Christian Ponzi Scheme Rocks US Southern Mega Churches

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   jacharlessposted 11 years ago

   Why, for the love of g/God, did no one see this happening -especially the Pastors of these flocks? 10 States, possibly tens-of-thousands of people. Homes, Retirement funds, everything.
   
   Makes Madoff look like a saint.
   
   http://abcnews.go.com/US/ephren-taylor- … d=16302868

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      aguasilverposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      http://www.apostasynow.com/tgd/hire2.html
      
      Some thoughts on the issue.
      
      Nobody should listen to anybody who attempts to tell them that entering Gods Kingdom will make them wealthy.
      
      Wrong thinking from the start.

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   Cagsilposted 11 years ago

   I saw the title on Yahoo. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to read the article.
   
   As if Madoff wasn't bad enough. The amount of scams and fraud in America is absurd.

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   Emile Rposted 11 years ago

   It's not surprising, with the number of ministries focused on prosperity. It's been my experience that the more vocal the Christian the more money hungry. The whole religion has turned into a scam.
   
   What's the difference between this guy running a Ponzi scheme and the fat cat ministers? It's all about taking money from the naive parishioners.

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4. 74

   jacharlessposted 11 years ago

   Indeed.
   I know many Southern Baptist and Full Gospel folks.
   Actually most are very hospitable, kind and humble people.
   Most barely make ends meet as it is.
   
   This just shocked me.
   I hunted the web to get further info on the damage assessment, but haven't come up with very much, only that Creflo Dollar Ministries supported him {and even bullied unforgiving followers into forgiving him}, while Bishop Long invited him in, on many occasions and oddly enough Joel Osteen's group told the flock before Taylor took the mic, they they did not endorse him or his products, only that he was a guest speaker... am awaiting emails from former-present friends in the ministry to see what they think as well.
   
   This is beyond disgusting. Little old ladies, single mom's, blue collar folks, already strapped financially, fell for the oldest trick in the book. I remember the C. Dollar and other "prosperity" Ministries coming to the mega-church I was associated pastor at. It killed me even then to watch people get all hyped and wide-eyed. One would think after the Hinns, Bakers, Swaggarts, etc this sort of thing would not happen, again. This hits me personally, I suppose, because I watched a man give literally 1 million of his life savings to an up-and-coming missionary pastor, for wells, roads and schools in Malawi, only to end up with a vacant lake-sde camp-park and mounds of unpaid bills.
   
   Either end, my distaste is with the Pastors who let them in.
   When one runs the multimillion dollar organization, one is responsible for the safety, health and well-being of your supporters, especially when it involves the community, family and spirituality of those people.
   
   The saddest thing, this fellow Taylor was already a millionaire, a few times over. Why the scam? Not like he needed the money.
   
   sorry to vent, am just livid.
   
   James.

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      Cagsilposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hey James, I can understand being livid about it. Sorry it hit close to home.

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      Brenda Durhamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I feel fortunate to have grown up in a little church in the Ky. hills where the offering plate usually contained less than $100.   We were poor as dirt but rich in Spirit and never had to worry about the likes of Taylor, etc.
      
      
      I've often wondered about Creflo Dollar's ministry.  I wonder if the name preceded the ministry or if he coined the name specifically for the ministry.  haha.
      
      Honestly, it's still hard to imagine the scenario where any church would even let a money-focused guy like Taylor into the pulpit at all. The pulpit is for teaching the word of God, not get-rich-quick schemes.  If the Pastor already knows he has to post a disclaimer, it's just idiotic to let the guest speaker step foot on the podium at all. There goes my last bit of respect for Joel Osteen too (the first bits were lost a long time ago)...

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         Disappearingheadposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         The prosperity gospel is quite big in the UK too: we get the jerry savelle's, Joyce meyer's, Kenneth copland's and Rodney Howard brown's over here all the time. It's a very beguiling gospel, that leads its followers into poverty. Yet it feeds on poverty because 'poverty is a result of not sowing enough money into "good soil ministries"'. You just want to take these con men and punch their lights out.

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   SandyMcCollumposted 11 years ago

   We went to a very small Baptist church for a long time. Our pastor began asking for more money, and eventually began to pass the plate for cash more than once during the sermon. This made me sick, and I found out lots of churches do that now. Some people actually count out money for the first passing of the plate, and some more for the second, etc. Our particular pastor informed us that October is Appreciate your Pastor month, and asked that we all give gifts of love to him and his wife. He told us what would be good gifts for them and how much we should spend. When nobody responded, he sent out emails to all his congregation asking for the gifts again. Really turned me off.

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   jacharlessposted 11 years ago

   Seems this is a huge conquest, in the States, at least.
   I had forgotten about the Copeland & Browns.
   
   The entire prosperity thing has gotten out of control. I mean, sure, Solomon, David, Joseph, Moshe and more prospered, but not because of the monetary aspect. The wealth was wisdom, which inadvertently brought material gain to them.
   
   With the media pushing "who wants to be a millionaire"; a Social Networking Website IPO of $100 Billion and let's not forget the famed Secret, one can see how the largest and supposedly most people-dedicated portion of society {church & charity} feel slighted or the need to compete.
   
   These Pastors {or any for that matter} should not only be reprimanded, but tossed out on their heads, for allowing their people to be subjected to these kind of tent-revival-charlatan's.
   
   The obvious elephant-in-the-room, is their tenet has fallen short of delivering the goods. They cannot manifest the power of the Spirit, so they fake it; they cannot manifest real healing, so they sell it; they cannot manifest practical faith, so they sugar coat it; they have no connection to Creator, because realistically, they have become dull of hearing -just repeating what their preachers before repeated, with no authority behind it. Something to the effect of their words are just dry dust from empty vessels. But, make no mistake, they are some charismatic looking vessels. Like supermodels for lack of a better word.
   
   James

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      Mark Knowlesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Prolly the atheists are to blame huh? What with their love of science n homos n stuff.
      
      You getting it at last? Maybe.........

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         jacharlessposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Marcus, no offense, but I got it long before you did. And with eye-witness account, experience with these types, deep in their camps, on the Mega and Minor levels, can relate with these people, far more than you.
         
         When a millionaire-ministers own son comes up to you, {with what looked like a Roman Mob out for blood} and pleads with you to overthrow the guy and become their pastor, you have one choice:
         
         Walk away and hope the others will put down their guns and follow suit...
         Many did, and every so often I get a call or email with requests. Others didn't and went down the rabbit hole with him. Unfortunately, my friend Fred never got his million back. In fact, after meeting with the king of Malawi, at the UN in NY, we were offered the opportunity for legal restitution & support. His response was, "Nope. But I would still like to build those wells, roads and schools with you, if that's okay." Fred passed on a few years ago, the happiest, most giving, forgiving, grateful and joyful man I believe I have ever met.
         
         Atheists? Well, in my opinion, these charlatan's are atheists in really cool preachers outfits -complete with obnoxious, billowing voices, sweat handkerchiefs and picture perfect lol smiles. The new priesthood, baby.
         
         You Determinists pretending to be athiests are nothing less than the iWorld Religion. And yes, billions are getting suckered every 4G second.
         So, let's go there, yes?
         
         James.

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