Televangelism
Televangelists are either official or self-proclaimed ministers who devote a large portion of their ministry to television broadcasting.
Some televangelists are also regular pastors or ministers in their own places of worship (often a megachurch), but the majority of their followers come from TV and radio audiences.
Some countries have a more regulated media with either general restrictions on access or specific rules regarding religious broadcasting.
In such countries, religious programming is typically produced by TV companies (sometimes as a regulatory or public service requirement) rather than private interest groups.
[1] Jeffrey K. Hadden and Charles E. Swann have been credited with popularising the word in their 1981 survey Prime Time Preachers: The Rising Power of Televangelism.
Historically, this was achieved by sending missionaries, beginning with the Dispersion of the Apostles, and later, after the invention of the printing press, included the distribution of Bibles and religious tracts.
[8] Aimee Semple McPherson was another pioneering tent-revivalist who soon turned to radio to reach a larger audience.
Many well-known televangelists began during this period, most notably Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Jerry Falwell, Jesse Duplantis and Pat Robertson.
For example, preacher John MacArthur published a number of articles in December 2009 that were highly critical of some televangelists.
Someone needs to say this plainly: The faith healers and health-and-wealth preachers who dominate religious television are shameless frauds.
They claim to possess great spiritual power, but in reality they are rank materialists and enemies of everything holy.Similarly, Ole Anthony wrote very critically of televangelists in 1994.
[23] A proportion of their methods and theology are held by some to be conflicting with Christian doctrine taught in long existing traditionalist congregations.
[27] The probe investigated reports of lavish lifestyles by televangelists including fleets of Rolls-Royces, palatial mansions, private jets, and other expensive items purportedly paid for by television viewers who donate due to the ministries' encouragement of offerings.
Some of these channels, but not all, have come under scrutiny from national television or communications regulators such as Ofcom in the UK and the CRTC in Canada, with Ofcom having censured both Islam Channel and Peace TV in the past for biased coverage of political events,[34] incitement to illegal acts including marital rape,[35] and homophobia.
[36] The Islamic televangelist channel Peace TV is banned in India, Bangladesh, Canada, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom.
