Controversial author Dr Reza Aslan spoke his mind about megachurch preachers Joel Osteen and TD Jakes in an interview with Huff Post Live on Monday.
Aslan was asked about controversial statements he made at the 2014 Indian Summer Festival in Vancouver, when he condemned so-called "prosperity preachers".
"The fastest growing Protestant movement in North America is this movement that is referred to as the 'prosperity gospel,'" Aslan said at the July festival.
"This is that gospel preached by people like Joel Osteen and TD Jakes... and when I say 'people', I mean charlatans. The argument of the prosperity gospel, if I can put it flippantly, is that Jesus wants you to drive a Bentley. That's basically what the argument is."
In Monday's interview, Aslan said that prosperity preachers and many others can interpret the Bible to defend almost anything.
"You can make the Bible ... mean whatever you want," he said. "Marxism comes from the teachings of Jesus, as does capitalism and the prosperity gospel.
"What really rubs me the wrong way about [prosperity preachers] is that they are fleecing people. That they are taking this notion of ... what you give will be returned to you tenfold, which is a metaphor, and they're taking it literally."
Aslan went on to say that the teachings of Jesus are "as close to Marxism as it gets".
"If there's one thing that you can really zero in on when it comes to Jesus' preachings — and I mean the historical Jesus — was his absolute hatred of wealth," Aslan insisted.
"This wasn't the man who was neutral about it... what he preached was that those who have wealth, that wealth will be taken away. Those who are poor, they shall be the inheritors of the Earth."
He also blasted prosperity gospel teachings as inaccurate both spiritually and historically.
"This prosperity gospel is such a bastardisation of the core tenet of Jesus' teachings," Aslan said.
The professor and author was a Christian, but converted to Islam. His controversial book, "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth," is being adapted into a film by Lionsgate.
