Religious hucksters coming to Grand Rapids to preach the marketplace

As if Grand Rapids needed more snake oil salesmen to come to this city to convince the masses that God wants you to be rich, to be an entrepreneur, and that you can just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

I guess, in some pathological way it makes sense. I mean Grand Rapids has its own Prosperity Gospel advocates, those who believe that Capitalism and Christianity are greater bedfellows. This is essentially the message that the DeVos and Van Andels have been preaching through Amway, it’s what the far right think tank Acton Institute believes, along with more recent entities such as Thrive & Prosper.

Despite these homegrown versions of the Prosperity Gospel, the organization known as Life Surge will be hosting an event at the Van Andel Arena on Saturday, September 13th. The Chief Entrepreneurial Officer of Life Surge, Joe Johnson says:

Our mandate is to provide an opportunity for each attendee and believer to experience increase in their personal lives, careers, businesses, wealth, and legacy for the generations to follow.

Tickets for the Life Surge event ranges from $30 per person to $497 per person, which will allow you to hear from a bunch of grown men motivate you to turn your life over to Jesus and grow your wealth. Life Surge President Shawn Marcell said in a recent interview:

“But the marketplace is also a source of where you get your revenue,” he continued. “And those revenues, if you understand and you have a vision for what God can do in and through you—through your resources—then you can make greater impact.”

I don’t know about you, but I find this shit nauseating. But wait, there is more. Life Surge started around the same time as COVID did and they have been traveling across the US preaching their prosperity gospel nonsense to the masses. What follows are some of their messages I found on their Facebook page. 

Building Wealth Through Property: Kingdom-Minded Real Estate Strategies. Holy shit! With the ongoing market-based housing crisis, which is a crisis because it is market based, Life Surge wants you to invest in real estate property and develop strategies for making money off of real estate. Of course, it is all for the glory of God.

Management Principles: Tenant Screening, Maintenance Planning and Cash Flow Management. This makes complete sense. Hey, God wants us to be landlords so we can scrutinize people living in poverty, exploit them and then figure out how we are going to spend the profits we have sucked out of our tenants. 

The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is a slave to the lender. In the caption of this meme, Life Surge writes, “Proverbs 22:7 isn’t meant to shame—it’s meant to shift your mindset.Freedom isn’t found in ignoring the numbers. It’s found in facing them with faith and a plan.” Wow!

Happy Juneteenth! In Christ, there is neither slave nor free. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28. Ok so correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe that this particular biblical passage was used by white Christians who were slave owners, specifically to justify owning slaves. WTF!

Interestingly, what you don’t find on the Life Surge Facebook page are the beatitudes, or information about the growing wealth gap, about predatory lenders, about wage theft, about the importance of workers organizing a union, or about people making a living wage. You don’t find these things, because the people of Life Surge are religious hucksters, using religion to grow their wealth and to justify being rich. Stay the hell away from this event, unless you decide it might be a good idea to show up and throw eggs at these motherfuckers.