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Harvard University Associate Professor Marla Frederick yesterday evening discussed with a Goddard Chapel audience her research on the influence of American televangelists on Jamaicans. She expounded on why those preachers’ messages of prosperity have become so attractive to inner-city Jamaicans racked by poverty.

The Christian gospel of prosperity, she said, has combined with impoverished Jamaicans’ desire for a new route to modernity and material improvement to offer them hope.

(author unknown) God, Gospel, Televangelists, University

Read the Full Article at Religion News Blog

Of course it isn’t all that unusual for a pastor to claim healing powers. Witness the blow-dried televangelists of America and elsewhere, who often advertise their dramatic healing powers in infomercials.

But in western Kenya the belief in the supernatural is far deeper, and the line between Christianity and the occult is thin at best.

Religion News Blog Cult, Kenya, Occult, Pastor, Televangelists, Unusual

Read the Full Article at L.A. Times - Religious News

As they retired from South L.A. pulpits, civil rights-era ministers took with them a civic-minded Christianity that is neither the ‘prosperity gospel’ nor the soul-saving ministry of televangelists.

As they retired from South Los Angeles pulpits, civil rights-era ministers known as the “old lions” took with them a kind of social justice-oriented “Bible in one hand, newspaper in the other” Christianity that has been quietly fading in African American churches.

(author unknown) Africa, Bible, Gospel, Televangelists

Read the Full Article at www.charlotteobserver.com

INDIAN LAND, S.C. David Cerullo wants to turn a 93-acre spread outside Charlotte into a worldwide Christian media capital.

Only two buildings, a 100-foot cross and a few streets now make up what Cerullo’s Inspiration Ministries calls the City of Light.

But blueprints detail the construction of state-of-the-art training, production and conference centers – all designed to draw budding televangelists from around the globe.

(author unknown) Cross, India, Televangelists

Read the Full Article at www.ajc.com

An investigation by a U.S. senator of the Rev. Creflo Dollar, Bishop Eddie Long of metro Atlanta and four other televangelists, has been quiet but is not going away.

Dan Busby, head of the nonprofit group the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, met with Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) last month. Grassley said it might be time to subpoena documents that he requested from Dollar, Long and the others.

“There will be a conclusion,” Busby predicted, but he can’t say when it will come.

(author unknown) Bishop, Evangelical, Financial, Televangelists

Read the Full Article at www.deseretnews.com

It didn’t start with Twitter or Facebook. No, Christian churches havelong had a love-affair with technology, according to Clayton Crockett,associate professor and director of religious studies at the University ofCentral Arkansas.

Just open your history books. Recent examples include the ProtestantReformation, which was aided by the invention of the printing press.Evangelicals and Pentecostals used the radio to spread their message.

And television helped with the rise of popular “televangelists” and thespread of mega-churches, according to Crockett, who works in the departmentof philosophy and religion at UCA.

(author unknown) Books, Evangelical, Evangelicals, History, Internet, Pentecostal, Technology, Televangelists, University

Read the Full Article at www.onenewsnow.com

The ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee is pleased that one of the televangelists he's investigating has received accreditation from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

Iowa Senator Charles Grassley says he met Thursday with representatives of the ECFA, which determined that Joyce Meyer Ministries meets its “standards of responsible stewardship, including financial accountability, transparency, sound board governance and ethical fund-raising.”

(author unknown) Evangelical, Financial, Televangelists

Read the Full Article at WN.com - Religion News

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. – 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…

(author unknown) Evangelism, Financial, Pastor, Televangelists

Read the Full Article at The Christian Post RSS Feed

Once one of the nation’s most popular televangelists, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller is watching his life’s work crumble. “The final months of 2008 were devastating for our ministry,” the 82-year-old pastor wrote.

Associated Press Writer Evangelism, Family, Pastor, Televangelists

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Not long ago, Harvard cultural anthropologist Marla Frederick sat on a wooden bench in a slum of Kingston, Jamaica. She was interviewing local churchgoers about the Christian “prosperity gospel” often promoted by American televangelists. It offers up a simple (and controversial) idea: The more you give, the more you receive. –

The Havard Gazette [MA, USA] reports In the last three decades, said Frederick, a steadily rising tide of
U.S. religious broadcasting has spread the message of the prosperity
gospel both nationwide and abroad. (She’s done fieldwork on issues of
black identity, activism, and religious experience in the Caribbean,
Ecuador, and rural North Carolina.)

