found an article written in 1981 about what TV preachers make?

Question

Said that is a drop in the bucket compared to today.
Oral Roberts pentecostal faith healer turned methodist made 60 million in 1981. Not bad for a years wages.
Jim Baker 53 million a year before he lost it all.
Rex Humbard "Cathedral of tomorrow" made a meesly 25million
The TV preachers of today said, we wouldn't even get up for that much. Check it out. they make millions. Billy Graham made forbes list of richest men in America. Has his own set of jets.
Make most of it through the thousands of envelopes with 20. to 50. dollars each in them. Employs people year around just to open envelopes. If that is what they made in 1981 What do they make today? Since he said, "I wouldn't even get up there for that."

Forbes on and old magazine But I was told to go on Forbes 400 it lists wages and who it is and that is a drop in the bucket compared to today.
They are on the list of richest men in USA
Takes a few mouse clicks to get the information.

Answer 1

You might find this interesting - from 1988.

AS IT was in the days of ancient Israel, so it often is today: Many of the religious shepherds feed themselves and starve their flocks. Last year the television evangelists were on center stage, zealously fleecing the sheep.

The star players were Jim and Tammy Bakker of the PTL, but they had a strong supporting cast. Incidentally, PTL stands for “Praise the Lord” and for “People That Love,” but by year’s end many news reporters were saying that “Pass the Loot” and “Pay the Lady” were more appropriate. One columnist referred to their ministry as “money-changing in the temple” and labeled it: “The deceit of preaching the gospel while fleecing the poor.”

The Bakkers once presided over Heritage USA, a 2,300-acre [930 ha] retreat in Fort Mill, South Carolina, with an assessed value of $178 million. The PTL empire brings in $129 million a year. Since 1984 news reports have said that the Bakkers received salaries and bonuses totaling $4.8 million—in 1986 Jim Bakker’s salary was alleged to be $1.6 million, Tammy’s $300,000. They lived in a South Carolina $1.3-million lakefront home, with gold-plated bathroom fixtures—and an air-conditioned and heated doghouse out back. Bakker often said: “God wants his people to go first class.” At least he and Tammy and their dogs did—while it lasted.

But it all came tumbling down when Bakker acknowledged his adultery with a church secretary. In spite of $265,000 of PTL funds being set aside as hush money—this little escapade is the basis of the “Pay the Lady” rendering of PTL. (The lady involved, however, never received this amount.) The charismatic Pentecostal PTL was turned over to fundamentalist Jerry Falwell.

Falwell started off all love and forgiveness, but before long the gloves were off and the mud was flying. He denounced Bakker’s PTL as “the greatest scab and cancer on Christianity in the past 2,000 years of church history.” With a fine display of righteous indignation, Falwell thundered: “I see the greed. I see the self-centeredness. I see the avarice that brought them down.” So when Falwell took over the PTL, he made this resolve, as reported by Newsweek: “Falwell said one thing he wouldn’t do was ‘beg for money on the air.’ Last week Falwell went on the air and begged.”

The New York Daily News, under the headline “Falwell to Followers: Pass the Loot,” proceeded to say: “Jerry Falwell yesterday once more flung wide his money net, pressuring his electronic flock to come up with more cash.” He said to his mostly poor congregation: “We need the most sacrificial gift you can send. . . . If you don’t want this ministry to continue, just ignore me.” They didn’t. The fund-raising drive netted $20,000,000. Then—having promised to do so if the drive was successful—he put on a natty blue suit, stood at the top of Heritage USA’s 163-foot-long [50 m] water slide, recited the Lord’s Prayer, and plunged down. Falwell later withdrew from the PTL.

Newsweek reported: “Michael Korpi, a former photographer of Falwell’s ‘Old Time Gospel Hour,’ charges that the ministry [Falwell’s] raised more than $4 million through a 1979 appeal for Cambodian refugees but sent a mere $100,000 to aid the victims.”

Televangelist Oral Roberts rivaled Falwell’s water-slide act with a pretty dramatic act of his own. Early last year he told his followers that he was warned by God that if he did not raise $8,000,000 by March 31, he would be “called home.” In his closing prayer he said: “Extend my life. Let me live beyond March.” His son pleaded: “Let’s not let this be my dad’s last birthday!” This emotional blackmail by Roberts and son worked. Roberts stayed in his prayer tower—supposedly it put him 200 feet [60 m] closer to God—and his television audience came up with the $8,000,000. One of his followers, however, was philosophical about it: “If he did die, that would not be bad. Heaven is a good place to be.”

One time he regaled his TV audience with a harrowing tale that ended happily. The Devil came into his bedroom and grappled with him. As Roberts reported it: “I felt those hands on my throat, and he was choking the life out of me. I yelled to my wife, ‘Honey, come!’ She came in and commanded the devil to get out. I began to breathe and came out of my bed strong.” Apparently, his wife had more power over the Devil than he did.

In 1980 when funds were lagging, he told of seeing a 900-foot [270 m] Jesus standing in His bare feet talking to him. This vision led to $5,000,000 in donations. He claims to have raised dead people. On one occasion, he reported: “I’ve had to stop a sermon, go back and raise a dead person.” All of which caused Newsweek to comment: “Oral Roberts says he has raised the dead, but raising cash is what he’s up to.”

