[“Respect the dead,” they say… As Billy Graham makes his way to be celebrated in our nation’s capital today, I’ve decided to share a few thoughts on “America’s Pastor,” based on personal experiences gained during my own years in the business of this thing called evangelism. ]
Evangelism and human trafficking aren’t as different as you might have been led to believe. A trafficker’s “commodities” and those of his evangelist counterpart are often secured through similar exploitations of fear and false promises, used to lure new victims into the fold. The trafficker depends on force and intimidation to coerce their stock into a van, while the evangelist has come to perfect a hypnotic well-rehearsed sermon to seduce their flock into the pews – each diminished into loyal submission, held captive by newfound limits placed upon their liberties.
A trafficker’s victim is given every reason to fear their captor – the physical restraints and abuse leaving little question of what lies ahead. Yet, the recruit of an evangelist has been born into a culture of respect and reverence for those in positions of self-appointed authority, conditioned to never even put up a fight. The trafficker makes no mystery of their captive’s circumstance as the evangelist smiles while training converts to simultaneously love the very one they are expected to fear. Who could be so cruel?
Yet, it is only the traffickers who operate in the darkest shadows where they belong (if caught, likely rot in jail, eventual recipients of “street justice”) while their evangelist counterparts are celebrated under the light of day – in crowded stadiums, on countless channels, walking the halls of power until their bodies are eventually paraded through the streets to lie in repose at our nation’s capital.
In the end, though, it should be noted that it is the trafficker who gets paid for the delivery of a tangible body. Conversely, only an evangelist seeks payment for mere claims to have transformed an intangible soul. This might lead one to ask, which is the more ‘honest’ of professions?
“America’s Pastor?” Maybe so, he is certainly the godfather of entire industries that now exist thanks to tactics perfected during his lifelong “ministry.” However, it is likely that history will one day look back on such a title with condemnation rather than praise.
“Respect the dead,” they say… Well, I for one am now deeply ashamed of the small role I once played in this sausage-making scheme of evangelism, ‘Dollars For Souls,’ as it was often called backstage after the show. So, pardon me if I don’t bow my head in silent adoration for the man who revolutionized this grotesque practice of trafficking souls for profit.
Blaming the shepherd, not his sheep,
– Horus Gilgamesh
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