So we reach the time of year where radio charlatans and their so called "ministries" pull out all the stops to get their sheeple to donate to their "work". Often of course, with the brilliantly unbiblical coercion of the "matching donation". Both Jim Daly of "Focus On The Family" and James Dobson of "Family Talk" love to use this ruse to get donations. But as I have to point out again and again, a cheerful giver isn't a guilty giver. Which most assuredly is what these organizations are making of their followers by using the terrible manipulation of the matching donation.
But today, on the last day of 2012, Dennis Rainey of the "Family Life Today" radio show wrapped up the usual end-of-year plea strong arm tactics in a story that was evidently such a monstrous lie that even he corrected himself - well, just a little bit.
Mr Rainey told a story from 2012 of children opening their piggy bank and scotch taping $400 to the walls of their bedroom ( "well, that must have been a big piggy bank" ) along with a note that these CHILDREN wanted their parents to use the money to go to a "Family Life Today" Marriage Conference. Which naturally they did, making their pathetic marriage better and Mr Rainey's pockets just a little bit fuller.
Does anyone with a brain think this actually happened? Children would have $400 dollars in singles in their piggy bank? That they would even know about what a "Marriage Conference" is? That they would know you got to go to such a huckstery event by coughing up your money to a charlatan like Mr Rainey? That children are in anyway interested in the very abstract notion of "marriage" as it applies to their moms and dads? Really? They might want their parents to be happy, but they surely don't know anything about any kind of "conference" events that supposedly can make that goal happen.
No. I'm afraid this story doesn't pass any test for authenticity or for truth. It stinks of falsehood. As I said, even Mr Rainey caught himself questioning the size of the piggy bank.
So really telling such a story of blatant lies simply does make Mr Rainey a Big Fat Liar.
And of course, let's not forget, he runs a "ministry". An organization where "bearing false witness" isn't frowned upon, it is encouraged - especially when it gets the gullible to part with their money.
Shame on Mr Rainey. Shame on him.
