Televangelism – the pale substitute

In 1988, a former employee of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries wrote a piece for The Kansas City Star about his dismissal as a Swaggart bible college staff member. He had been dating a student, which was verboten and he was turfed. I found his article reprinted at a blog of a person who recently worked for Jimmy Swaggart Ministries and who was also turfed.

Erickson understands religious TV is first and foremost a business and that preservation of that business changes the attitudes and goals of founders who went into the medium wanting to minister.

To me, the central point of the recent Televangelism scandals is not sin or hypocrisy, but the fundamental distortion of Christianity which this medium has created.

TV is incapable of portraying actual Christianity in a one hour segment. Even “Christian programming” which runs 24 hours a day is a pale substitute for the lifestyle of Christianity. If we recognize the shallowness of the afternoon and evening soaps, why should we close our eyes and apply a different standard to tear-stained faces
pleading for our money?

I am not suggesting that people are not saved, set free and even baptized in the Holy Spirit by television ministries. Lives can be changed in 43 minutes. Yet such programming inherently skews the totality of Christian living when packaged in one-hour segments.
Christianity, as I understand it, involves living and loving in a group setting. It involves support of the brethren and a sense of community. It involves interaction with, not separation from, the world. Television preaching and television churches can provide none of these things, save for the annual conventions when everyone loves everyone easily; and then only because they are on an emotional and short-lived high.

As Swaggart Has Sewn, so Shall He Reap  was written 2 months after The Assemblies of God executive was informed Swaggart had been photographed leaving the motel room of a prostitute. Swaggart was under suspension in April 1988 by the State denominational board and the national board. He returned to television, the AoG removed his credentials and ministerial licence. Swaggart went independent and continued in media, maintaining his church and bible school.  In 1991 Swaggart was stopped on a highway in California, and was with a prostitute. He resigned and reversed his decision a day later saying that God told him to return to return to the pulpit. This time he told his congregation that ‘The Lord told me it was flat-out none of your business,’ and that he didn’t have to apologize for his conduct. He’s still on air, still running the church, the printing business and the school.

Lack of accountability over 20 years later isn’t limited to Swaggart and Sonlife Broadcasting Network. Nepotism has been practiced in televangelism since the days of Lester Sumrall and Oral Roberts. I mentioned a blog of a Swaggart webmaster. Employees no longer have to try to get a newspaper to publish a column, or grab the attention of a sympathetic broadcaster. Workers are no longer at the mercy of the bully pulpit of another medium. They too can speak to those who chose to give money. There are familiar tones in this account, parts of Mishel’s story reads like a tired script. This blogger and at least one other has been on the receiving end of correspondence from Swaggart Ministry lawyers. I do not know whether employees signed a confidentiality agreement,  what whistle-blower laws cover in Louisiana, or what material about Swaggart operations online the cease and desist demand covers.  Read what you will while you can.

Deception Bytes, JSM – Masters of the Sweep:

Three years ago I moved from North Carolina to Baton Rouge to begin a job as Webmaster for Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. I did not know much about the ministry, but I needed a job and the idea of working for a ministry seemed appealing. The Swaggart’s seemed nice enough at first, but I was soon to find out that this kindness was only offered in exchange for my complete loyalty and subjection to totalitarian-like control.

…If I could count the number of people who said to me in my three years there that there was something not right. There was too much secrecy, too much control of information. By controlling the information an individual has, they limit the person’s ability to think for themselves. Individuality is not prized at JSM and is targeted for special treatment. This special treatment involves isolation, shunning, and coercive persuasion. It is a process designed to break a person’s individuality and replace it with their cloned group-think. If a person still does not bend, then an artfully crafted piece of gossip is skillfully inserted into the grapevine to destroy the person’s character. They have it down to an art form. I watched it happen to others, and I experienced the pain, frustration, and humiliation of it, when it happened to me.