Paula White, a wealthy televangelist and longtime friend of Donald Trump, has become an unlikely leader of American Christianity. The first clergywoman to pray at a presidential inauguration, White now serves as the head of Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board, acting as his ambassador to the Religious Right. Trump and White are perfect for one another—both live lavish lifestyles, have been investigated by Congress, and exemplify a branch of Pentecostal Christianity called the “prosperity gospel.”
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In other words, the prosperity gospel explains away luck. Good things happen because of the capitalist might of God, and bad things come to those who fail to live up to his commands. The prosperity gospel, according to Bowler, “is a language of guarantees and formulas.” It acts as a checklist of works to be done before the blessings of God can come to the faithful. In such a framework, evil cannot exist and personal responsibility reigns supreme—your faith is responsible for everything that happens to you. It’s a natural fit for any late capitalist society, marked by calcified inequality and austerity, because it explains away the deep societal problems that individuals are powerless to change.