Phil, as I'm sure you know, the give me theology is called prosperity 
theology. My wife knows a guy who used to give to Kenneth Copeland's 
ministry.  When he fell on hard times, he wrote and asked that 
ministry for $50.  The ministry wrote back, saying in effect, just 
have faith and you will be fine.

earlier, Phil Scovell, wrote:

>Although Sandy and I have almost been married for 37 years, well,
>as of January the eighth of next month that is, I have just about
>had it up to here with e harmony dot com advertisements.  The
>other day, while watching something on a satellite channel,
>another one of their commercials came on.  As I listened, I asked
>myself, why don't they run a bunch of commercials of people who
>got married, then divorced, or people who got together through
>their online services, and then split up.  Don't they know, or
>don't we know, that it is often the case that opposites match and
>not those who are 29 dimensions of compatibility?  I mean, how
>many years have these e harmony commercials been running?  Three
>maybe?  Four?  By the way, I have done a little research and
>talked with singles who have logged on to e harmony looking for
>someone compatible.  One guy I pray with found a lady locally,
>they dated a few times, and broke up.  Another lady I pray with
>from Indiana said some of the questions she had to fill out would
>have classified her as a nut so she gave up and never did answer
>all the question.  Another lady in Arizona, who was living with a
>man who was deeply into online and print pornography and weirded
>out on dumb video games as a grown man, broke up with him because
>she realized Jesus should be more important to her than what this
>guy was doing for her, and to her, and guess what?  He isn't even
>a Christian, well, he says he got born again in high school, and a
>chicken has lips, too, and he joined e harmony and is now dating a
>gal locally.  I wonder if e harmony has a question that asked,
>"Are you addicted to pornography and video games?"  Somehow, I
>doubt it and besides, if a man was so addicted, do you honestly
>think he'd admit to it when filling out the 29 dimensions of
>compatibility report?  I wouldn't, that's for sure, and I'm not
>even addicted, to porno that is.  Anyhow, I just wonder about such
>things like this when watching some of these mega ministry shows,
>and I used the correct word, shows, on TV who read all these
>glowing reports of people who sent in their last 50 dollars and
>got 5,000 dollars in return within 24 hours.  I think, "Why don't
>they read the letters of people who went bust after sending in
>their last 50 dollars or who have written back and said, I want my
>money back because you didn't make it work?"  I know, I think
>backwards about such things but maybe we should think about the
>other aspects of such things, especially since e harmony is
>supposed to be run by a Christian guy in the first place.
>Wouldn't you think churches should be putting people together
>instead of a freaking website making millions of dollars in the
>first place or what?  I was listening to a Christian network TV
>show, there's that word again, the other day and the man and
>woman, I didn't recognize who they were, were talking about how to
>be blessed financially.  Their suggestion, no, their divine
>revelation, if you please, was based upon 200 freaking dollars.  I
>didn't even have 20 at the time so I was a sub standard Christian
>apparently.  However, they were reading dumb letters and telling
>even dumber testimonies about people who sent in their last 200
>dollars and how they were getting thousands of dollars in return
>within a day or week.  They were, of course, recommending you do
>the same and not to your own church but to their ministry.  No big
>surprise there.  I wanted to call their hot line for Jesus up and
>say, "Hey, why don't you send me, and all your 5 million
>listeners, 200 dollars a piece and let God bless you instead?
>What is this, give me, give me, give me, theology you keep
>preaching.  Ain't you ever heard of giving?"  I figured they'd
>just hang up on me without sending me 200 dollars in the first
>place so I skipped calling them.  I think I told the story of my
>mom calling me years ago, she is passed away now, and she and my
>step dad, were attending the largest church in Denver.  This
>church, by the way, was one of the churches where, in their branch
>ministry, a couple of people were shot and killed in recent weeks.
>Anyhow, mom was really confused and had worry in her voice when
>she called.  She told me that this church, the previous Sunday
>morning, passed out sealed envelopes, following a very passionate
>sermon that was preached.  People were asked not to open their
>envelopes until they were instructed to do so.  The sermon, of
>course, was about financial blessings we can receive from God if
>we are generous.  It was probably, you go first, type of preaching
>but that is just a cynical suggestion on my part.  Anyhow, the
>members, of which there were about 5,000 in attendance that
>morning, when told to open their envelopes, each were given a 20
>dollar bill.  They were told that the church just wanted to bless
>them financially and that they could return the money in the
>offering next Sunday, if they liked, take their family out to
>eat, by some ice cream, or do whatever they desired with the
>money.  If they think you can take your family out to eat for just
>20 bucks, they have rocks in their head but I digress.  I asked my
>mom what she and my step dad were going to do with the money?  She
>said, "Well, we are going to give it back.  What else?"  Guess
>what the offering was next Sunday?  Mom told me that, based upon
>the number of adults, and remember, out of 5,000 people in the
>auditorium, there were lots of children, too, the total amount
>the adults were given 20,000 dollars.  Yes, indeedie.  They done
>announced this dollar amount from the pulpit.  No, I have no idea
>why they made such an announcement.  I thought the Bible said not
>to let the right hand no what the left hand is doing when it came
>to money but maybe I have never understood that theology in the
>first place.  So, the next Sunday, the offering is taken and
>quickly counted.  The total was 30,000 dollars.  Ain't that nice?
>Mom said they put extra money in that next Sunday, too, besides
>the 20 bucks they each got.  Why?  Well, shoot.  Everyone wants
>God to bless them financially.  right?  Anyhow, this is my way of
>starting out the new year.  I want everybody to send me 200
>dollars.  If you don't have that, I'll take 20 dollars.  If you
>don't have that, I'll take 2 dollars.  If you don't have 2
>dollars, I'll take a dollar.  If you don't have even that much,
>forget it.  God won't bless you if you are that cheap.
>
>Phil.
>
>
>The Curse That Works Is The One We Believe
>WWW.SafePlaceFellowship.com
>
>
>
>
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John


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