posted on Jan, 3 2003 @ 03:49 PM
Please allow me to share my personal experiences with Faith Healing ministries and Evangelists.
I accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour on the street in Las Vegas in 1980.
I was a typically zealous "newbie" Christian and quickly found a Church in the San Fernando Valley and became a regular attendee. Being from Los
Angeles, I'd attended many of the largest and best known Churches like Grace Community, Church on the Way and Lake Avenue Congregational Church,
during my 18 years of practicing Christianity.
Whilst still a newbie my sister begged me to go to the Shrine Auditorium to see Reverend Eppley, a typical phoney faith healer. Even being brand new
to everything, I could see through his facade quite easily and was disgusted by it. He worked the crowd into an emotional frenzy and passed the
donation buckets 4 times in total. I sat and watched as literally thousands of dollars were being put into those big plastic buckets.
Suddenly, a man jumped up and claimed to be healed of a urinary infection, and was supposedly checked by some physician who attested to that fact.
Interestingly, that was the one & only supposed healing that occurred the whole night, and the good Reverend never once looked at the rows of people
lined up in wheel chairs that were desperate for a touch from the Almighty.
His show-stopper was pitching his "Sacred Bars of Soap" that were claimed to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. He claimed they could heal diseases
by using them to wash the afflicted body parts. To appeal to greedy people, he claimed that one "faithful" believer used the bar of soap to write
on a brand new Cadillac, "I claim this car in the Name of Jesus"! And of course, don't you just know the rest....a car salesman came out and
handed her the keys claiming that "God" had told him to do it because of her Faith.
Now the �catch� - whoever wanted to purchase one of those �Sacred� bars of soap, had to attend another meeting the following night at the L.A.
Convention Center! His whole game was one con after another, yet the gullible folks ate it up with a spoon.
About Pastors & Evangelists:
Pastor Jack Hayford (Church on the Way � Van Nuys, California) lived in a $350,000 home located on a golf course. BTW: at no expense to himself.
Most Pastors wear very expensive custom tailored suits and sport expensive watches.
They always fly first class, at no cost to themselves (church donations & tithes).
Are usually too busy to stop & chat with the rank & file church membership.
And when a church member loses their job or falls on hard times � there�s very little if any support. I know that from my own experience of losing my
job and seeking help from my church. After checking my tithing (giving 10% of gross income) record I was given a voucher for $100 to buy groceries
for myself & my former wife. That was wonderful, but when I couldn�t get a job due to the recession of the early 80�s I was referred to minor church
officers and finally sent to see trainee pastors who were about 18 years old and told me that I should sell my truck to live on. I said, �Great, what
if I get a job tomorrow and need my truck for transportation� � they had no response for me. Afterwards I thought to myself, "If I still had the
$2,000 I'd given that church in tithes, I wouldn't need their help at all!"
Well, for what�s its worth, those are only a few of my experiences with Pastors and Evangelists.
Been there, done that � but never got the tee shirt,
Deep