To its supporters, who include some of the country’s most powerful people, Rhema is a welcome coming together of two of South Africa’s favourite pastimes, conspicuous consumption and Christianity.

To its critics it’s a prosperity cult.

Trinity Foundation, an evangelical watchdog led by Ole Anthony has been investigating evangelist Jesse Duplantis.

Investigator Pete Evans says ‘Donors expect the money they donate to the church to go to the poor and needy. Not to build mansions for the pastor.” Duplantis is building a mansion, owned by the ministry, that has 35-thousand square feet of covered space.

Despite the economic downturn, the prosperity gospel remains alive and well. Pastors like Cowan or televangelists like the Rev. Creflo Dollar and the Rev. Kenneth Copeland continue to promise that financial blessings will follow donations to their ministries.

But it faces a challenge from a new austerity gospel, which says God blesses those who work hard, save their money and pay off their debts.

America’s mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated—one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now.

Known as the prosperity gospel, and claiming tens of millions of adherents, it fosters risk-taking and intense material optimism. It pumped air into the housing bubble. And one year into the worst downturn since the Depression, it’s still going strong.

• In the same issue of The Atlantic: Lead us not into debt: Finance guru Dave Ramsey wins followers with a simple message: find God and lose your credit cards.

Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the “prosperity gospel” movement are drawing sizable, adoring audiences.

Their message — that if you have sufficient faith in God and the Bible and donate generously, God will multiply your offerings a hundredfold — is reassuring to many in hard times.

A roundup of religion news stories, including: • Town kicks out Scientology front group • Turns out Harry Potter is a ‘Zionist plot’ • ‘Prosperity Gospel’ feels runs into financial turbulence • Some Church of England schools cater almost exclusively to Muslim pupils • Sufi Muslims considered valuable allies in the fight against extremism • Angels call for witches’ pardons • Gay students at BYU still struggle for acceptance • Vatican rehabilitates Holocaust denier • Outrage at busty Virgin Mary fashion models — and more…

Has the so-called Prosperity gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants — and hence, victims — of the current financial crisis?

While researching a book on black televangelism, says Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California at Riverside, he realized that Prosperity’s central promise — that God will “make a way” for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, dangerous expression during the subprime-lending boom.

Benny Hinn preaches a version of the prosperity gospel, which holds that God wants his followers to have financial wealth. To become prosperous, one must give money to God, who returns it multiplied.

If this scam worked as advertised, Benny Hinn and others like him would be giving you money…

The Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether Living Word Christian Center violated the law for favorable compensation and loan dealings it gave to church founder and pastor Mac Hammond.

The church has resisted demands by the IRS to open its books for an audit, and the agency filed a petition in United States District Court ordering the church to comply.

The so-called ‘Prosperity Gospel‘ — which claims that God wants you to be rich (but only after you give money to televangelists) — appears to work for a select group of people: relatives of the televangelists who came up with the ‘Blab-it-and-grab-it’ ploy.

Would you like to become a millionaire or billionaire overnight? Just stick around when preacher Todd Koontz get another message from God asking you to donate $1000 to Benny Hinn.

Mind you, you must be fast. Last time this con trick was used the blessing was “poured out” for two minutes only.

“There’s a lot of doctrine that teaches that you’re not a good Christian unless you’re poor. But that’s not our doctrine, that’s not what we believe,” the younger Copeland told KTVT-TV.

North Texas preacher Kenneth Copeland is leading a counterattack against the U.S. senator who is investigating alleged lavish spending by six high-profile televangelists.

Followers of the Rev. Daniel S. Mundell invested in his gospel of wealth, but say they saw little return.

Nearly two-dozen conservative Christian leaders have signed a letter to the Senate Finance Committee questioning an investigation into six large ministries that preach a gospel of prosperity.