Joel Osteen serves up recession-themed positive thinking

Pastor Joel Osteen's 2004 book "Your Best Life Now" has sold more than 4 million copies -- buoyed in part by one uplifting and irresistible message: Positive thinking and faith will lead to material success and happiness. Now he's back with a new book and a new message for a new era: patience.

Back in 2005, he told BusinessWeek that "God's dream is that we be successful in our careers, and that we be able to send our kids to college. I don't mean that everyone is going to be rich, and I preach a lot on blooming where you're planted. But I don't have the mindset that money is a bad thing. . . I think we should have a mindset that God wants us to prosper in our relationships, our health, and our finances. God's desire is that we excel."

But there's just been just one problem: for all the talk of the prosperity gospel and God's tendency to impart material gain on those who have faith in him, no evidence has emerged that suggests that people who believe in God were less likely to lose their jobs, their homes or their retirement funds to the financial meltdown.