting the same almost verbatim message over and over again from people who don't follow me, it means that someone fairly influential posted something about something I said, and that that's going around and that's causing people to message me, to find my page and message me about it. So I knew that was a possibility, but I didn't look into it. And then I kept getting messages about it. And then Melissa Doherty sent me a message saying, you know, that our little segments has really caused a scuffle. Like, if people are upset about this, and I didn't know where it started, but as soon as I heard that, I was like, I bet I know exactly who said something about it. So I went to this person's page, and I was immediately verified this was on X. Actually originally saw it on Facebook, but this is Pastor Eric Mason. Now, some of you might know him from his really good work on fatherhood, and he's got some other really good, like theological resources that he's written over the years. But he's also the author of Woke Church, and we'll get into that a little bit in a second. He's a pastor of Epiphany Fellowship Church in Philadelphia, and here's his post. I just watched a clip with two white women saying that the majority of black churches are prosperity churches and theologically unsound. Didn't say that. A black YouTuber. He's talking about someone named Corey Miner and I'll get to his video in a second. A black YouTuber that mainly posts critique videos. Agrees. What are your thoughts? Also give a list of biblically solid black churches and pastors below. Video Response Coming soon if you do an etymology of the prosperity movement, which Preach Damon that's handled did in our book on urban apologetics, you'd see that it began and was spread by whites for the last 100 years. This type of stuff makes me angry. Y'all pray for me because I get in the flesh and want to say unwholesome things. Yikes. What does that mean? What unwholesome things? I'm also kind of just like, this is an aside. I'm stuck on doing etymology. Do an etymology. That's like saying like do a philosophy. Etymology means like the study of a word and you can study the etymology of a word, like you could study the philosophy behind an idea. But I don't know what do an etymology means. That's just an aside. So Eric Mason, he made this video with a couple of guys responding to what we said. His video was titled Emergency Episode Our Majority Black Churches Preaching the Prosperity Gospel. He said, let me preface this by saying a few things. First of all, this is not a witch hunt. Second of all, this is not being divisive. He also says, I talked to Melissa. We had a pretty lengthy 45 minute discussion. She was pretty broken about the comment and repented for it and wanted to make things right with me. And then they go on to say no, that this claim or this question that I had was completely untrue, that my observation and concern was completely unfounded. It's not true. Whatever. I I don't think it's a witch hunt. Like, first of all, say Eric Mason can make whatever content he wants. He can respond to things I put out there. There are some people out there who would say anyone who disagrees with something they say publicly is being attacked. I'm not that person. I Don't feel attacked by people publicly disagreeing with things that I publicly say. People have a right to do that. And I can actually appreciate it when it's done in a respectful way. When he says, this is not divisive. Well, by pointing out the color of our skin, it. That is divisive. I mean, saying that the melanin count of the people who said it is what makes it part of what makes it controversial. Yeah. I mean, that is. You're purposely trying to draw lines there. Whereas I, despite what some of my critics are saying, have talked about the prosperity gospel in all different kinds of churches, led by all different kinds of teachers. A response that I keep hearing and that he said himself is that, what about this white teacher? What about that white teacher? Yeah, 99.9 of the time that I am talking about the prosperity gospel, I am talking about pastors who happen to be white. Like, just take two seconds to look at my repertoire of content that I've put out. Most of the people, I mean, including Andy Stanley, including pastors that I really like, I'm not afraid to talk about the, like, the controversies that they have gotten themselves into. Like, I really like Alistair Begg, I really liked Stephen Lawson and, and John Piper. I mean, all of these people, I've just kind of talked in a hopefully very respectful way about my disagreements with them. But yeah, 99.9 of the time these people happen to be white. And yet because I asked one question, I am being told that I singled out the black church. And this was like, people are saying this is a racist observation. Now, just to give you a little bit of context about who Eric Mason is, he did write this book called Woke Church. This full screen picture right here is from that book. I don't disagree with everything within the book. I think we agree on the fundamentals of the faith, hopefully. But I do just want to point out from this full screen that's in the book, like, what he considers in bad categories of theology or beliefs as a black person he considers bad. This, this statement. I view color blindness as a virtue. I don't think that systemic racism exists any longer. I believe blacks are to blame for our current condition. Those are all statements that he believes. That if you believe those things as a black person, that you are not. That you're not fully awake, that you are blind in some way, that you are asleep in some way, you're not fully woke to what