Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

by Kate Bowler

The prosperity gospel is a theodicy, an explanation for the problem of evil.

plead with a God of Maybe,

In a spiritual world in which healing is a divine right, illness is a symptom of unconfessed sin—a symptom of a lack of forgiveness, unfaithfulness, unexamined attitudes, or careless words.

you ask people in the prosperity movement how they know their lives are headed in the right direction, they talk a lot about proof.

They are teaching me the first lesson of my new cancer life—the first thing to go is pride.

is an easy lie that has wormed its way into my mind: I am the center that must hold.

Control is a drug, and we are all hooked, whether or not we believe in the prosperity gospel’s assurance that we can master the future with our words and attitudes.

“Keep smiling! Your attitude determines your destiny!” says Jane from Idaho, and I am immediately worn out by the tyranny of prescriptive joy.

Life is so beautiful. Life is so hard.