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NEWARK, Texas - Here in the gentle hills of north Texas, televangelist Kenneth Copeland has built a religious empire teaching that God wants his followers to prosper.
NEWARK, Texas - Here in the gentle hills of north Texas, televangelist Kenneth Copeland has built a religious empire teaching that God wants his followers to prosper.
Definitely he is not the only one. As you can see from the article, they are closely associated with the Oral Roberts Ministries another Religious organization which came under fire recently for misuse of Funds. The Roberts Ministry which is being run by Richard Roberts who inherited Daddy's fortune, is being sued by former officials of the church who made light of apparent misuse of funds by Richards wife who alone spent $85,000 at one of her favourite clothing stores. The Church Private Jet was used to send Richard's daught and friends down to the Bahamas for a graduation party. Cost $24,000. These funds come from the donation/tithes of Church members. All these men have no jobs or means of Support otherwise.
Another one of the latest darlings of the Evangelical world is out of Houston, Texas who also preaches Wealth and Health ministries and never once mentions God in any of his books. His name is Joel Osteen. Take a look at the 60 Minutes special on he and his syrupie gaggy smile and his mega-church following and how he says it's not about the money.
Another gem is the Reverend Robert Tilton who was exposed for fraud by "ABC's Prime Time Live" for his scam on his, "Success-N-Life Ministeries". He had a good con going where if you sent in a letter and traced your hand on it and wrote down all your problems and troubles in the letter, the Reverend Robert Tilton would personally put his hand on your traced hand outline and pray to God for you to receive help. What dateline found out, is that the address where you had to send the letter along with your Cheque or Money Order was some bank address in Tennessee where behind the bank they found a Dumpster loaded with thousands of these letters of people spilling their guts out , minus of course the Check or money Order. The Bank was merely set up like a boiler room operation for the con. Then Prime Time took some of the letters and contacted some of the people who sent them and they were in shock.
And it's all of them including Billy & Franklyn Graham. If you look at the way they all live. The wealth they surround themselves with, then you soon realize, yes it is about the money. All these people are being investigated now and are asked to come before the Senate Finance Commitee and open their books and they are refusing. Beni Hin is another who has refused to open his books to the commitee.
And it's not just the supreme mega churches on board with money making schemes. I've watched over the past year at all of the Ponzi and Pyramid schemes promoted at all these local nieghborhood churches lately and the Reverends & Pastors who've been arrested and indicted for fraud in schemes such as Colon End Parenthesis CEP - Global Pension Plan - 12DailyPro -etc and numerous Religious Gurus of these scam promotion websites and blogs out there, especially in the United States who Pimp these schemes and thus far who have gotten off with a hand slap.
I actually wanted to open a thread on this and title it, "Why Do People Throw Money At Them"?, because to me it just does'nt make common sense that intelligent mankind would be dumb enough to fall for them all. The actual fact is, these members are'nt worshipping a God, they're worshipping these men. And these guys all set themselves up as a Charismatic Idol figure just for that purpose. I think they start out with the best intentions, but their morallity goes down hill once they gain that popularity. Then people's faith and personal finances are shattered.
Again, I always point to the Bible, there is nothing remotely recognizable about these men and what anybody can read about Jesus life & ministry and that of his Apostles/Desciples. Every one of them including Jesus had jobs to support themselves. They NEVER once begged to gain personal wealth. They never preached Personal Wealth. If anything Jesus encouraged abondoning the puruit of materialism.
Definitely he is not the only one. As you can see from the article, they are closely associated with the Oral Roberts Ministries another Religious organization which came under fire recently for misuse of Funds. The Roberts Ministry which is being run by Richard Roberts who inherited Daddy's fortune, is being sued by former officials of the church who made light of apparent misuse of funds by Richards wife who alone spent $85,000 at one of her favourite clothing stores. The Church Private Jet was used to send Richard's daught and friends down to the Bahamas for a graduation party. Cost $24,000. These funds come from the donation/tithes of Church members. All these men have no jobs or means of Support otherwise.
Another one of the latest darlings of the Evangelical world is out of Houston, Texas who also preaches Wealth and Health ministries and never once mentions God in any of his books. His name is Joel Osteen. Take a look at the 60 Minutes special on he and his syrupie gaggy smile and his mega-church following and how he says it's not about the money.
