Christians are a gullible lot.

[returntosender]

Secular have found it lucrative.
Christian tv now has ads. So we think this site represents God, honesty, integrity, etc. We can trust what they sell here. Anything is being sold on the stations now. When you think about it it is ludicrous. Don't be fooled by wolves in sheep's clothing.
Personally i think we all are being scammed by the latest and greatest scams. COLLAGEN -& OMEGA XL. We're so easily convinced by actors and supposed godly enterprises.

 

[timothyu]

Such is the way of man, especially when church itself has become a free enterprise method of self employment.

 

[o0oshadow]

Secular have found it lucrative.
Christian tv now has ads. So we think this site represents God, honesty, integrity, etc. We can trust what they sell here. Anything is being sold on the stations now. When you think about it it is ludicrous. Don't be fooled by wolves in sheep's clothing.
Personally i think we all are being scammed by the latest and greatest scams. COLLAGEN -& OMEGA XL. We're so easily convinced by actors and supposed godly enterprises.

well let's be completely honest here though for just a second.
Not ALL Christians fit into that category. I believe MAN as a whole is mostly gullible and many are misusing the spreading of the gospel for self-gain. the Bible has warned us against these Fulse preachers. the saddest part is many of the preachers are aligning with God's word in preaching, however selling out to their sponsors. there is a certain ethical process that each pastor might want to consider before accepting just anybody's donations. not all money is good money the old saying goes, especially if it compromises your integrity.
prosperity preaching, I believe to be the best example of this. and let's face it many TV pastors write books and refer to one another to create a never-ending chain of literature to sort through, some of which often contradicts the other.
I believe the REAL underlying issue here to be..... THE LOVE OF MONEY, and these people were speaking of are guilty of the sin of succumbing to the temptation of financial security. YES, the devil's temptation even works on pastors. May God have mercy on our souls for we ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. AMEN.

 

[Strong in Him]

Secular have found it lucrative.
Christian tv now has ads. So we think this site represents God, honesty, integrity, etc. We can trust what they sell here. Anything is being sold on the stations now. When you think about it it is ludicrous. Don't be fooled by wolves in sheep's clothing.
Personally i think we all are being scammed by the latest and greatest scams. COLLAGEN -& OMEGA XL. We're so easily convinced by actors and supposed godly enterprises.

I don't see how having ads on Christian tv shows that Christians are gullible.
Advertisers/retailers want to reach as many as possible and look for shows with the highest ratings. So if a Christian tv show pulls in 5 million viewers, potentially 5 million people will see their product, or brand, being advertised. It doesn't mean that 5 million Christians are going to rush out and buy a product just because the ad is on a Christian tv station. Nor does it mean that Christians are endorsing the product.
If a show had an audience of 500 I doubt anyone would advertise on it, because the cost of making the advert would far exceed any potential benefits.

 

[o0oshadow]

great point, and I understand your view however the problem is not with advertisement, but rather with the TYPE of advertisement or specific products allowed to be presented to the audience that you're presenting the word of God to. we must be careful not to cause one another to stumble on something that may not be profitable for them. so, if a product may be a stumbling block by not being the best option for an individual, the marketing department of that particular Christian broadcast has a moral obligation to put Christ first and money second. witch may require saying no to some would be advertisers.
I hope this helped shed some light on why this may be a controversial practice among new aged mega churches specially. the bigger the audience the bigger the charge for advertisement, but also potentially the larger the crowd that may be misled or deceived.

 

[Kale100]

great point, and I understand your view however the problem is not with advertisement, but rather with the TYPE of advertisement or specific products allowed to be presented to the audience that you're presenting the word of God to. we must be careful not to cause one another to stumble on something that may not be profitable for them. so, if a product may be a stumbling block by not being the best option for an individual, the marketing department of that particular Christian broadcast has a moral obligation to put Christ first and money second. witch may require saying no to some would be advertisers.
I hope this helped shed some light on why this may be a controversial practice among new aged mega churches specially. the bigger the audience the bigger the charge for advertisement, but also potentially the larger the crowd that may be misled or deceived.

