The commercialism I see surrounding many televangelists is off-putting to me.
This past weekend, I added a picture with T.D. Jakes to my collection of photos with well-known, pseudo-Christian teachers, including Garner Ted Armstrong and Joel Osteen.
I visited Jakes and Osteen with a good friend of mine just to say we saw them, to have something to talk about later.
Osteen's church is a feel-good mega-concert hall designed to increase people's faith so they can think and grow rich. And I was turned off by Jakes' people shouting in the lobby to "Get your t-shirts! Sweaters! CDs! . . . " (they were louder than the peanuts-and-beer pushers at the previous night's Dallas Mavericks game). Garner Ted Armstrong sensationalized his view of the end-times and his self-professed role in them (he is now deceased).
After our photo-op with T.D. Jakes, my non-Catholic friend said, "I'd rather go to a Mass." We left before the service started.
I've noted that so many who would emphasize to Catholics the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus are terribly preoccupied with their own preachers and ministry-marketing gimmicks.
I would rather spend some one-on-one quiet time with the Lord in the Eucharist, with the Scriptures in hand.