Another gem is the Reverend Robert Tilton who was exposed for fraud by "ABC's Prime Time Live" for his scam on his, "Success-N-Life Ministeries". He had a good con going where if you sent in a letter and traced your hand on it and wrote down all your problems and troubles in the letter, the Reverend Robert Tilton would personally put his hand on your traced hand outline and pray to God for you to receive help. What dateline found out, is that the address where you had to send the letter along with your Cheque or Money Order was some bank address in Tennessee where behind the bank they found a Dumpster loaded with thousands of these letters of people spilling their guts out , minus of course the Check or money Order. The Bank was merely set up like a boiler room operation for the con. Then Prime Time took some of the letters and contacted some of the people who sent them and they were in shock.
And it's all of them including Billy & Franklyn Graham. If you look at the way they all live. The wealth they surround themselves with, then you soon realize, yes it is about the money. All these people are being investigated now and are asked to come before the Senate Finance Commitee and open their books and they are refusing. Beni Hin is another who has refused to open his books to the commitee.
And it's not just the supreme mega churches on board with money making schemes. I've watched over the past year at all of the Ponzi and Pyramid schemes promoted at all these local nieghborhood churches lately and the Reverends & Pastors who've been arrested and indicted for fraud in schemes such as Colon End Parenthesis CEP - Global Pension Plan - 12DailyPro -etc and numerous Religious Gurus of these scam promotion websites and blogs out there, especially in the United States who Pimp these schemes and thus far who have gotten off with a hand slap.
I actually wanted to open a thread on this and title it, "Why Do People Throw Money At Them"?, because to me it just does'nt make common sense that intelligent mankind would be dumb enough to fall for them all. The actual fact is, these members are'nt worshipping a God, they're worshipping these men. And these guys all set themselves up as a Charismatic Idol figure just for that purpose. I think they start out with the best intentions, but their morallity goes down hill once they gain that popularity. Then people's faith and personal finances are shattered.
Again, I always point to the Bible, there is nothing remotely recognizable about these men and what anybody can read about Jesus life & ministry and that of his Apostles/Desciples. Every one of them including Jesus had jobs to support themselves. They NEVER once begged to gain personal wealth. They never preached Personal Wealth. If anything Jesus encouraged abondoning the puruit of materialism.
Hopefully this will be an interesting thread.
I watch the ones that preach the best message, the true message of Jesus Christ and salvation. But I don't send them money. If everyone just watched and stopped sending money, it would be interesting to see who was left standing.
But about Billy Graham....you have that wrong. I can't speak for Franklin and Will and the rest of his family, but Billy and his wife Ruth were down to earth people, he never had a "televangelist ministry" and they lived quite simple. I will contribute to their ministry, because they go around the world teaching the gospel, as the Bible says to do. How can they travel and live without the contributions of believers?
There's two sides to everything, and it's not fair to lump them all into one category. But when ministries are so big and so public, the ministers should expect scrutiny as part of the territory and be able to open their books, no hesitation.
NEWARK, Texas - Here in the gentle hills of north Texas, televangelist Kenneth Copeland has built a religious empire teaching that God wants his followers to prosper.
This is the way it has been through history. The driving force behind the church is wealth and power. It is a tax free business in the United States and in some countries a secondary government.
I think the tax free status needs to be removed in the US. I see it as a conflict of the separation of Church and State as well as being unfair to other business and the non believing tax payers.
But about Billy Graham....you have that wrong. I can't speak for Franklin and Will and the rest of his family, but Billy and his wife Ruth were down to earth people, he never had a "televangelist ministry" and they lived quite simple. I will contribute to their ministry, because they go around the world teaching the gospel, as the Bible says to do. How can they travel and live without the contributions of believers?
There's two sides to everything, and it's not fair to lump them all into one category. But when ministries are so big and so public, the ministers should expect scrutiny as part of the territory and be able to open their books, no hesitation.
Unfortunately with things like the release of the Nixon White House tapes where Billy Graham is counciling President Nixon and advising him to do far more Bombing of North Vietnam than he did. Had Nixon followed Graham's advice, millions of innocent people would lost their lives. Can you imagine Jesus Christ promoting such advice. Jesus from what I've read from the Bible, never hobb knobbed with the political elites of his time.
