By ERIC GORSKIThe Associated Press
Thursday, December 27, 2007; 2:56 PM
Thursday, December 27, 2007; 2:56 PM
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, Fla., 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."
1 comment:
I read the full article and it did hit at the heart of the matter - it is sad though that it is coming from the secular press.
The Word of God has not changed and it won't change. The problem is the perversion of God's truth. His thoughts toward us are good thoughts that bring us hope and a future. But again He warns that it does not profit any man to gain the whole world and lose his soul.
There are many who have lost their soul in the pursuit of riches and prosperity. Their are many who have been ruined as well by the "name it and claim it" messages. The name of the Lord has been opened up to be maligned by the deeds of some of our men of God.
I don't consider this scrutiny a bad thing in of itself. Rather I see it as God's warning to us to change our ways.
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