Here is what the Daily Beast had to say about this episode.
Your Uncle Gryphen has long been fascinated with televangelists and used to watch not only Robert Tilton in the 80's, but also Jimmy Swaggert, Jim and Tammy Bakker, and of course Jerry Falwell.
I of course hate watched them, and what I saw on those Sunday morning viewings only made me dislike religion, and the assholes who use it to take advantage of the simple minded, with a white hot passion.
I think back then if somebody had asked me what I thought the future held for such obvious religious charlatans I would have said that it was very unlikely they would survive into the new millennium, because people were becoming better educated and capable of seeing through the bullshit.
Damn, I hate it when I'm wrong.
Gryphen, you should engage Richard Vermillion in conversation on Twitter. You would have a great deal of fun with someone who graduated summa cum laude, is a logician (epic fail). Oh here is what he says about himself: #Married #Christian #minister, #father, #businessman, #gold/#silver bug, #logician, #autodidact, #Marine. Unusual? Yes. Boring? Never! … @VermillionRich
ReplyDeleteApparently, he is a minister of a megachurch. I'm sure you will have great fun playing with that mouse, but please post your exchange on your blog. LOL
This should be mandatory viewing before anyone makes a donation to a religious organization.
ReplyDeleteOk it could be that I was wrong about the megachurch, and he did help go after some televangelists, but I think that was to remove his competition. LOL. Here is more on Richard Vermillion. https://www.linkedin.com/in/richvermillion
ReplyDeleteAs a former business executive, I've read thousands of resumes over the years. Richard clearly takes the record for the most bull shit that I have read in a bio.
Delete5:56
DeleteI suspected as much.
Guess who's going to start her own church? Oh wait, kind of sounds like her PAC...
ReplyDeleteThe best part of my exchange with him on twitter was his comment that God is self-evident. Remember that he bills himself as a critical thinker.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother used to watch all of them. She only sent her money to one though. Can't remember which one. And that's what these guys do. They take money from gullible people to live their extravagant lifestyle. Kinda like $arahPAC.
ReplyDeleteWell...
ReplyDeleteQuite a few of them didn't make it due to the temptation of the flesh... The Devil made me do it! Now that I'm caught "I'm Saved, Here Is Some Bible Verses On Forgiveness." Can I keep my Tee Vee Show?
But these dinosaurs being pushed aside made room for a whole new crop of preachers...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zALqMWimBbM
I've been fighting the fundies since I was about four. My mother listened to radio evangelists and would get into a righteous fury over imagined slights. She took it out on my dad and me, the only people who loved her enough not to hurt her.
ReplyDeleteMy father and I weren't swayed by those people at all, my brother just got mad and went hunting, but a percentage of my mother's family were suckers, with my mother being the worst. It doesn't seem to hinge on low intelligence, but rather low imagination. Some folks are just followers and love a chance to feel righteous.
I appreciate your brutal honesty.
DeleteI know many will disagree, but I think it is much easier to be a believer than a non-believer.
TC, I'm sorry to say I have to agree with you. But then again, that's not much of a call considering thousands of years of history prove the atheists are the most hated group in history. If not THE most, then damned high up there.
DeleteIn some areas of the USA, it's not easy being an athiest.
DeleteYour friends, neighbors, and acquaintances are going to be asking you "what church do you go to"?
Saying you don't go to church is bad enough, but if and when they find out you don't believe in Santa Claus, Tinker Belle, or any gods, you are going to be pitied, otracized, and will be left out of many social circles and invites.
If you ever want to run for local office or serve on a school board, you will likely lose or worse yet get black balled.
In states like Alabama and Mississippi, you are better off being a Jew, a black person, or even a Buddhist.
NOTHING is as offensive to the Christian evangelicals as an athiest.
Being a divorced Catholic in the '50 and '60s, I noticed my mother was treated with a 'less-than' regard by Church and clergy. While my siblings and I were baptized and pushed to go to church till the onset of our respective teens, I always noticed a healthy skepticism in my mother, which was not discouraged in us kids either. Importantly, my mother made it clear that we kids came first, and that she wouldn't automatically take the word of a nun over us. Today, my mom and my sister still have use for the church, my brother and I do not, and we all get along and love each other.
DeleteSpeaking of charlatans, and I believe that if this planet implodes, religion will be the root cause, this is in response to the BLM article at the pond:
ReplyDeletePolarbearpapa •
The Lord spoke of such people long ago..