The other problem is what the Arizona State University students did back in 1974 in Phoenix. I read an article from "Human Behavior" magazine, about the Billy Graham Crusades. As a matter of research as to how the Evangelical world operates, they infiltrated the Graham Organization months before one of his famous Crusades. Ever see a Billy Graham Crusade that did'nt emphasize the numbers of those wanting to be saved and get baptized ??????? It's made to appear as if there is a spontaneous outpouring of Holy spirit moving these people forward. Of particular interest to ASU students was how the Alter Call worked. The claim has always been that it's the Holy ghost moving these individuals to Graham's Pulpet. But that's not what they have discovered.
What they discovered is that everything is pre-aranged and planned out. They have meetings and instruction 4 to 6 weeks before the Crusade. Everything is for show. Many thousands are planted into the audience and when he makes for the alter call of "who wants to be saved"? , these people (actually an army of about 6000 ) stand up with arms raised and encourage others around them to stand up and go forward. I had my boss who is a staunch Baptist (Which is the doctrine Billy Graham Teaches) admit that's how they do it. Because he participates in those pre-arangements. Needless to say the Graham Organization was furious. Sadly it has been nothing more than the theatrics of the time Tent Rival Shows.
And lastly, Billy Graham's last Crusade I believe was in San Diego. I actually had friends that went to that last Crusade. Most of it has had a lot of circus entertainment brought in. Even those so called Christain Heavy Metal Groups were there along with the usuals like Charlie Daniels, etc. They were apalled by what they saw going on at the stadium restrooms. There were people doing drugs, having sex in the stalls and of course that's what you can expect when you lower your standards the way many of these organizations have done to attract. I believe someone started a thread here talking about a church with a gymnasium. The problem is they have nothing to offer anymore. People are burned out and the only way to attract people back is to entertain them, as there no longer seems to be any spiritual food on the table. Hence the Junk food seems to be todays trick of choice.
Of course like the rest, there is also the fame and fortune that has been amassed over the years. Interestingly as I stated before, wealth was not the primary focuss of Jesus Christ. Nor was showmanship.
I watch the ones that preach the best message, the true message of Jesus Christ and salvation. But I don't send them money. If everyone just watched and stopped sending money, it would be interesting to see who was left standing.
But about Billy Graham....you have that wrong. I can't speak for Franklin and Will and the rest of his family, but Billy and his wife Ruth were down to earth people, he never had a "televangelist ministry" and they lived quite simple. I will contribute to their ministry, because they go around the world teaching the gospel, as the Bible says to do. How can they travel and live without the contributions of believers?
There's two sides to everything, and it's not fair to lump them all into one category. But when ministries are so big and so public, the ministers should expect scrutiny as part of the territory and be able to open their books, no hesitation.
Billy Graham's the only televangelest I've ever seen who actually seems like a decent person. You never see him in a $1000 suit either.
A good friend of my parents used to work for Copeland ministries. Not only are the Copelands themselves super rich, but many of their employees are overworked and struggling to pay their bills. It's shameful.
A good friend of my parents used to work for Copeland ministries. Not only are the Copelands themselves super rich, but many of their employees are overworked and struggling to pay their bills. It's shameful.
My parents go to a "mega church" with a pastor who's the same way. Very rich, family runs the entire church, finances are hidden, employees underpaid and over-worked, constantly guilting the congregation into giving more money, millions unaccounted for, and now the pastor is under investigation by the Feds. Seems to a common thing these days.
Billy Graham's the only televangelest I've ever seen who actually seems like a decent person. You never see him in a $1000 suit either.
And yet it's been said that Frankyn Graham is said to be the Heir Apparent to the Graham Fortune, What fortune $$$???????????$$$
The dirty little secret is that most of the sophisticated Monolithic organizations have things structured like a typical big business corporation. The Ricjh all play games with various blind trusts and dummy corporations for moving money around. He use to pay himself $50,000 a year and yet we are aware that million$$$ are raked in at these event$, especially when the basket attached at the end of that long pole is shoved in your face every 30 minutes.
Maybe he's part of that Babylon the Great who rides the back of Big government. No arguement about his love affair with politics. And the world is not a better place as a result.
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