Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[WCCO]

Dwindling donations to the Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park have prompted its high-profile pastor, Mac Hammond, to put his private business jet on the market. Church spokesman the Rev. Brian Sullivan says Living Word has also cut its hour long Sunday morning television broadcast to 30 minutes to save money. He says the church has fallen $40,000 to $70,000 short of its weekly budget in recent weeks. Sullivan says the church is adjusting its budget accordingly.

Read about it here.

[From me]

I wonder what Jesus had to sell during his ministry?  Oh, that’s right He didn’t have a jet, a mansion, gold plated bathroom fixtures, a TV show, etc…

What do you think?

[CNN]

The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor’s living room each night: Be faithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said, and God will shower you with material riches.  And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Florida, area pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering from childhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to flamboyant faith healer Benny Hinn and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White.

Only the blessings didn’t come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money from friends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first she believed the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn’t strong enough.

“I wanted to believe God wanted to do something great with me like he was doing with them,” she said. “I’m angry and bitter about it. Right now, I don’t watch anyone on TV hardly.”

Prosperity preachers say that it isn’t all about money — that God’s blessings extend to health, relationships and being well-off enough to help others.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Would Jesus have traveled today in a Rolls-Royce?  Would He be wearing designer clothes?  Do these so called preachers not see the damage they are doing to the name of God?  Sad…

What do you think?