By:
Nicole Belle on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 12:46 PM - PST
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Our usual focus with religious figures is how they play into politics and blur the separation between Church and State, something that televangelist Kenneth Copeland has certainly been guilty of with his backing of Mike Huckabee. But Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) is looking at Copeland for the wholesale lack of accountability of the business of teleministries and whether they should keep their tax-exempt status.
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Worse than used car salesmen
It’s about time these lying cheating snake-oil salesmen and saleswomen were investigated! The fact that there are sheeple out there giving them their hard-earned cash is bad enough… that these ba$tards would take it is outrageous! Christian my ass!!
Anyone see the irony in the MSM investigating accountability? I does.
You’re not giving your money to me but to the account of God! Praise Jesus!
I’m not at all surprised…guess these people haven’t learned from the mistakes of the 1980s trinity(Bakker,Swaggart,and Oral Roberts).
Time to kick their godless asses, or will be in just under a year, hopefully.
In the meantime, enjoy the ending of There Will Be Blood. Really kinda satisfying.
All televangelist are preaching, not for God, but for money, and should be outlawed from the airwaves
He sells fear….just like the repubs do…give me money or you’ll burn in hell!
I’m glad to see this being investigated. Money-making schemes such as these shouldn’t be tax-exempt.
I’ve said this before, time and time again - if these assholes want to play the game of politics, they should man up and surrender their tax-exempt status. Gotta pay the cover if you want to go in and play, boys and girls.
I cheered when the fat and slimy Jerry Falwell and the egregiously political D. James Kennedy died, and I quoted (probably misquoted) “the last king throttled to death with ther entrails of the last priest,” which never fails to get a reaction if said in public.
I know I’ll probably be flamed for this but…everytime Obama goes into his “Yes we can” chant it reminds me of Elmer Gantry (and also Bob the Builder). Caroline Kennedy looked so sheepish leading the “yes we can” when giving her speech at American University. I guess she’s not as experienced pandering for the Baptist church crowd as Obama.
If they are tax exempt, so should we all be. End the special privileges.
well, I guess this means that CBS is going to burn in hell…
no one, no insitution, no entity gets in the way of the rightwing christian greed for money-money-money. jesus wants you to be a cut-throat capitalist. how do i know? my televangelist told me so.
Bowling pins, I tell ya.
Drink their milkshakes first.
What took so long for someone to look behind the curtains and see how these greedy bastards were stuffing their pockets and living high on the hog. It’s waaay past time that a few of them do bunny-hops in chains.
Kenneth Copeland?!?!?!?
Do you mean this Kenneth Copeland?!?!?!
it’s time to tax all of the churches; enough of the free ride on our backs already.
If you’re going to bend over, grab your ankles and spell “run” for these self-appointed messengers of gaud, you better grease up your ass ’cause these pendejos would, after relieving you of excess monies, like to skewer you on a spit and turn
you slowly over the coals of mendacity.
Title for a new song, “Next Time Listen to Your Common Sense”.
Mathematic Algorithm For The Day: Avoid pain, especially self-inflicted.
Mantra for Life (feel free to share your mantra, there are no secrets): Religions are Toxic. Good words for the soon-to-be ex-prez ( But just like the abolition of all religions, not soon enough). No one changes unless they choose to. Even in pain we cling to the familiar.
Parable: What is the worst thing that can happen? Answer: It has already happened and you perpetuate its re-occurrence with your beliefs.
Tragedy: The rejection of reality in favor of delusions, yours or others, is one of the most stressful intrapsychic experiences one can have.
Delimma: We are victims only when we choose to see ourselves as victims. Self inflicted pain is anger turned inward.
Monty Python’s anthem: Run and Hide, Run and Hide…….
“Never trust a preacher with more than one $ 300 suit.”
- Lenny Bruce -
As if this is news. Send Me Your Money!
Poets, priests and politicians
Have words to thank for their positions
Words that scream for your submission
And no-one’s jamming their transmission
‘Cos when their eloquence escapes you
Their logic ties you up and rapes you
De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
Their innocence will pull me through
De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
They’re meaningless and all that’s true
IdiotShrub @ 15:
Its a diversion . . . we need to be going after the people rigging our elections at this very moment . . . where is CBS?
http://www.blackboxvoting.org
Tax all churches. Why should my tax dollars subsidize peoples’ delusions?
Groucho @ 17:
I second the motion.
What right do churches have to be tax-exempt? They should be allowed to write off their charitable donations and volunteer time, just like anybody else.
If all they do is collect money and put on a show, they need to pay taxes, just like any other entertainment.
It goes without saying that, if they’re promoting a political agenda, they should pay taxes. But you’re right, that doesn’t go far enough to curb the hucksters and promote real giving.
would jesus wear a rolex on his television show?
Devil worshipers have never asked me for a penny or told me how to live.
I hope they go after those other parasites, Dobson and Pat Robertson. These guys bilk the elderly and the vulnerable of their incomes.
I agree, take their tax exemption away. Robertson is so political it isn’t even funny.
I have contempt for these clowns.
flipping the stations on UHF one time…
we saw that bizzare Copeland character..
even without the sound on… looked strangely possessed and delusional
….not recommended to broadcast to children on sunday morning.
–> front groups operating under the guise of religious values
who use brainwashing tactics to politically influence the weak…. dangerous.
We also have not forgotten…
those Pat Robertson type “christian” lawyer scandals in the Justice Department..
http://www.crooksandliars.com/.....a+Goodling
or how Pat Robertson… brainwashes viewers ..family friend Prescott Bush would be proud.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WynH9nJuSuk
or the very informative Jesus Camp Documentary…
that exposed the abuse of children across the country..
