The Great Recession and the Future of the Megachurch

by Lerone Martin

Why is Reverend Creflo Dollar, megachurch pastor and scion of the prosperity gospel, telling his congregation “Life is too short to be worried about possessions?” Maybe it’s because even megachurches are at risk in the new economy.

The latest employment numbers released by the U.S. Department of Labor show that regional unemployment is highest in the same regions, the west and the south, that host the highest concentrations of megachurches in the country.

The once prosperous Southern and Western regions now both have higher unemployment rates than the once struggling states of the Rust Belt. The Western region boasts the highest unemployment rate in the nation (12.1%) and six of the ten states with the highest unemployment rates are in the South.
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