Pop preachers and their heretical beliefs

[Cow Poke]

No. Thankfully.

My introduction to televangelists was in the mid-80's. I had had a car accident the previous day......I was stopped at a stop sign behind a gravel truck with a pup, and it was making a right turn. As it started to pull around the corner and I started to creep up the stop sign, the truck driver decided he didn't want to turn right, he wanted to go straight ahead instead, so he backed up into me.

I laid on the horn, was trying to undo my seatbelt and get out of the car, as well as trying to reverse. There was a car behind me, and I bumped it as I backed up. All I could see was this massive thing getting closer and bigger, and it hit me and smushed the entire front of my little Bobcat. He didn't feel a thing, and proceeded through the intersection. I had to run across the street and go tell him he was involved in a hit and run.

There were people on the corner watching, people in the car behind me, and, I learned later, a police car behind that car. I had wondered how the police got there so quickly! No cell phones in those days.

Anyway the gravel truck company settled, and I had to get another car. Nobody was hurt, but I was pretty shook up. Couldn't sleep that night much, so after Mr. mossy went to work the next morning and the kids were still in bed, I was down in the family room with the tv on.

Well, Robert Tilton was featured on whatever channel I was watching, and a more smarmy individual I had never seen before. He was offering little squares of cloth that he had "blessed" and he would send one to everyone who donated to his "ministry" and the cloth would heal you from all your physical ailments.

Needless to say, that's all I needed in order to be able to figure out that these folks were charlatans and liars, and I've been trying to point out the truth about them to folks ever since.

Ah, yes! THAT is the guy who, as I was watching TV one night, yelled at the TV Audience --- I AM NOT ACCOUNTABLE TO ANYBODY -- I AM ACCOUNTABLE ONLY TO GOD!!!!

That was shortly before his demise, as there were numerous rumors (later verified) that their "ministry" would always open "prayer request letters", take out the cash or checks, and throw away the cards or letters without ever reading them.

[mossrose]

Ah, yes! THAT is the guy who, as I was watching TV one night, yelled at the TV Audience --- I AM NOT ACCOUNTABLE TO ANYBODY -- I AM ACCOUNTABLE ONLY TO GOD!!!!

That was shortly before his demise, as there were numerous rumors (later verified) that their "ministry" would always open "prayer request letters", take out the cash or checks, and throw away the cards or letters without ever reading them.

Funny, that. The pastor that I used to work for as secretary told me the same thing one day. After a few other things that went on, I quit and we left the church.

He wasn't happy that I had responded that he was accountable to the congregation that had hired him, as was I. And I wasn't going to put up with his other shenanigans.

Also funny, some of those shenanigans involved spending money that the pastor shouldn't have been spending.

[rogue06]

Did you ever see Ernest Angely?

ernest 1.jpgernest 2.jpg

No. But I once saw Ernest Angley coming out of a store in Sandy Springs once. The parking lot was filled with cracks so my brother asked Ernest if he was going to heal it.

[Cow Poke]

Funny, that. The pastor that I used to work for as secretary told me the same thing one day. After a few other things that went on, I quit and we left the church.

He wasn't happy that I had responded that he was accountable to the congregation that had hired him, as was I. And I wasn't going to put up with his other shenanigans.

Also funny, some of those shenanigans involved spending money that the pastor shouldn't have been spending.

W A Criswell, long time pastor of FBC Dallas, once was a speaker at chapel when I was in cemetery...

He was stressing the fact that the two ways preachers get in trouble is sex and money.

He concluded by saying "so, gentlemen, keep your pants zipped up and your hands in your own pockets".

And, yeah, he got some really strange looks from us students.

[rogue06]

W A Criswell, long time pastor of FBC Dallas, once was a speaker at chapel when I was in cemetery...

I'm still processing this.

[mossrose]

I'm still processing this.

Perhaps that belongs in the Confused Philosopher thread!

[NorrinRadd]

I'm still processing this.

You never heard 'bout all the useless book-larnin' at them theological cemeteries? Where you end up with a Post-Hole Digger degree?

[NorrinRadd]

On a side note, we have partnered with a group in Houston who has a homeless shelter, and I have been very pleased with our associaiton.

UNTIL, I asked how they got started, and the Pastor told me they were an offshoot of Osteen's ministry.

He, apparently, knew that would get a rise out of me, because he hastened to add "JOHN Osteen, not his goofy son".

When I was younger, I used to go to Pastor Conferences led by John Osteen (before he started going more 'charismatic').

John was already a fairly standard Word-Faith / Positive Confession guy when I first became aware of him around the mid-'80s.

[NorrinRadd]

He would have done better as a stand-up comic. He has very little training in theology, attended Oral Roberts University (that explains a lot, eh?) but never graduated. ...

Dr. James Shelton is a solid Pentecostal scholar who's a professor at ORU.

Dan McConnell and Dale Simmons both did post-grad work at ORU. In both cases, while there they did significant research into the connections between Hagin and Kenyon. (A Different Gospel and E.W. Kenyon and the Postbellum Pursuit of Peace, Power, and Plenty were the respective fruits of that research.)

Dr. Charles Farah was a professor at ORU, and wrote one of the earliest (and mildest) critiques and correctives of Word-Faith (From the Pinnacle of the Temple).

So not everything that happens at, or comes out of, ORU is as wacky as the founder.

[Sparko]

Did you ever see Ernest Angely?

ernest 1.jpgernest 2.jpg

Looks like he stuck his head into a hornet's nest.

[Sparko]

...when I was in cemetery..

I'm still processing this.

Cow Poke must be a zombie. That explains so much.

[rogue06]

Looks like he stuck his head into a hornet's nest.

One of history's really bad toupees.

[Faber]

Ah, yes! THAT is the guy who, as I was watching TV one night, yelled at the TV Audience --- I AM NOT ACCOUNTABLE TO ANYBODY -- I AM ACCOUNTABLE ONLY TO GOD!!!!

That was shortly before his demise, as there were numerous rumors (later verified) that their "ministry" would always open "prayer request letters", take out the cash or checks, and throw away the cards or letters without ever reading them.

Wasn't it ABC News that checked his [Robert Tilton] dumpster and found all those prayer requests?

[Cow Poke]

Wasn't it ABC News that checked his [Robert Tilton] dumpster and found all those prayer requests?

I believe you are correct. In any event, it was absolutely confirmed.

[Cow Poke]

I'm still processing this.