Media Ministers Money Mad!
Ron Halbrook
West Columbia, Texas
Many media ministers suffer from money mania. God warns that all kinds of evil will follow this malady: They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:9-10). Lust for money opens the door to unethical means and ungodly methods of obtaining money. Witness the spectacle of Oral Roberts claiming a 900-foot-tall Jesus appeared and later that God threatened to kill Oral if people did not send him an extra $8 million. The love of money unleases other inordinate desires. Witness Jim Bakker's sexual escapade and his wife's drug addiction. Grabbing big bucks often sets off a power struggle. The media ministers' soap opera includes stories of slush funds and hush money, extortion and blackmail, threats and counter-threats. The abuse of money, power, and sex is not new in the American religious scene. Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944) or "Sister Aimee" was a noted Pentecostal "healer" who promoted magnetic fund raising schemes, built the $1.5 million Angelus Temple in Los Angeles in 1923, and established the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1927. Her ministry was marked by sensationalism, power struggles, and a sexual scandal in 1926. She died of an overdose of barbiturates. Billy James Hargis of Tulsa, Oklahoma was a fire-eating "fundamentalist" preacher often in the news until his sexual encounters with males and females were exposed. The Worldwide Church of God was rocked in the mid-1970s by charges and counter-charges over money, sex, and power involving both the founder, Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986), and his son, Garner Ted. All men are subject to the temptations and dangers associated with lust for mammon, yet Jesus especially condemned the hypocrisy of professed religious leaders who hurt the cause of truth by their covetousness (Matt. 6:24; Mk. 12:40). False teachers are especially susceptible to such sins. At the root of every false doctrine is the appeal of worldly and ungodly principles, mixed with enough truth to increase its lure, which explains the great crowds and large sums of money often associated with error (1 Jn. 2:15-17; 4:5-6). Sin and error are debilitating - they "increase unto more ungodliness" and "wax worse and worse" (2 Tim. 2:16; 3:13). Let's compare and contrast what the Bible says with what we see today:
The church of Christ is still preaching and practicing just what you can read in your Bible. We are interested in your soul not your money! Guardian of Truth XXXI: 21, p. 651 |