The Real Scandal

Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like....But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. -Galatians 5:19-23

The high and unholy public drama being played out by the nation's leading television evangelists should put to rest any lingering fear that the Christian media might not be as entertaining as the real thing. "Days of Our Lives," "General Hospital," and "The Young and the Restless" have all taken a back seat to the emerging soap-like scandal that has embroiled and embattled many of the most celebrated TV preachers. Overwhelmed, and now overcome, by the traditional temptations of money, sex, and power, the media ministers-turned-media moguls have displayed, before the eyes of the nation, behavior that is at the same time absurd, disgusting, and just plain tasteless.

"We're ashamed, we're embarrassed, we're humiliated, and we're dismayed about all these problems surfacing in the media across the nation," lamented Rev. G. Raymond Carlson, who heads the pentecostal Assemblies of God denomination, in which two of the principle combatants in the present crisis, Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, are ordained ministers. Carlson speaks for many in the pentecostal and fundamentalist Christian communities, from which the TV evangelists draw most of their viewers, but also for the wider evangelical movement and even the broader church.

Tales of adultery, hush money, hostile takeovers, power plays, ego clashes, financial empires, and personal fortunes have grabbed headlines across the nation while providing fresh, new material for Johnny Carson's smirking monologues and the yuppie cynicism of David Letterman and "Saturday Night Live." As church people are embarrassed or defensive, religious hypocrisy is again served up to an already skeptical public as further justification for unbelief. Even worse is the painful disillusionment of millions of faithful Christian viewers and supporters--ordinary, hardworking, decent, and devout people--whose lives, unlike their TV preacher heroes, would not qualify for "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."

One wants to believe that these TV ministers began with genuine sincerity and ardent faith in earlier and more innocent days. But, as in all things, the dangers of success can so easily corrupt fledgling hopes and dreams. An incident of sexual misconduct and a resulting cover-up catalyzed a power struggle between rival evangelists competing for high stakes--prestige, ratings, and, most of all, money--in a very lucrative but increasingly crowded religious media market.

BUT ONE MUST ALSO ask why it took a highly publicized, scintillating, and sordid scandal to finally break open the world of the televangelists and begin to focus some hard questions on the media empires these electronic men of the cloth have created. An obvious answer is that the scandal was about sex, a constant preoccupation of the media, popular culture, and religion.

But, from a biblical perspective, aren't the moral issues of money and power at least as important as sexual morality? Those questions regarding the empires and activities of the TV preachers have been growing in significance for some time now. Unfortunately for them and for all of us, these were questions that most others in the wider church chose to ignore.

From the view of Christian ethics, sex is indeed important. The integrity of our sexual values, relationships, and morality is vitally connected to a whole, healthy, and truly human life. The biblical values of commitment, faithfulness, and fidelity cannot be stressed enough in these sexually confused and troubled times. But that said, it must also be said that sexual morality isn't the only biblical morality. Beneath the present furor over a televangelist's sexual conduct, are there not also theological, spiritual, and political transgressions that are themselves great scandals to the gospel?

At a crucial juncture in the Watergate investigations, the famous source "Deep Throat" gave some advice to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward: "Follow the money." Unfortunately, that is good advice in getting to the bottom of any scandal, including this one. In TV evangelism, money has become the means, the method, and the measure of success.

The few exceptions, such as Billy Graham, are so different from the TV preachers who regularly fill the airwaves that the clear comparison helps to make the point. The sums of money have become enormous in the religious media, the projects and "ministries" endless, the fundraising constant and fiercely competitive. The lifestyles of the televangelists bear the stamps of celebrity status more than the marks of sacrificial discipleship.

Jesus had no place to lay his head, and the early Christians shared all they had with the poor. In stark and glittering contrast are the mansions, cars, clothes, and entourages of these modern media disciples--all of which have been taken to ridiculous and embarrassing extremes in "Christian" fashion shows, shopping malls, resort hotels, and theme parks complete with religious water slides for the kids.

The opulent extravagances of the TV evangelists in a world where most of God's children are hungry and poor is the real scandal here. Money, of course, affects and radically alters theology. The result and rationale of such crass materialism is the prosperity gospel of wealth and health, created and boldly proclaimed by many of the TV preachers. This self-serving message had led to a moral bankruptcy far more serious than the economic bankruptcy they so fear. Loudly proclaimed and very token offerings to "the poor" simply compound the offense.

The sad picture of an aging evangelist, holed up in his prayer tower, threatening that God would "take me home" if enough money didn't come in is different only in degree but not in kind from the high-pressure, money-raising tactics of his colleagues. Fund-raising practices universally recognized as unethical, such as the "bait and switch" method--raising money ostensibly for one thing (often starving children) but using the funds for something else (usually general operating expenses)--have become the norm for many of the TV evangelists.

Even when proof of such dubious practices has become available to other evangelical leaders and institutions, little if anything has been said or done. New concern for financial disclosure and accountability among religious organizations is a welcome sign. Time will tell how much real change occurs.

AFTER MONEY AND SEX, power is the other issue this current conflict raises. But rather than just lament the lack of love the preachers have shown each other in their transparent ego clashes, we must look more deeply at the spiritual wisdom of such power bases and power brokering in the first place.

Each successful evangelist has established his own little, but expanding, empire that may include television studios, stations, and even networks; Bible schools and universities; political organizations; and even luxury hotels and amusement parks. Each conglomerate is run like a personal fiefdom for the evangelist, who is accountable to no one.

That power, counted by numbers of viewers, members, donors, students, and, most of all, dollars, has been projected onto the national political stage since the presidential election of 1980. Christian faith certainly has political implications, and Christians have a right, and even a responsibility, to help shape the direction of their nation. But are the political brokering, back-room deals, and the eager embracing of political power enthusiastically practiced by the TV preachers characteristic of a biblical approach?

Isn't a more independent, critical, and prophetic role more in keeping with the scriptural tradition? And isn't the religious Right's equation of conservative, capitalist, Republican politics with the kingdom of God as wrong as those religionists who conform to the liberal Left? And, finally, isn't the strident American nationalism preached by mostly rich white men a dangerous substitute for the reconciling work of Christ, which knows no national boundaries and overcomes the divisions of race, class, and sex?

Very partisan political power is no fit replacement for the power of God upon which gospel preachers must finally rely. The intimacy the televangelists have enjoyed with the present administration and their complicity with the political Far Right have been morally compromising and undermining of a truly independent, Christian political witness.

THE SCANDAL AND EMBARRASSMENT of the television evangelists did not begin with the present crisis. Its roots are deeper, the issues broader, and the transgressions go farther back. Why weren't the churches, the evangelical community in particular, and the evangelical establishment most particularly, raising the tough questions earlier, subjecting the burgeoning TV empires to biblical criteria, theological scrutiny, and spiritual wisdom? Why was no accountability demanded earlier? (New efforts to do just that, especially in the area of evangelical fund raising, are laudable but late.)

The people and institutions with the clearest responsibility for seeking accountability from the TV preachers, for the most part, failed to act. Those who should have said and done more, and didn't, now must share responsibility for the damage of the now revealed scandals. Why didn't things get said and done earlier? Because most of us won't argue with success, wealth, and power, not even in the church. When will we learn?

Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners.