April 21, 2017 ▸ Religion

Episode 190: Televangelists: Or, How to Fleece a Flock

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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we discuss the power, wealth, and corruption of Televangelists. Evangelical churches originally found the airwaves back in Radio Times, but the FCC had regulations that made all church services on the airwaves be free to broadcast, so long as they didn’t make any money off of the venture. This changed in the 1970s when the FCC wrote new rules, and almost overnight, major Televangelist networks started to spread as a way for corrupt preachers to make a quick (million) buck(s).

Of course the massive wealth these mega churches generate become even more impressive thanks to government regulations stating that churches are tax free. The 501(c)(3) clause allows these groups to run without any IRS involvement, and they can even establish “parsonages,” which are massive mansions for the preachers to live in. This tax exempt luxury has spawned big names like Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, and Creflo Dollar.

One reason these preachers are so rich is the Property Gospel, the idea that “seed dollars” that you invest in the church will win god’s favor, and he’ll pay you back with riches or cures for cancer or whatever it is you are praying for. They also send you crazy stuff back in the mail to keep you on the hook to give them more and more money.

One particularly good example of this is the multiple Televangelists who own multimillion dollar private jets due to seeds they fleece from their flock (something we open the show with). We get a bit bottlenecked by the crazy hair that comes with women like Tamy Faye Bakker and Janice Crouch. We even talk about the old time preacher woman named Aimee Semple McPherson who was so corrupt she had to fake her own death. So, listen in to this episode, as we talk about the corruption, the lawlessness, the sexual affairs, the fraud, and the fleecing that make up the modern day TV preacher.

The video clip we open the show with: https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/3zcjne/televangelists_defending_their_private_jets/