views and thoughts on topics, especially ones pertaining to christianity – with an emphasis on how most christians either ignore or discriminate against unmarried christians – and how christians have turned marriage and parenting into IDOLS and how there is no true support for sexual purity, virginity, or celibacy among christians – this is a blog for me to vent; I seldom permit dissenting views. I don't debate dissenters ————-
World’s Largest Christian Broadcaster TBN Pivots to News
There’s already been a news outlet with a Christian outlook for years, CBN. I believe it was started by Pat Robertson.
After this news hit Twitter, I saw liberals and progressives screech that this new TBN news show will be a “right wing propaganda” type outlet, a complaint I find really rich, considering social media regularly censors any stated opinion that runs counter to left-wing talking points, and most other outlets – New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN and MSNBC all tilt heavily left and regularly silence conservatives, please.
Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), which calls itself the world’s largest Christian television broadcaster, is launching a news show called “Centerpoint” with Fox News alums.
Why it matters: TBN is looking to build a “Christian lifestyle brand” rather than just “preaching and teaching,” TBN VP of Marketing Nate Daniels told Axios.
I noticed that starting some time around January or Feb. 2017, TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network – Christian entity), changed its programming a little bit.
They also changed their P.T.L. (“Praise the Lord”) show.
It’s no longer called PTL – they dropped the “TL” and now just call the show “Praise.”
The PTL show used to come on at 4 p.m., and then later around 9 or 10 p.m.
They not only switched up when the “Praise” show airs, but they changed how the show is run, which I am not happy with.
Report: Sleazy Christian Celebrity Evangelist Uses Youth Ministry to Groom Young Women Into Casual Sex Then Offers Them Morning After Pill
This report comes by way of J. D. Hall, who I am not a fan of (I’ve blogged about him before). My Twitter acquaintance, DefendTheSheep, first tweeted the link to this page, which was written by Hall; she felt it was worth a look.
Even though I do not much care for Hall and consider him somewhat of a bully, I do think it’s good he’s shedding light on this instance of sexual abuse.
According to Hall’s report, this evangelist guy, Jennings, uses his ministry to groom young women into one-night stands.
According to Hall, Jennings targeted one young woman who he saw on Facebook – he contacted her first and began flirting with her (my understanding is that she was following his Facebook ministry page). He started messaging her, asking her to send him nude photos of herself.
She attempted to rebuff him, but Jennings was quite persistent. He told her he felt as though God wanted him to marry her, etc, and so on – lots of sweet talk.
It appears to me, based on Hall’s writing, as though this Jennings guy is using his ministry to exploit naive, young women who have terrible boundaries.
His pastor father stepped in to defend him, too. The whole family sounds like a family of dirt bags.
This is yet another example of why I encourage single, Christian women to drop the “equally yoked” teaching.
Following the death of televangelist Paul Crouch Sr, his wife Jan become president of Trinity Broadcasting Network and has begun to change the programming of the world’s largest religious TV network.
[Christian Post listed notices from two different Christian ministries that TBN cut them from their line up]
Jackie Alnor, author of the book The Fleecing of Christianity and critic of the prosperity gospel, reported in 2009:
Paul Sr. has had a divided family on this issue of Dispensationalism as his wife Jan bought into the Kingdom-Now heresy of the late Earl Paulk decades ago and even won her husband over to it, at least for a short time.
Jackie observed Matt interview Paul Sr. about dispensationalism in a mocking manner. During a Praise the Lord broadcast Matt suggest that dispensationalism could be wrong: “We were looking at everything through a Dispensational mind and maybe that was a mistake.”
Preacher Whose 90% of Sermons are About How to Have a Great Marriage Warns Audience Not to Make Marriage an Idol – Kerry Shook Update and Irony Alert
If the words “marriage” or “married” were removed from Pastor Shooks’ vocabulary, would he ever be able to give another sermon ever again? I have big doubts.
With about 44% of American adults now single in the USA, can preachers really afford to keep ignoring singles and singleness and keep giving these stupid marriage sermons?
