Believer bitter over 'prosperity' preachings

[icymist]

AP) -- The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor's living room each night: Be faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you with material riches.

And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Florida, area pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering from childhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White.

Only the blessings didn't come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she believed the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn't strong enough.

"I wanted to believe God wanted to do something great with me like he was doing with them," she said. "I'm angry and bitter about it. Right now, I don't watch anyone on TV hardly."

All three of the groups Fleenor supported are among six major Christian television ministries under scrutiny by a senator who is asking questions about the evangelists' lavish spending and possible abuses of their tax-exempt status.

The probe by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has brought new scrutiny to the underlying belief that brings in millions of dollars and fills churches from Atlanta to Los Angeles -- the "Gospel of Prosperity," or the notion that God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches.

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[Hellenic_Pagan]

1. Glad someone is taking them to task!

This kind of "preaching" is not only unethical and wrong, it is predatory.

I get REALLY angry whenever I hear of "religious" people taking advantage of the poor, sick, weak, or those who are in a fragile state.

I am glad it is a Repub doing it, as they can't claim he is a "liberal" out to get them, like if it was a Dem.

[sam sarrha]

2. turning Jesus into a "Cargo Cult".. i heard on a Xing chanel, "i gave $100 and now every time i go

to Walmart.. there is a parking space right up front by the door, waiting for me.."

:popcorn: :rofl:

[leftyladyfrommo]

3. I watch Joyce Meyer every once in a while. She is just plain wierd.

I didn't realise she was one of the prosperity people. And I think she has a really big following - but I don't see why. She does have kind of a pracitical take on life. Maybe people who are having problems need to hear that.

[Qanisqineq]

4. Joyce Meyer is the only televangelist I can tolerate

My sister is a born-again Christian (oh heck, she's a fundy) and has sent me tapes to help me "fix" my (apparently) broken life. I've humored her and listened to parts of them. Joyce Meyer was the only one that was tolerable, she seems to have a sense of humor at least. It's too bad she's a prosperity preacher.