Most Evangelicals, and most Protestant fundamentalists reject such ministries as bringing confusion, ridicule, and disgrace to the simple message of the Gospel.
Not sure what you mean by “most” but I’ll take it at face value and understand you to mean a “majority.” And I will disagree with that. When I was a fundamentalist, I would often go to events that were sponsored by a local fundamentalist church, or a grouping of churches, who would bring in some TBN personality, or some music group that appeared frequently on TBN (such as Carman). These events were always PACKED with people from fundamentalist/evangelical churces far and wide. Advertising would go on for weeks prior. At the events themselves, acknowledgement of the local churches that sponsored and promoted the events was done onstage by the personalities, often with pastors appearing onstage. What I gather from the literally thousands of participants from literally dozens of local churches, is that TBN is well-supported among the fundamentalists and evangelicals.
There are plenty of examples of good, sound teachers among Protestants if one gets off the Trinity Broadcasts networks and looks elsewhere.
I absolutely agree. However, it remains that TBN is well supported among fundamentalists and evangelicals (I tend to not see all evangelicals as fundamentalists). As well, this fundamentalist support for TV ministers dates back to the earliest days of Oral Roberts’ healing crusades on TV, through the days of the PTL Club, the 700 Club, and others. The growth of the prosperity preachers is undoubtedly linked to their connection with TV broadcasting, and its ability to reach people in their homes with glitzy, entertainment-oriented programming and fundamentalist, tent-meeting style preaching.
Roman Catholics tend not to support mass media with the same degree of commitment that Evangelicals do. I get the impression that EWTN, and even CatholicAnswers itself, struggle to make budget on a regular basis, even though the RCC is the largest single Christian denomination in the United States.
If you spend any time watching EWTN you will have noted by now that virtually no raising of funds is done there. Every so often, someone will very briefly mention that there is a need for fiancial support, but it is rare, and brief. Very different from the TBN style where they link their financial support from viewers to the tithe, and hold days-long fundraisers on-air. It may very well be that EWTN struggles financially, and it is also true that Catholic ministries generally are not floating in oceans of cash. Several reasons for this, but the overall reason is that God provides. He doesn’t necessarily provide lavishly, as the properity Protestants claim, but he always does provide for His work, in just the correct amount. Personally, I don’t think it is healthy for pastors to have lots of money sitting around. Money tends to cause various forms of corruption, as we all know, and have witnessed among the Protestant TV evangelizers, and even in some Catholic parishes where priests have been caught with their hands in the jar. The entire attitude of Catholicism to the raising of money is quite different from that of most Protestants, and especially different from that of fundamentalists, most of whom are now infected with the prosperity gospel. This attitude towards money is also reflected in the Catholic attitude to evangelization. Catholics generally do not evangelize. Protestant fundamentalists, OTOH, are almost completely given over to “speading the word” because, if these mega churches are not growing, they are dying; there is no middle ground according to their view. One of my very good friends was in a Christian and Missionary Alliance Seminary in New York, and he told me of an entire area of study titled “Church Growth” which I found interesting, and somewhat discomfiting. Turned out that one of his seminary projects was to actually found a church, which he aimed to do out of our Bible study. This was one of the early Protestant things that moved me towards Catholicism.
In any case, NOT to rub salt in sore wounds, the RCC has had it’s share of scandals in other venues.
And this will always be so. The Church isn’t perfect, but it
is protected from doctrinal error by God Himself, a fact which can be seen by the integrity of the gospel which has survived all manner of attack for two thousand years and going. Unlike the Protestants, who are busy bickering amongst themselves, with a wide variety of gospels, many variations on important teachings about salvation, sin, redemption, heaven and hell, etc, the Catholic Church is doctrinally seamless and historically continuous. Moreover, it is the Protestants who gave birth to all the nasty little cults, mostly American, that blot the countryside with their various unholy teachings, leading people away from Christ, rather than toward.
