#598: Paul Crouch

The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) used to be the third most significant network in the Christian Broadcasting world (after Jim Bakker’s PTL and Pat Robertson’s CBN), though it advanced a couple of places when Bakker’s PTL took some familiar damage back in the days. TBN’s programs are mostly concerned with name-it-and-claim-it preachers and faith healing, and Paul Crouch is its monstrously insane pentecostal televangelist founder.

The TBN's most important program is probably “Praise the Lord”, which features several expensively-dressed evangelical preachers discussing obscure religious doctrine, how Jesus made them rich, and claims to the effect that Jesus was indeed wealthy himself and his disciples wore designer robes – one senses a certain dim awareness of the conflict between the prosperity gospel and religious doctrine, and the theology is pretty tortured. The viewers of “Praise the Lord” then send the preachers shitloads of money so that they (the viewers!) can get rich as well, though the rest of us tend to see the discrepancy between the goal and this particular strategy for achieving it. At TBN’s Praise-a-Thon telethon events, however, the agenda is more direct; in this case viewers are told that they will get their reward in heaven rather than in earthly lives.

TBN also owns and runs The Holy Land Experience, a particularly bizarre theme park (or, really, a chain of gift shops) devoted to showing you the Middle East from a fundie perspective; it was founded by the particularly insane and controversial Messianic Jew Marvin ‘Marv’ Rosenthal, but was taken over by TBN after Rosenthal experienced some financial troubles. The theme park was an important stop during Herman Cain’s 2012 campaign tour.

In 2012 TBN was the subject of some lawsuits e.g. from Paul Crouch’s own granddaughter. Paul and his son Matt reacted in interesting ways – “God help” anyone who gets in the way of TBN – and Paul claimed to have attended the funerals of two people who had tried. One wonders how many kneecaps Jesus and his “disciples” were breaking to pay for those designer robes, but I suppose it would be easy for Jesus and co. to extort protection money out of bronze age shepherds given how his Family had previously treated recalcitrant Pharaohs and pretty much anyone else standing in their way in the Old Testament.

As for other projects, Crouch himself has the production company Resurrection Pictures, which is supposedly behind the (still) forthcoming(?) movie “Creation” concerning the life of Kent Hovind, and Crouch himself wrote the “popular” End Times novel and subsequent movie The Omega Code.

Crouch rather suddenly resigned from Trinity in October 2011, but it was all left to his son who is also called Paul Crouch, which is very convenient since it means that we don’t have to create two separate entries.

Diagnosis: Some may argue that Crouch is a fraud, but if he isn’t he is certainly a loon. The two are not mutually exclusive.

[Note to readers in response to requests: we’ll keep an eye on Ted Cruz – a wingnut’s wingnut, to be sure, but thus far he has primarily exhibited dishonesty, bigotry and extremism, and for instance avoided clear commitments to denialism or critical thinking failures (that he thinks that “George Soros is in a conspiracy to prohibit golf courses” relies, strictly speaking, on an uncharitable interpretation).]

#563: Morris Cerullo

Morris Cerullo is a Pentecostal Christian evangelist and a faith healer of the good old kind. He encourages people with serious illnesses and disabilities to attend his revival meetings so Jesus can heal them (and he can receive well-deserved financial compensation for letting the sick access his Jesus), and uses posters of people leaving wheelchairs and crutches to promote his efforts.

Cerullo was an early champion of the Satanism scare, to the extent that he put up a traveling exhibit dubbed the ”Witchmobile,” in which horrified spectators and frightened children would see on display various occult artifacts used for Satanic rituals, such as astrology items, Ouija boards, and Tarot cards, in order to recognize and combat these nefarious enemies in their ordinary lives. As late as 1999 Cerullo ran an ad in the UK, claiming that ”Satanic hordes” occupy ”principal palaces of power in Europe” (and that homosexuality is an abomination). The campaign was not an unqualified success, particularly since Cerullo’s faith healing campaigns in the UK had previously left a trail of death. Cerullo was subsequently challenged to produce his three best examples of claimed miraculous healings for scrutiny by a panel of doctors. They were not particularly impressed. Cerullo has also been expelled from India after his inability to actually heal people caused a riot (30 000 people apparently showed up to Cerullo’s event, including several disabled people, and Cerullo rather audaciously just declared that they had all been healed, something many of them rather obviously felt was inaccurate).

