Kenneth Copeland Analysis | What is "Prosperity Gospel?"

hello this is dr grande today's question asks if i can analyze the characteristics of kenneth copeland copeland operates a large ministry based in texas where he promotes the idea of prosperity gospel just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoy this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video so first i'll start with the background and then i'll review some of the characteristics of copeland kenneth copeland was born in lubbock texas on december 6 1936. he was married in 1955 divorced in 1958 married again in 1958 divorced in 1961 and married again in 1963. in 1967 he attended oral roberts university not long after this he worked for oral roberts as a pilot and chauffeur along with his wife copeland runs kenneth copeland ministries based in fort worth texas the facilities are in 33 acres he's got a church warehouse a television and radio production studio an airport and his personal residence all on that property his net worth is somewhere between 300 and 760 million dollars copeland also owns a few jets one is a gulfstream five which he purchased from tyler perry a well-known producer and actor this jet brand new would have cost around 36 million dollars copeland didn't say how much he paid but he said tyler perry gave him a good deal copeland claims that the ministry that he has has brought 122 million people to the lord jesus christ copeland believes in and promotes what is referred to as prosperity gospel or prosperity theology similar to oral roberts jim baker and joel osteen also believed in this philosophy prosperity gospel essentially says that certain people are destined to be made wealthy by god but those people have to pray and give money to certain ministry leaders in order to unlock that blessing even though this belief is popular among certain protestant groups it is not consistent with christianity if prosperity gospel was a store it would be located at the intersection of narcissism drive and religion circle it portrays god as a banker who financially rewards and punishes people if someone is wealthy god favored them because they're doing the right thing if they are poor or for that matter physically or mentally ill that may be thought of as a sign of punishment or a lack of faith certain chosen leaders can get extra rich by directly asking for money from the people kenneth copeland thinks of himself as one of these leaders prosperity gospel only really works for these leaders it's a very effective strategy for them not so much for everybody else basically this is a tactic designed to take money from people who are bad at math a popular construct in prosperity gospel is the idea of a multiplier i've seen many of these looking at many prosperity gospel leaders for example oral roberts would say that if a person gave him money that individual will get seven times the amount back copen appears to believe in a hundred fold return so it's like the prosperity gospel leaders are selling certificates of deposit people are shopping for the greatest return they look at the newspaper and see what the rates are for that day oh look copeland's running a special three days only you can get a 300 fold return i need to send them money right now to get the best rate i was wondering what would happen if somebody gave one hundred dollars and they got back ten thousand dollars and they then donated that ten thousand dollars would they receive a million dollars in return or is it kind of like that rule in the movie aladdin where you can't use one of your three wishes to ask for more wishes in reality of course the multiplier does exist the problem is it's zero the good news is that the math is easy if someone donates a thousand dollars multiply that by zero and you get zero dollars back if you donate a million dollars it's still zero so no matter what's donated the return is always the same most people who lose money to this scam are relatively poor and desperate for a solution to their problems so many already have financial problems and they view this as some type of last-ditch effort to fix everything to set them right financially like they can donate two three or four hundred dollars and they'll get all this money back and they'll be good right so it's just a desperate move kenneth copeland has a message to his followers who are having financial difficulties due to losing a job he said they should continue donating money to him this is like telling someone who is drowning they should try holding cinder blocks prosperity gospel is a worse scam than the lottery at least with the lottery there is some chance of winning again with prosperity gospel the amount back is always equal to zero as i mentioned kenneth copeland is wealthy he has a certain lifestyle he wants to maintain for example he only wants to fly in private jets he said that he did not want to fly commercial because he did not want to get into a long tube with a bunch of demons this statement was a bit confusing because of the plural if copeland was on the plane wouldn't there be just one demon on the plane i'm fuzzy on the math here he said that if he flew commercial he would have to stop 65 percent of what he does again kind of confusing i'm still waiting for the bad news wouldn't that cut people's losses by 65 percent in addition to his thoughts on wealth copeland has unusual thoughts surrounding physical health he claimed that coronavirus was a weak strain of the flu he told his followers that to fear it would be putting faith in the devil and that was a sin when listening to copeland talk about satan it's almost like he's talking about a competitor like don't put your faith in him put your faith in me some people think that copeland is the devil but he may be much worse kenneth copeland makes satan look like tickle me elmo copeland implied that he could heal covid19 he suggested that people should still come to his church like not worry about the social distancing because he could pass out thermometers and if he identified someone with a fever he could heal them right there so he could just save everybody a lot of time and work in a televised sermon airing on march 29 2020 copeland claimed that covet 19 was finished and over he executed judgment on covet 19. copeland said that kova 19 was brought to america by displays of hate against donald trump these displays interfered with divine protection as far as mental health copeland offers plenty of advice here too his website offers tips on fighting social anxiety now i don't know if he wrote this but again it was on his website so it makes sense that he could believe what was written there one of the steps says that social anxiety is a fear that opens the door to the devil it says that when somebody is anxious they should rebuke satan's work and declare themselves healed another step suggests that simply being violent about driving out fear will take care of things so declare yourself healed and aggressively resist social anxiety that's really the advice he has on there copeland has equally perplexing views on post-traumatic stress disorder ptsd he told a group of soldiers that people with ptsd should read bible verses and rebuke satan he issued a statement to clarify what he meant after people got angry and he didn't really help himself in that statement he made it sound as though people with mental disorders should go to treatment professionals but going to them is indicative of a lack of faith it's like he was saying when you fully develop your faith you won't need those professionals anymore so the professionals are a good filler while you're trying to get to an appropriate level of faith treatment professionals are like training wheels as far as his personality it's difficult to know what copeland's personality is really like we don't know if what we're seeing is his personality or a persona an act he puts on for the public we see a few clues potentially into his personality for example there's a recording of copeland reacting to the press indicating that joe biden won the 2020 election copeland laughs at this and it's an unbelievably disturbing and maniacal laugh we also see that a reporter from inside edition asked him a few questions about his wealth and specifically about that statement about not wanting to fly commercial because of all the demons during that discussion we see that he gets an intense look on his face and points at the reporter it was frightening in more than one way he went from this angry look to smiling just like that so we see this quick change and affect i don't know what he's thinking there seems to be some anger but other times he appeared pleasant he went off on a few tangents he didn't seem particularly organized in his thoughts his persona seems to have low openness to experience mid-range conscientiousness high extroversion mid-range to low agreeableness and mid-range to low neuroticism so to sum things up about kenneth copeland his basic strategy has only two parts give him money and rebuke satan considering that when the devil dresses up for halloween he wears a kenneth copeland costume perhaps the lesson we can learn from copeland is really about the importance of identifying satan in the first place those are my thoughts on kenneth copeland please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis on this topic to be interesting thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 249,677

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Id: _FEhMHVzScY

Length: 10min 36sec (636 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 13 2020