I was flipping TV channels the other day in hopes there was something on worth watching (there seldom is), and I happened across one of those ubiquitous Christian televangelists, so I watched him for a few minutes.
I won’t mention his name, but there are a good many of them, and perhaps you have seen some as well.
It occurred to me that if he had been pitching anything other than religion, the FCC would have taken him off the air and the local district attorney would be charging him as a confidence man. He was milking the TV audience hard for donations, promising all sorts of benefits in return (God will bless you and make you prosperous and exalt you among the angels and …..) which he was clearly in no position to deliver.
Meanwhile, all sorts of little old ladies probably send him more than they can afford, since he clearly does well by it. He is wearing expensive clothes and has surrounded himself on stage with expensive, if thoroughly tasteless, furniture. And apparently, from one reference he made, he drives a stretch white Hummer given to him by his grateful followers. What a con man!
Why do we give religions a free pass on this sort of confidence game? If he were pushing any other product in this way, we would arrest him. But because it is religion, we accept it. This just doesn’t make sense!
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