Merry Christmas all you Theists, and Happy Holidays to the non. I have a little Christmas challenge, in the form of a yuletide-tale, for those of the Christian persuasion, & it involves a man, an evangelical minister, whom Ive brought up before in conversations here. I bring him up again, now, only because he makes for such an excellent prime example of the Christian enigma at its finest, & demonstrates the darkest side of religions as a whole, actually. Its an example of the Christian Gods name being taken to where no one would ever hope to see it taken, I think. (WARNING: Due to the disturbing nature of this story, and its outcome, reader discretion is strongly advised!) See, once upon a not-so-merry Christmas time... over 1/4 of a century ago, in commercial TV land, (around the time the Grinch first began stealing Christmases), there arose a televangelist by the name of Peter Popoff. Popoffs ministry sprung out of Upland, Calif. & held its services at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium, which were aired weekly on TV stations across the country. Now Popoff was not your average, run-of-the-mill TV evangelist, faith-healing, rip-off swindler; no, Peter was different in that he was at the very top of his game! He used psychic powers given to him by GOD himself, (he claimed), to where he could pick out members of his grand audience, tell them what was ailing them, where they were from.. right down to their very address while never having met or seen the person before. Miraculous indeed! ... & his flock of poor and terminally ill followers grew so great, that he quickly became a filthy-rich multi-millionaire. (God bless his heart!) (Starts pouring eggnog for the readers, here..) Oh, but that was just half the show, for he also claimed to have the healing power of the Lord within his very hands and he would be healing the afflicted on his show by the hundreds. Not since Jesus Christ himself was born to the manger, has such a miraculous healer been seen on this Earth! (cough, cough) {Weve all seen the late Robin WIlliams characterization of the faith healing evangelist minister whod grab the afflicteds head and exclaim YEA-ESSS!, HEAL!!, DEVIL BE GONE!, IN THE NAME OF JEEESUS!, well that was accredited to Popoff, mainly.} He wasnt just convincing as a healer to the masses, he was also very careful in that he planned ahead how he could manipulate to the greatest affect, while staying within the confines of the law - in the event he ever got caught. By using the already established Christian faith as his catalyst, his show was indeed a lucrative sensation for Popoff. Enter, now, the Santy Claus of our story, an atheist/magician by the name of the Amazing (James) Randi. (Randi even looks the part of Santa). Back in 1986, Randi got word of Popoffs tricks, his conning of sick, ailing, elderly people out of what they had left of their money by means of his slick methods. Randi decided to expose our Grinch, & not because he was of faith, (for as I already mentioned, Randis an atheist), but out of moral decency. Randi soon found out how P.P. was doing it. Popoff was using a wireless transmitter conceiled in his ear to be prompted by his wife to do his seemingly God-inspired psychic knowings of his actual believing audience members by means of getting the information from faith cards theyd fill out when they first entered the auditorium, and the rest of the shows miraculous healings turned out to be no more then plants in the audience, placed there by Popoff. All of this, Randi exposed on national television to the large audience of Johnny Carsons Tonight Show. Of course, Popoff at first denied all Randis claims.. but found that the evidence was indeed far too great against him; and so he finally admitted that he was a fraud, BUT, he said, what hed been doing was more like a game show, much like The Price is Right.. (Uh yeah, in the name of God, and Jesus. Uh huh.) The result of his being exposed - no prison (unfortunately) for Popoff, just utter humiliation and financial ruin;.. Or so it would appear... (Dont worry, our story of: Oh Come All Ye Faithful - & dont forget your donation! is about to conclude): Ten years after being exposed on national T.V. as an absolute fraud, & subsequently filing bankruptcy, Popoff remerged. Within a year of his come-back, his ministry was up around the $25 million a year profit mark once again. Popoff was back full-steam and rolling in dough, and he was again and again, exposed and debunked; yet his followers continued to grow and believe in him, up to this very day. Amazing, no? His latest scams involve (almost completely) - mailings; to where he once again, uses God and Jesus as his moneymaker(s) and swindles people into sending more and more money in order for them to have their debts erased by the Lord; (if you can believe that one) He also has a mail-oriented healing scam. Again, he does it in such ways as to avoid being prosecuted legally, (& now), uses television stations outside the U.S., on cable, to gain his ministrys strength. No, the Grinchs heart never grew one teeny bit in this story, & no, the true spirit of Christmas never even comes close to stepping in... If anything, the Grinch, (Popoff), only gets darker & darker, & richer, & more evil... (Google: Peter Popoff scam, and try and read as many as you can stomach, without throwing up - for more info. on this evil man.) So my question, at the end of this long, long story, to you Christians out there: Wouldnt this be just about the worst of the worst in Gods eyes? I mean, not only Popoffs methods of lying and indirect merciless criminal theft, but to use Gods name in order to do so? Dont you think the Christian God would, at very least, put a stop to this? That Hed have nipped this one in the bud? Put this beyond-evil man in prison, maybe? Yet, to this day he only gets bigger. Why hasnt the Christian Church, (at micro-minimal, least!), stepped in and put a stop to this evil, evil man? If I were God, (or even if I were a Christian; or even myself as an agnostic; or even as the Amazing Randi being an atheist, tried to), & I had any say at all, what-so-ever, Id have wiped the world clean of this vermin 25 years ago. I mean instantly - like reflex - Bam! How do you, as Christians, even begin to explain how this has happened, and continues to happen to this very day, if indeed the Christian God is looking over us and if He knows every hair on our heads, etc. etc.? In my opinion, theres no excuse.. only God must be really really slacking bad then, huh(?)
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 10:18:24 +0000
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