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Jesus+Camp
“I am a false prophet and God is a superstitition.”
SAY IT!!!!
I may be cynical but CBS and Grassley’s timing is very interesting. The fundies have gotten a tad too powerful for the Wall Street types and need to be brought down a notch. The fundies forgot their place and thought candidates should deliver on promises made to them no matter how moonbat crazy and unpopular they are. It’s all about the monied interests in the republican party. Huckabee is not their guy.
These criminals milked my grandmother of all her money. She had something short of a million dollars when her husband died of a heart attack. By the time she died a few years later, it was all gone. Her home was filled with thank you letters, signed photographs and signed bibles from these obscene predators. It was terribly sad - we lived in a different state and had no idea it was happening.
*
Man, I wants me a jet. Do ya hear me Jesus, send me a jet… Jesus? … Are you there Jesus? … I’m awaitin’ … What? … Oh, all right! Hey rev Copeland, Jesus said I can have his. So hand over the keys.
everytime I see and hear Barak Obama I think of the television evangelist Creflo Dollar…he has the same kind of attractive and emotional appeal that draws people in like flies…google Creflo and you will see what I mean…people lose their ability to think independently and become mesmerized and entranced
ridiculous argument. i mean for a hundred years and still to this day in the rural areas the church is WHERE we Vote! so its always been an influence and its always gonna be as long as theres a church there will be preachers telling people how to think. that is the whole point of religion.
They are only in business because there are enough stupid/ignorant/naive people to believe their magical stories of magical sky beings.
America is the land of opportunity and these hucksters make the most of it.
CBS should investigate why there are so many stupid people willing to give these frauds their money.
The Televanglist said, “That’s not my Cadillac, that’s God’s Cadillac!”
And the congregation responded, “Let us send money, as our mission, so as to put the Holy Gasoline to be put within it’s enormous fuel tank.”
Thus, the Televanglist was pleased, for he understood that the fuel gauge would never approach the dreaded letter “E”.
The religious right has turned this into an art form, but any church can be guilty. The priest in my parish when I was a kid had 2 sermons: 1) You are all going to hell, 2) you need to give me more money. He begged for funds to build a church for nearly 20 years and when he died, there was no building fund. It wasn’t until I read the Inferno that I knew where he ended up.
Televangelists are Crooks and Liars, con men, hustlers, thieves, hypocrites, all pimping a figmental ‘god’ they know does not exist.
Yeah, there’s a LOT of so-called religious organizations that need to have their tax-exempt status looked over.. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) has been doing a good job looking into this. A *Republican* mind you.. WTF are the democrats not doing something about these guys?
Personally, I think the Scientologists need a good look-over. Besides being a brainwashing criminal cult, their tax-exempt status is VERY suspicious.
(For background, check out this NY Times story.. and perhaps drop a line to your congresscritter. I have. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/f.....A961958260 )
I have to admit I do miss Robert Tilton. He was my favorite.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/....._preacher/
YES LORD! I WILL RIDE WITH YOU!
Tax the Church’s and then Investigate each one of their business dealings.
I’m sure if we did, we’d see a whole lot of them heading for jail cells.
“The lord told me to buy a Citation 10″
HA! What else do you have to hear?!?
Praise Money!
Can I get a halle-moolah?!
Tax exemptions are ridiculous with these groups. The Mega Churches are blatant exploitations of this privelege.
Please, these fucks are con artists. Even the more reputably mega churches are really religious corporations. Tax them all.
All televangelism scams are all the same: God wants you to be rich. I am God’s intermediary. I am richer than Midas. Send me your money. I will intercede with God. God will make you richer than Midas too. If he doesn’t, it’s your own fault because you lacked faith, but don’t give up. Send me more money and try again.
S@33 What a fucking bigoted coincidence that you would compare Obama to that asshole Dollar, a soulless, greedy, conman. Hey shit for brains, who has Obama robbed? What an obvious ignorant vile racist fucking comment!
As I live and work on this grain of sand on the outside of our huge galaxy it always amazes me when someone claims to have the “true” answer to not only what the “meaning of life” is but how it actually started. This is sligthly more than a little arrogant since “we” can’t even get along with ourselves much less other cultures or religions, right here in the land of the free. We are not even closely intelligent enough to have a credible guess as to the answer….but what do I know.
HaHa that dude Copeland, Crouch, and Hinn are the epitome of Crooks and Liars.
Grassley better watch it. Copeland plays golf with Jesus every Saturday. They gamble on the games, and Jesus is down a bundle to him…
HELL NO! Tax those closeted self-hating right-wing nutjob crusaders right into the ground! If one of those plastic haired freaks takes so much as a dime from his sheeple he should be investigated. In fact all religions should be taxed not just the morons that go on tv and sell prayers to gullible idiots. Razi the nazi has plenty of cash to buy the silence of raped children. Squeeze ‘em til he squeaks and then squeeze some more.
jesus zimmerman @ 25:
There’s a preacher out there that says Jesus and all of the apostles were wealth men and there is nothing against him and others like him to wealthy afterall Jesus was wealthy.
I myself think they should have a vow of poverty.
I t is funny who are the people giving the short answer are those that cannot.
They did a 20/20 report on this may years ago
This is actually a good thread.
I enjoyed most of the comments here.
It’s too bad people here aren’t the majority in the US. Let alone the world. It would be nice though if people actually used their brain and logic. Is idea of heaven that great that one would blindly follow and give money thinking one would be rewarded?!?
jesus zimmerman @ 25:
Rolex indeed. He wears Patek Philippe.
We are dumb all ove