{"id":2023,"date":"2012-05-07T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/blackwhiteandgray\/?p=2023"},"modified":"2012-05-06T22:15:31","modified_gmt":"2012-05-07T03:15:31","slug":"wolves-in-gaudy-sheepskin-clothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/blackwhiteandgray\/2012\/05\/wolves-in-gaudy-sheepskin-clothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolves in Gaudy Sheepskin Clothing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cFleecing the faithful<\/a>,\u201d it\u2019s called. The sort of story featured on the front cover of Saturday\u2019s New York Times <\/em>tends to rankle everyone\u2019s feathers, from the utterly agnostic to the truly devout. I might also add that such stories tend to surprise no one. There\u2019s news here, to be sure, about grandchildren calling their grandparents out on their moral and fiscal crimes. But it\u2019s hardly new news.<\/p>\n

While it may raise eyebrows that Americans continue to bankroll televangelists\u2014$20, $50, or $100 at a time\u2014exactly why<\/em> they continue to do so when such ministries are so self-evidently opulent and excessive remains something of a mystery to the rational mind. I suppose some would simply reply, \u201cIf you can believe in something as outlandish as basic Christian doctrine<\/a>, then you can be convinced to do things as gullible as that, and worse.\u201d Hmmm\u2026perhaps. Perhaps not. Lots of us, religious or not, are capable\u2014under the right conditions of charismatic authority and legitimation<\/a>\u2014of heinous evil. Has always been true.<\/p>\n

Back to the Trinity Broadcasting Network. What has long perplexed me about TBN is their look. I don\u2019t quite understand the appeal of their truly faux architecture<\/a>, gaudy sets<\/a>, and personal attire<\/a>. Maybe it\u2019s the simple Midwesterner in me, but is there really <\/em>an audience in America who thinks that look is attractive? I recently drove past a TBN facility of some sort halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, and it stood out\u2014an accomplishment in that area, let me tell you\u2014for its outlandishness.\u00a0To whom does this appeal? To North Texas Pentecostals over the age of 60? (I don\u2019t know.) No, I haven\u2019t been everywhere (unlike the Johnny Cash song<\/a>), but the only places that seem comparably cheesy are old sections of Beverly Hills, or perhaps some parts of South Florida.<\/p>\n

I presume that most of TBN\u2019s checks aren\u2019t coming from those quarters, but who knows\u2014perhaps the health-and-wealth gospel is underwritten by the healthy and the wealthy, not the poorer and disabled, as many have long presumed. It\u2019s an empirical question, of course, but one that\u2019s only answerable by open access to accounting. And we know that\u2019s unlikely. And yet the checks keep rolling in:<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, many viewers have heartfelt responses. In 2010, TBN received $93 million in tax-exempt donations, according to its tax report. The company also had $64 million in additional income from sales of airtime and $17 million in investment income that year. It spent $194 million operating its far-flung network and investing in new programs. The company was in the red for the year, but could draw on its cushion of $325 million in cash and investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may sound like a lot, but it\u2019s comparatively not. Think about it: if 1 out of every 337 Americans gave TBN $100 bucks this year, $93 million is exactly what they\u2019d take in.\u00a0For comparison,\u00a0say a 6000-member suburban congregation witnessed, per capita, about $1500 in the offering plate in a year; there\u2019s $9 million\u2013and that\u2019s just one congregation.<\/p>\n

I nevertheless take some heart in the mass antagonism toward the small minority of Christian ministers who live opulent lives, whether honestly gained or ill-gotten. Because there remains a seed in all of us that just knows<\/em> that the lives of the shepherds are to be more Christ-like than that. (Can you imagine St. Francis of Assisi staying here<\/a>, in a hotel and city named after him?)<\/p>\n

People expect better of shepherds, as they ought. Give them neither poverty nor wealth, I pray. And the same for me. (All of this raises disturbing questions about my own feeble level of generosity and excessive self-concern.)<\/p>\n

Finally, let\u2019s remember to retain some perspective here. After all the Christian hand-wringing, sheepish looks, and obligatory \u201cwe\u2019re not all like that\u201d apologies\u2014blah, blah, blah\u2014the fact remains that there is an extraordinary amount of legal-but-immoral wealth out there already, and little of it has been gotten by way of preaching in front of cameras or building cheesy theme parks. Plenty of modern wealth has been built upon fleecing people by more socially-acceptable means, including convincing people of things they \u201cneed\u201d but cannot afford, or by\u2014gasp\u2014creating silly, time-wasting games and selling millions of them. Indeed, apparently my fair city\u2019s tech future<\/a> relies on such foolish sources of income. There are many ways to fleece, whether by taxation, donation, or clever marketing.<\/p>\n

But as noted above, we expect better from (so-called) believers. I hope we always do.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFleecing the faithful,\u201d it\u2019s called. The sort of story featured on the front cover of Saturday\u2019s New York Times tends to rankle everyone\u2019s feathers, from the utterly agnostic to the truly devout. I might also add that such stories tend to surprise no one. There\u2019s news here, to be sure, about grandchildren calling their grandparents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mark-regnerus"],"yoast_head":"\nWolves in Gaudy Sheepskin Clothing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cFleecing the faithful,\u201d it\u2019s called. 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