the true gospel intersecting with black identity really is. And obviously that's problematic there. Christians who are fully awake to the reality of the world and reality of the gospel, who view colorblindness as a virtue, who don't think systemic racism exists any longer. And they might believe that black people actually have agency and responsibility for the things that happen to them and their situation. But that's the whole like, white fragility movement that was so popular in 2020 that if you disagree with this, it's because you're not fully awake, it's because you're asleep, you're deceived, you're fragile, whatever. And that's just not. It's not good logic, it's not good argumentation. And it just happens to be a silly, flimsy argument too, pertaining to the part where he said that Melissa DY reached out to him and apologized and was broken over it. I talked to Melissa about this privately and I wasn't going to share her thoughts publicly because it was a private conversation and But I will say that she was very annoyed by how Eric Mason was representing their conversation. She was connected through a good friend. She thought, okay, this might be a way to reconcile. Maybe we can better understand each other. She was simply trying to do the right thing and also honor their mutual friend by having a conversation with a brother in Christ about their apparent disagreement. But how he represented it, that she was repentant, that she was broken over it, that she apologized, she says is not true. And this is not just based on our private conversation, but what she said publicly too. She did say this on X and I just appreciated it. She said, hi everyone. It appears there's been a bit of a scuttle on how the conversation with Eric Mason and I went down. Yes, we did have a conversation. I'm thankful that we had that time to talk because I felt that addressing things privately was both a respectful and biblical approach. But it seems we definitely have a different interpretation of how this conversation went. I won't be responding to any comments here. I stand by the comments I said on Conserved Malin. A person's skin color doesn't determine whether they can know truth or call out terrible and heretical theology. And so that's what she said there. She says that she stands by her comments. So that means no, she wasn't broken over it. She didn't change, you know, her. Her mind on that. I don't know. I won't speak for her. Maybe she would change how she said it or how it went down. I'm not sure. But she how what he is doing is he is trying to say that she was contrite and therefore he is right. He is using that to try to verify, validate, substantiate his perspective. I wonder if he's still feeling in the flesh and wanting to say the unwholesome things after that. I don't know. I wasn't gonna say anything about all of that. When I saw his response video. When I saw his post, I, you know, I again, I knew exactly who had started the controversy. I was not surprised at all when I saw him say two white women. I saw, I saw him, I saw that kind of thing in 2020, okay? And Eric Mason, by the way, he's not some far left progressive, like I would say theologically, on really important things, he is, he's biblical. He's what I would call conservative theologically. But he is hoisted up by a lot of conservative evangelicals, a lot of mainstream conservative evangelicals, even after a lot of nonsense in 2020. And then we've got Anthony Bradley. Okay, this is when I was like, okay, I'm going to respond to this because this just kind of like kicked it off for me. And like, okay, well, I'm just gonna see, I'm just gonna dig further into this. So Anthony Bradley, he's an author, interdisciplinary and theology studies professor. He's also a research fellow at the Acton Institute. It's a non profit research organization. So he posted a video on X and the text above it, above the video, it's of Melissa and I talking on the show. The clip that I just played you, it says two white ladies. We have to say that two white ladies ask, why is the prosperity gospel so popular in the black church? Okay, so his caption on this video, who is this? First of all, he knows we've gone back and forth several times before he says, who is this? The utter nonsense of this is unreal. How on earth can you, with a straight suburban face, Suburban face. So it's okay to use kind of those derogatory statements, those kinds of euphemisms for a white person. I guarantee you that a white person, if a white person said that a black person had an urban face, oh my gosh. With a straight suburban face. Anthony Bradley, the professing Christian, says, alleged that most black churches are prosperity gospel churches. In a world of Joel Osteen, Paula White, Kenneth copeland, Joyce Meyer, etc. Please stop lying on black churches. I didn't say most black churches. I never said most black churches ever actually. And I've talked about all of those people multiple times, much more than I've talked about the black prosperity preachers like Creflo$. I don't think I've ever done an episode dedicated to him. It should be so obvious that he's a false teacher. But I've talked about the others many times now. Again, just to give you context for who Anthony Bradley is, what kind of critiques he levels against people. Just a couple weeks ago, he went after our girl, Megan Basham. Megan Basham tweeted about a director of the Presbyterian Church in America's missions program named Irwin Ince who had issued guidance that advised illegal immigrants on how to avoid ice. And then he had a racially segregated event for black worshipers only. And she called this out and said, this is not a good