A Christian is anyone who says they are. Christianity is how those people conduct themselves. Prosperity gospel is valid doctrine, just like liberation theology. I don't wanna play True Scotsman with the believers.
I get what you're saying, and I agree with the basic principle BUT
A) Trump doesn't honestly self-identify as a Christian. Like almost all he does, its a grift for money, attention, and power. Nobody who's not part of the cult honestly believes that he's actually religious.
B) Prosperity gospel is by definition a grift. It's a religiously themed pyramid scheme and nothing else.
We can abstain from defining people's sincere beliefs on their behalf without pretending that obvious fraud is the real deal.
We can abstain from defining people’s sincere beliefs on their behalf without pretending that obvious fraud is the real deal.
This is a straw-person argument. Claiming two beliefs being valid is not the same as two beliefs that are equal.
You can prefer liberation theology to prosperity gospel. I do. But that's a question of politics, not theology. A non-believer taking such a side is making a mistake because doing so implies the following:
Jesus existed
Jesus had a message
that message was accurately recorded
that message was accurately transmitted
that message was transmitted intact
you've been exposed to and understood it correctly
That's conceding that the Bible is a unique moral document, probably miraculous.
Calling other Christians heretics and fake is the most Christian thing there is.
And fuck no, there is no equivalence between Prosperity gospel and Liberation theology.
Don't let religious pluralism and tolerance get in the way of punching up. Their point is to keep people from punching down and oppressing religious minorities.
I politely contest the validity of prosperity doctrine. Does it not rather fly in the face of the whole "camel through a needle eye" metaphor? Not a theologian.
Showing a theological stance is contradicting their holy book isn't going to be any more convincing than showing contradictions between different parts of the book itself is going to convince them to stop being Christians. It's a dogma that starts with a conclusion and works backwards to find evidence confirming the conclusion.
Sure, but that's also why they're considered to be heretics and not heathens. They believe in the same god and most of the same doctrine, but differ on some key parts. Ergo, Christian heresy instead of just some heathen religion.