Abstract
In recent years, there is growing concern with some of the bizarre practices in some neoprophetic churches. Amongst the concerns raised are the bizarre practices and the commercialisation of churches with claims that churches are being turned into lucrative businesses. In this article, the relationship amongst prophets, churches and commerce is explored, focusing on competitive behaviour in an open market or free market. The article engages the following issues: firstly, the issue of religious marketing in the context of a free market and consumerism; secondly, branding faith in relation to competition between churches and brands of prophets and thirdly, fraudulent activities facilitated by prophets.Contribution: The article provides a critical assessment of the practices of prophets and neoprophetic churches considering their commercial interests. Thus, the study points to the intersection between religion and commerce.
Highlights
When you think you have seen it all, something bizarre happens in some South African churches
The statistical information released by STATSSA in 2014 showed that Christianity still had a grip in the religious market place, with 85.6% of South Africans claiming to be Christians (STATSSA 2013): The fact that Christianity is no longer the state religion and that people have the right to choose the religion of their choice implies that the religious sphere has become more competitive
The CRL Rights Commision in an attempt to address the challenges posed by the bizarre practices amongst some churches has recommended the following amongst other things: the establishment of the Peer-Review Committee (PRC), which will be composed of representatives from various religions in South Africa
Summary
When you think you have seen it all, something bizarre happens in some South African churches. Problem-solution advertising In our context, the brand prophets and their churches present themselves as offering solutions and utilise three main strategies: firstly, they televise incidents that portray real and life-changing spiritual encounters with the man of God of prophecy, people going into trances, healing, demonic encounters and so on. These are intended to project the man of God as powerful. This is not characteristic of most of the churches in South Africa, rather, it is risk, which should be associated mainly with the neoprophetic churches
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