By Rev. Susan Newman

The bible says, “The love of money is the root of evil.” (I Timothy 6:10). The Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter, II, better known as “Reverend Ike,” who passed away on July 28, at the age of 74, famously declared that, “The lack of money is the root of all evil. I am not a black preacher. I’m a green preacher. The only color of power in the American economy is green power.”

It was on this premise that Rev. Ike built a movement and his fortune, inspired countless others, and launched “prosperity consciousness” into the religious realm via mass media.

Reverend Ike was born on June 1, 1935, in Ridgeland, South Carolina, to an African-American schoolteacher mother and a Baptist minister father from Dutch Indonesia. At 14, he became assistant pastor in his father’s church. After attending the American Bible College in Chicago, and spending two years as an Air Force chaplain, Rev. Ike founded his first church in Boston, then relocated to New York City, where he bought the United Palace [movie] Theater 175th Street and Broadway for more than a half-million dollars, and used it as the headquarters for his United Church Science of Living Institute. The size of the marquee prompted him to shorten his name to Rev. Ike.

As his congregation grew to number in the thousands, Rev. Ike had a bigger vision. In the 1970s, he added nationwide tours and radio and televised broadcasts of his sermons in major media markets, back when America only had four TV channels—ABC, CBS, NBC, and an UHF channel.

This handsome African-American man with a Colgate smile, black curly hair, pencil-thin mustache, bright colored suits, frilly shirts, and huge pinky diamond rings on both hands was seen and heard in an estimated 2.5 million homes proclaiming “You can’t lose with the stuff I use!” Other popular phrases he used were “Prosperity Now,” “Thinkonomics,” and “positive self-image psychology.”

Black people flocked to his Harlem church offering their hard-earned money, in hopes of receiving a financial blessing. They rode the subway to see him; he drove a Bentley. They lived in the projects; he lived in a mansion. They wanted to have money, and he had plenty of money—theirs.

Reflecting upon Rev. Ike’s influence on the black faith community, the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Pastor Emeritus, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago said, “Growing up in the home of a seminary-trained pastor who graduated from Virginia Union University, being the grandson and the nephew of seminary-trained pastors and seminary professors and being from a family with close ties to Dr. Samuel Dewitt Proctor, Dr. Gardner Taylor and Dr. Sandy Ray, I was taught that Rev. Ike’s non-seminary distortions of the gospel were leading poor black folk down the primrose path. Folk flocked to him just like they played the numbers, hoping to score big and get rich—a hope that did not materialize.”

Rev. Ike said that the Science of Living “is a philosophy not a theology. Anything that you can honestly think and feel that you deserve, must come to you. If you feel you deserve a million dollars, that million dollars must come to you. Whatever you want, accept it first of all in your consciousness, and it must come to you—from within your own consciousness.” Rev. Ike extended the message of heaven’s rewards from “pie in the sky by and by” to “steak on my plate while I wait.”

Rev. Ike’s message “was not particularly new,” said The Reverend Dr. Edward L. Wheeler, President, Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana. “Others had promoted a ‘prosperity’ message before him. Daddy Grace and Father Divine are two examples.  Nevertheless, Rev. Ike was perhaps the first to use the medium of television to promote his message, and he was a master salesman,” Wheeler explained. “He was flamboyant and charismatic, which played well on the television. He took the concept of ‘positive thinking’ that was current in the broader culture, combined it with his version of the Christian message and then tailored it for the black and the poor communities. While I find his message exploitative and self-serving, it gave hope to many and was a corrective to the ‘pie in the sky’ ideas that so many orthodox churches proposed. Rev. Ike believed that heaven could come on earth for those who trusted him and his message.”

Rev. Ike proved a catalyst for others, black and white, religious and secular, from Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson, to Father Divine, Sweet Daddy Grace, T.D. Jakes, Creflow Dollar and Fred Price. Mark Victor Hansen, who created the mega-bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, cites Rev. Ike as an inspiration, “I went bankrupt and was WIPED OUT financially. I was sleeping in front of a door, when somebody said, ‘What you need to do is hear Rev. Ike. I went to hear him at his church, and I was ‘WOWED!’ At that time I had NEVER heard anybody preach and teach Positive Self-Image Psychology and Self-Motivation like Rev. Ike. I sat in the pews of his church and worked with his ‘stuff’ and now I am blessed to live in a fine house with my lovely wife and two daughters. We live in dignity and style and I am successful and prosperous beyond my wildest dreams.”

