I know one man who lost his wife to cancer. he had always let his wife handle the finances. He had always worked hard, was a war Viet Nam veteran, and then worked for a county government in a skilled trade, and made a very good living. When his wife died, he started working with his finances and found out that his life's savings had been donated to Benny Hinn ministries. She had contributed ALL of the money this man had saved in over thirty years, in the hopes of getting healed.

I would like to hear of other people that have contributed to the extravagant lifestyles of televangelists.

I figured this thread would get a lot of posts by now. Maybe I will just contribute my reason for calling televangelists shows cults. Suppose someone has millions of followers, that contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to their "ministry" because the followers believe that to be healed or to be financially stable they MUST send in a tithe or offering to that particular showman to stir God to help them. Then when they send in the tithe and then an offering on top of the tithe, they find their health is continuing to get worse and their bank account is lower of course when the checks to the televangelist got to the bank. Suppose thy call the hotline to this "man of God" or "woman of God" and the minimum wage worker or more likely volunteer reads of the answer supplied to them for such questions, saying "it is just the devil fighting your blessing, or it just means you faith is not strong enough, just send in a one hundred dollar seed offering for a hundred fold return and you will also get your healing."

In what way is this different than a cult member that believes everything their apostle or prophet, or bishop, or bagwan, or swami, tells them in person or on a tape he ordered in the mail?

Too bad you did not get engagement.

I looks liKe I will keeping you busy with my typo comments.

You made a very valuable statement. I saw my old lady home care clients years ago do the same thing. Then I saw my dad follow every stinking one of the TV preaschers. He idolized h every word they said. He even set a timer to get to record everything he might miss over night.

My father was dilgent in the word. He even graduated from bible college at age 83. he did not need these tele tubies evangelsits. But I realized he needed the structure; the fellowship. He needed to feel as an important part of a spirtual community. he wanted to be respected for knowing the word of the god.

TCLW kicked him out after decades . He went to other churches in town but many other members really did not want to hear him quote scripture. M-m-m?

I have to wonder how many cultish survivors will be vulnerable to the next scam like the TV money changers?
I admit that I fell into the same type of patterns once I left the cult I was in to.

I hope more people find these threads before they loose everything to persuasive wolves who cry lord lord..look its Jesus on TV! Invest today in you heavenly mansion."

I don't know if this will help any one or not about the tele-evangelists.

I have a good friend who grew up aroudna family member who became a very weathly TV preacher who got caught to say the least with out names.

The family story goes something like this. The TV preacher was a good salemans. Ond day a travleing evangeists came to town. He pitched his tent next to the salemens favorite bar. Night after night he sat at the bar nurshing his beers listening to the "sales pitch" of the preacher over the speakers from the tent.

The saleman had a "revelation". He quite his job to become a succefful rich
"salesman" using the name of jesus.

The televangelists sold salvation to become a succeffully business man under the disguise of God's love . He sold a plan of salvation like he did insurance policies. He did it out of greed not out of love for the Lord. ( he was one of them who lost his "ministry" and went to jail.)

My father watched every one of those TV preachers looking for Chirst here and there. My dad studied the Bible dilgently, yet he seemed to fall for every crook on TV who name dropped the name of Jesus without ever knowing Jesus in person. if our parents knew the real beginning sof these people would they be so eagar to send their grocery and ulitily budget money?

Who wants to ever accept that we fell for a sales pitch?

I'm working on a story about televangelists scamming vulnerable people out of their money and would welcome the chance to speak with anyone on this forum who has been a victim of this or is the relative of a victim. If you are willing to share your story please message me on this board thank you!

I quit watching these charlatans many years ago. I listened to Joel Olsteen for about 5 minutes and turned him off. One of the good ones was Charles Stanley. But I do not bother anymore. If you want to know truth today. Go to Youtube and watch : Timothy Dixon, Robin Bullock, Kent Christmas, Hank Kunneman.