The prophets of profit

God cures," said Benjamin Franklin, "and the doctor takes the fee."

Considering the recent religious telecasters' financial shenanigans, a more apropos rendering of Franklin's quip would be "God saves--and the preacher takes the fee."

Notice, I used the word religious, not Christian telecasters. How wonderful it would be if the public knew the difference!

Apparently, they don't--and the scandalous stories claiming front-page coverage in magazines and newspapers have adversely affected public support for legitimate television and radio minis tries, including our own. The Seventh-day Adventist Radio, Television, and Film Center in Thousand Oaks, California, has reported a decline in offerings for all programs since the media coverage exploded on the greed, scandal, and cover-up of certain televangelists. The Voice of Prophecy, It Is Written, Faith for Today, and Breath of Life have all been hurt.

Anyone acquainted with the SDA system of remuneration for its clergy and employees knows that we run a tight ship. No Adventist minister or church in the world stands independent. Few Adventist ministers can afford airconditioned doghouses, no matter how big their offerings are. In the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists the same wage scale is in effect for all ministers. Salaries are based on experience, not on the size of their churches or Sabbath offerings. Travel budgets are determined by the size of the district a pastor has or, as in my case, by the demand of the world field for my services.

My yearly salary, after 44 years of service, has reached its zenith at less than $30,000 per year. The salary of experienced ordained ministers in the church varies by less than $3,000 per year whether the minister pastors one small church or is president of the General Conference. Our radio speakers and televangelists are paid on the same scale. When authorized to travel the per diem allowance is $16 per day. Because I am a vegetarian and order no steaks or shrimp cocktails, this amount is sufficient. For authorized entertainment, I am allowed to live it up on $125 per year! (Ministry, May 1986, gives a more comprehensive salary breakdown on page 21.)

Obviously, I am not preaching the gospel for the money. I wish that statement could be said for some of these televangelists. The August 3, 1987, Time magazine reported the salaries, benefits, holdings, and lifestyles of seven major television preachers in the United States. Compare them to what I make, and the only appropriate analogy is the rich man and Lazarus.

"The love of money," Paul said, "is the root of all evil" (1 Tim. 6:10). The centuries have revealed the accuracy of Paul's statement. Greed and selfishness started in Eden, and people have been eating the forbidden fruit ever since. The disease of greed makes men sell their souls for a dish of Jacob's lentil soup.

Those who preach the gospel for money are the brothers of Judas. The words of John Ruskin need to be remembered: "We do great injustice to Iscariot, in thinking him wicked above all common wickedness. He was only a common money-lover and, like all money-lovers, did not understand Christ."

In effect, this "unholy war," built on the foundation of avarice and lust, turns sincere, thinking people against Christ and the true gospel. Henry Fairlie, in his incriminating article under the title of "Evangelists in Babylon," is correct in his analysis that the nasty adulterous sex scandal involved is of small consequence compared to the selfish and questionable method of raising money and the personal use made of these funds. He states, "The far greater sin is one of which all the big electronic preachers are guilty: the greed or avarice on which their satraps within the empire of televangelism have been built. That the gospel and example of Christ are used to exploit the poor and the meek ... to create large fortunes; to build mighty pleasure domes greater than in Xanadu; to surround preachers with security guards so that their ill deeds shall not be investigated; to try to intimidate all opposition;... to build a prayer tower when it was enough for Christ to sink to His knees in Gethsemane; to do nothing in the name of Christ unless they are highly paid for it; to offer a version of Christianity, both in preaching and by example, in which there is not a jot or tittle that recalls the lives, say, of Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Teresa of Avila, and in our own time, of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, is a sinning almost beyond the imagination." *

Judgment belongs to God, but we have been told that "by their fruits ye shall know them," and it doesn't take much talent as a fruit inspector to see that a few rotten apples have fallen into the barrel. Yet we shouldn't let them spoil the whole bunch.

--J. R. Spangler