TV preacher
In television preachers , in Christianity also televangelists ( portmanteau of "Television" and "evangelist") called, is a preacher that the mass medium television use to spread their beliefs as messages. The work of the television preachers is not to be confused with the television worship service.
Christianity
Characteristic
Most broadcasts by television preachers consist of religious appeals. These are interrupted by commercial advertising blocks or musical performances. Many televangelists refer to miracles and relate them to the donations of believers. According to this, every miracle grows from a seed, as a basic metaphor of " Prosperity Gospel ".
Theologically, Christian TV preachers are usually close to charismatics or Pentecostal sects. However, television preachers are not official representatives of a larger denomination , but rather work, according to the Christian Trinity Foundation, for the most part purely for profit.
Examples
North America
The advent of radio in the United States in the late 1920s was soon followed by broadcasts of church services. Christian missionaries saw the radio as an opportunity to convert people to Christianity and at the same time to reach believers with biblical interpretations. Classic mission stations were Family Radio WYFR , the Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN), HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, and others. Well-known radio preachers were Charles Edward Fuller , Herbert W. Armstrong (1892–1986) and Charles Coughlin .
When television was first introduced in the USA in the late 1940s, the first missionary broadcasts soon followed. Pioneers were Billy Graham , Rex Humbard (1919–2007), Harold Camping and the Roman Catholic Bishop Fulton John Sheen . In the 1960s to 1980s the televangelists' programs, which often lasted for hours, gained significantly in influence on religious life in the United States. Well-known representatives were Pat Robertson , Jimmy Swaggart , Oral Roberts , Robert Schuller , Gene Scott , Jerry Falwell , Jim Bakker and Peter Popoff (the latter two were convicted of fraud or financial irregularities). Ted Haggard , Joel Osteen , Benny Hinn , Marcus Lamb , John Hagee and Joyce Meyer (as one of the few television preachers) were or are particularly successful in the 21st century .
Some American television preachers own TV stations themselves (e.g. Christian Broadcasting Network , Daystar Television Network , Familyradio ). This enables them to influence public opinion, especially in the so-called Bible Belt . Through continuous appeals for donations, they collect significant financial resources.
South America
In South America, Pentecostal TV preachers also play a major role and compete with the traditionally strong Roman Catholic Church. The most famous TV preachers in Brazil are Edir Macedo (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God), Silas Malafaia (Assemblies of God), Valdemiro Santiago (World Church of the Power of God), Ana Paula Valadão and André Valadão (both Igreja Batista da Lagoinha ) . Church leader and entrepreneur Edir Macedo owns RecordTV, his own network in Brazil.
Africa
TV preachers based on the American model are active in African countries. Nigeria is one of the countries with numerous free churches and televangelists. Chris Oyakhilome (Pastor Chris) operates three satellite TV channels with his Christ Embassy, broadcasting recordings of his sermons, miraculous healings and exorcism in Nigeria, South Africa and Great Britain. Forbes estimated his net worth at $ 30 million to $ 50 million in 2011. Temitope Balogun Joshua also has his own television channel and is the third richest preacher in Nigeria according to Forbes .
Europe
The phenomenon of the television preacher is not very widespread in Europe, television channels such as Bible TV , K-TV or ERF TV only reach a few tens of thousands to a hundred thousand viewers every day and are also less tied to the person of a preacher than comparable channels in the USA. The Polish television station TV TRWAM , which, like the radio station Radio Maryja, was founded by Tadeusz Rydzyk , achieved an audience rate of 0.15%. God TV has adopted the concept of American television formats since 1995 . The network is active worldwide.
Islam
In Muslim countries, the religious broadcasts are dominated by preachers of the Salafist Sunnis. But Shiites or Alevis also appear as “televangelists”. One of the most popular Sunni scholars, who has the opportunity to speak almost weekly, is Yusuf al-Qaradawi ( al-Jazeera on the Ash Sharia wa al-Haja program). Also very popular is the Egyptian Amr Khaled (not a scholar), who appears on the Islamic broadcaster Iqra of the Arab Radio and Television Network, among others. Other scholars include a. 'Umar' Abd al-Kafi and theology professor Suad Salih . Some scholars' records are also distributed on CD, DVD, or MC.
The Turk Harun Yahya , who is close to the Gülen movement , is not one of the Salafist television preachers . His sometimes bizarre appearances often took place in the company of scantily clad young women he called "kittens" and they had creationist and conspiracy theory content. Since the break between Gülen and the Erdogan government, Yahya no longer appears on Turkish television, but spreads his appearances on the Internet.
criticism
The US presenter Rachel Maddow has created a matrix of television preachers and their offenses. The band Genesis criticized the financial behavior of the television preachers with their song "Jesus He Knows Me" (1991, on the album " We Can't Dance "), as did Iron Maiden with the song "Holy Smoke" (1990 on " No prayer for the dying "). Even Frank Zappa themed this with his songs "Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk," "Dumb All Over" and "Heavenly Bank Account".
The feature films Glory! Glory! , Salvation! , Pass the Ammo and Pray TV parody the televised business. The Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption was a registered church, the satirist John Oliver to criticize was founded around the store with TV preaching. The documentary Marjoe exposes the business as charlatanry.
In 2009, the conservative theologian John MacArthur published a series of articles in which he harshly criticized the methods of some television preachers and denounced their greed for profit:
"Someone needs to say this plainly: The faith healers and health-and-wealth preachers who dominate religious television are shameless frauds. Their message is not the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing spiritual or miraculous about their on-stage chicanery. It is all a devious ruse designed to take advantage of desperate people. They are not Godly ministers but greedy impostors who corrupt the Word of God for money's sake. They are not real pastors who shepherd the flock of God but hirelings whose only design is to fleece the sheep. Their love of money is glaringly obvious in what they say as well as how they live. They claim to possess great spiritual power, but in reality they are rank materialists and enemies of everything holy.
One has to be clear: the faith healers and prosperity preachers who dominate religious television are shameless rip-offs. Your message is not the true gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing spiritual or miraculous about their stage shows, but rather underhanded trickery to make profit from people's desperation. They are not godly servants, but greedy deceivers who corrupt the word of God out of pure greed for money. They are not real shepherds who feed God's flock, but hirelings whose only motivation is to strip the sheep of the sheep. Their love of money is so evident in what they say and how they live. They claim to have spiritual power, but in reality they are calculating materialists and enemies of all sacred things. "
literature
- Quentin J. Schultze: Televangelism and American Culture: The Business of Popular Religion. Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene 2003.
- Pradip Ninan Thomas, Philip Lee (Eds.): Global and Local Televangelism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2012.
- Steve Bruce: Pray TV. Televangelism in America. Taylor & Francis Group 2019.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Prosperity preacher : The business with faith | DW | 05/22/2017. Retrieved on February 4, 2019 (German).
- ^ Corruption in Televangelism and Paganism in the American Church . September 23, 1994. ( archive link )
- ^ Obituary ( memento of September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at CNN ( archive.org )
- ^ Famous Male Televangelists. Retrieved February 4, 2019 .
- ↑ http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/photo-adnan-oktars-kitties-have-respectable-university-degrees-134450#photo-10
- ↑ Orgies, Blackmail and anti-Semitism: Inside the Islamic Cult Whose Leader Is Embraced by Israeli Figures , Haaretz, July 11, 2018
- ^ The Televangelist Infidelity Matrix
- ^ A Colossal Fraud. In: Grace to You. Retrieved March 25, 2020 (English).