Religious Hucksters

Religious evangelists pose a peculiar problem for radio and television stations. Many are enormously popular, and some bring religion to the bedridden, the busy, or the lazy. The problem arises because of a built-in difficulty: the TV evangelist cannot pass the plate. If he needs money, he must ask for it. But solicitation over the air is a privilege which can easily be abused. Most stations disapprove of it and some ban it.

Where solicitation is prohibited, some evangelists get around the ban by making a pitch for money indirectly ("We invite your prayerful support. Won't you write us and tell us you are listening?") Where it is not, solicitation may be direct ("You are invited to send your free-will gifts and offerings for the support of this worldwide faith ministry to . . ."). Others use the hard-sell technique ("Mail those contributions now, because we have to pay up our back bill to wonderful KGER. I wish more of you would pledge a dime a day so we won't have to talk money. Keep those tithes coming in"). Whatever the method, the collections are often sensationally profitable. One established evangelist averages $35,000 weekly.

The more frenetic, who seem to be largely concentrated in California, offer radio listeners and TViewers a number of many-splendored things in return. Faith Healer Leroy Kopp offers "instantaneous and gradual healing" over Los Angeles' KGER. Brother Aubrey Lee asks ailing listeners to place their hands on their radio sets while he intones: "We rebuke that vile disease. Satan, take your vile disease from that body. God bless everyone in the household, including old grandma or granddad with that old rheumatism." Inducements offered by others: a plastic cross that glows in the dark ("the glow of God's presence") and, for a certain sum, of course, "a genuine autographed picture of Jesus Christ."

Last week Dr. Clifton E. Moore, director of television for the Los Angeles Presbytery, took to the air himself to warn against the danger of the profiteering electronic evangelist. Said he: "The television industry and the respected denominations in your community have this in common--they both have an enemy. This enemy is the fringe or marginal preacher. He makes use of the air lanes for his own monetary gains. The religious exploiter [requests] that you write in for a pamphlet or booklet, with the idea that he has your mailing address for . . . solicitations . . . for money. These religious hucksters do untold damage to the church cause. Some of them make thousands, yes, even hundreds of thousands of dollars' profit with no way of knowing where the money goes . . ."

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