Volume Four, Chapter Seven: Can’t Knock the Hustle

Megachurch/prosperity preacher Creflo Dollar recently asked his congregation to purchase him a $65M private jet. 33-year-old Congressman Aaron Schock (R-Illinois) recently announced his resignation amid allegations of illegal spending. And Starbucks’ #racetogether promotion, an attempt to capitalize on the “national discussion”, is off and running to collective groans.

Now, of course, all the feigned moral outrage is taking place. Sure, the public can be mad at these men for their avarice, and rightfully so. The prosperity gospel, fabulous politicians, and the so-called conversation on race are all blatant hustles. All three also have victims. But all three are fueled and enabled by willing participants… who call themselves victims when the consequences hit them.

“Bless the blessed, and be blessed” is the so-called prosperity gospel, and to an equal degree, politics. Creflo’s World Changers congregants want him to live lavishly. They are not mostly single welfare mothers. They are simply people hoping their own greed and jealousy of their neighbors apparently better-off neighbors will be sated with a second-hand blessing, i.e. running a hustle on God.

Aaron Schock is the kind of guy the media obsesses over. He’s young, conservative, got abs, and has often been rumored to be gay. The novelty of all that, as is often the case, helped him at first, but hurt him when he came under scrutiny, which most gimmicks and hustles seldom endure (see Herman Cain).

The first major, post-Civil Rights “discussion on race” was in 1986, when Al Sharpton championed alleged rape victim Twanna Brawley. Just like with the “Hoodie March” and  the recent “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” movements, it was also founded on a lie. But it only makes sense that a coffee shop that averages $6 a cup would want to cash in on the lucrative, if blatantly false, hustle.

Creflo’s congregants either defended him or feigned outrage and called themselves victims when their church was ridiculed (usually the latter). Schock’s spending only became an issue when his newness wore off. And not even the Black U.S. Attorney General could promote 2014’s greatest urban myth after months of analysis. But the hustles dies for now, and will rise again eventually.

When one concedes that their hustle on God can’t match Creflo’s hustle on them, they leave such a church. When people stop voting out of lust and/or envy, there will be no more Aaron Schocks. And only when a person looks at the body count in their own towns will they know whose lives actually matter to them. A hustle only works if somebody else is either in on it or goes along with it.

Sounds like my brewer going off. Next time, the reason why Fox News will ALWAYS dominate cable news…