Rich and Equal in the Eyes of Almighty God! Creflo Dollar and the Gospel of Racial Reconciliation

Abstract

AbstractProsperity preachers are generally critiqued by outsiders because of their contention that God wants all believers to be rich. They take the money of sincere parishioners and live lavish lifestyles while many of their hearers continue to live in poverty. However, there is another danger inherit in prosperity preaching: the denial of the relevance of race to the social existence of all Christians. This essay examines the writings and sermons of Creflo Dollar, Jr. to explore his teachings about race. Though Dollar presents his theology as antiracist in theory, I seek to delineate and disclose the perils of his teachings on racial identity and racial reconciliation in order to demonstrate how he, in fact, sabotages the potential of true racial reconciliation for his adherents. True racial reconciliation acknowledges the existence of not only individual sin but also systemic sin that negatively impacts the lives of all people.