Why do people with very little money for their own needs, send

[KlatooBNikto]

money to fundamentalist preachers who live in an opulent style looking down on the very people who help sustain their lavish lifestyles? To compound this problem even more, the same gullible people also vote against their own best interests by listening to the RW jive talk from these preachers. I am baffled by this self destructive behavior.

On Edit: One of the best examples of this self destructive behavior is their swallowing the idea that a stem cell derived from an embryo is the equivalent of performing an abortion.Even if that were so, the research that can lead to cures for many diseases can benefit the same people who listen to the faith healers.

[Zuni]

1. I had a grandmother who was getting senile who started doing this

my dad cut her off and took control of her assetts because she was sending all her money to TV preachers

[converted_democrat]

7. Same deal with my great aunt....................

She honestly believed in order to be saved she needed to give "Jesus" all of her money. We tried to prosecute, but there wasn't anyone that would take the case. The worst part is once they get you to send the money, they give your name out on a mailing list to all the other crooks, so they can ask for money too. She lost 25,000 in less than 4 months.

[Deja Q]

2. They're programmed into the cult.

Jim Jones, Koresh, Swaggart, Falwell, Limbaugh, and the others... all get the poor to send their hard worked money to them.

[notadmblnd]

3. because they think they'll get their money back 7 fold

the reasoning is if you give to them, they will pray for you (since only they are capable of speaking to god) then god will give to you.

[havocmom]

9. Few people realize the TV preachers say 'Let us prey'

Most think they say pray BIG difference.

[pnorman]

4. Probably, for the same reason they buy lottery tickets.

Similar payoff.

pnorman

[cornermouse]

5. Same reason wealthy people leave their estates to the church.

Trying to buy their way into heaven, at least for some of them. And some of them really believe that if they send money to these tv preachers its really going to go to some little village on the other side of the world and save them from hell.

[candy]

6. My mother gave to the Catholic church for years when it should

have been helping her.

Infuriated me but made my mother feel good.

[stillcool]

8. Something to believe in....

i think people spend their lives never knowing themselves. They run around 'doing' all the time, and never learn how to 'be'. Then when they find themselves with themselves they freak right the fuck out, and reach for whatevers close to take the focus off of themselves. It must be especially helpful to find a crutch that allows all that pent up inner rage to be spewn freely onto their sanctioned evil of choice.

[punpirate]

10. One of my co-workers...

... years ago, at a fundie school, said his wife (who taught part-time) gave half her income to TV preachers. They had several kids, lived in a cabin without plumbed water or electricity--would swap out car batteries to run a DC-powered TV so she could watch religious programming (this was before the Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals).

Never really understood it. No senility involved there....

[justgamma]

11. I watched one show quite awhile ago

the "preacher" was crawling around on all fours on a king sized bed with some letters on it. He was screaching and caterwauling. Yelling for all you people who can't afford the money to go out and pick up pop cans and send the cash to him.
I never did figure out what the heck the bed was about.
Had to have been the most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen.

There was also a preacher on at night who did nothing but ask for money and talk about his racehorse. Wonder where he got the money for that?

If anyone knows who I'm talking about, I'd love their names.

[Doc_Technical]

12. Dr. Gene Scott, who just recently went to his "reward",

is the preacher who loved to show off his horses and other trappings
that befits a man of God.

[chalky]

14. A small subset of this board may have heard of "Reverend Ike"

http://members.aol.com/SATP2/articles/review_issue/ike.html

The best description of him is "A Conman for God". His most famous quote: "The Bible says that Jesus rode on a borrowed ass. But I would rather ride in a Rolls Royce than to ride somebody's ass!"

I had a great aunt that lived in a tiny, state-assisted efficiency that gave religiously (pun intended) to this freak. She KNEW the money went to shiny new cars and all the bling her money could buy but still she sent in her hard earned $5.00. I remember my dad tried to talk to her about it once, and in true crotchety old-bat form she actually swung at my dad with her cane. Needless to say, dad dropped the subject.

She passed away about 25 years ago but oh, boy...looks like Reverend Ike is still going strong.

[Robbien]

13. Many of them are lonely people where the TV and radio

preachers become their daily companions. Dear friends. When their dear friends ask for money, they chip in.

[Jade Fox]

15. They're purchasing salvation.....

Its easier than trying to follow all those damned commandments, etc.

[NMMNG]

16. People are gullible

And TV preachers are predators. They are the snake-oil salesmen of the present day, and what they are selling is salvation. Send in your money and God will reward you with a special place in His Kingdom--and our ministry will reward you with a form letter (and solicitation for more money).

I love this line from U2's "Bullet the Blue Sky" where Bono blasts TV evangelists:

And I can't tell the difference between ABC news, Hill Street Blues and a preacher on the old time gospel hour stealing money from the sick and the old. Well the God I believe in isn't short of cash, mister....

Seriously...what does God need with money?