direction, which she's absolutely right. Anthony Bradley responded to what she said. A totally valid critique of pca, saying Megan Basham is the personification of low iq. Okay, whatever you think about Megan Basham, you know that's not true. Like, she's not dumb. Like, it doesn't matter if you disagree with her. She's obviously smart. Okay? Personification of low iq. This is so dumb. This is the same ignorance that asks, why is there a black church? Research shows that content. Listen. Listen to how below the belt this is. Research shows that content like hers is a sure sign of significant father issues. And then the next reply is a post a picture of four. Four books. And he says, top right, dot, dot, dot, while the title of the book in the top right of the picture is the Absent Father Effect on Daughters. Father Desire. Father Wounds. Yikes. Okay, Megan Basham, I know this for a fact from what she said publicly. And I also, like, we. You know, we have a. We have a friendship. We. We talk as well. And she doesn't have father issues. And by the way, I just want to say, if you do have father issues, like, that doesn't make you low iq, which is basically what he said. And Anthony Bradley has done so much work on the need for fathers. And, like, I won't get into his entire personal history, but a lot of this is just like, it's just projection, okay? But he has done good work on the need of fathers, and he's basically saying that low IQ is an indicator of not having a good relationship with your dad. So I just want to say out there, if you have suffered from fatherlessness, that does not make you dumb. That does not make you less than. That is not the reason for any mistakes that you have made. And I'm not saying Megan Basham has made mistakes, but that's what he's arguing here. And I just want you to know that, that like God is your father, he determines your worth and he has your destiny in his hand. So don't listen to people like this who are just so hateful that they can't even see that they are contradicting their own messages that they have tried to purvey. And Russell Taylor says, he says, Dr. Bradley, you genuinely confused me. You're one of the most insightful and encouraging voices I follow. Yet sometimes these insults and disrespect belittle yourself. You're so capable of engaging with people whom you disagreed on winsome way the insults seem out of character. I haven't really seen that winsomeness and disagreement from Anthony Bradley in a long time. Anthony Bradley did not like this very kind rebuttal. He said you should unfollow. Then he said, when I was an inward for when I was called an inward for seven years by people like Megan, no one came to my defense. And then he goes on and on, really, people like Megan because she's a conservative Christian, so she didn't do it. But people like her called you that and therefore you have to say that she has daddy issues because she said something that you disagree with. Okay, so this is who this person is. And by the way, I am talking about someone who is a professing Christian who has been platformed by Christians, even conservative Christians for his work. I mean, this is a guy who used to be like on Fox News talking about like the black community and the need for fathers and all of that. So I'm not sure totally what happened. He also told Samuel Say, another guest I've had on this show whose writings I really appreciate and have shared many times. Samuel say is from Ghana. By the way, Anthony Bradley said to Samuel say, this is what you say when you're not a part of the black community as a non black person and know nothing the history of our churches and origins. I guess that's a typo. So he's non black. Samuel say is non black who is from Ghana, who is literally actually African. Okay, so that's who this person is. Okay, I just want to read you some research though, about the prosperity gospel in majority black churches. Because there actually is a lot of data out there and I didn't realize how much data there was. But after I started digging into it, I realized that, wow, there's a lot on this. And when I was digging into this, I found an article in the Gospel Coalition by Trevin Wax, March 29, 2012 and it's titled the Black Church and the Black Community. And Trevin Wax is actually interviewing someone. Okay. And so Trevin asks this to the interviewee. How has the prosperity gospel's message of individual empowerment affected many black churches? Here's what the interviewee said. Sadly, the prosperity Gospel has taken the already individualistic, consumeristic American understanding of what it means to follow Christ to a new, destructive level. This is why we included a chapter on this movement. He's talking about a book that he wrote. Its theologically poisonous tentacles have found their way into many black churches, and it is now a major force in the black expression of Christianity in America, Latin America and Africa. Now, who said that? What. What quote was that? That was Anthony Bradley. Anthony Bradley said that. Anthony Bradley said in 2012, the quote that I just read for you, which is in exact alignment with what he apparently is disagreeing with in 2025. Something that I said, something that I asked. And so I posted a transcript of that and I said this you to Anthony Bradley, and he tried this whole semantic parsing out game of, well, you said most. I didn't say most. And I said many. And that's different. And you don't have the data to back it up. Okay, well, what data did you have to back it up? And how about I just cite you as my source next time? Maybe if I just say, instead of many or prevalent, I say a major force in black Christianity around the