Through television, “the narrative of blessings and fortune” is being
transmitted “to the world’s poorest citizens,” said Frederick, raising
questions for social scientists. For one, how are the messages in what
she called “charismatic broadcasts” being adopted?

aBetterWay Cult, God, Gospel, Santa, Televangelists, Theology

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Doyle , 39, who is in charge of Dominion Life Centre in Haggatt Hall, St. Michael, and Winners Church International in the City, was back in court yesterday, to be sentenced after he was convicted, in July, of raping a then 13-year-old child, a former parishioner, on May 12, 2001. –

The Barbados Nation News reports The former televangelist took his jail term stoically and even smiled
to some of his followers as he was led back to the cells. His only
moment of seeming concern was when Justice Reifer told him the maximum
penalty for rape was life behind bars.

aBetterWay Abuse, Court, Santa, Televangelists

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The future of Without Walls International Church, once one of the fastest-growing congregations in the country, is in jeopardy as the church faces foreclosure of its Tampa property. –

The St. Petersburg Times [FL, USA] reports The California-based Evangelical Christian Credit Union holds the
church’s mortgage, and filed foreclosure proceedings against Without
Walls Tuesday. Court records show the church defaulted on a loan that
was due in August. The credit union is demanding immediate repayment of
that loan and the $12-million mortgage on Without Walls’ Grady Avenue
property.

The Rev. Randy White, Without Walls’ pastor, said he is
shocked by the move. The pastor said church officials thought they were
actively negotiating with the credit union as late as Tuesday afternoon
when they received an e-mail from credit union executives.

aBetterWay Church Issues, Court, Evangelical, Pastor, Santa, Televangelists

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“We will not comply” is the main phrase that echoes through the “Ordinary Radicals” documentary film trailer. The phrase is the main subject of the film, which looks at those Americans who do not live by the standards portrayed in media, books, film and other cultures. –

Witworthian.com reports The documentary asks why Christianity is viewed as homophobic,
hypocritical, unforgiving, full of televangelists, anti-Semitic,
sexist, divided and filled with bigotry.

To fight these
stereotypes, documentary director Jamie Moffett and friends like author
and speaker Shane Claiborne took an 11,000-mile journey to find those
who defy these guidelines to exemplify equality in the highest form.
They hoped to use this to help the nation see that it may be less
divided than it thinks. 

Moffett, who was raised Roman
Catholic, left the church earlier in life. While he still has not found
his faith he hopes that the inspirational people he meets on the road
will help him discover what he does believe. 

The film trailer.

aBetterWay Books, Catholic, Cult, Culture, Entertainment, People, Santa, Televangelists

Read the Full Article at News2

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, founder of the Crystal Cathedral in California, announced Saturday that his son will no longer appear on his TV program. –

UPI reports “No longer will the ‘Hour of Power’ be the voice and face of just one
or two individuals,” Robert H. Schuller said. Without being specific,
he said he and his son had “different ideas” on the direction of the
ministry.

The LA Times reports The schism between the Rev. Robert H. Schuller and his son at Orange
County’s Crystal Cathedral arose over a disagreement about broadening
the church’s long-running television show, “Hour of Power,” beyond a
single personality — a move opposed by the younger Schuller, pastors
involved in the matter said Sunday.

“I was called to start a mission, not a church,” Schuller told his
audience Sunday. “There is a difference. . . . You don’t try to preach
. . . what is sin and what isn’t sin. A mission is a place where you
ask nonbelievers to come and find faith and hope and feel love. We’re a
mission first, a church second.”

Schuller said he hoped “Hour of Power,” now in its 39th year, would go
on “for decades, centuries to come. Because of that, we don’t want one
face . . . to be a spokesman.”

The LA Times further reports “It is no secret to any of you that my son, Robert, and I have been
struggling as we each have different ideas as to the direction and the
vision for this ministry,” his statement read.

“For this lack of
shared vision and the jeopardy in which this is placing this entire
ministry, it has become necessary for Robert and me to part ways.”

aBetterWay MegaChurches, Pastor, Santa, Televangelists

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Then he answered my unspoken question. “Why did I demand first class? I demanded first class because the Lord sees me as first class. If you see yourself as first class the Lord will see you as first class. But you have to demand it! You didn’t hear what I just said! You have to demand it!” –

The Financial Times reports Many of the themes of the RCCG echo those of pastor Kayanja –
including the stress on worldly success, and on efficiency. Sermons and
uplifting messages from one of the church’s leaders are signposted:
“from the President’s desk”. Stress is put on achieving one’s full
potential – here and now. The same is true, thousands of miles north,
of the Word of Life Church in Uppsala, Sweden, where pastor Ulf Ekman
built a megachurch quite alien to Swedish Lutheran traditions. It in
turn has founded branches all over the former Soviet Union.

