Televangelism empire in chaos over family split
February 1st, 2009 . by TexasFredTelevangelism empire in chaos over family split
GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) — Once one of the nation’s most popular televangelists, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller is watching his life’s work crumble.
His son and recent successor, the Rev. Robert A. Schuller, has abruptly resigned as senior pastor of the Crystal Cathedral. The shimmering, glass-walled megachurch is home to the “Hour of Power” broadcast, an evangelism staple that’s been on the air for more than three decades.
The church is in financial turmoil: It plans to sell more than $65 million worth of its Orange County property to pay off debt. Revenue dropped by nearly $5 million last year, according to a recent letter from the elder Schuller to elite donors. In the letter, Schuller Sr. implored the Eagle’s Club members — who supply 30% of the church’s revenue — for donations and hinted that the show might go off the air without their support.
“The final months of 2008 were devastating for our ministry,” the 82-year-old pastor wrote.
The Crystal Cathedral blames the recession for its woes. But it’s clear that the elder Schuller’s carefully orchestrated leadership transition, planned over a decade, has stumbled badly.
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Televangelism empire in chaos over family split
Shoot, I’ll pray for y’all. I have a PayPal account on the sidebar of this blog, send $5.00 and a prayer request in the comments section and I’ll say a prayer in YOUR name, I promise, I really will pray for you.
And it’ll do you just as much good as one of these ultra-rich televangelists praying for you!! Amen?? AMEN!!
I know some folks that are successful *full gospel* preachers, they have a very sizable church and following. I know where they came from, I know what they were before they found *the calling*, well, I’m feeling that calling!! The calling that says I can pray for you just as good as some of these other folks can.
If you have been a regular reader of this blog you KNOW that I say what I mean and mean what I say. I’m in a financial bind too, just like the rest of America, and I feel the calling!!
The calling to get up and do a little old time fire and brimstone preaching. I can rant on just as well, and with a hell of lot more sincerity, than some of these TV preachers can. All I have is a computer, they have their multi-million dollar homes, churches and production companies. They want donations of thousands of dollars, I just need a $5.00 donation. Cheap prayers work just as well as high dollar ones!
Hey, it worked for Kenneth Copeland, Dr. Gene Scott and Rev. Bob Tilton. Well, it worked for a while anyway. I figure we’ll end up taking it on the road so we can reach as many of the sick and afflicted as possible, and it makes it harder for the IRS to track you that way too!
That’s all there is to it Brothers and Sisters, a $5.00 donation and a prayer request in the comments sections and it’s a done deal. I wonder?? Is this how Dial-A-Prayer got started?
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I get a prayer for a one time love offering of $5. Is it tax deductible too?
I don’t care for those television churches at all. People send these shysters millions upon millions of dollars each year. Yet, they’ll only put a couple bucks in the collection plate of the church they attend every week. But, if a family member is sick, they want the local pastor to come visit and pray. If Johnny or Sally is getting married, it’s their local minister who they want to perform the wedding. If a family member dies, the funeral service is held in their local church by their minister. No TV minister ever came to anyone’s home and ministered to them.
You got 2, count em, 2 prayers…
I’ll reveal a bit here that I’ve heretofore left hidden: I am a less-than-enthusiastic supporter of organized religion. I believe that a man’s religion lives in his heart and there it should reside. If I’m not mistaken, Jesus preached “on the road,” so to speak. He came to the masses, one by one, and erected no church or building to honor himself. Man does the truth of religion a disservice when he builds massive edifices and surrounds his religions with gilt, separatism, elitism, expensive trappings, set-asides, bureaucracies, organizations which, unfortunately, begin to live for themselves instead of the religion in which they originally wished to honor.
Televangelists make me wince; they are no closer to God than the feral cats I feed on my deck. And perhaps they are lesser beings indeed.
BZ
BZ, I could not agree more… And I don’t say that just to agree, I say it because I mean it.
We ALL know certain people that stand and preach, but they preach the *good deeds* that they feel they have done, all the times that they are the 1st one to the church the minute the doors are open, all the times they gave this, did that, helped the other, and those people are doing it for ALL the wrong reasons.
God knows what they’ve done, good or bad, and he knows who the hypocrites are too! People don’t have to make spectacles of themselves, but they do, and that is a terrible shame!
Judgement Day is gonna be one HELL of a surprise for a lot of people…
Ya know, I could turn on the Web-Cam and be a televangelist in my own right!!
I dont adjudge via verbations; I adjudge via actual work.
Don’t say. Don’t proselytize. Shut the fuck up.
Just DO. If that’s your actual cause. If God truly moves you.
BZ
Exactly… If you’re doing good work you don’t have to toot your own horn…
These TV ministries, otherwise known as leeches, prey on the elderly because of their mental state. There was a case here in a senior apartment complex for the people that were financially strapped. The lady fell behind on her payment and told them she could not afford for her upkeep, so the administrator decided to help her figure some way to help with some reduced costs by looking over her checkbook for her. She immediatley found out why. The old girl was sending 500 a month to some televangelist. Needless to say, she now has money left over after the month but she’ll probably go to hell. heh,heh,heh
I’ve always wondered about that entire”pay for prayer” thingie… Granted, I’m not Christian, but was taught to pray for folks - without payment and without request. If someone has a special need then a mere comment should be enough to send a good person to prayer on that person’s behalf without delay.
Bur what do I know, I’m just a pagan.
Thank goodness for cable TV I can remember a time when all you could find on TV on Sunday until noon or later were these ‘pay now we’ll pray for you later preachers’.
All phonies the lot of them.
Basti, does that mean you’re not sending a $5.00 donation so I can say a *cheap* prayer for you??
Sorry, even I can’t type that one without cracking up… LMAO
I got my own personal prayer line.
Fred My wife said if you would say one with her over the phone she’d send you 5.00 just to hear it!, she says “That boy needs Jesus”ROTFLMAO
Fred … don’t forget the ‘prayer cloths’…. they will probably be good for several dollars.
I was LMAO when Tilton was touting that BS 18 years ago and I am STILL LMAO at him, and I feel sorry for those that actually FELL for that BS…