world. Maybe if I just quote you verbatim and use you as my source, since you say that you've done all of the research on the church, then, okay, then maybe, maybe I'll just do that next time. Maybe I'll do that. And if I did that, I guarantee, if I did that without even citing him, he would have still disagreed with this. Because it's a white. It's a white lady saying it. That's what it comes down to. I said almost the exact same thing as he said 12 years ago, 13 years ago, but I'm white. And he apparently believes that white people shouldn't say certain things. And that's what this comes down to, is that many believe, unfortunately, that you have to be a certain skin color to ask certain questions or say certain things. And I'm just telling you that that's not true, that white people do not need permission to say things or ask things. And Christians can be concerned with all different aspects and manifestations of false teaching, no matter the demographics of the churches that they are talking about. We don't need permission to that. We don't need to be invited into that conversation. We can just say it, okay? This is not 2020. We're not. That finger wagging and manipulation doesn't work around here. And I encourage all of you out there to take that same position. So let's look at some of the research quickly. According to a 2023 study of life by LifeWay of Protestant churchgoers, roughly 71% of Black American churchgoers report their church teaches aspects of the prosperity gospel. And if you need a definer of what prosperity gospel is, it's not just saying that, hey, you should steward your money well, or God may bless you financially, because both of those things are true. Or give generously. That's obviously true. The prosperity gospel teaches if you do this, if you pray this, if you declare this, if you give this money to me, the pastor, the leader of the church, the ministry leader, then God will bless you financially. He'll give you that raise, he'll give you that bag, he'll make sure that you are materially blessed. And in fact, if you are poor, if you haven't gotten that promotion, if you're not financially successful, if you are sick, and if you are depressed, it's because you don't have enough faith, you haven't given enough to the church, you haven't given enough to me. My ministry, people like this Kenneth Copeland, big purveyor of this, we see this a lot. Benny Hinn, as we've talked about several times. But also, yes, you've got Creflo Dollar and others like him who are preaching things like that. And obviously that's contradictory to Christianity. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world. We are called to self denial. Money is not inherently bad. Being rich is not inherently bad. But making an idol of money and thinking that God is a genie that owes you something because of what you do, that's just a misunderstanding, a distortion of the gospel. So 71% of black Americans report themselves that something like that is being preached in their churches. According to a 2021 Pew Research study, roughly 60% of churchgoing Black Americans attend a majority black church. An additional 25% attend a multicultural church. According to a 2015 YouGov study that surveyed a thousand American adults who described themselves as born again or as evangelical. 45% of black Americans believe that prayer can make one wealthier, compared with 19% of all churchgoing Americans. Okay, on the question, is wealth a sign of God's favor? 9% of white, 34% of blacks and 24% of Hispanics said definitely or probably so. Of those surveyed, Black Christians are most likely to say that wealth is a sign of God's favor. From the Gospel Coalition article by Joe Carter. Black evangelicals even held more favorable opinions of prosperity preachers who were not black. That's also a point that I made a question that I asked of Melissa. Like so many of these white prosperity preachers have conger congregations that are largely black, which is interesting. They were okay. According to this survey, black Christians were more likely to have a very or somewhat favorable view of Joel Osteen. 51% of black Christians versus 22% of whites. 39% of Hispanics. Pat Robertson, 41% of blacks have a positive view compared to only 17% for whites. Benny Hinn, 23% positive view of Benny Hinn compared to 4% for whites. And Kenneth Copeland, 34% of black respondents had a positive view of him compared to only 8% for whites. Okay. No other factor in the survey, gender, age, political party identification or geographic region was as predictive of someone supported the prosperity gospel and prosperity preachers as race and ethnicity. Okay. We can link these studies in the description. A 2006 Pew Forum survey titled Spirit and Power A Ten Country Survey of Pentecostals explored religious beliefs and practices across various groups, including a specific focus on Pentecostals and charismatics. Among black Protestants, 66% agreed that God will grant material prosperities prosperity to believers with enough faith. 32% of white Protestants believed that. Okay, like that's a big gap. It's still too high. But you're talking 2/3 versus 1/3. Yeah, it is especially prevalent. That idea is especially prevalent, it seems, among many black Christians. Ryan Burch, researcher director at Faith Counts, which published data on Christians, they released this survey in 2012. To what extent do you read the Bible to learn about attaining health or healing? 