I've been watching them all week (broadcast daytime TV )

The theme is that if you give to the 700 Club, God will give you miracles. Specifically, if you're in financial debt, you should give a few hundred to them and God will solve your money problems. All the little videos they're showing are of people who were under crushing debt, then gave a few thousand to the 700 Club that they didn't have, and everything got better for them. They're blatantly targeting people who are in debt and telling them to donate to a televangelist.

Does this seem disgusting to anyone else?

1/26/2006 2:59:21 PM

Pat Robertson has always made me cringe, but I don't think that targeting poor people is as bad as telling people that their loved ones who died in a natural disaster brought it upon themselves.

1/26/2006 3:03:06 PM

OMG P.T. Barnum was right!

1/26/2006 3:05:08 PM

sounds kind of like when liberals tell a failing economy (ex. california) that giving more money to government will solve all their problems

1/26/2006 3:05:15 PM

Yeah, that's sad. It happens.

1/26/2006 3:05:22 PM

^ I know, but I'll have cable soon

1/26/2006 3:19:22 PM

clearly you turned to a pat robertson production with too high of hopes

1/26/2006 4:53:18 PM

I knew Pat Robertson was a social and political loon, but I didn't know he was into the financially seedy side of televangelism.

1/26/2006 6:27:49 PM

theres a financially good side of televangelism?

1/26/2006 9:15:01 PM

more importantly...

theres a financially good side of televangelism?

[Edited on January 26, 2006 at 9:32 PM. Reason : oops]

1/26/2006 9:30:02 PM

^^i meant just not getting into beating the bushes for money at all, other than maybe charity or something

i mean, i have no problem with him putting the opportunity out there for people to donate to his operation (other than the fact that I wish he's go out of business, because Pat Robertson happens to be a stupid douche)...that's no different than a traditional church, and it's perfectly legitimate. Niggas gotta pay the bills.

I DO have a problem with the tactics they were apparently using.

1/26/2006 9:44:14 PM

the best and i mean BEST is jimmy swaggart once said if they didn't get X amount donated by Y date, God was going to kill him

and of course, they didn't raise x by y
and God did not kill him

1/26/2006 10:04:51 PM

I agree with Duke that there's a line with televangelism.

There's "God will reward those that give freely."

Then there's "Hey you. Yes, you who are 100k in debt and can't afford to pay your health insurance. Give money to me and your problems will be solved."

Robertson was doing the latter to a degree I've never seen before.

1/27/2006 1:33:58 AM

Quote :

"OMG P.T. Barnum was right!"

FYI:
http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html

1/27/2006 8:11:09 AM

Quote :

" The theme is that if you give to the 700 Club, God will give you miracles. Specifically, if you're in financial debt, you should give a few hundred to them and God will solve your money problems. All the little videos they're showing are of people who were under crushing debt, then gave a few thousand to the 700 Club that they didn't have, and everything got better for them. They're blatantly targeting people who are in debt and telling them to donate to a televangelist. Does this seem disgusting to anyone else?"

from soapbox:

Quote :

"how would life be without religion?"

1/27/2006 8:19:16 AM

^^ yeah, i'm aware of that. but the fact remains. there are suckers paying pat robertson money they don't have every minute.

1/27/2006 10:48:53 AM

Quote :

"the best and i mean BEST is jimmy swaggart once said if they didn't get X amount donated by Y date, God was going to kill him and of course, they didn't raise x by y and God did not kill him "

haha. So, if someone would have killed Jimmy, could they have used the defense that they were God, and just taking care of a deal?

1/27/2006 11:44:54 AM

Quote :

"Robertson was doing the latter to a degree I've never seen before."

clearly you've never seen TBN

rod parsley once brought in a mound of square cloths
got worked up in a sermon
rolled around in them
and then sold them, as annointed prayer rags, for like $20 or $30 each

i used to be Charlie Church
i could go on and on about how terrible TBN and their ilk are

1/27/2006 12:17:21 PM

Dude, I want a prayer rag

But no, I can't ever watch that stuff. It's not funny bad... just bad.


Oh, and I just remembered where I recognize that name. I heard on NPR that a bunch of religious groups are filing a complaint with the IRS regarding his tax exempt status. Apparently he's all but campaigning for Republicans.



[Edited on January 27, 2006 at 1:14 PM. Reason : .]

1/27/2006 1:08:35 PM

which name?
rod parsley?

the only televangelist i'll give time to now

is jesse duplantis

he used to be the basist for Sly and the Family Stone

or at least he claims he was, lots of preachers these days have an angle or a hook, something like that....

i like him though

1/27/2006 1:26:11 PM

yeah, rod parsley.

The moral clarity guy.

1/27/2006 1:29:15 PM

the "give me money or god will kill me" guy was actually Oral Roberts

Quote :

"In 1987, during a fundraising drive, he announced that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would "call him home" (a traditional Christian euphemism for death). Later that year, Roberts announced that God had raised the dead through his ministry. "Time" magazine carried this article in their July 13, 1987 issue including testimony by Richard Roberts, (part of his ministry) that he had seen his father raise a child from the dead. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Roberts

1/27/2006 1:32:29 PM

^From the same site...

Quote :

"In a 2004 television broadcast, the elder Roberts claimed to have experienced a vision in which "A dark cloud surrounded New York," purportedly a "wake up call" to tell people that Christ's return is soon."

Could it not just be fucking cloudy outside?

1/27/2006 2:12:59 PM

^^hahhahaha
my bad

i guess i just attribute errything bad to jimmy swaggart if i'm not 100% sure

better safe than sorry eh?

1/27/2006 3:25:02 PM