Читать книгу Field Guide to the Wild World of Religion: 2011 Edition - Pamela J.D. Dewey - Страница 28

So what do the TBN preachers talk about? Watch long enough and it will become obvious. There is precious little about “suffering for righteousness’ sake,” or “turning the other cheek,” or giving generously to the poor. What there is a lot of is—the promise of health, wealth, and prosperity. Viewers are bombarded with a constant message that God’s greatest wish for them is not an intimate walk with Jesus, and the growth within of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, meekness, and temperance). No, His greatest wish is that they always be healthy and wealthy. And if they aren’t, there is something wrong. In fact, what is likely wrong is that they haven’t “sown good seed” so that God can send them a harvest of health and prosperity. How does one sow such seed? Why, by sending it to the one who is teaching you about health and prosperity! (That certainly guarantees the teacher’s chances of prosperity, anyway!)

And thus this troubling trend of greed and gullibility grows. The preacher becomes a wealthy superstar. And his listeners, believing his spiel that he got that way by “sowing seed,” want to become like him. So they sow their seed to him. Which makes him a wealthier superstar. And makes them … poorer but no wiser. Numerous investigative reports on some of these superstar televangelists in recent years have documented for the public the incredibly lavish lifestyles they live, and the frequently deceptive methods they use to get there. Sometimes such reports affect donations to the ministries of such televangelists for a time. But the human ability to believe illusions has insured that almost every one of them has been able to rebound, and get gullible viewers to go right back to sending in money to support the lavish lifestyle of the televangelist. (Details on some of these shameful shenanigans can be seen in the Who’s Who Digest chapter.) Religious hucksters have been around since the first century, of course. But they used to exist around the fringes of society, preying on a limited few. Now they are peddling their wares in a setting accessible to the majority of living rooms in America, 24 hours a day.