Psalms 73
6-10
Pretentious with arrogance,
they wear the latest fashions in violence,
Pampered and overfed,
decked out in silk bows of silliness.
They jeer, using words to kill;
they bully their way with words.
They’re full of hot air,
loudmouths disturbing the peace.
People actually listen to them—can you believe it?
Like thirsty puppies, they lap up their words.
Prosperity gospel adherents have been around since the RCC was broughtinto existence. These new ones just use better technology than the ancients did.,
ReplyDeleteI have said from the beginning (i.e., 2008) that tele-evangelism will be Sarah Palin's eventual gig.
ReplyDeleteAs others have noted, she is already doing part of it. She would be so good at it. And other options are disappearing. The whole trajectory of the famous and financially successful tele-evangelist, complete with an "Aaaaaahhh have sinned!! Aaaaahhh have sinned!!!" episode (this will come in handy when any of her many so-far-hidden scandals emerges, and she can prob survive them via this response), is right up her alley and down her block.
The a&&hole who bought two planes to spite the people who he said were jealous was so over the top I couldn't even yell at the TV. I was speechless. I have to agree that THIS will be scarah's next gig.. any.. day.. now.
ReplyDeleteMoney.. I think I need me a football team (er parsonage).
I'm currently reading Victor J. Stenger's God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science and Religion (Prometheus 2012). In chapter 3: The Rebirth and Triumph of Science, section: The Enlightenment, he describes the rise and decline of Deism:
ReplyDeleteThen, in the third stage, deism fell out of favor because the notion of a cosmic designer who did not act in the universe was viewed as too impersonal, too remote. …
In America, the early nineteenth century saw the Enlightenment deism of the major founding fathers, and much of the new science, fade from view as itinerant preachers traveled the country, calling on sinners to repent and to accept Christ as their personal savior. This continues to this day, with the well-financed efforts of fundamentalist and evangelical Christians to undermine science. They agree with me that science and religion are incompatible. However, since they "know" the truth, they conclude that wherever science disagrees with that truth, science must be wrong.
I hate to say when I was a fundie, I gave money to Tilton, a lot for a poor single mom with the promise God would answer my prayers, well you know hot that turned out. Watching John Oliver, I see Tilton STILL uses the same tired tactics such as the footprint, oil, cloth, whatever! I met his brother once on a dating site and he told me that his brother was a "shark." Those were his words and he wondered if he was even really a Christian or not. I am repulsed by Copeland's lavish lifestyle and his hunting exploits with money poor, desperate people send him. They are reverse Robin Hoods, stealing from the poor to make themselves richer. Ugh. I hope John Oliver makes a lot of money and gives it to charity. I think we should all start our own churches and flood the IRS with requests for tax exemptions. Jim Bob Duggar declared his home a church so he pays NO property taxes. We should all do the same thing and make the IRS look at their policies. I am sure the state and county governments would really revolt if they were not getting their share of property taxes! Did I hear you say Elmer Gantry?
ReplyDeleteEpic take-down!
ReplyDeleteI loved his entire show, but he just scratched the surface. There are charlatans who "practice" excising chicken gizzards and other bloody stuff by "praying the evil" out of the person, then using prestidigitation slights of hand show "evidence" of the "evil" they removed, and expect payment in return for "God's favor", we've all seen the "miracles", someone whose been wheelchair bound for ages have "healing hands laid on them", they "fall out" of themselves, then are told they're healed, then get up and do the passe double across the stage, They'd be funny if it wasn't for the fact they're fleecing people of money they need to survive, after all, "They've seen it with their own eyes" so it "must be true".
ReplyDeleteThere's one in Philly, she's very popular and has a "prayer center" in a poor section of the city, she keeps her jaguar out at her mini manse and drives an old hyundai to "services". She's got her own TV show on sundays, and she's not particularly "good" at it, yet must rake in millions. She has a gated mansion on the main line, an uber rich area near Villanova in Springfiled Township. Not a bad "gig" for one day's "work". She's like a lightweight version of Joyce Meyers.
Copeland is just one screwed up pos. Telling a cancer patient to "pray away the cancer" and "Seed her church with the money you'd use for treatment" What "God" would be remotely endorsing a Death Panel in his name? She's a criminal NOT a preacher.