Pull the Plug on Christian Television
A few years ago, I attended the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Dallas, Texas to promote my second book, The Hip Hop Church. After doing a book signing and some other promotion, I had a chance to speak with a staff member of the NRB.
She told me that in their research, they found out that the largest viewing audience of Christian television are women in the 60′s. I’ve been reflecting on this as I’ve watched Christian television more intently over the last few weeks. In these challenging economic times with consumerism probably being the number one addiction of those living in the United States of America, the majority of television preachers haven’t let up in their call for viewers to sow a financial seed into their ministries. A financial seed that they claim will provide escape from the claws of the economic recession. Remember the majority of those watching are women in their 60′s. Some of these women may have already been duped by shady financial advisors just to now be duped by another one in the name of Jesus. It is a shame that the economic times as well as spiritual signs of our day haven’t called for a serious critique of the Word of Faith Movement and the prosperity theology in particular. To provide a real critique one must truly understand the practical science of biblical interpretation, as well as the foundational theories surrounding economics.
Through the philosopher Aristotle, economics begins simply as the ability to attain the products and resources needed to maintain one’s household. The rise of the economic system known as capitalism leads eventually to going beyond meeting our household needs to consumerism. This is about taking what I want and making it a need. An addiction or enslavement to consumerism is about losing the ability to prioritize or tell the difference between the things I want and the things I need or even the things I crave in my flesh. This addiction to the fullest, driven by the flesh is what leads a parent to choose crack cocaine over feeding their children. It’s what leads one to buy alcohol over paying the rent. Well, what does this have to do with prosperity theology and Christian television?
Prosperity theology (the most preached theology on Christian television) makes it difficult to see the difference between a Kingdom of God economic system and what is simply the capitalism and consumerism of the United States of America that at least right now is failing. Please know though that I’m in no way calling for socialism. I’m calling for a true biblically rooted Kingdom of God economic system which includes addressing the issues of the sick, the imprisoned, and the poor. I’m calling for an economic system that calls the church to start health clinics and schools in the poorest inner-city communities in the United States of America. To be honest, I don’t think the United States needs much more third-ring suburban mega-churches, but it needs more faith-based community development corporations dealing with healthcare, housing, education, and employment.
Christian television through many of its prosperity preachers are preying on women in their 60′s to sow seed into ministries based on the abuse of agricultural-rooted parables spoken by Jesus (i.e. sowing and reaping) that have more to do with the Kingdom of God showing up to the poor in spirit and body thru compassion, mercy, justice, and life transformation. These parables are being misinterpreted and mixed with capitalism and consumerism by too many television preachers so that they can fly in private jets, ride in luxury cars, and build their own ministry empires. Don’t be duped by a pimp dressed up as a preacher. Until this unfortunate use of God’s Word is lessened by the addition of more expository preaching on Christian television, I say we don’t watch it. At the end of the day the Christian revolution won’t be televised anyway.
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dude…ur cool
Amen, Pastor. Thank you for your thoughtful words and for continuing to turn the Church to her calling. Lord knows we need Bible-soaked words of guidance in these times. We cannot expect to see what we hope for in our nation if we do not first examine ourselves in light of the Word. “It is time for judgment to begin at the household of God..” (1 Pet 4:17)
Thanks for calling this issue out Pastor Efrem. You and Donnie McClurkin might need to start sleeping with one eye open if you both keep calling this out
Do you know if the majority of these women in their 60s financing “pimps dressed as preachers” are involved with a local Church? I’m gonna guess they are not. I’m guessing that if they were active, appreciated, and purposeful in a local Body, they would be getting their primary “Churching” and doing their primary tithing within that local Body…not via television.
If there is any truth to those guesses, then it seems that finding a way to get more women in their 60s involved in a local Body would not only start “pulling the plug,” but would help solve many other problems too:
1. It would meet a need for a specific group of Believers that apparently local Churches are no longer meeting.
2. It would start to “pull the plug” on the money this group is currently spending on the Christian Television industry.
3. Ideally, it would divert that same money back into local communities instead.
4. In addition to diverting monetary resources back home, it would bring the “wisdom resources” many of these women have after living in this world for over 60 years…(is part of the problem that many of us in the Church are no longer interested in the wisdom our elders could teach us?)
This is an excellent article. I am not very fond of Christian television because a lot of the preaching seems focused on getting and receiving instead of giving and doing. The preachers come across as philosophers requiring little by way of change in the lives of their members.