Abstract
When athletes give interviews about their success, they tend to iterate on themes of self-assuredness, dedication to a goal, positive thinking, and divine blessing. By examining the history of prosperity theology in the U.S., we can see one possible source of this rhetoric. Prosperity theology teaches believers that God wants them to be healthy and wealthy and that the means to achieve health and wealth are at a believer’s fingertips. All one must do is give faithfully to one’s church, never waver in one’s belief that God will grant health and wealth, and act as though one has already received the blessing one desires. While scholars have long critiqued prosperity theology for obscuring structural inequalities, particularly those that impact people of color, the philosophy remains popular in many congregations across the U.S. and is nearly ubiquitous in black churches. Examining similarities in the rhetoric of prosperity gospel and athletes’ narratives of their success shows that these narratives also contribute to the faulty logic of meritocracy by ignoring systemic inequalities.
Highlights
Tara Lipinski, fifteen-year-old figure skating gold medalist, appeared on The OprahWinfrey Show after her win in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan
Two things are central to prosperity gospel: first, God desires all believers to be healthy and wealthy, and second, believers have the power to demand these outcomes from God
Just as the prosperity gospel worldview fails to account for structural inequalities that contribute to poverty and health challenges, athletic narratives that emphasize desire to win, believing in oneself, and/or God’s will as key to their success fail to account for the athletes who subscribe to this philosophy but yet are never able to compete at elite levels
Summary
Tara Lipinski, fifteen-year-old figure skating gold medalist, appeared on The Oprah. Winfrey Show after her win in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Two things are central to prosperity gospel: first, God desires all believers to be healthy and wealthy, and second, believers have the power to demand these outcomes from God. In Lipinski’s telling, Saint Teresa fulfills this role: Lipinksi has been praying to. The prosperity gospel is a central part of wordof-faith teachings and suggests God wants all believers to prosper financially and will bless them according to their faith. When prosperity gospel preachers use “name it and claim it” rhetoric, they are presenting a world wherein faithful believers should demand their success and feel assured that their success will be divinely granted. Just as the prosperity gospel worldview fails to account for structural inequalities that contribute to poverty and health challenges, athletic narratives that emphasize desire to win, believing in oneself, and/or God’s will as key to their success fail to account for the athletes who subscribe to this philosophy but yet are never able to compete at elite levels. In order to demonstrate how the rhetoric of prosperity gospel came to be present in athletes' narratives of success, it will be helpful to provide historical context for the emergence and rise of prosperity gospel approaches
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