Nicely put. To build on / restate some of what you said, in a lot of cases I think Christians believe the bolded part has been put into action by default when in reality it is quite unlikely, not due to negligence, but just by the way in which the advertisement industry operates nowadays. Just take this forum for example, quoted from the T&C
"Christian Forums has limited control over the advertising on the forum. We can filter ads after we see them, which is done on a regular basis by Rex. However, there are many ad networks that advertise here. If you see an ad that slipped through and is objectionable"

I personally consider the only valid form of advertisement to be word-of-mouth from someone who you believe is acting in good faith with the recommendation.

 

[Strong in Him]

great point, and I understand your view however the problem is not with advertisement, but rather with the TYPE of advertisement or specific products allowed to be presented to the audience that you're presenting the word of God to. we must be careful not to cause one another to stumble on something that may not be profitable for them. so, if a product may be a stumbling block by not being the best option for an individual, the marketing department of that particular Christian broadcast has a moral obligation to put Christ first and money second. witch may require saying no to some would be advertisers.

Yes, ideally.
The question is, does the church/Christian broadcasters have so much money that they can afford to turn away advertisers? How far do they rely on the revenue from advertising to pay for their programmes?
If they own the channel outright and have enough money to screen advertisers, or are trusting God to provide their income for the channel - fair enough. But if they were desperate for money and an advertiser offered to pay a large sum, they might decide that the programme was more important than a load of adverts, which few people watch anyway.

On a much smaller scale, church magazines sometimes carry adverts, which pay for the cost of the magazine and allow it to be free to members/whoever wants it. The church can decide who to approach for advertising, they have the right to say 'no' to anything they disagree with - e.g. gambling - or they can pay for the whole magazine themselves and not have/allow any advertising at all.
Some churches do the latter; their outreach to the community is producing a free of charge magazine. Others may take the view that they will allow advertising for related services - e.g. undertakers, the police or certain shops/supermarkets - to allow them to either produce a free magazine, or to raise a bit of money for the church, which they might then use for outreach.
I imagine it would depend on the church's finances/motives/principles.

 

[returntosender]

Christians are more apt to fall for any pitch if it's backed by a Christian corp . Was my point

 

[returntosender]

Yes, ideally.
The question is, does the church/Christian broadcasters have so much money that they can afford to turn away advertisers? How far do they rely on the revenue from advertising to pay for their programmes?
If they own the channel outright and have enough money to screen advertisers, or are trusting God to provide their income for the channel - fair enough. But if they were desperate for money and an advertiser offered to pay a large sum, they might decide that the programme was more important than a load of adverts, which few people watch anyway.

On a much smaller scale, church magazines sometimes carry adverts, which pay for the cost of the magazine and allow it to be free to members/whoever wants it. The church can decide who to approach for advertising, they have the right to say 'no' to anything they disagree with - e.g. gambling - or they can pay for the whole magazine themselves and not have/allow any advertising at all.
Some churches do the latter; their outreach to the community is producing a free of charge magazine. Others may take the view that they will allow advertising for related services - e.g. undertakers, the police or certain shops/supermarkets - to allow them to either produce a free magazine, or to raise a bit of money for the church, which they might then use for outreach.
I imagine it would depend on the church's finances/motives/principles.

They could check them out before they let them advertise, no?

 

[returntosender]

If the christian entity chooses to take money from any crook they should at least post a disclaimer, instead they're right in there endorsing them. I could accept it if i saw or heard a disclaimer. That's the least they could do in honest advertising. Even secular has disclaimers on their ads

 

[returntosender]

It's not the preacher's that let the ads in it's the site as in TBN that provides the ads and endorsements.

 

[returntosender]

Anyway, I've been thinking on this a long time so i wrote TBN. I DID USE A QUOTE FROM 1 OF YOU'S. as i agree and knew about it but didn't know the exact verse. Thanks shadow

 

[Strong in Him]

They could check them out before they let them advertise, no?

Yes, of course they could, and should.
But if they still decide to allow the advert, that's down to them.

 

[returntosender]

Yes, of course they could, and should.
But if they still decide to allow the advert, that's down to them.

Of course?

