televangelist

 

Televangelism is the use of television to communicate the Christian faith. The word is a portmanteau of television and evangelism and was coined by Time magazine. ^[1] A televangelist (from television and evangelist) is a person, often a minister, who has become known for their Christian TV broadcasts. Both terms carry slightly derogatory connotations and are normally only used by critics of the phenomenon.

Some televangelists are also regular pastors or ministers in their own halls of worship (often a megachurch), but the majority of their followers come from their TV and radio audiences. Others do not have a conventional congregation as such and solely work through television.

Televangelism began as a peculiarly American phenomenon, resulting from a largely deregulated media where access to television networks is open to virtually anyone who can afford it, combined with a large Christian population that is able to provide the necessary funding. However, the increasing globalisation of broadcasting has enabled some US televangelists to reach a wider audience through international broadcast networks, including some that are specifically Christian in nature, such as Trinity Broadcasting Network and The God Channel. Domestically produced televangelism is increasingly present in some other nations such as Brazil. Some countries have a more regulated media with either general restrictions on access or specific rules regarding religious broadcasting. In such countries, religious programming is typically produced by TV companies (sometimes as a regulatory or public service requirement) rather than private interest groups.

History

Evangelical Christianity has always emphasised preaching the gospel to the whole world and attempting to convert as many people as possible. Historically, this was achieved by sending missionaries and the distribution of bibles and literature. Christians realised that the rapid uptake of radio beginning in the 1920s provided a powerful new tool for this task, and they were amongst the first producers of radio programming. Radio broadcasts were seen as a complementary activity to traditional missionaries, enabling vast numbers to be reached at relatively low cost, but also enabling Christianity to be preached in countries where this was illegal and missionaries were banned. The aim of Christian radio was to both convert people to Christianity and to provide teaching and support to believers. These activities continue today, particularly in the developing world.

In the USA, the Great Depression of the 1930s saw a resurgence of revival-tent preaching in the Midwest and South, as itinerant traveling preachers drove from town to town, living off donations. Several preachers began radio shows as a result of their popularity. One of the more famous radio evangelists of this era was Father Charles Coughlin, whose strongly anti-Communist and anti-Semitic radio programs reached millions of listeners.

Although television also began in the 1920s, it did not become widespread until after World War II. The first television preacher of note was Fulton Sheen, a Catholic archbishop who successfully switched to television in 1951 after two decades of popular radio broadcasts.

The 1960s and early 1970s saw television replace radio as the primary home entertainment medium, but also corresponded with a further rise in evangelical Protestant Christianity, particularly through the activities of Billy Graham. Many well-known televangelists began during this period, developing their own media networks, news exposure, and political influence. Some of these figures and their ministries retain substantial influence today, but others were significantly diminished by a series of scandals in the 1980s.

Controversies

Televangelists are the subject of considerable controversy. Both their methods and theology have received widespread criticism from both church and secular sources. Many televangelists are featured on discernment websites run by Christians that are concerned about what they see as departures from sound Christian faith. The following are amongst the issues that have been raised:

• Lack of accountability. Many televangelists exist outside of established churches. They have little or no oversight from denominational structures and many are accountable to no-one. In cases where their ministry is run by a board of directors, this is frequently made up of family members and other people who will not challenge the televangelist. Many are not members of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an independent organisation which promotes high financial standards amongst Christian ministries.

• Supernatural theology. Most televangelists hold charismatic or Pentecostal viewpoints, believing in spiritual gifts, divine healing, and other miracles. These subjects remain controversial within Christian thinking. In some instances, claims of miracles have been shown to be fraudulent.

• Flamboyant lifestyles. Many televangelists have accumulated significant personal wealth from their ministries and own large properties, luxury cars, and even private jets. This is seen by critics to be contradictory to Christian principles. There is also frequently confusion between personal and ministry assets.

• Financial emphasis. Televangelism requires substantial amounts of money to produce programs and purchase airtime on cable and satellite networks. Televangelists devote much time to fundraising activities. Products such as books, CDs, DVDs, and trinkets with supposedly miraculous powers, are aggressively promoted to viewers. Opponents regard such an emphasis as inappropriate and also question whether the money would be better used relieving poverty or employing traditional missionaries.

• Personality cult. Traditional Christian teaching emphasises the following of Jesus and not a particular preacher, however televangelism tends to build a personality cult around the televangelist.

• Health and wealth teaching. Many televangelists preach a prosperity gospel that promises material success to believers, subject to their generous donations to the “work of God”, which inevitably means the televangelist. This is regarded as a serious heresy by other Christians.

• False prophecies. Numerous televangelists have issued false prophecies, for example Benny Hinn’s claim that Fidel Castro would die in the 1990s, or Pat Robertson's claim that the War in Iraq would end in 2006. Many other televangelists have made false prophecies of the Second Coming.

• False teaching. Televangelists frequently depart from or add to traditional Christian doctrines.

• Entertainment focus. The style of televangelism seems to mirror that of the secular entertainment industry, with emphasis on celebrity, slick production, and aggressive marketing.