Pentecostal preacher Jimmy Swaggart is said to be TV’s most popular evangelist, reaching eight million viewers each Sunday. A leading gospel-music singer, he has earned $100 million from his recordings. About the Bakker upheaval, Swaggart said: “I felt that entire debacle was a cancer that needed to be excised from the body of Christ.” On a later occasion Swaggart added: “People are going to say, ‘Hey, they’ve been ripping off the public.’ And to be honest with you, that’s exactly what was being done.”

But from news reports it seems Swaggart himself was not far behind. Newsweek reported that George Jernigan, a former executive of Swaggart’s, claimed that Swaggart “raised $20 million for a children’s fund but spent less than 10 percent of it on the program. Says Jernigan: ‘the rest was spent in Baton Rouge’ where, WBRZ-TV reports, the Swaggart compound includes Jimmy’s $1 million home, his son’s $776,000 spread and his grandchild’s air-conditioned tree house.”

On one of ABC’s Nightline series of programs on the televangelists, ABC correspondent Marshall Frady said: “At the least, as a number have begun to notice, all the trappings of modern television evangelism seem a long way from the original simplicity of that intense young Galilean mystic without property, without any boards of directors, who just trudged about a dusty corner of the earth talking, two thousand years ago.”

It is true that “all the trappings of modern television evangelism” are a long way from the methods of Jesus. But it is also true that times have changed. To preach worldwide to millions involves the use of modern facilities and efficient organization, and it takes large sums of money. Even so, the basics of Jesus’ way of life remain the model for Christians. The values and principles that he laid down are still the only pathway for Christians today.—1 Peter 2:21.

Some of those principles follow: ‘You received truth free, give free. Don’t be anxious about material things. Seek first the Kingdom. More happiness in giving than in receiving. Teach in the homes of the people. God’s Word is truth. Love God, love your neighbor. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Feed my sheep.’ True Christianity has not changed; only the facilities for spreading it have.

It is not the huge amounts of money involved that are objectionable. It takes millions to preach worldwide. Money is not evil. It is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evils. It is the ways of getting the money—the pleas, the gimmicks, the begging, the deceit, the lies—that are evil. It is the fraudulent extraction of it from the poor by con games that’s evil. And collected for one purpose, then used for another, for personal enrichment—that’s embezzlement. The Pharisees were money lovers. Judas sold out Christ for money. Many religious shepherds today walk in their footsteps rather than in those of Jesus.

They feed themselves, not the flock. And it’s not just the Pentecostals. The fundamentalists teach Trinity, hellfire, earth burned up—all pagan doctrines of ancient Babylon and Egypt. The modernists deny the Bible—not inspired, not infallible, its books not written by the ones claimed or at the time claimed, and support not creation but evolution. Then there are the preachers peddling pop psychology, the goody-goody palaverers that dole out the smooth things to tickle ears unreceptive to unvarnished Bible truth. Not the wheat but the chaff is what they feed their flocks.—Isaiah 30:10; 2 Timothy 4:3, 4.

Truly, it is today as it was in Jesus’ day: “On seeing the crowds he felt pity for them, because they were skinned and thrown about like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) And upon seeing them, “he started to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34) Jesus does have followers in the earth today who walk in his footsteps, preach the way he did, and teach the Bible truths that offset spiritual famine.—Amos 8:11.

Those followers are Jehovah’s Witnesses. Their worldwide preaching work needs large sums of money, but it comes from voluntary, unsolicited contributions. Literature is printed and distributed without charge. Weekly Bible studies are conducted in homes free of charge. Congregation meetings are free, no collections taken, no pleas for money made, no salaries paid. Many Witnesses work secularly for their livelihood and contribute time and money to accomplish the preaching of the good news of the Kingdom.—Matthew 24:14; Acts 1:8.

They do as Jesus instructed: “You received free, give free.” They do as Peter instructed: “Shepherd the flock of God in your care, not under compulsion, but willingly; neither for love of dishonest gain, but eagerly; neither as lording it over those who are God’s inheritance, but becoming examples to the flock.”—Matthew 10:8; 1 Peter 5:2, 3.

Answer 2

Deuteronomy 11:16
(16) Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;



Verse 16 gives us a clue in preventing deception. God says, "Take heed to yourselves." What does this tell us? This means pay attention! Take care. Guard yourself. Watch out. We cannot just skip our way into the Kingdom of God. It will take a great deal of effort.

Does not Christ tell us to "watch and pray always" (Luke 21:36)? But He does not say to watch just world events. One of the things that we have to watch most closely is ourselves.

Answer 3

People will always think of wonderful ways to relieve you of your money. It can be a racket. You can believe in God and keep the faith without parting with any money.

Answer 4

Money corrupts people and yes even TV preachers, don't envy them and hope they have that greed thing under control.

Answer 5

I think I'm coming out of retirement!

Answer 6

i wouldn't be suprised if that were true, but i would Love to know your sources.
could you e-mail them to me at [e-mail]

Answer 7

ROFLMAO
Can you imagine what they could make if they taught the truth!

Answer 8

that's truly scary