From: russ@wpg.com (Russell Lawrence)
Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Subject: The Economics of Anti-choice Was: Bopping
Message-ID: <1611@wpg.com>
Date: 12 Nov 89 22:14:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: wpg.1611
Posted: Sun Nov 12 17:14:02 1989
In article <2240@cbnewse.ATT.COM>, Scott T. Grant writes:
> (I know, I know, I'm a bad winner........but I just can't help myself
> after seeing Pat Robertson all red in the face and flustered last night
> after all the republican politicians started waffling...... snicker, cackle> here>
Actually, the elections will help Pat Robertson. They'll give him a
*great* excuse to initiate a new fundraising campaign asking viewers to
join with him in overcoming Satan's trickery. (You know what a Rascal
that ole Satan is, taking advantage of people's complacency and all.)
Anyone who doesn't understand the economic strategies used by
tele-evangelists should read James Randi's book, "The Faith Healers".
Robertson used to do a standup faith-healing act similar to the
performances of Oral Roberts, Popov, W.T. Grant, and a host of others,
but, after Randi started exposing the cheap stage tricks used by these
money-grubbers, Robertson quit "healing" people in his studio audience
and started "healing" people in TV land. The results of this kind of
faith healing are unverifiable and therefore, immune to exposure.
During a typical routine, Pat will say that some man in the mid-west has
liver disease but the lord is healing him now; some woman in NY City
has a cancerous tumor on her cheek that looks like a mole but the lord
is healing her now; a married couple in Florida has been infertile but
the woman is conceiving now, etc, etc. While Pat's doing this, his
sidekick Ben will stand by, with eyes squeezed shut, chanting,
"Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Praise Jesus! Thank you, Lord". At the
conclusion of the act, Pat and Ben tell viewers where to send their
money to help them continue the "work of the Lord".
Over the past few years, the sales pitch has shifted away from faith
healing toward abortion topics. Satan's recent electoral victory will
give Pat a chance to stir the pot and rake in some extra bucks. By
extra bucks, I'm referring to *millions* of extra bucks. In the
process, you can bet that TV viewers will get to see several renditions
of some film clip like the "Silent Scream".
Fundraisers come in all flavors, but the parasites who abuse human
emotions are on the bottom of the barrel. I used to donate money to my
local PBS station but cut my contributions to zilch several years ago
when I finally noticed that the station *always* had a one week
fundraiser just before Passover during which they *always* aired a
half-dozen documentaries about German concentration camps. Everytime
the documentary showed a pile of bodies, there'd be an intermission and
the announcer would come back on and ask for money, "to show you
care... (pause) about public TV". They weren't promoting educational
television; they were promoting extortion that preyed on the grief and
emotions of retired Jews.
I've been meaning to broach this topic for some time. I don't know if
organizations like 'NOW' have looked into the economics of anti-choice
fundraising in detail, but it'd be a good idea. As Jesus said, "Many
false prophets will come in my name, and many people will be deceived."
--
Russell Lawrence, WP Group, New Orleans (504) 443-5000
russ@wpg.com uunet!wpg!russ
