The 700 Club
So a few weeks ago I was flipping channels, and I came upon the 700 Club. Actually I didn't know it was the 700 Club, because it was a re-enactment of something, with the parts clearly acted by the real people rather than paid actors, so I actually thought it was America's Most Wanted or something like that. I quickly realized it wasn't, but I watched on, because it fascinated me. This woman apparently had a husband who had so much leg pain that he was basically bedridden. She heard the Holy Spirit tell her to watch the 700 Club and she did, thinking that if they prayed for the healing of her husband that night (and it had to be that night because the Holy Spirit told her to watch the TV). She said, that if she heard them praying for his affliction, she would "claim it." Then it was the part of the show where Part Robertson and that perky woman (Kelly Ripa in about 30 years) close their eyes rather tightly and begin praying for the sick. They say there a someone out there with icky stuff oozing out of their ears, and the Lord is drying it up right now, and then the other one says there is someone out there who has an itch that won't go away and right now the Lord is your balm, and they cut to the woman re-enating her watching this show and she has her hand raised up toward the tv and she is muttering some sort of rapid-fire prayer, and then Pat or the Perky One says something about someone with bad legs who can't walk, tomorrow you will get up and walk again. Cut back to the wife, praying at her TV, and she jumps up and starts screaming "I claim that! I claim that!" The next morning, of course, she tells her husband to get out of bed, and he trusts her, and suddenly he is able to stand and walk and is amazingly limber for someone who couldn't get out of bed the night before (really, you would have to see the re-enactment to appreciate fully their story).
So I have a few questions, that maybe Corbin can answer because she has worked on a few "Evangelical" shows (that seem to cause her to send me the most caustic emails in the middle of the night hmmmmmm), or Ono since he spent time as a Pentecostal, or RheaAnn since she is my usual translator of such things. Yeah, RheaDogg is going to write me an Evangelical to English dictionary.
Are the prayers on the 700 Club directed at a specific person, or are they up for grabs? So that one can "claim" a healing?
What if that person isn't watching at that moment? Do they have to witness the healing prayer? What if they are healed and don't know to thank the 700 Club?
Is "claim" a usual term applied to prayer or healing or blessings?
Which is now watched more, by the way, 700 Club or Joel Osteen. I seem to think of these programs as very different--am I wrong?
And if you guys can get me through this one, I'll ask you about the people who faithfully tithed to the 700 Club for years and when they fell on hard times, a check for $5000 miraculously appeared in their mail.
So I have a few questions, that maybe Corbin can answer because she has worked on a few "Evangelical" shows (that seem to cause her to send me the most caustic emails in the middle of the night hmmmmmm), or Ono since he spent time as a Pentecostal, or RheaAnn since she is my usual translator of such things. Yeah, RheaDogg is going to write me an Evangelical to English dictionary.
Are the prayers on the 700 Club directed at a specific person, or are they up for grabs? So that one can "claim" a healing?
What if that person isn't watching at that moment? Do they have to witness the healing prayer? What if they are healed and don't know to thank the 700 Club?
Is "claim" a usual term applied to prayer or healing or blessings?
Which is now watched more, by the way, 700 Club or Joel Osteen. I seem to think of these programs as very different--am I wrong?
And if you guys can get me through this one, I'll ask you about the people who faithfully tithed to the 700 Club for years and when they fell on hard times, a check for $5000 miraculously appeared in their mail.
Comments
The claiming thing is fairly common. The idea is this. Think of a bank of blessing deposited in your name. The blessings, i.e., health, prosperity, peace, etc are yours and all you have to do is "claim" them. For instance in 1 Peter 2, when Peter quotes Isaiah, who says "by his stripes we are healed," Peter says, "by his stripes, you WERE healed." So the idea is that our health, prosperity and blessings have already been secured for in the past and all we need do is claim them.
I actually do not know who has a greater audience, Joel Osteen or the 700 club. I suspect Osteen. If not, he soon will.
The tithing thing goes like this. Tithing really is giving back to God what is rightfully his. Offering are giving to God out of your stuff. Tithes are the first 10% and then offerings are what you give in addition to the tithe. Malachi 3 has this great passage about the blessings that come your way when you tithe. I do believe in the $5,000 mysterious checks and the like, because I have seen plenty of that type of thing happen.
Oh, one last thing and I'll shut up. While 700 Club is clearly Republican, Osteen is very careful to steer away from politics and never hint at anything divisive.
I do believe in the mysterious/anonymous help that comes to people, too. I haven't seen any $5000 checks, but for a time I have seen some folks I am close to receive $50 in the mail every so often at a time when neither of them were working. No return address, no explanation (and no chain letter!). There definitely was some reaping of something sown, I just can't believe in the "supernatural transferrance of wealth to believers" and I guess I was actually a little shocked that the 700 Club would present it as so cause and effect--they gave us money when things were good, and suddenly when things were bad they got money. I just thought that the 700 Club was a little classier than that (based on little evidence since I don't watch it). It just felt like manipulation to me. Give us money and know good things will happen to you. Give us money because you believe we do good work in Christ's name--that I can understand. But the other way---it just took me by suprise the blatantness of it.
rheadogg
BTW, Dateline did an expose on Benny Hinn. This guy on the way to and fro from crusades makes these "layovers" that amount to mini vacations in Aruba, Rome, London, etc, you name it. It is tough work counting all that money.