I just watched a video of televangelist Kenneth Copeland defending his lavish lifestyle, and why he needs a private jet, and why he couldn't possibly fly commercial. This guy, worth a reported $760,000,000, is so full of crap he stinks on ice! All he cares about is money. I have old socks more pious than he is. Just how stupid does someone have to be to believe this charlatan? I don't know if religion makes people stupid, or if stupid people are drawn to religion. As John Goodman's character said in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou, "there's damn good money in the word of god".
America was established to be a free and open market for both the commerce of goods and of ideas, so long as they aren't deemed 'subversive' of course! In such a market, robber barons, moguls and magnates of the business world stand next to the grand hucksters, fraudsters and con men of the cloth. In a very real sense, the Osteens, Bakkers and Copelands, and so many more, are the 'winners' in this free market system, because they've massively succeeded in selling whatever bullshit their followers are buying. "A fool and his money are soon parted." Thomas Tusser
Emotional snake oil. Maybe there should be some regulatory agency like the SEC for religion. I know that opens a different can of worms. True they are winners but at what cost to our culture.
@jdubose Culture? The melting pot that is America has many. In my opinion, these swindlers and their schlemiels occupy a particularly dangerous subculture in America, one in which credulity is a virtue and intelligence is scorned; people who value superstition over science; a sector of the population who actually appear to enjoy dining on the crap they're fed by their bamboozlers. Unfortunately for the rest of us, these people breed and they vote. And thanks to them, we have a kakistocracy!
If culture is " human intellectual achievement regarded collectively", they are not really a subculture. I think they are an anticulture. They are worse than just noncontributory, they impede those of us who try to improve life. They are not counterculture because they are not just against what is more modern social norms. They are politically holding back advances due to science. They cost the rest of us because of their voting block.
Fraud is not selling....religion is legally protected fraud.... Bakker was IMPRISONED for over booking time shares....26 is routine every year but dozens more leaves couples out in the hot Charlotte sun without keys to any luxury condo next to the pool full of constant baptisms of ghostholes water
Peter Popoff was caught scamming people years ago. He was caught red-handed using an earwig so his wife could give him information of the crowd. This didn't deter him from selling his "miracle water" to the gullible and elderly on TV.
In otherwords, they're going to scam as long as they can get away with it.
@JohnnyQB It amazes me that so many gullible people put blind faith in such con artists.
However, I was brainwashed as a child, and for almost three decades, I was one of those gullible people. I am so happy that I finally grew a brain!
That's what religion is all about. They scare people with mythology, and then demand tithes and donations if they want to avoid the mythological Hell and enjoy the mythological Heaven. It's a scam based on mythology.
Yeah, I knew years ago that I was in the wrong business but just could not bring myself to do it.
I agree! This guy profits off of STUPID people who fall for his begging for money to support his "habit"
Religion is poison and it's pimps are evil, greedy tax-free assholes.
I wasn't familiar with this guy so I looked at one of his videos.
Son of a gun, he couldn't even read his notes. It's Covid-19, not Covd (these is no Covd). I consider this man an insult to reason and a disgrace of humanity. Notice how he has an endearing style with his like- minded followers. Hitler was good at that. He could be in a big auditorium and yet sounded like he was talking to you personally.
What a crock.
Copeland, Graham Jr., Crefloe Dollar, Joel Osteen, Jim Bakker, just to name a few, not to mention that insane woman Trump has in the White House. All money grubbing charlatans taking advantage of the gullible, the frightened, and the desperate.
Face it, you don't need to be a genius to become a millionaire if you can convince the gullible seeking salivation that by sending you ten percent of what they have you'll see they get it. Never mind there's no way you can prove you can do it, they just have to believe you can...
It is so unrealistic to expect a great man like him to practice what he preaches.
A great man?
A great pimp for his mystical Jesus!!!
Addicts love copeland .... he is their drug when their stash runs low ...copeland is verbal vodka to drunks out of booze he belongs in jail forever and they should have kept Jim Bakkker in prison forever
From my experience with religion and religious people, it's both. Stupid people buy into religion and religion stupifies the smart ones. It's about making stupid people fell smart and intelligent people feel guilty about being above the average.
I think that there is a good chance that religion makes people stupid in the sense that it restrains them from learning how to think for themselves. Case in point is my former acquaintance who had to stop a conversation we were having when I voiced the word "evolution." He said he could not discuss it, as it was against his religion. He had not seemed stupid, and maybe it is not fair to claim that this meant he was, but....
I like that he says it’s not going to be so bad. If this turns out better than it could have been then he’s going to claim his prayers worked. We do have the benefit of seeing how other countries handled it and we have done some pretty good things. Shutting down and keeping people at home. Who knows. He’s going to take credit no matter what! If it gets worse then Satan screwed us again.
"I just watched a video of televangelist Kenneth Copeland defending his lavish lifestyle, and why he needs a private jet, and why he couldn't possibly fly commercial."
And my brain asks "Why would you do that to yourself?", to which my mind answers "Ah, he's an EMT, first responder?" One with Extra Masochistic Tendencies?