53. Or let's see, only 6% of whites said to a great extent that's like why they read the Bible versus 19% of non whites. So that's not just black, that's all non whites. Or to learn about attaining wealth or prosperity. Basically 0% it looks like of white people read the Bible to learn about attaining wealth or prosperity. But about 12% to a great extent of non whites are reading the Bible to learn about attaining wealth or prosperity. So it does seem like ethnicity is a very important predictor in whether or not the likelihood of whether or not someone will be reading for and praying for prosperity gospel themes. He also posted Ryan Bird. She posted this on X. What factors predict a greater belief in prosperity gospel views? African Americans, he said, are on average score. They score two points higher on an eight point scale than the rest of the sample. That's holding factors like income, education, age, gender partisanship and church attendance constant. So you can see the graph that we put up right there for that. Again, that's from 2012. There's an article by a pastor in the Wall Street Journal. This pastor happens to be black. Pastor Soris. This is from October 1, 2010. It's titled Black Churches and the Prosper Gospel. He says Bishop T.D. jakes of the Potter's House in Dallas and Dr. Ivy Hilliard of the New Light Christian center in Houston have motivated many people to avoid the traps of thinking of themselves as permanent victims and to defy conventional stereotypes. The conventional or the prosperity gospel says that everyone can succeed financially regardless of their race or gender or class. It's effectual, effectively changed life expectations for millions of people. However, when leaders of this movement assert that God wants everyone to be wealthy and that richers are of the riches are the automatic outcome for all faithful believers, we should all be suspicious. He says this is all a justification for crass consumerism. He's talking about the problem of all of this, including Bishop Eddie Long in the black church. Okay, the New York Times. There was an article titled too many black churches preach the Gospel of greed by someone who also happens to be black. He said this in this article from 2015. We see the prosperity gospel's influence spreading nationally and internationally as televangelists and celebrity ministers with their mega churches preaches basic tenets in black America. This theology overtakes calls for economic empowerment. Freedom dreams are supplanted by the aspiration to wealth, a theology that suits a vision of capitalism that is devastating our communities and our country. Okay, the Christian Post, this is by Lily Kwan, but she's interviewing Dr. Robert M. Franklin, who also happens to be black. This is from 2007. The title of this article is Prosperity Gospel is the Greatest Threat to Black Churches. Franklin says, I am convinced that the single greatest threat to the historical legacy and core values of the contemporary black church tradition is posed by what is known as the prosecution prosperity Movement. Okay, so it's not just me. People have been saying this for a long time. Albert Mulder also had an article about this in 2010. There are people that have been asking this question, do I think that this only exists in the black church? If you want to call it that. I was careful to say majority black churches, because I think the black church can also just be a misnomer. It's not homogenous, just like the church itself is not homogeneous. And like, yes, there is unity because of our shared belief in the gospel of Christ. But different subsets in different cultures have the propensity to believe different kinds of false teaching. I have talked about all, all different kinds of things that I think women, and maybe in particular white women, have the propensity to believe or to be caught up in. I would say both of my books are kind of like for that demographic that is targeted by certain modes of. Certain modes of manipulation. But that, of course can include women of all different kinds of ethnic backgrounds too. So this is not a zeroing in, this is not a singling out. It was a question. I'm not apologetic for it in the slightest. The data backs up this observation, by the way. And if you care about the souls of people, if you care about the lives of people, if you care about the gospel, you should be saying yes in Amen. When anyone, especially someone with a platform, no matter the color of their skin or their quote unquote suburban face to white ladies, according to Eric Mason, that make him want to say quote unquote unwholesome things in his flesh, you should be rejoicing that this is something that is being discussed. Because if all of this gets even just one person to say, huh, I think my church preaches that that's not the real gospel. And I'm going to get out of that, then it will all be worth it. Okay, I just want to play you two clips. They're a little long, but I want to give credit to these two creators who shared the Erro Heroes and it. I don't think either of their videos were about me. I don't think that they were like, oh, let me come in and try to save Ali Stuckey. I don't think that they were trying to do that at all. I think they were just giving their perspective. They also happen to be black. And so I don't subscribe to the idea that you have to be a certain skin color to say certain things that are true. But since some people do, maybe you can listen to them. Corey Miner, that is the person that Eric Mason originally referenced in his Facebook group post. He did a whole video about this. It's 30 minutes long. You can go watch that whole thing. I'll play you a clip of it where he is giving his thoughts on this. And he is giving, he supplies a lot of receipts of this happening in predominantly black churches. So I'll play you some of this clip. It's not too. And he coming with the bag.