I always feel a wee bit mean criticizing Shook, because he seems like such a well-meaning, genuinely nice guy.
This almost qualifies as a comedy post. Usually I get hopping angry when a preacher is giving another marriage sermon, but coming from him, I tend to roll my eyes or laugh at the absurdity of it.
Most of Shooks sermons are about marriage. No, really. Here are a few examples.
You see, Shook’s sermonizing on marriage is so frequent, when he finally does a sermon that does NOT discuss marriage, I am so in shock about it, I have to blog about it, like here:
(Link): Shocker: Kerry Shook Show Last Night NOT About Marriage
And, when I was looking for a clip of tonight’s Shook sermon for you, I came across this other Shook sermon, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before:
“Idolatry is alive and well on earth. Learn how to avoid three of the most subtle, seductive and destructive traps. (#3175)”
—— end blurb from Shook site —
I sometimes have my television set on while I work on my computer. I had it on TBN as I was on my computer, and I heard parts of Shook’s sermon tonight (linked to above, embedded below). His sermons was about being “centered,” or something.
You have to remember (as I’ve blogged on before), this Shook guy preachers about marriage constantly.
Almost every other, or every third, sermon by him is about marriage. (Many, many other preacher are just as, or almost as, guilty as he is, though.)
Here’s where I discuss what I find ironic about Shook’s sermon tonight about being God centered. I only watched parts of it.
In the parts I did pay attention to, Shook drew a diagram of a wagon-wheel shape on a board and put labels on each spoke. One spoke got the “marriage” label.
Shook then told the audience that anything can take the place of God in a Christian’s life, even marriage. Shook told the audience to be careful not to turn their marriage (he added “if you’re married”) into an idol.
Oh goodness. How can a man who pontificates and lectures about marriage in almost every single sermon, who I’ve never once heard give a sermon about singleness, which implies, on his part, that marriage is more valuable than singleness, warn people about not making marriage an idol?
This reminds me of Christians who regularly treat adult singleness and celibacy like a second-class station in life, akin to biblical leprosy and treat singles like trash, who make marriage out to be better than singleness, and then turn around and SHAME adult singles who admit to wanting marriage themselves, or who actively pursue marriage (by joining dating sites, etc).
If you are going to constantly sermoninze and opine about marriage (and consistently ignore singleness and celibacy), you are creating the very idol you are warning people to be leery of. I cannot understand why evangelical (and other sorts of) preachers cannot see this.
If you preachers would stop painting marriage as normative for everyone, and as God’s highest, only or better plan for all humanity, and stop assuming everyone will get married who wants to (some of us want to get married but a spouse never entered our lives), there would be little to no need to warn married people against turning it into an idol.
By the way, let me mention what will not fix this for me:
1. Shook mentioning at the start of his next marriage centric sermon (this is typical of married preachers), “Remember, singles, this marriage sermon can be applicable to you too!”
2. Giving one token sermon on singleness in a year or ten year’s time (then cramming in the cliches about singleness being a “gift” etc, and assuming everyone who wants a spouse will get one, etc), and then reverting back to non-stop marriage sermons again.
Preachers need to preach REGULARLY about singleness if they are going to regularly cover marriage.
If you are a preacher and you sermonize ten times about marriage per year, you damn well better devote ten sermons to ONLY SINGLENESS per year, too.
Here is the sermon video embedded where he warns married people not to make an idol out of marriage, which will replace God at the center of their lives:
Christian TV Shows That DeFacto Promote Married Couples with Children as Being Good Christian People
Sometimes Christian programs such as “The 700 Club” will have a celebrity on. Usually, these celebrity people are married with children.
These people are presented as being good role models for other Christians or we’re given the impression they are living exemplary Christian lifestyles when not on camera.
About four or five years ago, the female co-host of The 700 Club interviewed Kate Gosselin.
I think it was not too long after Goesslin appeared on The 700 Club show – maybe about a few months or a year later – the she and her spouse Jon divorced.
