Or is it sort of like professional wrestling? People know the deal. They just like the entertainment value.
Tele-evangelists are wealthy folks! Most of the people they preach to are not. Why can’t people worship God without a broker?
Don’t get me wrong. These are not supposed to be rhetorical nor inflamatory.
Faith is a wonderful thing. I have it. But how can the Church governing body allow individuals to get rich on what is supposed to be the greatest act of humililty?
I used to work for a long distance company that didn’t provide access to “900” numbers, which I gather is becoming quite common. One time, an old man called in and complained when he couldn’t get through to a psychic hotline.
“But I need to have my fortune read!”, he protested. Need. Not want, need. I guess he missed the for-entertainment-purposes-only disclaimer on the commercial/print ad. He sounded very desperate. I felt so bad for him I wanted to cry. I mean, how pathetic that he’d lived for so long just to end up like that. I wanted to say something like, “You know that’s not real, don’t you? Don’t you know it’s just a scam?” But that would be like telling a three-year-old there’s no Santa Claus.
My point? Some people really are just sheep, waiting to be led.
If this post seems somewhat incoherent (it does to me as I read over what I’ve written), blame it on lack of sleep.
Well, for one thing, Christianity as a whole does not have a governing body, although individual denominations do. For another thing, I assume people are getting something which out of televangelists which benefits them, although I can’t, for the life of me, see what. Then again, some of the Atheists around here would say the same thing about me and my Christianity.
You might want to check out the Trinity Foundation, a Christian organization which has exposing televangelists as one of their goals. They also run a magazine full of Christian satire called The Door.
How many of these tele-preachers are their own church? I don’t know. But if you’re in it for the money, you’re not going to care much what some board of deacons or whatever says about what you’re doing. <shrug> This is an unfortunate byproduct of freedom of religion, I suppose.
Church governing bodies do come down on televangelists who get out of line when those televangelists are affiliated with a church other than their own, Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker being the most well-known examples of such disciplinary action. (Both were stripped of their credentials and Swaggart’s college was kicked out from under the aegis of the A/G education department.)
As FairyChatMom said, though, many of the people who are on television run their own churches, or operate independent of any congregation or denomination. Benny Hinn, TD Jakes, Richard Roberts, Joyce Myers, Pat Robertson and Rod Parsley all operate independently. The churches that Hinn, Jakes and Parsley run (they have actual, physical, congregations) may have boards of elders/deacons but the pastors do not answer to those boards.
Do people take them seriously? Sure, there are many people who do. There are also many people who can trace the genesis of their faith to a moment watching a televised church service or a Christian theme show like 700 Club or the Richard Roberts show. Like all matters of religion or spirituality, I’m fairly sure that how seriously you take it is dependent on how seriously you want to take it.
These tv-evangelists made me cringe.
In Australia they put them on at 3 o’clock in the morning… for a reason. So the majority of us don’t have to watch them, and you either have to be very disciplined, a shift worker, or just getting home from a party to see them.
Who decided that they would be good on TV? Who thought that their words were good enough to be broadcast through out the world?
THEY DID!!!
Egotistical, $$$-eyed bastards.
I know the bible say’s to go out to the world and spread the word so I know they are following a commandment and I respect that but I would be more understanding if I thought the money was going somewhere good, but IMHO it goes to putting a better roof on a billion dollar church, or paying for a first-class ticket for the preacher and his wife to attend a seminar where He is to give a sermon… and get MORE $$$!!! ETC ETC
Actually Polycarp, I think some of those televangelists are reading from Bibles with a mis-translation. Someone really should tell them that Jesus said “Feed my sheep,” not fleece 'em!
I’m sorry to see Joyce Myers in that list. I take her seriously, or at least, I like what I’ve heard of her so far. Do you know something nasty about her that I don’t?