His evangelical campaigns targeted at the Jewish community have been met with some criticisms as well (Rev Dr Chris Wright, principal of All Nations Christian College, denounced Cerullo's methods as ”spiritually perverted and pastorally disastrous”).

He may be most famous, however, for his stint as an amusement park owner, having got his hands on the PTL Club and Heritage USA amusement park that Jerry Falwell appropriated from Jim Bakker after the latter’s fall from grace. He later lost the park but retained the PTL television network (currently named ”Inspiration” and run by his son David).

Diagnosis: Raving mad, of course, and sufficiently insane to jeopardize his own influence. That, of course, doesn’t scare away the most gullible of the gullible, and he still seems to enjoy a modicum of influence.

202: William Herbert “Bill” Keller

Turns out that Bill Kaysing, the popularizer of the conspiracy theory that the moon landing was a hoax, went ahead and died himself out of an entry in our Wikipedia. Bummer. Thus we jump ahead to Bill Keller – no, not the executive editor of the NY Times Bill Keller, but the televangelist whose records – very predictably – include jailtime for financial acrobatics. After spending time in jail he attended Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. That combo prepares you better than anything to spread the word of God, it seems, and Keller has made a substantial following from his Tampa-based Live Prayer show.

Keller is fond of pointing out, often as sort of an afterthought, that people are on the highway (or “conveyor belt” to hell) – in particular Muslims (nicely unhinged, this one) and scientologists. Regarding scientologists, Keller said (apparently without a hint of self-awareness or irony) that he is “always amused at people who reject the story of Christ and God's simple plan to redeem fallen man, yet buy into the wild theology of cults like Scientology. Christianity requires that you use your God-given intelligence to make the choice to accept Christ as your Savior based on reality. Cults like Scientology requires [sic] that you abandoned all intelligence and blindly believe wild stories based on no facts.” Indeed.

Somewhat bizarrely, Keller emphasized his support for Mitt Romney in the 2008 elections, but in interviews pointed out that Romney, as a mormon, was also going straight to hell (“if you vote for Romney, you are voting for Satan”, Bill pointed out and promptly got himself in trouble with the tax exemption rules).

Keller is, among other things, convinced that Obama is not a True Christian™ because he is pro-choice and because (apparently) of his attitude towards Israel.

Diagnosis: Example of a pretty common breed of godbotting lunatics, but no less a lunatic for that. His particular influence is unclear, but he does apparently have some followers.

199: Rick Joyner

Rick Joyner heads MorningStar Ministries, which he co-founded with his wife Julie in 1985. He also oversees MorningStar's “University”, Fellowship of Ministries, and Fellowship of Churches, as well as editing their various publications. According to Joyner, the purpose of his ministry is the “biblical mandate Matthew 24:45–46” as well as a commitment to equip future leaders and work in relationship with current leaders to prepare and strengthen the church for the last days.

He has written numerous books, including the “The Final Quest” series. This is a series of prophecies based on revelation Joyner claims to have received personally – as such it has remained rather controversial even among Evangelicals. Joyner claims to have been (literally) transported to Heaven and to have had long conversations with Jesus (and some saints and prophets). Hence, his talk about spiritual warfare and the impending 'civil war' within the church bears the stamp of authority, doesn’t it?

Interestingly, while Joyner claims to regard the utterly insane William Branham as something of a lunatic, he also claims to have seen Branham close to the throne of God in his travels to Heaven. Hence Branham must be closer to the truth than one thought (this is perhaps the most feeble attempt I’ve seen of trying to argue that your apparently crazy views are not as crazy as they seem, Rick).

He also weighed in on the health care reform, pointing out that the bill "is about euthanasia, the power to determine who lives or dies in America. Hitler and Stalin would have loved to have had a means such as this for dispatching the millions they killed – it would have made their job much easier, and probably given them the ability to kill many more than they did. THIS BILL IS THAT SINISTER. This is not a joke."

Joyner was also (along with Jack Deere and Bill Johnson) in on the attempted curing and rehabilitation of Canadian televangelist Todd Bentley (famous for his Lakeland revival and for “healing” cancer and AIDS patients by beating them up), after Todd had been involved in – you guessed it – an adultery scandal.

