And lo, on the thirteenth year the thread did rise from the dead…
The point (made repeatedly back in 2005) that the more “honest” preachers are less likely to be the ones with the giant well-funded operations, national television shows and big publicity campaigns holds true. I’ve met many small-scale clergy who work tirelessly to help those who need help both locally and abroad without getting rich themselves off their labors by funnelling off a sizable chunk of donations to themselves. There are a lot of them out there that we don’t hear about precisely because they’re not spending the money on self-aggrandizement.
Which is not to say the big names aren’t also “honest and sincere” in their belief - they may honestly believe that the wealth they are accumulating is God’s reward for their efforts in His name. Just because they’re getting rich doesn’t mean they’re conmen; they might actually believe the prosperity gospel they preach. Self-delusion comes in all shapes and forms.
I would liken televangelists to politicians. There are probably some honest ones, but I couldn’t tell you which ones.
More to the point. I would say that some start out honest and stay honest, some start out honest and make a big mistake or two, some start out honest and make a million compromises and some start out with the idea of fleecing as many people as they can. I would probably conjecture that most of them start out honest if for no other reason than the vast majority of pastors are broke as jokes and it’s a thankless job that completely dominates your life. Most televangelists come from the ranks of pastors and they plop a show on cable access or youtube and that’s as far as it ever gets. I have a tough time believing those people are in it for money, fame or groupies simply because they don’t have any of those things and likely never will. Of the big names though, they rise to the top and get famous generally because they are charismatic, good looking, make you believe what they say and give you a pleasant feeling in your tummy. The problem is that people with those traits sooner or later find themselves in situations where they can use those traits for things that are less than spiritual in nature. I think that infidelity has to be a constant concern and I would wager that few if any of them haven’t had issues with attractive women wanting to be with them in a less than ‘holy’ way. That’s where Mike Pence gets his ‘no women alone with me rule.’ It was actually originally named the ‘Billy Graham rule’ because Billy Graham noticed this tendency and decided to remove the temptation. It’s sexist, but if the guy knows who he is, then he knows who he is.
And the lure of money is always there. It’s always tempting to take a couple of bucks and ‘pay it back’ and when you have a legal right to the money I’m sure that temptation is constantly over your head. It would be easy to justify. Look at the jet plane guy. He’s not being dishonest. He’s telling you he wants donations for a jet plane. In his head, he might even be able to justify it. “Hey, if I have this plane, I can do so much more. I’m working hard, doing good things, I deserve this luxury and it’s not even really a luxury, it’s a necessity. We’ll save so much in airfare and I’ll be so much more refreshed and ready to help people.” When you get close to that situation and you see that money just sitting there, mental gymnastics become easy. Maybe jet plane guy started out with the best of intentions, maybe deep down he still has the best of intentions, but from the outside, we can see that he’s obviously off the rails.
Anyway, and I’m saying this as a Christian, I don’t trust any televangelists or mega-church pastors - not a single one of them. I don’t like non-denominational churches or extra-denominational things at all. I like rock-solid accountability, open books and a higher person that is able to remove a dishonest pastor. The best way to stay honest is to make sure that people are keeping you honest. That’s not to say there aren’t people in this world that are saints and never succumb to any temptation and live their lives unimpeachably. I believe that there are hyper honest and good people out there. I also firmly believe that I don’t think I’ve met one yet. Most people just struggle through. When Jesus said, “You without sin cast the first stone.” he didn’t even have to look up to see who was in the crowd, because humans for the most part are pretty selfish people who delude ourselves into thinking that we’re not and that applies to televangelists as well as anyone else.
That made me laugh. Most evangelicals have plenty to say about Osteen. He is pretty much known as a life coach or inspirational speaker that happens to head a church.
I have no way of knowing his sincerity, but he is seen as peddling a light-on-the-Bible but heavy-on-prosperity Gospel in order to gain the attention (power? money?) of a large audience.
Just take a look at some of these headlines from the Babylon Bee (a christian Satirical site):
Joel Osteen has a net worth higher than Barack Obama or Prince William. Somewhere around 50 million dollars. He has a 10 million dollar, 17000 square foot home and a 2.5 million dollar vacation home. He owns a Ferrari and a private yacht.
So, I think it’s fair to say that he’s ostentatiously wealthy. At the same time though, that doesn’t make him dishonest. He’s pretty upfront about his wealth. He claims he’s not a prosperity pastor, but he really is, so his followers don’t seem to have a problem with it. Honestly, most of his money at this point has come from book sales and speaking engagements, so I don’t know that he really even takes much from the church anymore directly. It’s just hard to really approve of his lifestyle when you see a guy like Francis Chan who gives 90% of his book royalties to charities fighting sex trafficking, invested what was left over and lives off of that without taking a salary from any church.