Ed Young: Telemarketing religion to the Clueless.

[The Backlash Cometh]

This is a cross between American capitalist marketing and megachurch preachers and it is so pathetically sad. I once mentioned here on DU that if you turn the volume down and watch some of these telemarketing preachers, that you really can't tell what they are selling. It could be cusinart rather than Christianity. Ed Young and the Creative Fellowship Church, or whatever, is the perfect illustration.

I woke up to his show and was so surprised by what he was saying that I really didn't know what he was selling. He starts laying out the bait early. Here's what I heard, paraphrased, "What if you learned you inherited millions of dollars, but can't claim it until you're 60." "What if you're 25 years old today, and have to wait 35 years to claim it." "What if you find out there's a way to live off 5% of your inheritance, today."

Okay, bait in fish's mouth. Now, here come the switch.

"God has given you everything you need to know in the scriptures to live your life to the fullest. If you really accept him and his spirituality, you'd be a risk-taker. Christians are risk-takers. If you trust in him, you would show that every day with the risks you take."

Now comes the pull and the punchline.


For a $30.00 donation or greater, you can have my book and CD entitled "CLUELESS."

That's right, DUers, the name of this guy's book was, "Clueless." Stephen Colbert couldn't have written it better. I say we get a list of the people who call in for that book and in an act of kindness, Baker Act them to give them an intervention.

And we wonder why these people still think there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

1. You must live in Florida.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. What was the give away?

The fact that Ed Young hasn't yet sprouted ganglions outside this state or the fact that there are so many clueless people in Florida?

[Freedom_from_Chains]

3. Baker Act, Florida is the only state that has that, and

considering the senior citizen population it has it makes a lot of sense.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Do you think it's a good idea?

It sounds rather humane to me, and I've heard of two cases who were Baker Acted. One an old guy waving a gun who threatened to kill himself, and a young girl who, even after she was released, still dreamed of suicide as her final solution. She revealed that little bit of information to a writing class I was once in, and to my dismay, the teacher and another student in the class told her that if it were up to them, they'd allow her to do it. They said it compassionately, not maliciously.

But what do I know? From what I understand, if an eighteen year old comes in with a botched suicide attempt and asks for a DNR, not even her mother could intervene.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

5. Well to a degree you are right

There is definitely an authoritarian aspect to the Baker Act that is uncomfortable. This is one of those places where going back and studying the legislative history of the act can be helpful and also one of those places where one gets to dissect the spirit of the law as apposed to the letter of the law. I will try and give a brief synopsis for you but understand that it has been over 20 years since I studied this particular act.

The whole idea of the Backer Act was a response to the influx of senior citizens to the state which at one time was exponential. I don't know what the current states of that is but in any case you still have a lot of retires and a fairly large amount have some big money in the banks. If you have lived in Fl any length of time you know that fraud perpetrated against senior citizens is rampant. My favorite story is of the plumber who changed a widow 40k for replacing a toilet which see paid! He subsequently was arrested because he was way to blatant in his fraud and sent to prison. The widow did get all of her money back. Anyway, back to the subject.

So you have all these retires who as they age become less and less able to manage their affairs, and their children, many who live out of state, under the then current incompetence statues were unable to do anything to protect their parents or other relatives and yes maybe some potential inheritance they might have coming. And if you have ever tried to tell an aging relative that you don't think they are able to manage their affairs any longer I can tell you it doesn't go over real big. So that's a problem.

So the Backer Act was created to give a little more flexibility in the law to help relatives protect their parents and the like. But does it have the potential to be taken liberties with and abused, you bet it does, which is why we rely on the courts, and theoretical ourselves as citizens, to stay on top of these kinds of statues. I personally know a man, who was in his late 30's or early 40's at the time whose family had him Baker Acted because he was an alcoholic and was in fact killing himself. Once they had him Backer Acted they could get him in a recovery center and on the road to sobriety. Was it a questionable tactic, you bet, but it probably saved his life. When I knew him he had been sober for about 17 years and was living a normal productive life.

So, there you have it. I hope my description has been helpful but like I said it is dated and I am not fully apprised of what the current status of the act is.

Oh, as a side note, you are correct, Evangelical Christian groups are also real big at preying on the elderly for their cash in Florida, that, as I recall, was also a consideration of the act.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Thanks for the info. I think we're onto something.

Baker Acting the elderly that donate to evangelical Christian groups. I think it's only good for 24 hours, anyways, so their children will thank us for it.

And by the way, if you read my posts, you'd see that I'm very opposed to corruption schemes and that philosophy has developed precisely because I live in Florida. I'm sick and tired of people of wealthy means in Florida talking down people with less financial status, when I know how some of those wealthy people got where they are, and it's something that would not be tolerated in most states.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

7. Great! Glad I could help.

I usually don't pay attention to the screen names of posters as I think it keeps me more impartial if you know what I mean.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. I absolutely do.

I've only "put on ignore" one poster on DU in all the years I've been here. I do recognize a few posters, but I rarely look to see who I'm responding to. DU is an exercise in free association, most of the time. :-)

[Freedom_from_Chains]

9. Yeah, the whole point of the exercie, and hence the time justification

is does the argument make sense, not who posted it.

:toast: