Scott McMahan

After a bleary-eyed late night of Tar Heel basketball, made more
bearable by a late-game push that got them a road victory against
uber-rival Duke, I can report that I have now seen it all. As usual, I
tried to see what the world was broadcasting under the name of
religion during the commercials and halftime. This time, I think I've
seen everything. Most of the night was nothing new. Rod Parsley asking
for money to redeem slaves in Sudan is nothing new. (What happens to
them after they're set free? What do the slavers do with the money? I
won't even get into what's wrong with that...) Neither is anything new
about Benny Hinn working a stadium full of people into a money-giving
frenzy. (Okay, so seeing Steve Brock with a youthful
queer-eye-for-the-preacher-guy makeover was a shocker, and Benny's
pink shirt made me want to turn down the contrast on my TV, but that's
just par for the course with them.)

What was new? I saw this woman. She was angry. She was screeching at
the camera and her audience. She jerked around on the sound stage like
she had too much caffine. Her voice was the most annoying thing I have
ever heard, topping even Rush's Geddy Lee trying to sing. (If you
don't know what I mean, consider yourself lucky.) She jabbed her head
out on her neck as she delivered her choppy, curt sentences. She
looked to be physically to be dehydrated and tired. The shots of the
audience revealed a deer-in-the-headlights look. I have never seen
anything like this before. This woman was having a meltdown on
national television. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. "Religious"
television has sunk to a new low. Honestly, if this was Christianity I
would not be a Christian. I'd renouce it and go to Buddhism. At least
there you get some peace and quiet. I don't see how anyone could watch
this stuff and not be completely put off. The mind boggles.

Who was it? I never saw her name or anything. I turned over later to
the same channel and saw James and Betty Robison's endless fundraiser
Life Today concluding, so I guess it was that show. They do have "Beth
Moore: Wednesdays with Beth". The woman there looks a little bit like
the woman I saw.

I think the answer is to stop even turning over to this stuff and
watch some other channel.