Because of my personal background with televangelists, I found the LA Times’ detailed expose of TV preacher Paul Crouch absolutely fascinating. If you’re interested in the subject, be sure to read the whole thing, which spans a couple of days.
The key point from the Times’ research is the notion of the “prosperity gospel.” Like my friend Poppy noted, this scheme should shock decent people’s consciences. It goes like this:
People who donate to Crouch’s Trinity Broadcasting Network will reap financial blessings from a grateful God. The more they give TBN, the more he will give them.
Being broke or in debt is no excuse not to write a check. In fact, it’s an ideal opportunity. For God is especially generous to those who give when they can least afford it.
It’s quite a fundraising pitch. “When you give to God,” Crouch said during a typical appeal for funds, “you’re simply loaning to the Lord and He gives it right on back.”
Crouch isn’t the only TV preacher to use this “approach” — Pat Robertson has been doing the same thing for years and with similar success — but Crouch is clearly abusing his audience in disturbing ways.
Crouch and his ilk tell viewers that they should send their money to him, whether they can afford it or not, because God will recoup the payments. But what if you give but haven’t received your divine financial recovery?
TBN viewers are told that if they don’t reap a windfall despite their donations, they must be doing something to “block God’s blessing” — most likely, not giving enough.
Crouch has particularly stern words for those who are not giving at all.
“If you have been healed or saved or blessed through TBN and have not contributed … you are robbing God and will lose your reward in heaven,” he said during a 1997 telecast.
This, in a nutshell, is the fundamental problem with TV preachers. They’d be easier to laugh off as annoying crackpots if their programs were just theologically dubious hate-mongering coupled by right-wing political messages. While the shows certainly feature both, the reason these televangelists are more than just Bible-quoting con artists is that they prey on vulnerable people and demand that they make donations they can’t afford.
Lower-income, rural Americans in the South are among TBN’s most faithful donors. The network says that 70% of its contributions are in amounts less than $50.
In the meantime, while people in poverty are sending Crouch checks, Crouch is living the very good life.
Paul, 70, collects a $403,700 salary as TBN’s chairman and president. Jan, 67, is paid $361,000 as vice president and director of programming. Those are the highest salaries paid by any of the 12 major religious nonprofits whose finances are tracked by the Chronicle of Philanthropy…. The Crouches travel the world in a $7.2-million, 19-seat Canadair Turbojet owned by TBN. They drive luxury cars. They have charged expensive dinners and furniture to TBN credit cards.
Thirty ministry-owned homes are at their disposal — including a pair of Newport Beach mansions, a mountain retreat near Lake Arrowhead and a ranch in Texas.
The other interesting thing will be the reaction to word that Paul Crouch, who rails against the “homosexual agenda” to his flock, paid a former employee $425,000 to keep silent about their alleged gay tryst.
Televangelist Paul Crouch, founder of the world’s largest Christian broadcasting network, has waged a fierce legal battle to prevent a former employee from publicizing allegations that he and Crouch had a sexual encounter eight years ago.
Crouch, 70, is the president of Trinity Broadcasting Network, based in Orange County, whose Christian programming reaches millions of viewers around the world via satellite, cable and broadcast stations.
The source of the allegations against him is Enoch Lonnie Ford, who met Crouch at a TBN-affiliated drug treatment center in 1991 and later went to work for the ministry.
After Ford threatened to sue TBN in 1998, claiming that he had been unjustly fired, Crouch reached a $425,000 settlement with him. In return, Ford agreed, among other things, not to discuss his claim about a sexual encounter with the TV preacher.
Proof that Crouch is a scandalous hypocrite? Probably not to Crouch’s loyal viewers, who will probably dismiss the story as a test of their faith. Indeed, Crouch will probably use the controversy to sucker more people out of more money so he can buy more lavish gifts for himself.
How very sad.