Rantings of a Black Polemicist

Flock-fleecing pays well

Friday, May 28th, 2004 | Free Thought | 50 Comments

Christianity insists that people believe assertions that can’t be proven. By definition, the supernatural lies outside the natural realm - the sphere of man’s understanding. According to scripture, faith in the unseen and unknown is so important that nothing but damnation awaits even those that lived a virtuous life or were never fortunate enough to learn about the nature of God. No one is born with this knowledge, it is taught. Faith itself is virtue, and questioning dogma is taboo.

Dr. Creflo Dollar of World Changers Church International assures his flock that their financial blessing is on its way - as soon as they write out a check to his church

Some preachers exploit the blind faith of their followers to levels that boggle the mind. I was watching BET this morning and Creflo Dollar (that’s really his name) was preaching to his flock about how to unlock their financial blessings. This is the 4th time I’ve caught his show, and the technique he uses doesn’t change much:

#1: God Wants You to Be Rich:

He talks about how followers of God are entitled to financial prosperity, and that it is imminent for each one of them.

#2: Giving is the Key to Receiving:

He then quotes a string of vague scriptures out of context, assigning his own meaning to them.

I listened to him open his sermon by promising that he would show where God had revealed how to tell exactly when a financial “blessing” would come. Instead, he started rattling off a series of unrelated scriptures about rain. He then linked rain to financial giving with a neat little metaphor - comparing evaporation and condensation in the sky to giving money to God (through him, that is) and rain to “blessings” being showered on those who gave. He went on to talk about the rewards of not only giving consistently, but without any regard to one’s financial situation. He took it even further talking about “sacrificial giving”, which I could only take that to mean giving money one can’t really afford to give.

He went on to promise specifically that God would give multi-million dollar business ideas to people who faithfully gave. Then he instructed his flock to give not what they wanted to give, but what they heard God telling them to.

What’s most reprehensible (or brilliant) here is that faith is the driving force behind all of this. Not being blessed? It’s because you don’t have enough faith. How dare you question what God has planned for your life?

Dr. Dollar quite effectively removes his followers’ will to question his “teachings”, and has created quite a fortune by doing so. His church has over 20,000 members. He drives a black Rolls-Royce, flies to speaking engagements in his own $5 million Learjet and lives on a $1 million gated Atlanta estate. God is certainly blessing him more than some of his congregation, who catch public transportation to hear him speak. Dr. Dollar is an extreme example of the problem with blind faith.

This much is clear: any dogma demanding blind acceptance else suffer personal hardship or eternal damnation does so out of need. Only by removing reason and substituting faith can that doctrine be free to survive.

What has BET become?

Thursday, May 27th, 2004 | Culture | 26 Comments

For quite some time now, BET has been under fire for its lack of quality content. On Tuesday, cable talk show host Bill O’Reilly confronted BET’s vice president of communications, asking why kids are being exposed to Nelly’s “Tip Drill” and other softcore porn taking the form of music videos during daytime hours.

From "The O’Reilly Factor" 5/24/2005 Download Video Clip (Windows Media) 14.5 MB, 7min, 39sec

I think that the bigger problem is that BET is showing what its audience wants to see. If there was a demand for high-quality public affairs programming or black history documentaries, BET would show them. The fact that music videos, comedy and some religious programming seem to dominate the schedule says more about the audience than it does the execs making the schedule.

Did Bob Johnson sell out the very black people his sub-standard network was supposed to serve, becoming a billionaire in the process? No, I think he gave up trying to force-feed his audience something they apparently didn’t want: content with any real educational value.

Bill Cosby was right

Tuesday, May 25th, 2004 | Race | 23 Comments

During a speech at Constitution Hall on the anniversary of the Brown v. Board of education ruling, Bill Cosby spoke out against behavior in the black community that is continuing to hold us back. He railed on parents who buy their kids expensive sneakers but don’t invest in educational tools, and talked about the importance of developing good communication skills.

Thomas Sowell’s recent article addresses the differences between Cosby and black “leadership” like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton:

Bill Cosby and the black “leadership” represent two long-standing differences about how to deal with the problems of the black community. The “leaders” are concerned with protecting the image of blacks, while Cosby is trying to protect the future of blacks, especially those of the younger generation.

Although he made some sweeping generalizations, I think Bill is right. It’s time that someone with influence in the black community has spoken out against blacks who aren’t accepting any responsibilty for making changes to their lives, content to blame anyone or anything else for the state their lives are in.