Kate Gosselin is mother to about eight or ten children. That was the basis for her reality show, ‘Kate Plus Eight,’ or whatever it was called.
I have never understood why culture, or some women, think popping out a kid is some super spectacular accomplishment, whether it’s one kid or ten.
Anyway, Gosselin was on The 700 Club program to talk about being a mom and to hype a book she wrote.
It turns out she may not be a stellar, Christian mother after all (see links below).
I have noticed that Christian shows don’t have unmarried Christians on that often – if they do, it’s usually a young, male sports hero who has not married yet.
And, those young, male sports stars are rarely there on the program to discuss life as a celibate, single adult… their guest appearance is almost always to talk about football, or to discuss Jesus in generic terms.
When parents or married people are on Christian shows, however, marriage and parenting tips are given. Marriage is discussed.
I think it’s inappropriate for TBN to keep airing tributes to Paul Crouch Sr. as much as they have been doing.
I understand them wanting to do maybe one 30 to 60 minute tribute to the guy, showing photos of him from the past and discussing his founding of their station, but ever since the guy died a few days ago, they have been airing what seems like non-stop Paul Crouch tributes.
They are so far using all of today’s three hour “PTL” show to do another tribute to Crouch Sr. They aired one late last night and earlier in the evening.
Assuming the guy was sincerely about Jesus Christ and not about money grubbing, you would think he would want the TBN folks to cherish his memory by resuming regular programming, featuring shows about Jesus Christ, not re-airing yet another tribute program about him.
Crouch died on Saturday. After he died, I noticed a lot of my TBN related posts became some of the most-read ones.
I usually don’t like to say negative stuff after someone dies, but… I’m sorry if this is awful, but….
Part of me is glad he has passed on. I do NOT hate the guy or anything, but his justifications of money grubbing really bothered me, and he did it often on TBN.
Even up until Crouch Sr. died, he regularly hosted several of the TBN shows, such as “Behind the Scenes,” where he would mis-use Old Testament passages about Levitical tithing to con Gentile believers today out of their cash.
I will not miss that at all.
I am sorry for his family and what all.
But it bothered me seeing a Word of Faith guy sit there on TV trying to pry little old ladies out of their funds by using deceptive WOF teachings and abusing Old Testament passages.
TBN Devotes Entire Nov 19, 2013 Praise the Lord Show To Marriage – They Never Devote Entire PTL to Singles
Today’s PTL (Praise the Lord) on the TBN Christian network is hosted by Kathy and Mike Hayes, with a panel of other preaching couples.
One of my un-favorite married people was on this show, too, with his wife – the guy who thinks that unmarried people are not quite as valuable as married people (see links at the bottom of this post for more about that). His name is Jimmy Evans.
Christian marital advisor Mark Gungor was also on this episode.
The entire 2 or 3 hour program has been about marriage and marital issues.
In the 8, 9, some odd years I have watched Christian networks (and I watch them a lot, so I’m quite familiar with their shows), this is probably the fourth or fifth all-marriage related Praise the Lord episode I’ve seen.
Other PTL episodes have had guests who discuss marriage, though those particular episode (unlike tonight’s) were not 100% devoted to the topic.
TBN has even had Christian guru Mark Gungor on a couple of other PTL episodes discussing nothing but marriage.
I have yet to see an episode devoted to the UN-married, to the singles or the childless and childfree.
Christians Defending Married Male Preachers Caught in Sexual Sin
I watched about fifteen minutes of an old repeat of TBN’s “Praise the Lord” that was aired about 2 or 3 AM this morning (I have insomnia, so yes, I can be up at strange hours).
The show I caught in repeat in the wee hours was first aired March 3, 1988, and featured a black haired lady with a white guy with kinky hair and glasses (Dan Shaeffer). The show was hosted by Paul Crouch Sr and his pink haired wife, Jan.
The topic was preacher Jimmy Swaggart having to possibly resign over his sex scandal. (I think he was caught using prostitutes?)
