The Exurban Gospel of Prosperity

There's a good article on Slate (online) Magazine today, about one of the "exurban" mega-church pastors, Joel Osteen (article by Christopher Lehman, see the link over to the left under the del.icio.us links). It is rather a ringing indictment, and echoes much of what makes many of us uncomfortable with Christianity presented as a way to achieve "prosperity." Here is an excerpt:

[The] exurban image of God the indulgent dad is among the more troubling features of the gospel according to Osteen. For it turns out that the divine hand turns up everywhere, at least in Joel Osteen's life. God upgrades his reservations to first class on a long international flight; God spares his car in a water-planing wipeout on the Houston interstate; God allows Osteen and his wife/co-pastor, Victoria, to flip a property "for twice as much as we paid for it" in a once-sketchy Houston neighborhood; God swings a critical vote on the Houston zoning board to permit Lakewood to move to its mammoth Compaq Center digs... This is... an eerily collapsible spiritual narcissism that downgrades the divine image into the job description for a lifestyle concierge.