Often From the Pulpit: Give to Me, Not the Poor


Rev. Benny Hinn recently needed money for his divorce. Rev. Robert Tilton said if you send him your last $5 God will bless you with success. He had people who testified this happened to them. I remember seeing Pat Robertson hint at this. Now, several preachers are criticizing one of their own for preaching the message that giving to a prosperity preacher will help the giver and giving to the poor is money down the drain. One would guess this trick has been played on the faithful since the beginning of humans. It will continue as long as there are humans. 

While the practice of claiming a donation to the preacher will bring blessings and prosperity is cruel and exploitive, I've always wondered about using the word exploitive for giving money the any Christian or Christian organization when there is some promise, stated or implied, the giver will receive "forgiveness" or never have to die. If making promises about money are exploitive it seems like promises about death are even worse.

There have been headlines that "God is dead," such as the magazine article some 20 years ago. There are books about atheism that are best sellers, Richard Dawkins. I don't recall a time when the lies of Christianity, the sin, the life after death, and the results (none) of prayer have had a sustained focus of press attention.

While we await some general improvement in rationality we bump along with things as they are. Yesterday, I had lunch with a long time friend. As he often does, he launched into serious speculation about what the Bible tells him he should do with his life. He related what others had told him and compared it with what he is thinking. This morning at my dental hygienist the small talk happened on why the storms are hitting Florida. To my surprise, she related her enthusiastic interest in moon phases. She said she is on web sites everyday where people plot moon phases and give then as the cause for various current events. I understand the moon causes ocean tides. I've never the moon causes hurricanes. 

Lots of the preachers who say helping them is better use of your money than helping the poor have private jets to fly them around. I wish they would offer rides to poor people,

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