Reverend Ike

There are two sides to the coin of prosperity preaching. As The New York Times reported in their July 30 obituary, Rev. Ike’s “critics saw the donations as the entire point of his ministry, calling him a con man misleading his flock. His defenders, while acknowledging his love of luxury, argued that his church had roots both in the traditions of African-American evangelism and in the philosophies of mind over matter…Because of his emphasis on material self-fulfillment, Reverend Ike alienated many traditional Christian minister as well as leaders of the civil rights movement, who believed black churches should further social reform.”

In her article, “Believers Invest in the Gospel of Getting Rich,” in the August 15, 2009 New York Times, Laurie Goodstein covered a recent Kenneth and Gloria Copeland Ministries event in Fort Worth, Texas, observing, “Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the ‘prosperity gospel’ movement are drawing sizable, adoring audiences. Their message—that if you have sufficient faith in God and the Bible, and donate generously, God will multiply your offerings a hundredfold—is reassuring to many in hard times.”

However, it is a momentary feeling of assurance. People come from across the nation with their hard-earned wages ready to lay it all on the altar or empty their pockets in large collection buckets, hoping that their financial sacrifice will transform their minimum wages to luxurious cars, private airplanes, jewelry, and mansions. They have saved up their money for months, traveled across miles in planes, trains, and automobiles, waiting for a cash windfall from God’s messenger. Many prosperity preachers like the Copelands have told them, “God knows where the money is, and he knows how to get the money to you.”

The New York Times obituary said that Rev. Ike had been accused of “preying on the poor,” and that his businesses had been investigated by both the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Postal Service.

While Rev. Ike’s brand of theology spawned a movement that is still successful today, pastors like myself prefer more of a social justice gospel, where it’s not just all about me prospering and advancing, it’s about me and the community. As a pastor, I would want the flock in these uncertain economic times to stay home, and save their money instead of spending it on travel, hotels, food, tapes, and DVDs. Save the money and use it for the household budget, and plan a local “staycation” with family. In this time of recession, shouldn’t the shepherd think of the needs of the sheep first instead of adding more trappings of excess to the shepherd? If you’re so inspired to give financially and support a specific ministry – give to the elder care ministry or after-school mentoring program at the neighborhood church. You will see the fruits of your offering in the lives of your neighbors. In reality, when sickness or tragedy invades our lives, it is not the Joel Osteens of the world that come to our hospital bedside and pray with our family – it is the local pastor.

Unlike Rev. Ike, I believe that soul power is greater than green power; that seeking to live a life of service to others, committing one’s time and resources to the uplift of neighbor is a far greater goal in life than a singular focus of extravagant living. I enjoy earning money from hard work, wise investments, and wealth building, but as fruit from the labor of my hands, not the manipulation of others.

As a minister, I encourage others to find their passion and find a way to support their life through that passion. Prosperity comes when you think about the lasting and memorable things of life, not the temporal. One of my favorite affirmations is found in Philippians 4:8 which says, “Finally, beloved, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” I try to shape my passions and goals in life around this principle. I may not be a millionaire financially, but I’ve enjoyed a windfall of friendship and love.

The Reverend Dr. Frank Thomas, Pastor of the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, Memphis, TN, while acknowledging huge theological differences between himself and Rev. Ike, pointed out that “Many people missed the appeal of Rev. Ike’s theology to African Americans based upon their desire to possess a share of the American dream. I have been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and suggest that he believed that prosperity was a liberation strategy.”

Rev. Ike taught “If you want to experience the very best in life, you must believe you deserve the best! Anything you don’t deserve, you cannot have. This will bring you anything you desire in the newness of conscious. Anything that you can actually think and feel that you are worthy of must come to you.”

There are some things in life that are more rewarding and fulfilling to experience and possess than money. In 33 years of pastoral ministry, I’ve never sat beside a person in their final moments of life and heard anyone ask about their savings account balance or the stock market. They speak of their loved ones, and how they’ve tried to live a life pleasing to God and others. Money is never mentioned. Many end their life in peaceful rest, having filled their days in sharing themselves with others. Some make the transition rehearsing regrets for not spending enough time with others.

I’ve never heard anyone speak of money, or the job, or the car.  We all need money to sustain our lives and families. It is a means to an end, not the end in itself. I cannot pay my rent, and buy food with a smile and a “Praise the Lord!” I need money for that. But when I was seven, I learned from Ms. Clara Powell, my charismatic Sunday School teacher, in a plain navy blue dress, and small pearl earrings that “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” She taught me the importance of completing a task well; saving my allowance to buy what I needed; and helping others as Jesus did. She taught me the importance of a life focused on being and becoming, not getting and having. I’m not rich in things, but wealthy in soul. Like Rev. Ike, I fully believe that “You can’t lose with the stuff I use!”

Reverend Dr. Susan Newman is president of Sincerely Susan, LLC.    www.sincerelysusan.com