Corey Miner (56:05)

And he coming with the millions and he's coming with the blessing. So he coming with the bag. He'll be coming with the bag when he comes. He'll be coming with the bag when he comes.

Ali Stuckey (56:20)

He'll be coming with the bag.

Corey Miner (56:22)

He'll be coming with the bag. He'll be coming with the bag.

April Chapman (56:26)

How is it not embarrassing? How are you not. You know what I'm ashamed to be. I'm not saying you ought to be ashamed, but I don't want to be associated with these people. I don't want anyone, white, black, Hispanic or any otherwise to look at them and then look at me and say, hey, you know those people, those your people? That is, that as a Christian, I'm embarrassed for them to even pretend to name the name of Christ. I don't think these people are Christian. They can't be. Their, their God is their money.

Corey Miner (56:55)

That the Holy Ghost train you to ask for the right thing. Lord, I want a two story house. What is that? My house. Almost 25,000 square feet. You can get lost in there. I had to get some speakers in there so I can find my wife. I live in it, I drive it. I drive it, I live in it. I drove a Maybach last night. Phantom this morning. This morning. And I'm in a ghost tonight. In case you don't know what a phantom and a ghost is, that's Rolls Royces. But it give him glory. My boys will tell you I'll never hide nothing from the body of Christ. And I. I'm not scared of nobody. God did it. You better not mess with me.

Ali Stuckey (57:51)

Yes, sir.

Corey Miner (57:53)

I tell you so. You know it can happen.

April Chapman (57:55)

They brag about their wealth, they're unapologetic about their wealth. As a matter of fact, they'll come back and tell you that I was wrong for even worrying about how you would think about this prosperity gospel. No, I'm getting my money and I even want my family to get their money too.

Eric Mason (58:09)

I called my son, I said, listen, go find that Rolls Royce.

Ali Stuckey (58:12)

He said, how?