Diagnosis: Pathologically delusional kook and madman who sometimes display glimpses of self-awareness that he is quick to explain away. That only makes him even more zealous of course. Impact unknown – he has many followers, but had he not existed the followers would probably have found another loon to worship.

#108: Creflo & Taffi Dollar

Creflo Dollar is a televangelist and a central figure in the Name it and Claim it movement. Taffi is his wife. Creflo Dollar’s real name is, believe it or not, “Dollar”, and he teaches you... that Jesus wants you (him) to be rich.

He also claims that the Bible promises some kind of "Believer's Rights", which would give his followers his powers, such as making the bread last really long and raising the dead. Controlled experiments have at present failed to corroborate the latter hypothesis, but such things do not really concern Creflo’s ilk or followers.

Creflo and Taffi lead an extremely extravagant lifestyle (private jets, Rolls-Royces and so on). His church’s financial records are currently under investigation (here and here).

Diagnosis: Might be a complete fraud, but I have no concrete evidence that these loons don't believe what they preach. Although the popularity of the prosperity gospel televangelists seems to be in decline, these people have shitloads of money on their hands, and would have been dangerous in virtue of that alone.

#80: Kenneth & Gloria Copeland

Among the most prominent pieces of New Age lunacy is “The Law of Attraction” – basically, if you really wish for something, you exert positive energy that’ll bring it about – as formulated e.g. by the followers of (the Australian and therefore ineligible for our Encyclopedia) Rhonday Byrne, of The Secret fame, and her disciples (e.g. Michael B. Beckwith, who has been covered). But the idiotic Law of Attraction is not a new idea – in fact, it is the foundation for the “blab it and grab it”-theology (or “prosperity gospel”) made famous by numerous seriously wealthy televangelists. For an introduction, see this. The movement may also be partially to blame for the financial crash.

Among the most prominent prosperity gospel televangelists; Kenneth is also the mentor of Mike Huckabee. Kenneth Copeland is a Texan faith whose show, "The Believer's Voice of Victory", is featured on Paul Crouch's Trinity Broadcasting Network and many local TV stations. He teaches a theology he calls "Word of Faith", also called name it and claim it by critics. He is criticized for taking donations from cancer patients who believed his teachings that God would heal them as a result of donating, for leaving business partners in debt, and for spending funds donated to the ministry on lavish personal vacations in his Cessna jet.

He also sits on the Board of Regents for the Oral Roberts University.

A selection of quotes, discussed by an equally ardent but disagreeing fundamentalist; same goes for this selection. Someone apparently also believes he is actually a 33rd degree Freemason and part of The Conspiracy.

Diagnosis: Professional con artists (both of them), but I have no reason to think they don’t actually believe the rubbish they preach. Kenneth is a master of public relations with lots of powerful friends, so he seems to have some influence but probably little lasting impact.

#75: Don Colbert

Don Colbert is an Oral Roberts University Alumnus and author of more than 40 books that together have sold more than one million copies. An ardent promoter of WWJD and such things as the Jesus diet (no joke!), his most famous books are the ”The Bible cure for ...”-series. You can get, for instance, The Bible cure for cancer, or The Bible Cure for Depression and Anxiety (”Ancient Truths, Natural Remedies and the Latest Findings for Your Health Today [With Guidebook]”), The Bible Cure for Weight Loss and Muscle Gain ("Jesus wants YOU to be thin" is in fact the slogan, and – just as you suspected – the diet recommendations are baskets of bread and fish, and watered down wine), The Bible Cure for Allergies, The Bible Cure for ADHD, for PMS & Mood Swings, and so on and so forth.

He has also written ”Toxic Relief: Restore Health and Energy Through Fasting and Detoxification” which will give you an idea about where this is heading. And yes, Colbert’s work is a brilliant combination of fundamentalist religion and the most ridiculous New Age alternative treatments (negative feelings as the main cause of disease, apart from mercury in dental fillings and vaccines and so on for some utter lunacy, visit here.

Extensively used by Televangelists to discuss health and nutrition (Benny Hinn, the Copelands). His claims are generally too loony to be caught by Quackwatch, Orac or the like.

Diagnosis: Complete nutjob (with an admittedly effective marketing idea) and godbotter. Appears to be relatively influential.