Ekman
is close to the Texan televangelist Kenneth Copeland, of the Word of
Faith movement, whose “Prosperity Gospel” – like that of Kayanja’s –
embraces self-enrichment and (in his case) the possession of a £10m
Cessna executive jet. Copeland is, in turn, a disciple of the late
Kenneth Hagin – the figure seen as the guru of the enrichment doctrine
– who died in 2003. In a tract entitled “One word from God can change
your finances”, Copeland cited John 3:2 – “Beloved, I wish above all
things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul
prospereth” – to argue that “as the seeds of prosperity are planted in
your mind, in your will and in your emotions … they eventually
produce a great financial harvest”.

aBetterWay Financial, God, Gospel, Health, Lutheran, Pastor, Santa, Televangelists, Theology, Uganda

Read the Full Article at News2

In recent years, proponents of what some call the “prosperity gospel” have gotten popular after the televangelists of the 1980s faded away. No two preachers are the same, and some are reluctant to use that phrase to describe themselves. But they all share a belief that God wants you to be successful, including financially. Here are some prominent ones: –

The Detroit Free Press reports on Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, T.D. Jakes, Keith Butler and Ben Gibert.

aBetterWay Financial, God, Gospel, Pastor, People, Santa, TD Jakes, Televangelists, Theology

Read the Full Article at News2

Susan Wise Bauer’s new book, “The Art of the Public Grovel,” traces the growing influence of public confession in America, touching on the roles of the Puritans, televangelists, group therapy and, of course, Oprah Winfrey. –

The Washington Post reports In the late 1980s, I was actually a student at Liberty University, which was Jerry Falwell’s university, when Jim Bakker
went through his huge public confession — well, he didn’t actually
confess, but he was exposed. . . . He said he was a victim of evil
forces.

It has fascinated me ever since: Why is it that some public figures
are eventually willing to come out and say, “Yes, I sinned — this is
what I did” and . . . actually survive afterwards? And why is it that
some public figures are unwilling to do this — or do it in a way that
makes their situation worse?

aBetterWay Books, Confession, Oprah, Reviews, Santa, Televangelists, University

Read the Full Article at News2

The IRS has expanded its investigation into Florida internet evangelist Bill Keller of Live Prayer to include a review of comments Keller made questioning the faith of senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. –

Christian Newswire reports In February of this year, the IRS launched an investigation to
determine whether or not Keller had violated his ministry’s tax-exempt
status when he declared “a vote for Romney is a vote for Satan.”

Keller responded to the investigation by stating that he has never
told anyone who to – or who not to – vote for, nor has he ever endorsed
a candidate. Rather, Keller explained, he used the now famous phrase in
a legitimate context to warn people that following the teachings of the
Mormon cult would inevitably lead a person’s soul to hell.

aBetterWay Cult, Internet, Mormon, Obama, People, Politics, Prayer, Santa, Satan, Televangelists

Read the Full Article at News2

On June 23rd God moved a mountain — figuratively speaking — and the Charismatic church has been in chaos ever since. That day several of the New Apostolic Reformation leaders met in Lakeland, Florida for Todd Bentley’s “apostolic alignment commissioning service.” –

Marsha West at NewsWithViews.com comments Such notables as C.
Peter Wagner, leader of the International Coalition of Apostles,
his wife, Doris, Ché Ahn, John
Arnott, Bill Johnson, Rick
Joyner and several others came to the 10,000-seat tent to support
what Todd Bentley and Fresh Fire were doing and to commission him as
an evangelist. There was only one problem. The leaders failed to put
Bentley through a proper vetting process to find out if he was deserving
of their high honor. Turns out he wasn’t. Now they have egg on
their collective faces and everyone knows it.

As a result, many in the Charismatic church are furious with them —
but it’s too late. The damage is already done and cannot be undone.
What’s worse, thousands of people believed there was a “revival”
going on and traveled from all over the globe to be a part of it. Some
went hoping to be healed. They weren’t. Now they realize they
were duped and have fallen into despair. People are wondering if they
are even saved! (For those who doubt their salvation, remember that
anyone who comes to faith in the real Jesus Christ is saved.)

aBetterWay Apostolic, Errant Christians, God, Jesus, People, Santa, Televangelists

Read the Full Article at News2

The Rev. Mac Hammond, founder of Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, told his congregation in a letter that an IRS investigation is “politically motivated,” and part of “a very clear effort, on a national scale, to discredit, defame and intimidate ministries and preachers of what has been called the ‘prosperity gospel.’” –

The Star Tribune [MN, USA] reports In his first public comments about the IRS inquiry, Hammond, who
heads one of the state’s larger churches with nearly 10,000 members and
reaches a greater audience through Sunday TV broadcasts, said that
those “behind these attacks [are] enemies of the gospel.”

“They are fearful not only of the moral imperative communicated by
these ministries, but the growing wealth and influence of those
constituencies,” he wrote.

aBetterWay Church and State, Gay, Gospel, Lesbian, Marriage, Muslim, Pastor, Santa, Televangelists, Transgender, University