Paul Crouch, the king of prosperity theology, finally gets his chance to meet God.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Paul Crouch, the televangelist who built what's been called the world's largest Christian broadcasting network, has died. He was 79. 

Crouch died at his home in Orange, Calif., on Saturday after a decade-long fight with degenerative heart disease, his grandson Brandon Crouch told The Associated Press.

"He was an incredible businessman, entrepreneur, visionary; he built something that impacted the world," he said. 

Crouch began his broadcasting career while studying theology at Central Bible Institute and Seminary in his native Missouri by helping build the campus' radio station. He moved to California in the early 1960s to manage the movie and television unit of the Assemblies of God before founding Trinity Broadcast Network in 1973 with his wife, Jan. 

They grew the network into an international Christian empire that beams prosperity gospel programming to every continent but Antarctica around the clock. The programming promises that if the faithful sacrifice for their belief, God will reward them with material wealth. 

Based in Costa Mesa, the network says it has 84 satellite channels and more than 18,000 television and cable affiliates as well as a Christian amusement park in Orlando. 

The Crouches faced criticism for what critics say was their extravagant lifestyle. Ministry watchdogs have long questioned how TBN spends the hundreds of millions of tax-exempt donations they receive from viewers. 

Last year, their granddaughter and her husband's uncle filed lawsuits alleging $50 million in financial improprieties at the network and detailed opulent spending on private jets and 13 mansions and homes around the U.S. for the Crouch family's use. 

Janice Bethany Crouch. Could she be Sarah Palin's fashion role model?

I don't know if I have shared this before but I used to be obsessed with televangelists, and watched their shows religiously, if you will pardon the pun.

Oh I was not a believer in those days, but I WAS fascinated with how these people, who were clearly charlatans, managed to manipulate so many millions of people into believing they had access to God and to send them their money.

My favorite ones in those days were Jim and Tammy Bakker, Falwell, and Jimmy Swaggert.

I saw Paul Crouch on the PTL Club with Jim And Tammy Faye all of the time, and used to think he was more than likely out of his damn mind. But then I thought that about a number of those old time gospel grifters.

I watched with immense glee as the scandals destroyed first the Bakkers and then Jimmy Swaggert, and much later Ted Haggard. In my mind their public humiliation should have helped people see the folly of sending these snake oil salesmen their hard earned money.

And yet still there are still people out there sending their life savings to Jack Van Impe, Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson, John Hagee, Joel Olsteen, and numerous others, in the belief that they are buying their way into heaven.

Makes me sad to think that there are so many people who spend their lives focused on the afterlife, and do not take the time to really appreciate the here and now.