Fakery

After a bit of research on televangelism, it occurred to me that it may have been the reason for my declaration of atheism.

My mom was a big fan of those TV preachers.  I'd mock them and she'd protest.  The reason I mocked them is because they were fake.  What confirmed the suspicion of fakery was that business with Jimmy Swaggart back in the eighties.  Not that this was the reason for my atheism, because by that time, I was already reconsidering my atheism.  Nope, the thing about that "I have sinned" speech was the insincerity of it.  Of course, it was delivered as an emotional speech.  Even though the emotion may have been real, the rest of it was fake.  Swaggart was just emotional about getting caught.  He wasn't truly sorry about what he did.

Swaggart came after that declaration, though.  It must have been Oral Roberts that mom was watching so much of back then.  Roberts made outlandish claims and appeals.  So, I looked into Oral Roberts as a part of the research.  Yet, Roberts just seemed a bit over the top.  Not as a complete fake as Swaggart.

Can't say that televangelists turned me off as The Reason.  No, it must have been the insincerity and the show business aspect of it.  People love to be entertained.  These preachers are entertainers first, because if they weren't, nobody would pay any attention to them.

What happens when you start making compromises, like Mark Farner did?  Sure, you get an audience, but the message could be tarnished with the fakery.  The message gets lost in the tarnish.

It's a problem.  If you think you've got a message worth listening to, yet nobody is interested.  What do you do about that?  Some folks turn to compromises, and it seems to work---in a fashion.  But at what cost?

Or is it just about the money, too?  Beware of the money.