(Link): Wiki page on Swaggart Sex Scandal
Sexual scandals in the late 1980s and early 1990s led the Assemblies of God to defrock him, and to his temporarily stepping down as the head of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries.
One argument Crouch Sr raised on that show as to why AoG should not make Swaggart step down was non-sensical: he said, “In a phone call to Swaggart, I told him, if they force you to step down, what if one soul does not hear the Gospel because of that?”
Uh, if that one person did not hear the Gospel from Swaggart, they could have heard it from Pat Robertson’s “The 700 Club” TV show back then, or Jim and Tammy Baker’s show, or any of the other tele-evangelists, or in a Billy Graham crusade, or from visiting a church in person. It’s not like Swaggart was the only conduit to the Gospel in the 1980s, puh-leeze.
You can probably watch this repeat yourself over at “iTBN’s” site. I just looked it up; you can watch it here:
(Link): TBN Praise the Lord Mar 3, 1988
I was nauseated by the segment I saw. Crouch Sr and Shaeffer were arguing that Swaggert should not have to step down over his sexual sin because he has “repented.”
This would be a case where maybe “slut shaming” (in this instance, directed at a married man who committed adultery) wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but does not the New Testament state that a preacher/elder have to be ‘above reproach’ and all that? Wouldn’t an extra marital affair bar the dude from being a preacher?
My main reason for posting this,though, is to again point out how Christian are lax about sexual sin, too easily forgiving, not wanting the sexual sinner to suffer any sort of repercussion or fall out.
Meanwhile, men who are un-married (singles) are barred by some of these same churches from serving in leadership positions, primarily because biased Christians assume all un-married people are horny horn dogs who have sex with 567 people per week.
So, these prejudiced idiots will accept an adulterous preacher in the pulpit, but not a celibate single male (or woman)? HYPOCRISY. DOUBLE STANDARD.
Christians like to live in Fantasy Land, where they think married couples are more godly, sexually pure, or mature than un-married Christians.
Please, take the time to browse through my blog here, where I have featured news stories about married Christian (and Non Christian) men, some preachers, who have been jailed for rape, serial killing, child sexual abuse, breaking and entering, fraud, drug addiction, and stealing, etc.
Unmarried Christian adults are sometimes more godly, mature, and sexually pure than married Christian couples, but churches don’t like to admit to this.
This TBN segment also gets into this idea I’ve touched on before in older blog pages: Christians say they respect sexual fidelty, virginity, but where the rubber hits the road, they are more apt to fall over themselves making excuses for sexual sin and sexual sinners then they are in upholding virginity and sexual purity and celibates.
———————- Related posts this blog:
Advocate of Family Values Doesn’t Uphold Family Values (Re Pat Robertson)
Why do people write Robertson for advice, espeically women?
Robertson is currently an 82 or 83 year old “gender complementarian” who has very definite views about the roles men and women are to play, ones which are rooted in a faulty understanding of certain biblical passages and stuck in 1950s American culture. If you are a woman and write to him with a question, he will usually take the husband’s side.
Women of America: stop writing Robertson questions! Stop asking him questions via the “Bring It On” online section of his “700 Club” site. Stop it. He doesn’t have anything valuable or sensitive to say about most life situations.
Pat Robertson promotes himself as being all about “family values.” But he doesn’t uphold family values in his private life, and he doesn’t support them when answering viewer questions to his television show.
I am using Robertson as an example, because there are already so many videos online of him and his sexist, anti-family values to point to, but he is by no means the only Christian champion of “family values” I’ve seen who is a hypocrite on the issues of marriage, divorce, spousal abuse, etc.
At one time, Robertson was a Southern Baptist preacher. That is also alarming, because SBC (Southern Baptist Churches/ Convention) promotes itself as being all about family values and traditional values.
Hell, I live out family values more often and more consistently than most SBC guys or Robertson, and I’ve never married, I’m a woman, never had a kid, never had sex outside of marriage, and I’m borderline agnostic these days.
