Funny video exposing televangelists.

[knitter4democracy]

I may be a Christian, but this is really funny and spot-on when it comes to televangelists. Those guys creep me out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15u6fHkICxc&eurl=http://gentlemansc.blogspot.com/

[DeSwiss]

1. K&R!!!

:rofl:

[Warpy]

2. OK, that was funny

I found it a lot less funny when patients in the hospital would keep their room TV sets tuned to that garbage in the vain hope the "grace" from the TV set would heal them faster. It never did and it annoyed most of the nurses no end. Talk about a captive audience! There was nothing we could do but suck it up and try to ignore the lies spouting from the screen.

The good news is the age of all these hucksters. They're all over retirement age and they won't last much longer. Their children will try to keep the scam going, but are much more transparently corrupt--look at the Roberts children.

Of course, the battle royal over an earthly empire I'm waiting for is when Moon does the decent thing and kicks the bucket. He's got his followers convinced he's god. When god dies, it aint gonna be pretty.

[knitter4democracy]

6. I remember bargaining with God last year. I can understand.

I wouldn't have sent money or anything, but I remember being scared that I was going to die early and leave my young children and hubby without a mom and wife. I can understand that fear and hope that maybe someone or God will magically make it all better. Trouble is, those hucksters are predators, not healers.

Oh, and I got so annoyed in the hospital when my nurses would turn the tv on after I'd turned it off. Ugh.

[lynnertic]

11. I made deals with God when I got my first migrane

... asking for time to put my affairs in order.
That headache kicked my butt 3 ways.

[knitter4democracy]

12. Migraines scare me. That kind of pain is something I can't handle.

Appendicitis for ten years, I could handle that pain most of the time. Migraines? *shudder* No way.

A great book on pain that I found is Paula Kamen's "All in My Head." Great memoir of living with a chronic headache and the hoops she jumped through to get relief. I found her story of pain similar to mine, just not in the same body part.

[lynnertic]

13. if you're still in pain

I hope you heal soon
:hug:

[knitter4democracy]

15. It's hardly anything to complain about anymore.

Once they took my appendix out almost two years ago, that pain was gone. The pain after the kidney surgery was off the charts awful (worse than the appendicitis, actually, which is saying something), but it's been over a year and I'm coming out of it.

Still, chronic pain changes a person. It just does.

[AlinPA]

3. So typical of those morning "Christian" shows. The Copelands are entertaining.

[pleah]

4. That is very funny. The fact that they steal from

so many easily duped people is not.

[ryanmuegge]

5. Here's a good one about FOX News from the same people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPr5IPRhiZ4&feature=related

It's a pisser.

[knitter4democracy]

8. Boy, they nailed Billo really well.

I wonder if Keith's seen that one. :)

[tomreedtoon]

7. Hunt down a copy of this video...:

...the original publisher has gone under, but it's still for sale here:

http://stumpydisks.com/religious.html

You have to scroll down the page to see it, but it's fantastic.

Title: Perverse Preachers, Fascist Fundamentalists and Kristian Kiddie Kooks

This was compiled by a science fiction fan magazine called "Zontar" which has gone out of print, and whose publisher has dropped out of sight. (Is this paranoid proof of how dangerous this video is? Your call.) It is a pure documentary, showing the most ugly examples of Christian evangelical TV from the "Jim and Tammy" years.

With these videos played straight through, it is devastating, especially because there is no commentary within the film. The first segment is of "Captain Hook, the Christian Pirate," a paraplegic victim of a motorcycle accident whose kiddie show includes the "autopsy" of a sinner and him making sinning children "walk the plank." It continues with evangelical shows from the boring ("Christian Economics," anyone?) to the hellfire-inspired. Features include the many charges right-wing churches make against popular culture - how the Dungeons & Dragons game is a secret way to worship Satan, how rock music is Satanic, how abortion will lead to "secular humanist police" machine-gunning children, and worse.

As a kind of fairness, the middle of the tape includes videos from "new age" cults, including flying saucer cultists, pitches for "miracle liquid" (yes, tap water in a fancy bottle) and a "new age comedian" who's even more unfunny than his Christian counterparts. The same manipulation, just space aliens substituted for Jesus.

Eventually, there's coverage of the scandals of the Bakkers and Jimmy Swaggart, but that's not the end. The tape ends with post-scandal evangelicals continuing to pitch (the "Take It Back Telethon" that claims it was Satan, not the law, that wrecked the Bakkers) and we sail off into the night with Captain Hook once again.

[knitter4democracy]

9. I wonder why those preachers do so well.

Is it that they're often on late at night when people are up because they're in pain or can't sleep (because if they were working, they wouldn't be watching). Is it that some people in hard times will grasp at any straw? I've been in revivals and other powerful experiences at church, and even then, I can't imagine falling for it at home alone watching it on a video. You have to be there to fall under the overly emotional spell.

[tomreedtoon]

14. It's a simple three step program.

1) Make Them Laugh.

Preachers usually start with a simple, easy, non-offensive joke to put people's minds at ease.

2) Make Them Cry.

Tell a story about a child dying of cancer (NEVER AIDS - that's a gay disease, remember!) or how a mother survived the loss of her husband in some bizarre accident. Get those tears welling up.

3) Make Them Feel Religious.

This is mostly a matter of manipulating the religious symbols the audience believes in. That ol'rugged cross, Jesus's saving power, that sort of thing.

By the way, these were outlined in a very interesting book called How to Become a Bishop Without Being Religious. It was published in the 50's, and claimed to be about the "standard brand Protestant churches" - like Lutherans and Episcopalians. However, the tactics were appropriated by the "lower-income churches" like Baptists and evangelical non-denominational Protestants to great financial success. The author, an Episcopal minister, wrote the book as a parody and a warning about what he saw churches turning into. I bet he never imagined anyone would take him seriously, or use his writings to build a power that would control the President of the United States.

[knitter4democracy]

16. You've nailed it--that's the exact pattern most sermons follow.

After years of growing up Nazarene and then going to a Nazarene college with required chapel service three times a week, that's exactly what almost all preachers do. They start with a cute story that gets people at ease, go into the first Bible verse, then tell another story explaining how they're using that Bible verse, then go to the second and third Bible verses with their own stories and such, and finally they get to the really emotional part and try to get everyone feeling really guilty or crying out of sadness or whatever. They play on that guilt until people are running down to the prayer rail down front, crying for God's forgiveness.

Trust me, though, it gets pretty darn old. Then you feel guilty about being so cynical, but you can't help it--it feels like a scam. It usually is.

[suziedemocrat]

10. The one on the secret is good too.