Word: evangelists
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...need to do now." said Evangelist Billy Graham to Bill Alexander recently, "is to sink an oil well so you won't have to take up a collection." Said Alexander: "That would be the worst thing that could happen to us. People need to give...
Last week Dr. Clifton E. Moore, director of television for the Los Angeles Presbytery, took to the air himself to warn against the danger of the profiteering electronic evangelist. Said he: "The television industry and the respected denominations in your community have this in common-they both have an enemy. This enemy is the fringe or marginal preacher. He makes use of the air lanes for his own monetary gains. The religious exploiter [requests] that you write in for a pamphlet or booklet, with the idea that he has your mailing address for . . . solicitations . . . for money. These religious hucksters...
Religious evangelists pose a peculiar problem for radio and television stations. Many are enormously popular, and some bring religion to the bedridden, the busy, or the lazy. The problem arises because of a built-in difficulty: the TV evangelist cannot pass the plate. If he needs money, he must ask for it. But solicitation over the air is a privilege which can easily be abused. Most stations disapprove of it and some...
Where solicitation is prohibited, some evangelists get around the ban by making a pitch for money indirectly ("We invite your prayerful support. Won't you write us and tell us you are listening?") Where it is not, solicitation may be direct ("You are invited to send your free-will gifts and offerings for the support of this worldwide faith ministry to . . ."). Others use the hard-sell technique ("Mail those contributions now, because we have to pay up our back bill to wonderful KGER. I wish more of you would pledge a dime...
...personal achievements of Graham as a Christian and as evangelist should be duly appreciated. But they do not materially alter the fact that an individualistic approach to faith and commitment, inevitable as it may be, is in danger both of obscuring the highly complex tasks of justice in the community and of making too sharp distinctions between the 'saved' and the 'unsaved...