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Secular have found it lucrative.
Christian tv now has ads. So we think this site represents God, honesty, integrity, etc. We can trust what they sell here. Anything is being sold on the stations now. When you think about it it is ludicrous. Don't be fooled by wolves in sheep's clothing.
Personally i think we all are being scammed by the latest and greatest scams. COLLAGEN -& OMEGA XL. We're so easily convinced by actors and supposed godly enterprises.

When professing Christians depart from the sound doctrine contained in the written Scriptures and start depending on random voices, impressions, and teaching that is not based on the Bible, then they start believing fables and accept anything religious that is dished up to them. Charismatics believe that everything supernatural has to come from God, and because the occult can also be supernatural, they tend to be deceived into thinking that something is of the Holy Spirit when it ain't, but some other spirit.

For example, the word faith movement was birthed by E W Kenyon, who mixed Christianity with Christian Science. So his theology was corrupted by the New Age positive confession thinking. Kenneth Hagin was a committed disciple of Kenyon, and Hagin's disciples in the word faith prosperity positive confession movement have also received Christian science teaching in the guise of Christianity. This is a sad example of gullibility on the multitudes of people drawn to these false teachers who are feeding them with New Age Christian Science principles instead of sound Biblical doctrine.

 

[Hazelelponi]

Secular have found it lucrative.
Christian tv now has ads. So we think this site represents God, honesty, integrity, etc. We can trust what they sell here. Anything is being sold on the stations now. When you think about it it is ludicrous. Don't be fooled by wolves in sheep's clothing.
Personally i think we all are being scammed by the latest and greatest scams. COLLAGEN -& OMEGA XL. We're so easily convinced by actors and supposed godly enterprises.

Advertising pays for content - period. Whether it's the news or your favorite Christian show, advertising dollars helps pay for it. Yes, that's on top of what you may already be spending because like it or not television is entertainment and it's fairly costly to create.

Christians, or anyone else for that matter, are surrounded with things... Many things are quite unnecessary, others are just convenient, some are necessary.

Just because companies advertise their products to Christians doesn't say anything here nor there about Christians themselves, companies have a certain amount of advertising dollars they will spend to advertise and so they do...

As Christians it's to us to be good stewards of the money we make. We are surrounded by things it's better to say no to, absolutely surrounded.

But in Christ all things are possible, including being good stewards of our income...

 

[Hazelelponi]

They could check them out before they let them advertise, no?

Not always. On my old website - the only real advertising I've personally dealt with, we allowed Google to place ads - and made a small income stream from that which helped to run the site.

Those ads are a package deal, and we had no control over what kind of ads were shown. Those which were offensive we requested not to be shown but that was all we could do.

I'm not sure how television runs their ads but if they are running ads in a block like websites do there's little control over it.

On my current website we just pay for everything and don't have any advertising at all... But other people (members) have to chip in financially especially if we have to do upgrades to the site.

Not everyone can do that - run without any income stream from ads - most especially not television which is costly to produce.

 

[returntosender]

Christian stations need to be careful what they stand behind because they represent God.

 

[timothyu]

Christian stations need to be careful what they stand behind because they represent God.

They usually play it safe and stand behind themselves.

 

[com7fy8]

"Test all things; hold fast what is good." (1 Timothy 5:21)

We can make sure with God about "all" things. Jesus's sheep hear His voice > John 10:1-30. He is not distant, leaving us on our own to figure out anything, but wants to share with us in every thing. So, there is no excuse to get tricked.

I am my own main problem, then.

This could be why Jesus says each person needs to deny one's own self >

"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." (in Luke 9:23)

But TV people will answer to God. God is able to provide too much for His approved ministries. May be you know how the people with Moses brought too much for the making of the tabernacle and its items.

And Jesus does say, "Freely you have received, freely give." (in Matthew 10:8) So, in case Jesus means not to sell His word and ministry, a wrong spirit has people disobeying this, and therefore if people sell their ministry, it can be defective due to the wrong spirit involved in ministry being sold. And, of course God won't provide enough so they can feel they have to advertise and beg and sell trinkets.

If you made money a condition for you to give your brothers and sisters what your father had to say or pray or write or sing to you . . .

If your father found out . . .

They could spend time with their father, so his things would not be second-hand and altered, and would be not only free but not distant from Him.