Eric Mason (58:13)

I said, go find it. I don't care what you got to do. Go around the nation in every state you got to. But you find that Rolls Royce. That was God's love that he was trying to show on me. And I let people bondage talking me out. And that was the year I got free from people, free from colored folks, free from church folks. I Got free from white folk. I got free from everybody. Praise God.

Ali Stuckey (58:33)

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Eric Mason (58:36)

My God wants to bless you.

Ali Stuckey (58:42)

I'm sorry you don't want. Want to receive it. I apologize that you hate the prosperity gospel.

April Chapman (58:48)

How do you say that? How do you say that to a bunch of people who, you know, the majority of your congregation is probably struggling financially, but you're talking about your son to go get his Rolls Royce. We know you got him.

Ali Stuckey (58:59)

Yeah. And I know somehow after listening to all this, people are going to be like, well, what about. What about. What about this white preacher? Yeah, I know. I talk about them all the time. It's a problem. It's a huge problem. Prosperity gospel is a huge problem. We're exporting it also to poor countries. It's terrible. But, yeah, as we just looked at the data, unfortunately, this is more prevalent in majority black and majority Hispanic churches, and it's very sad. Okay, we'll end on this. I'll say a little bit after, but my girl April Chapman had a great video on this as well, and here's part of her take 3.

Anthony Bradley (59:34)

Instead of evaluating Ali Beth and Melissa's words against scripture, they immediately defaulted to racial solidarity. As if theological critique is only valid when it comes from someone who looks like us. That's not biblical unity. That's tribalism. That's tribalism that has no place in the body of Christ and is sinful. And what's worse, if you look at this thread, in an effort to defend the black church so hard, just creating this biblically sound expression that don't really exist in the vibrato, like they was talking about it in an effort to defend the black church from the white woman's observations, some of the critics ended up defending the prosperity gospel and the false doctrines that are actually leading people astray. Like, do you see how backwards that is? They didn't say she's wrong because here's what scripture teaches. Instead, they said, she's white, so she has no right to say this. Now, they didn't say this in so many words, but why else all the backlash in the hoopla over a statement of fact? Last time I checked, y'all, Jesus did not die for our skin color. He died to redeem sinners from every tribe, tongue, people, nation, and people grew. And so if we truly believed in the unity of the body of Christ, then we should have welcomed the biblical correction and the critique, no matter who it comes from. But if. If the prosperity gospel is a distortion of the true gospel, and it is, then we should be calling it out, not defending it or explaining in a way or making it up that oh no, no, no, our churches are sound when you know that they're not just because you feel some sort of way about who said it. That's not how. That's not how we do apologetics. It's really not this whole controversy. It is a clear example of how this ethnic narcissism and the racial identity politics has corrupted biblical discernment. When a biblically sound pastor can cause division from a Facebook post just because two white women made a statement of observable fact about the ethnic expression of the black church, you are demonstrating your loyalty is to your race and your culture versus your identities to be hidden in Christ.

Ali Stuckey (62:05)

Some points to consider, some things to consider. You know, all of this kind of reminds me of when I said that Matthew 25 is referencing persecuted Christians and Russell Moore decided to imply that I'm a Nazi in the pages of Christianity Today. And yet where else did I find that arguing argument being made by tons of scholars throughout history, but in the pages of Christianity Today just a few years earlier? It's just that they don't like who is saying it or who is asking it. So I just wanted to offer some some clarity on all of that. Last thing before we head out for the day. Please subscribe to Blaze tv. It is how you can support us. We are dealing with all kinds of shenanigans when it comes to YouTube, when it comes to Apple, when it comes to these major platforms to make sure that we are treated fairly. We have to do a lot of things behind the scenes just to make sure that our content is published and seen and you never know what's going to happen. If you want to make sure that you can always find us at Blaze TV and find content that we are not sharing in front of the paywall content just for our subscribers, then subscribe to Blaze TV. You can go to blazetv.com alli when you do, you can get a discount on your subscription. You get access to all of the exclusive, exclusive content that's made by Blaze TV subs or Blaze TV creators rather. And for those of you who have already subscribed, thank you so much. I appreciate you. All right, we'll be back here tomorrow.