Dr. Eugene Scott

Actually, he resigned in March 2003. The current chaplain is Dr. Barry Black.

 

Not to be too cynical about it, but I thought that this WAS the point of televangelism: Swaggert, Bakker, Roberts, Falwell, and the lot.

Although I do try to draw a distinction between televangelism and religious programming.



marilynd

 

Great Scott!

New Bulletin!

It was reported on the LA radio news this morning 2/22/05 that Dr. Gene Scott has expired and succumed to his cancer that was again reported here!


No what you think of him, it is still sad. I wonder if his shows will continue?

BAH

 

Anybody who makes millions by bilking the weak and poor (and stupid) is a crook. Period. End of story. This includes this clown as well as Falwell, Robertson, Swaggart, Jackson, JP II, and the rest.

(damn, can't remember the slimedogs name, but he is the Preacher which associates with our lying President - they probaby make great bedfellows)

This is exactly why organized religion is merely a business and should be taxed as such.

 

Mr. Engineer,

A bit heavy on the cynicism, I thought I was cynical but you win!

 

On this we agree -- churches should be taxed at the corporate rate. The average American has no idea how much organized religion adversely impacts our economy. In some parts of the mid-South, churches own so much tax-exempt property that it drastically reduces public services (education, law enforcement, public health, etc.). The area around Cleveland, Tennessee is a catastrophe. In my town, a rich church recently outbid Sam's Club to buy over 100 acres at the intersection of two interstates. It's some of the most valuable property in this part of the state. I can't imagine why they need that much land. Maybe they'll sell off little pieces of it periodically to finance missionary activities to screw up peoples' cultures in Latin America.

 

Another sad footnote on the political power of churches. This is from the notice of Scott's passing today:

"Scott came under scrutiny by authorities on several occasions, including by the state attorney general's office in 1977, which suspected him of fraud. The investigation was dropped, however, after the Legislature passed a law barring prosecution of civil fraud against tax-exempt religious organizations."

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=2005022204560001486815&dt=20050222045600&w=APO&coview=

 

I am no fan of organized religion but I would have to say this - non-tax the actual church and any buildings used for charity work - tax everything else. Here in Tampa one of the largest office buildings in town is owned by First Baptist Church of Tampa. They collect rent but pay no taxes on it.

 

This phenomenon is not exclusively southern, of course. When I attended school in Boston many years ago, one of the issues common on the public airwaves was the difficulty local governments had in meeting public needs. The chief complaint, as I recall it, was that churches, schools, and government owned so much land that it was strangling the local tax base.

marilynd

 

I'm not going to take any side here on the whole religion thing, but I gotta tell you that you really sound awful angry towards it, maybe a little too much?

I know that people have misused religion in the name of anything at all, and will continue doing so, but I gotta say that at least in the places I've lived, a lot of charity has come from churches and religious organizations: a lot of free meals, a lot of free hospital care, a lot of good deeds. Around here they have a little youth group of about 50 college students, christians, who get together and tutor lower-income and single-parent kids and do the big-brother/big-sister thing for them. A group of local pastors goes around to the old folk's homes singing songs for them and just talking with them--sometimes to people that don't even get visits from family members.

In my mind--my personal views on religion aside--that's helping people out, and I think you'd find a few economists who'd likely agree to the beneficial economic effects.

As for Latin America, it reminds me of a local pastor around here who went down to Columbia to try and work with people, get them out of the drug culture, give them a little hope in life--the drug lords murdered him.

There may be some pretty crummy churches around your parts where they're just in it for the money, no doubt they're everywhere, but careful, now, don't toss the baby the way of the bathwater, they're not all that way, least as far as I've seen.

 

Those are fair points Deb, if a church is running a business, there's a strong argument that they should be taxed as all other businesses. Of course, where the war's often fought is over what constitutes a business and what constitutes a charity--hard to find the bright line sometimes.

