I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m young enough to remember the debacle Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker made of the televangelist industry in the 1980s. Well, lately I’ve noticed a televangelist who has really gotten on my nerves.
Don’t get me wrong. I donate monthly to a Christian-Jewish organization and believe that there are a lot of Christian organizations which do good for people.
The televangelist I have in question is Rod Parsely, pastor of the World Harvest Church. On television, he dances around on an elaborate stage with shiny cuff links and expensive looking suits and has the voice range of a bowling alley disc jockey. His grand church is located in Columbus, and his ministry can be viewed worldwide. His church is so big that Rod has installed two jumbo screens which allow people in the back rows of his church to see him better. Is there anything more narcissistic?
Pastor Rod has a Web site which made me angry. On every page it seemed as though Rod’s mug and name were plastered like wallpaper. I also could order dog tags, rings, polo shirts, long and short sleeve T-shirts on his site and get them inscribed with a biblical quip.
If I wanted a biblical verse handy, I could buy something from Pastor Rod and bypass the Bible. I also could buy one of Pastor Rod’s 30 books, along with 14 DVDs, 40 videos, six CDs and 48 audio soundtracks. Also, for $1,000 you can have your name on a plank on the “Old Gospel Bridge” at his new church. But for the lucky ones, for $10,000, you can have a “Place of honor on a four-foot pillar and bronze plaque in the founder’s circle.” The circle, I suppose, is located on the grounds of Rod’s church.
Again, what did we learn from the corrupt televangelists of the 1980s? Obviously not a lot, because I believe Rod’s ministry is selling church in the name of pomp and circumstance, and it makes me sick.
I doubt if Jesus Christ were human today and not in heaven, he would have a Web site with the kind of merchandise Rod sells. Could you imagine Jesus selling CDs, DVDs, rings or dog tags just before his Sermon on the Mount? It’s laughable. According to the Bible, Jesus and his apostles never had two nickels to rub together.
Recently, I saw the wife of a televangelist on TV, and she had purple hair and purple sunglasses. Why is it these people act this way, and what is it about being on TV that changes people?
We shouldn’t be fooled by these applause junkies who seek to gain success and stardom by our dollars. Granted, some of these people do provide good services. I’m not claiming they don’t.
Finally, these are only my opinions and I hope I haven’t made a claim that isn’t true against Rod, but I wonder if after all the attention they receive, the services these preachers are supposed to provide for the people who need it most are overlooked in order to sustain the huge and elaborate institutions they provide for themselves.
Mark Jason Wallacesenior in political science
