The front page of yesterday's NY Times carried a story on the Southwest Believers' Conference recently held in Fort Worth. Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and three others with big television ministries preached their "gospel" ten hours a day, five days a week in the Fort Worth Convention Center. Over 9000 people from 48 states and 27 countries attended the conference. No details were given about how much money was taken in, but the offering was taken in large plastic buckets by ushers all over the convention center.
The income from the Copelands' ministry alone is $100 million per year. Among the families attending was a couple from Missouri who are $100,000 in debt; they recently gave the Copeland ministry $1800 to purchase high-definition television equipment.
In addition to the Copelands, Creflo Dollar, Jesse Duplantis, and Jerry Savelle, tapped into the frustrations of their audience by condemning such things as:
the US government
health care reform
public schools
the news media
churches who condemn "prosperity" preaching
The answer to all these problems, according to Savelle, was: "Stop worrying, start sowing [code among these preachers for sending in money]. That's God's stimulus package for you."
These ministries are under investigation by the Senate Finance Committee and -- surprise -- the groups are being reluctant to turn over their records. At least a portion of the money brought in by the Copelands went toward the purchase of a Citation X airplane. (It turns out that Kenneth Copeland got his start in this business as a pilot for Oral Roberts.
It wasn't long ago that I read the obituary of Reverend Ike, one of the first preachers of this type that I can recall. When I was growing up in north central Texas, an AM station out of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, played nonstop preachers -- both orthodox Bible teachers and "kooks." The call letters of the station were KSKY, and its frequency was 660 (because, we used to joke, 666 must have been taken). Reverend Ike used to talk about blessed believers riding around in Cadillacs. Even then, I wondered about how these guys reconciled their ideas with those of Jesus, the apostle Paul, and other first-century teachers who forecast lives of poverty and persecution for those who followed the Way.
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I remember growing up and seeing Robert Tilton, whose entire sermons were saying that God wanted you to send him $1,000.00 as a "vow of faith".
ReplyDeleteI always assumed preachers like this didn't even try to reconcile their beliefs with the Bible. It seems more they proscribed to the religion of PT Barnum, as in "there's a sucker born every minute." (although it wasn't actually PT who said that, but I digress)
Perhaps I'm too cynical, and these people are well-meaning but misguided. But I'd place my bet on them being greedy con men who don't really search for guidance from any higher calling than money.
In TIlton's case, your more cynical take was correct. His Dallas ministry closed and he was indicted. I'm not sure what happened, but he re-emerged a few years ago somewhere in Florida, doing the same thing -- and quite successfully. He has a new wife (problems with his divorce with his former wife led to his undoing in Dallas) and a small dog who features somehow in his telecasts. If you're homesick for Robert Tilton's television appearances, I believe that several are on YouTube.
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