I agree, if there are--and surely there are--religious leaders getting wealthy off donations and hiding behind religion to evade taxes, they should be imprisoned. I believe those were part of the charges against Jim Bakker, I don't disagree with them, and from what I've heard, neither does he--in retrospect.

As for being a little tough on religion, I wasn't talking about you, just that one post by jugador, which seemed to take the point a bit far.

 

Dr. Scott died Monday at the age of 75. Regardless of your views-an end to an era has come.

 

In my day (I'm telling my baby boomer age here) our dorm used to watch "Billy James Hargis and his All-American Kids." Billy James and his kids used to dress in red, white-and blue outfits amd they alternated patriotic songs with gospel music and his hellfire and brimstone preaching. He actually wanted the US to declare war on Communist China in the name of Jesus. Sadly, one day they caught Billy James in bed with several of his all-American kids (both sexes). All he could say was, "The devil made me do it!" Yes, this really did become the inspiration for Flip Wilson's preacher character on the TV variety series in the 70's. Believe it or not, Billy James is now out of prison after having served his lengthy sentence, and he is making a comeback. God, it seems, has forgiven him:

http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/The_critics/Hargis/Hargisbio.htm

 

B.J. Hargis has passed ...

as of Nov. 27, 2004:

http://www.economist.com/people/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3499528

By the way, your link above is broken; it needs an 'l' at the end (should be '.html', not '.htm').

 

No, Mr. Engineer often pegs the cynical meter. That said, I often agree with him... usually while cringing, however (and, in this case, except for the churches being taxed as a business thing). He's a take-no-prisoners radical liberal after my own heart, though! Godlove'im.

Part of his point, though, taken a giant step back from, is valid. Earlier in this thread I talked of not wishing death on Scott, regardless. But just because he's dead we should not distort the truth about him. He was what he was. He made the bed in which he laid. His epitaph should accurately reflect both the good he did, if any, as well as the unquestionable bad.

Gratefully. Pissant-stomping eras motivated by the likes of Gene Scott we could all pretty much have done without.

Now if the seemingly endless re-runs of his program late at night on KRON4 (channel 4 in San Francisco) would just die, too. Not happening to stumble across his now-widow's godawful singing while channel surfing would be really welcome.

 

Except for here, I never heard of this (dead) clown. Just another teleheretic.
Hargis was a Manichaean and an Americolater.

 

Thats LiberTARIAN.

Come on Des - I know you are smarter than the Bush crowd on the board. (you know, the ones who think that Clinton is going to hell for lying about a hummer, but it is OK for GW to tell a lie which gets 1600 good people killed).

I am actually against organized religion because it has purely man made rules. Who is man to decide God's plan? Is the Pope, Mohammad, or any other mere mortal closer to god? Hardly - and to say they are makes them pretty much low lifes in my book.

Oh - and the Preacher man that I was referring to eariler in the thread is Billy Graham. Praise the lord and take in the millions. I kind of wish I had low enough morals to do the same.

 

I must clarify: our *Craig* Hargis is a fine fellow and an upstanding person. Given the pathological types (not on this thread) who appear here from time to time, I thought I'd better emphasize that.

Craig: good. Billy Jean: very bad.

 

Not that I'm BG's biggest fan or anything, but the guy takes a salary--not millions--I think it's between $100K/yr and $150K/yr. He dealt with the sort of innuendo you made early in his career, when a photo was printed in a major newspaper of him and co-workers sifting through donations with a caption something like: "Billy Graham and Colleagues Collecting Huge Contributions" Or something to that effect. Real embarrasing, he wanted to do things above board, asked mentors for advice, and was told: "Don't base your income on donations, just take the same income that the head pastor of a major metro church would take, and leave it at that." And so that's what the guy does.

There are plenty of crooked players out there with hair so big it has its own weather system, who can cry 3 quarts on command, who are all about the money. But that isn't everybody. Good and bad players in all walks of life, no different in religion.