TD Jakes and Woman Thou Art Loosed
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Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CGU Theses & Dissertations CGU Student Scholarship 2012 The al-MW artization of African American Religion: T.D. Jakes and Woman Thou Art Loosed Paula L. McGee Claremont Graduate University Recommended Citation McGee, Paula L.. (2012). The Wal-Martization of African American Religion: T.D. Jakes and Woman Thou Art Loosed. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 70. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/70. doi: 10.5642/cguetd/70 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the CGU Student Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in CGU Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE WAL-MARTIZATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION T.D. JAKES AND WOMAN THOU ART LOOSED BY PAULA L. MCGEE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA 2012 © COPYRIGHT PAULA L. MCGEE, 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED APPROVAL OF THE REVIEW COMMITTEE This dissertation has been duly read, reviewed, and critiqued by the Committee listed below, which whereby approves the manuscript of Paula L. McGee as fulfilling the scope and quality requirements for meriting the degree of doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) in Women’s Studies in Religion with a concentration in Theology, Ethics and Culture. ROSEMARY RUETHER, PH.D., CHAIR Claremont Graduate University Professor of Religion ZAYN KASSAM, PH.D. Pomona University Professor of Religious Studies PHIL ZUCKERMAN, PH.D. Pitzer College Professor of Sociology LEWIS V. BALDWIN, PH.D. Vanderbilt University Professor of Religious Studies ABSTRACT OF DISSERATION THE WAL-MARTIZAION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION T.D. JAKES AND WOMAN THOU ART LOOSED BY PAULA L. MCGEE CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY 2012 This dissertation is an ideological critique of the New Black Church model of ministry, with T.D. Jakes and Woman Thou Art Loosed (WTAL) as a case study. T.D. Jakes is an African American televangelist who pastors The Potter’s House, a supermegachurch in Dallas, Texas. He is the quintessential example of a New Black Church pastor—a religious entrepreneur with several successful faith brands. WTAL is by far his most successful brand. Unashamed of his capitalist success, with an empire estimated to be worth $100 million dollars, Jakes says that it is occupational discrimination for him not to reap the benefits of the American dream. This dissertation identifies what has happened to the brand and Jakes’s ministry as “the Wal-Martization of African American Religion.” As a theoretical concept, Wal-Martization speaks to both the ideology and process that explains the generational differences between the New Black Church and the Black Church. It also is indicative of the branding and storytelling at every level of representation of the New Black Church. Jakes and New Black Church pastors are successful because they blur the lines between sacred and secular when they combine their vocations of pastor and entrepreneur. In this dissertation, I propose a cultural studies approach and a two-fold theological method for scholars to study these popular preachers. The method combines James McClendon’s Biography as Theology and Paul Tillich’s definitions of theology and theological norm from Systematic Theology. The method is a collaborative effort between the academic theologian and preacher. The scholar uses Biography as Theology to study the preacher (Jakes), and the second part of the method, Brand as Theology and Theological Norm, is where the scholar uses qualitative research methods to study the brand (WTAL). I define theologies of prosperity as contextual theologies of empire on a continuum that affirm it is God’s will and a believer’s right to obtain health and wealth by using Scripture and rituals like seed-faith giving and positive confession. Because these popular preachers offer adherents existential explanations for suffering (health and wealth), and prescriptions for liberation, I describe theologies of prosperity as theodicy and contemporary liberation theology. However, unlike traditional liberation theologies, these theologies do not have a preferential option for the poor. Instead, Jakes and other New Black Church pastors only offer adherents a pseudo-liberation. In essence, the stories of liberation that Bishop Jakes tells in his brands do not actually empower women, ideologically these stories only encourage women to stay loyal to his brand, become covenant ministry partners, and to buy more products. Jakes and New Black Church pastors are from the Second Gilded Age, they encourage women to pursue individual success within an oppressive system. Similar to Russell Conwell and other celebrity clerics from the First Gilded Age, Jakes and these pastors inadvertently blame the victims for their poverty and for not reaping the benefits of the American Dream, which according to prosperity preachers is available to all. DEDICATION To (Dr.) Dianne Marie McGee, my mother, who was my best teacher and always administered life's toughest qualifying exams. Not only was she beautiful, smart, and prophetic—she dared to dream a bigger dream for her daughters than she dreamed for herself. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project at times was overwhelmingly painful. Unexpectedly, it violently ventured into too many of my tender places. However, I am thankful for the many prayers and conversations with preachers, scholars, professors, and classmates. I am especially grateful to the CGU Writing Center and the dissertation boot camps. I would like to especially thank my friend Paula McGhee, with the “h,” who partnered with me and vigilantly became a sponsor, when the dissertation process felt like I needed a twelve-step program. Cara Pfeiffer made the scripture, “beware of those who have entertained angels unaware,”—real. She appeared at the very end of the process and worked diligently to get the final submission completed. Most importantly, I would like to thank my “dream team,” to pull a basketball metaphor from my past life. Rosemary, Zayn, Dr. Phil, and Dr. Baldwin—your work was definitely interdisciplinary and revolutionary. I look forward to the work that we will do in the future. Thank God! This station on my journey is finally over. I place my Ph.D. and these words on the altar. We anxiously await with tip-toe anticipation, to see what God will do with Reverend Doctor Paula. PREFACE In this work I converse with some scholars more than others because their pioneering contributions unlocked new pathways and new academic discourses. Authors like Shayne Lee with his work on Jakes and Milmon Harrison’s Righteous Riches were food for the soul. Marla Frederick’s Between Sundays is an impeccable treatise. Marla writes as an anthropologist, but tells her stories like a woman of faith. Marla Einstein’s Brands of Faith gave me permission to tell the story of my own brands. Finally, Paul Tillich’s classic, Systematic Theology, and Paul Gifford’s critical commentary on prosperity Pentecostalism, especially in Africa, are mentioned in almost every chapter. One of the challenges of a truly interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary project is that you must to teach scholars the terminology and philosophy of their neighboring scholars—and you must teach them well. As a result, this dissertation overflows with footnotes. Long explanatory notes fill the bottom of almost three hundred formatted pages. A long bibliography directs future scholars into the conversation and acts as the final benediction for scholarly worship with confession, repentance, and celebration. I give myself permission to write as me—a religious woman of color and scholar—not beholding to sexist, racist, androcentric, and patriarchal language. Women’s Studies and Cultural Studies provide the framework to dance on the pages with many clever words and symbols. [Brackets] encompass the words that replace God as Him, and the phrases that historically decided to only speak to brothers and the brotherhood. Most times, the words are changed to [God], [him or her], or [s/he]. Some statements remain intact because the alteration changes the author’s intent or style. Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza strategically uses an “*” for G*d and the*logy; however, for such a lengthy project the insertions are too cumbersome for a friendly v read. My invitation to the womanist, feminist, queer, resisting readers illumines the challenge and reminds the faithful that regardless of our vigilance, the literary voice of the white straight male American Christian still oppresses and silences many. At a minimum, I converse with those writers and scholars that want to be like Moses, who according to the writer of Hebrews, refused to be known as the [child] of Pharoah’s daughter. Instead he chose to suffer with the people of God. Maybe we too, by faith, can choose to suffer with the people of our God/desses and refuse those words that seek to control us and our stories. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1...........................................................................................................................1 T.D. JAKES, WOMAN THOU ART LOOSED, AND THE NEW BLACK CHURCH My Story as a Preacher and Scholar in the New Black Church………………………......7 Defining the Black Church and the New Black Church…………………………………17 A New Relationship between the Pastor/Preacher and the People………………………25 A New Theology