• Exploitation. Followers of televangelists frequently are poor and uneducated^{[citation needed]}, lacking the ability to critically analyse the message they are presented with, which frequently links a blessing from God to making sacrificial donations to the televangelist. This has led to claims of exploitation of the vulnerable.

• Crowd manipulation. Allegations have been made that many televangelists use psychological techniques, including mass hypnosis, to produce the desired response from people in what is a charged emotional atmosphere^{[citation needed]}.

• Disputed success. Televangelists claim to be reaching millions of people worldwide with the gospel and producing numerous converts to Christianity. However, such claims are difficult to verify independently. It has also been questioned whether non-believers actually watch Christian television.

Televangelists often strongly dispute these criticisms and claim they are doing God's work.

Scandals

Main article: Christian televangelist scandals

Numerous televangelists have been at the center of well-publicised scandals, including financial, sexual, and religious.

Many televangelists promote the doctrine of divine healing and would claim that God can heal people through them. Christian views on this subject vary, and it is seen as pseudoscience and charlatanry by skeptics. Some claims of healing miracles by televangelists have been exposed as a fraud, for example in the case of Peter Popoff.

A series of scandals in the 1980s resulted in the fall from grace of several famous televangelists, including Jim Bakker, who served a prison sentence for financial improprieties associated with his ministry, and Jimmy Swaggart, who made a famous tearful confession to a dalliance with a prostitute. Most of these televangelists have continued preaching, nonetheless, even though their audiences may be a small fraction of what they were at the height of their popularity. One of the most prominent examples of this is the notorious Oral Roberts incident of 1987, in which the televised preacher demanded that his audience give him $8,000,000 or "God would call him home". He ended up raising $9.1 million[1].

Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell achieved further notoriety in 2001 with their conviction that the September 11 terrorist attacks constituted divine retribution provoked by rampant sexual immorality.

In 2005, Robertson announced on The 700 Club that Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez ought to be "taken out" by the US government. Many viewed this as a call for assassination. Later that year, in November, Robertson warned the town of Dover, Pennsylvania of a severe natural disaster following the defeat of the local school board for advocating intelligent design. In 2006, Robertson said God smote Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon after he withdrew troops from the Gaza Strip.

Brazil is also a country in which televangelists have found success, and it isn't uncommon for them to become involved in scandals. In 1992, Edir Macedo, a Brazilian televangelist and founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God was imprisoned for accusations of charlatanism, and spent some days in prison. More recently, in 2002, the Época magazine, controlled by Globo media group published two new articles making accusations at Igreja Renascer em Cristo. In 2006, Brazilian Justice blocked all goods of the Hernandes couple, leaders of the church because of accusations of money laundering, fraud and identity theft.

In Popular Culture

Televangelism has brought the relatively obscure culture of pentecostal Christianity to a wider (and secular) audience.

• In 2001 the German video artist Christian Jankowski collaborated with televangelist Pastor Peter Spencer to create a piece called "The Holy Artwork". In the video Jankowski collapses on the stage and the pastor delivers a long sermon about art, using Jankowski's work in video as a metaphor to explain Christian beliefs. While this video was a type of collaboration between the artist and pastor they each have separate objectives and it is ultimately not clear whether the piece is mocking the cultural phenomenon of televangelism or helping to promote it (or both).

• Televangelism is a popular subject for parody and satire in popular culture. The Bloom County comic strip was one of the most notable and frequent spoofers, featuring a local Moral Majority leader and, later, Bill the Cat preaching as "Oral Bill". Films spoofing televangelism include Pray TV, Salvation!, Fletch Lives and Pass the Ammo, while the subject got a more serious if still farcical treatment in The People vs. Larry Flynt. Adult magazines including Flynt's Hustler have often spoofed televangelism. Many songs by Frank Zappa are sharp satires of televangelism, for example: "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing", "Dumb All Over", "Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk". Genesis released a song called Jesus He Knows Me that satirised televangelism. Also, The Mirrorball Man, a scandalous televangelist was one of the personas of U2's Bono during the American legs of their Zoo TV tour also was a parody of televangelists.

• A critically acclaimed televangelist film is Robert Duvall's movie The Apostle, which he wrote, directed, financed and starred in. The Apostle includes sequences starring real televangelists in a tag-team revival meeting.

• Elmer Gantry is a 1927 novel by Sinclair Lewis. It tells the story of a young, obnoxious, womanizing college athlete who, upon realizing the power, prestige, and easy money that being a preacher can bring, pursues his "religious" ambitions with relish, contributing to the downfall, even death, of key people around him as the years pass. Although he continues to womanize, is often exposed as a fraud, and frequently faces a complete downfall, Gantry is never fully discredited and always manages to emerge triumphant and to reach ever greater heights of social status. The novel ends as the Rev. Gantry prays for the USA to be a "moral nation" and simultaneously admires the legs of a new choir singer. The 1960 film of the same name starred Burt Lancaster as Gantry and Jean Simmons as Sister Sharon Falconer.

References

1. ^ Time: 75th Anniversary issue, March 9, 1998.

See also

• Christian televangelist scandals
• List of American televangelists
• List of televangelists in Brazil
• Category:Television evangelists
• Jesus He Knows Me

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