What is there to say about televangelism that hasn't already been said in countless documentaries
and depositions?
If you're looking for a scandal-plagued celebrity, you'd do just fine perusing the ranks of televangelists,
as evidenced by these unholy examples.
In 1974, Jim Bakker and his then-wife Tammy Faye started the Praise The Lord Television
Network, an evangelical Christian cable channel dedicated to spreading the good word and securing
donations.
In 1978, the Bakkers opened Heritage USA, a Christian theme park with waterslides, a
500-room hotel, and the staple of all amusement parks: tax exemption.
Things were chugging along smoothly, so much so that the decision was made to build a luxury
hotel tower.
But skyscraper money doesn't just grow on trees, so 165,000 people each donated $1,000
to the building's construction in exchange for a lifelong annual three-night stay.
The Internal Revenue Service found this more than a little shady, leading to intense financial
scrutiny of PTL Ministries.
Furthermore, there was extra pressure on Bakker because he and another preacher allegedly
assaulted church secretary Jessica Hahn and then paid her $279,000 in hush money.
In the end, PTL collapsed and Heritage USA closed down, with those $1,000 donors receiving
a whopping $6.54 refund.
Bakker spent less than a decade in prison, and he can now be seen on his new program,
The Jim Bakker Show, where he sells end-of-days kits with his second wife Lori Beth.
Jimmy Swaggart is notable for a number of reasons, but perhaps none moreso than his
crying face.
The story goes like this: back in the '70s and '80s, Swaggart was one of the most influential
evangelical preachers in America.
He was producing shows nearly every day and being broadcast on hundreds of channels around
the world.
When he talked, the people in his community listened.
When he exposed fellow TV preacher Marvin Gorman for having extramarital affairs, Gorman
wound up out of a job.
Unfortunately for Swaggart, hell hath no fury like a minor television celebrity scorned,
and Gorman had Swaggart followed and photographed during a rendezvous with a local toot.
What followed was a saga of blackmail that saw Gorman reinstated and Swaggart taken off
the air.
In 1988, Swaggart gave the infamous speech in which he cried a lot and asked for forgiveness.
"I have sinned against you, my lord."
It was a touching moment of perfectly staged humility from atop a pillar normally reserved
for moral superiority.
But then three years later, Swaggart was caught with another toot.
Despite all that, today he's back on TV and has a new 24-hour-a-day network.
In May 2018, Jesse Duplantis put out a call to action.
His old jet was wearing a little thin at the seams, and he just knew his followers would
help him, a humble servant of Jesus.
He only needed a small tithing of millions and millions of dollars to buy a sweet new
Falcon 7X passenger jet.
According to Duplantis, God personally told him that He wanted him flying in that particular
plane, presumably because the Good Lord would never expect his followers to fly Southwest.
In case anyone was wondering why God wouldn't want televangelists flying business class,
Duplantis had an answer for that.
In a broadcast from 2015, he and fellow preacher Kenneth Copeland said it was because regular
airliners are filled with people who constantly make prayer requests to them.
It's a little weird that ministers would be so put off by prayer.
"You couldn't-a done that on an airline."
“No sir. No way."
Fans of Robert Tilton know him as the host of the show Success-N-Life.
Early frequenters of YouTube know him as "The Farting Preacher."
And pretty much everyone else knows him as a giant fraud.
Tilton's message has been clear from the start: Poverty is the result of sin, and also please
send money.
His ministry became so popular that he attracted between 8,000 and 10,000 worshipers to his
megachurch every week, and his broadcasts brought in scores of letters with personal
requests for prayer and donations.
During an undercover investigation in 1999, ABC discovered that prayer letters sent to
Tilton's TV ministry were sent straight to the bank, where their donations were marked
and their prayers were thrown in the dumpster.
Tilton responded that the prayers had been stolen by his church's enemies and then planted
in the trash.
He also said that he prayed so hard over the letters that the ink leaked into his bloodstream,
which was why he needed plastic surgery, which was of course paid for by those donations.
That is God penetrating your heart!
It's burning on the inside of you, and you need to make a vow of faith of a thousand
dollars!"
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.