Oh my word!!

Mouth wide open, jaws firmly on the floor we watched, transfixed and waited for the punchline. The confirmation that what we were watching was in fact a joke, a parody, a stereotypical caricature, but the punchline never came, it remained undelivered and our dislbelief was total.

The cause of our angst? ‘Christian' TV. Canada had a number of channels devoted to ‘raising the spiritual temperature’ and 'changing the spiritual climate of the nation’ – the only temperature being raised was ours as we witnessed the relentless and unapologetic prosperity-driven drivel masquerading as ‘the gospel’!

We were constantly invited, urged even, by the Reverend Peter Popoff and his friends to accept two stunning offers. If we would only call TOLL-FREE we would receive ‘an anointed green prosperity handkerchief’ or a bottle of ‘miracle water’. It couldn't be easier, a 'divine transfer' awaited us, and there was no shortage of amazing testimony’s to the life-changing power of both…

‘My boss wanted to fire me, but when I received my Miracle Water I was promoted and given an $8,000 raise!’

‘I won $6 million dollars shortly after receiving my prosperity hanky!’

‘I prayed that my husband would be saved… and for $20,000 – I got both!. Hallelujah!’

Ding, dong it must be true – let me just get that number down and I'll claim my 'divine transfer'!

As Bishop Nigel MacCulloch once wrote ‘the issue that the churches must face up to is not so much that people do not believe in God, but that they do not find the churches credible.’ Credible or not I find it hard to accept that the Rev. Popoff and I believe in the same God. He should join his sister and stick with Mr Claypole, McWitch, Dobbin and the rest of the Rentaghost gang?!

While I haven’t as yet checked our bank balance I don’t mind admitting to a lack of faith that any such ‘miracle’ is about to happen soon, but then why would it I haven’t phoned TOLL-FREE to order my ‘Anointed Green Prosperity Hanky’ or my ‘Miracle Water’!

Can't imagine why some people struggle to connect with 'the gospel'.