It’s just over a year ago that the housing bubble burst and the economy took a downward dive. We’ve heard a number of reasons for it - slack regulation, greedy bankers, sub-prime mortgages doled out to anyone who sign their name, spiralling consumer debt. Here’s a new twist: the prosperity gospel – the belief that material success is one’s inheritance for faith in God.

The prosperity gospel is a cobbled-together theology that runs through the Pentecostal Church and a surprising number of mainstream evangelical churches, and is especially popular in immigrant communities.

Researchers began to note that the gospel’s growth tracks closely to the pattern of foreclosure hot spots. And many of the churches were built among fringe suburban developments in the '90s and 2000's – the same neighborhoods now filled with foreclosure signs. A series of lawsuits this summer revealed how banks teamed up with pastors to win over new customers for sub-prime loans.

Joining us to connect the dots is Hanna Rosin, contributing editor of The Atlantic and author of God’s Harvard: A Christian College On A Mission To Save America.

The Atlantic: Did Christianity Cause the Crash?

(Photo courtesy Melanie via Flickr/CreativeCommons)