Televangelist Style Campaigns

Do y’all remember that awful movement in the mid-2000s called, “True Love Waits”? It was AWFUL. Painstakingly tragic and now that I’m 30 I feel like I need to repent for being so religious in my early 20s (but that’s what your 20s are for right? Royal blunders. I digress.)  True Love Waits was about as successful as the DARE movement circa 1994.

Why was that movement such a tragedy?

Finger-pointing. Shame. Rules and restrictions without love. It didn’t work. The same crowds that flocked to the seminars/concerts eventually abandoned those restrictions in pursuit of freedom. As they pursued freedom many of the attendants learned to love others better because they could breathe easily.

I know you’ve noticed the droves of Christians leaving traditional congregations (yes, even you megachurches) and they’re leaving because of the restrictions. They’re leaving because of the finger-pointing [and absence of biblical teaching, diversity, co-dependency but that’s another writing for another day].

Guess what? No one has EVER been persuaded to truly love another from a place of shame.

Do you know what else isn’t working? Political shaming. I look at what’s going on in our country right now and I’m taken aback. Didn’t we learn anything from the televangelists of the ’90s? Yelling at your audience and flexing on condemning emotions isn’t leading to converted followers.

You might get a few die-hard martyrs out of it but is that really what you want? No. You want whole, informed, consenting participants in your cause. To do that you have to stop digital yelling. Remember during the altar call and the speaker would say, “Your sins put Jesus on the cross,” and then everyone would recommit their life to Jesus. Guess what? They didn’t repent because of conviction they said a prayer from a place of guilt.

What congregations ended up with is an audience shamed into control who eventually sought freedom from that control. Many are like me and have pursued Yahweh in a manner that isn’t co-dependent, and quite honestly, in a way that isn’t angry. Politics are the same way. If we keep yelling at the ‘opposing party’ guess what? You might beat them into submission but their drive for freedom is still there.

If the goal of politics is to, “Create a more perfect union” don’t you think we can do it without yelling ALL THE TIME. I’m not saying don’t let your voice be heard but what I am saying is that after you act up (#protest) quit yelling about it.

People don’t watch televangelists anymore FOR A REASON. Yes, we need to make some changes in our country but yelling at your audience isn’t helping you. You can share information without promoting vitriol. The best way to see conversion, I mean the very best way, is to actually talk to someone. Not yell, scream, or finger-point, no virtue signaling. Meet people where they are and I promise you’ll find yourselves in some middle ground where you can both be heard.

Remember this mantra before you share: I AM NOT A TELEVANGELIST. Let’s do better and be better.

Nicole Matthews