Evangelicals, Benny Hinn, TBN, and The Prosperity Gospel

[Lord Byron]

Today I was reading the Gospel of Luke which says that Jesus said, "Man cannot serve two masters: God and mammon." It also says that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven.

Now that's pretty clear. But advocates of the Prosperity Gospel decide to quote a few passages in the Bible out of context as though this would prove that Christ wants men to be materially wealthy. What the hell?

I remember watching TBN back in my spare time in high school and being appalled by the way in which they flaunt material success. Also, I remember a man named Benny Hinn who would travel to the poorest areas of the world claiming he could cure their ailments. Meanwhile he would stay in the top hotels and travel in a private jet.

Did Jesus not throw the money changers out of the temple?

What's the deal with the Christian Right? I can understand the opposition to abortion, since they hold that life begins before birth. But the excessively materialistic approach to religion is just so bizarre and exploitative. Can someone clear this up for me?


thoughts? comments?

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Televangelism is a big business. It's as fraudulent as baldness cures

but there's nothing that can be done about it. It's purely buyer beware.

[Lord Byron]

2. How do they live with themselves?

It's fucking sick.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Since it isn't illegal, they live with themselves just fine.

A horrible example of the cynical nature of those bastards is the location of the "Crouch Church",right across the 405 Fwy from the South Coast Plaza shopping mall. It affords them with an uninterrupted view of their actual place of worship.
Why anybody would send those assholes any money is way beyond me.

[Stevepol]

4. A lot of times the healers are "specialists."

A couple I know said that in CA some years ago, one of the "healers" on radio specialized in dental problems.

He said that he just found when he asked people to put their hands ont he radio and send in the donations, etc., that the people who wrote to him were all getting healed of dental problems, pyorrhea, gum diseases of various kinds, tooth decay.

So he began to specialize, beaming his message especially to those suffering toothache and tooth decay and related ailments.

It was quite a revelation for him and led to a really profound inflow of the spirit.

[Initech]

5. Televangelists don't worship anything other than the almighty dollar.

It's a completely fraudulent business as was stated above.

[porphyrian]

6. Televangelists are one of the worst kind of predators. - n/t