I’m not having sex outside marriage, I’m not telling married men it’s okay for them to cheat on their wife, I’m not advocating that people divorce their sick spouse, etc.
Pat Robertson had pre-marital sex. His first son was born out of wedlock. However, Robertson periodically has “anti porn,” and “anti- sexually explicit material brought in to or taught to college kids” spokespersons on his 700 Club show.
Here is a guy lecturing the rest of us to keep our skirts down and legs crossed, but he’s engaged in sexual immorality himself.
Here are some links about Robertson’s pre-marital fornication and resultant illegitimate son:
by By Rogers Worthington, Chicago Tribune.
Published 1987
On Friday, Robertson`s wife and son appeared on the Christian Broadcasting Network and said they have a loving home untouched by concern over Tim Robertson being conceived out of wedlock, United Press International reported.
Dede Robertson said the public revelation surrounding her son’s conception stung at first, but added, “The freedom that I’m feeling and the prayers that I’m feeling have lifted me up.”
On to the next Robertson anti-family, anti- traditional marriage, anti- traditional values gaffe.
Contrary to what most Christians assume, Christ and the Bible does NOT teach that divorce is acceptable only in cases of
1. atheist spouse
2. adultery
(Don’t believe me about what the Bible says about divorce that it’s permissible in situations other than atheist spouse/adultery? (Link): Read this)
However, that does not mean that the Bible sanctions, or that it’s ethically okay, for a husband to divorce a spouse because the spouse is sick, yet that is precisely what Robertson advocated.
Robertson claims to be “pro marriage,” but here he is taking a low view of marriage by telling husbands it’s okay to dump a sick spouse and divorce her. How is advocating the dissolution of a family over such an invalid reason “pro-marriage,” or “pro-family values”? It’s not. Yet Robertson has the nerve to keep passing himself off as a “family values” supporter.
The Bible is egalitarian in gender roles, not gender complementarian (as taught by CBMW), nor does the Bible teach that women cannot be preachers, leaders, or that they are to submit to a husband as though the husband were an authority figure. ((Link):Source)
The Bible does not condone or excuse husbands beating up their wives, but Pat Robertson gets into heresy on all this, and seems just fine with men beating their wives, and tries to make a joke out of it (see video clip below, linked).
Robertson also disturbingly compares a grown wife to little girls who rebels in one video segment; adult wives are not little girls.
Also bear in mind we don’t have the wife’s perspective of the marriage in all this, we only have the view of the disgruntled husband who wrote to Robertson for advice:
Only one week after Televangelist Pat Robertson formally declared his presidential candidacy, he received a chilling political baptism.
Press accounts disclosed that Robertson’s first child had been conceived out of wedlock and that the former minister had misstated his wedding date to conceal the fact.
Robertson, who has condemned sex before marriage, said he had merely tried to “protect his family” in previously suggesting that he had been married in March 1954 rather than on Aug. 27.
Robertson’s first son was born ten weeks after the wedding. Robertson said that he and his wife Dede considered March 22, 1954 — the…
TBN, Kirk Cameron, and Misplaced Over- Concern On Marriage – What About the Unmarried?
I am watching TBN’s “Praise the Lord” right now. It’s hosted by Kirk Cameron.
Cameron is interviewing a young lady about the topic of marriage.
They are discussing how American society should define marriage.
In so doing, the lady guest (whose name I don’t know – the male guest sitting next to her has the last name “Stanley”), has made several observations I find dubious.
She comments that marriage is the building block of culture, and no other relationship binds a man and woman together like marriage can.
Putting that aside for the moment, why do these Christian talking heads not recognize the huge problem of protracted, unwanted singleness among Christian women? (See this link for more.)
When is Kirk Cameron going to do a show discussing the huge number of conservative Christian women who desire marriage but who are remaining single past their 30s and 40s?
Why is all the focus and alarm by Christians on so-called attacks on marriage by homosexual activists and liberals? Why are they not as concerned that Christian women who want marriage (and some want children) are more and more often arriving in their 40s husband-less and childless?
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