The preacher as phenomenon
According to Shayne Lee, assistant professor of sociology at Tulane University in New Orleans, Bishop T.D. Jakes is the prototype of the postmodern preacher, who is using his considerable entrepreneurial skills to create “spiritual commodities that resonate with the pluralistic postmodern tastes of his American listeners”.
Characterising Jakes as a compassionate preacher and a calculating businessman, Lee claims that Bishop Jakes is a complex individual who is “brimming with paradoxes and contradictions”.
However, for Lee, author of the book T.D. Jakes: America’s New Preacher, the first scholarly study of this popular religious icon, Jakes complexities have worked enormously to his advantage. “That’s a part of his appeal. Part of being postmodern is not to be easily defined. And guys like Jakes represent the vast blaring of the lines in so many areas,” Lee explains.
“The postmodern age is an age where these nice neat categories are becoming unpackaged and people are sort of mixing genres, mixing things that normally weren’t supposed to go together. “I think Jakes is postmodern in the sense that he has transcended a lot of traditional approaches to spirituality and he’s been willing to use methods and procedures that are outside of the box.”
In a wide-ranging interview by phone from his home in New Orleans, Lee discussed his reason for writing the book, various aspects of Jakes ministry and how he perceives the phenomenon of Jakes, which he describes “as postmodern and uniquely American,” within the broader context of contemporary American religious expression.
Lee first became acquainted with Jakes ministry back in 1993 while he was an undergraduate at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jakes was an obscure country preacher from West Virginia, who moonlighted as a ditchdigger to support his growing family, when Bishop Carlton Pearson invited him to deliver the keynote address at the AZUSA 1993 Conference in Tulsa, a venue that showcased Pentecostal preachers.
“I remember everyone coming back on campus so excited after hearing it (Jakes’ sermon, Woman Thou Art Loosed) and I saw how fast his ministry exploded.”
But it was after he saw Jakes on the cover of Time<$> magazine in 2001 that he was convinced that he had to write a book about the Jakes phenomenon.
“When I saw a black Pentecostal preacher with the question being asked ‘is this the next Billy Graham?’ that’s when I thought to myself someone’s gonna have to explain to the world how a black Pentecostal preacher from West Virginia is on the cover of Time being compared to one of the greatest American religious icons of the 20th century.”
While his socio-cultural analysis of Jakes impact upon contemporary American religion is largely favourable, Lee doesn’t shy away from tackling, what he perceives as, problematic aspects of the Bishop’s ministry.
One major concern is Jakes juxtaposing of business and religion.
“The sociologist side of me sees that as a part of Jakes genius and a part of his ability to recalibrate Christianity towards a post capitalist society. We live in a business age so Jakes has a message that blends the two.
“And we live in a postmodern age where the blaring of the lines of distinction is taking place more and more,” Lee explains. “But part of me, coming outside of the academic side, is kind of disturbed because he is in the business of selling God and he’s turning spirituality into a commodity that can be bought and sold in the market place.
“That means that he has to use business strategies and market techniques to make sure that he can garner enough customers to buy his products.
“And when the selling of your products depends on people perceiving you as an anointed man of God, I just think it can be tricky as to how far you go about commodifying your message.”
Lee contends that Jakes broad crossover appeal places him under increasing pressure to avoid some of the more offensive themes of the gospel to increase his market share and expand his hugely successful religious empire.
“He really can’t have a refined doctrinal message because he has a wide net and he doesn’t want to offend anybody and any denominational position, so that can be problematic. It’s possible that he’s watering down his message, or at least selling out various components of it, to expand his market share. When you admit that you’re a businessman and a preacher and when you see that your businesses are connected to your preaching, then that looks like a calculated move.”
Jakes’ unorthodox views on the Trinity, which theologians define as modalism, acts as a prime example of how he is able to avoid controversial issues, which can affect his marketability and alienate his vast Christian base, says Lee.
“He still has a high position in a fellowship that is unabashedly anti-Trinitarian and that’s one of their central tenets against the Trinity. So it would be hard for Jakes to deny his anti-Trinitarian leanings,” Lee explains.
“But he nuances his view of the Trinity effectively because it’s such a complicated issue that there are very few people who can parse out what he’s really saying.
“So he gives a vague depiction on his website, or in response to critics, and it sounds good to the average churchgoer. But someone who has taken church history and has studied the councils, they understand that he’s playing both sides.”
