Don’t the numerous televangelists on TBN and other such networks show that Christianity is all about the money?

The anger behind this is mostly justified: people have been fleeced in Christ's name, and the Bible treats that as a serious sin rather than a public-relations problem. But the existence of religious hucksters is evidence about hucksters, not about the message.

1. A counterfeit presupposes a genuine. Fake twenties do not disprove twenties; they prove people wanted them. Even if every television preacher were a fraud, that would show only that some who claim the name fail to live by it. The question is what Jesus and the apostles actually taught, and that is a public record.

2. The founder had nowhere to sleep. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). He was born in a manger (Luke 2:7) and entered Jerusalem on a borrowed animal. Whatever Christianity is, its founder did not model luxury, and the men who wrote about him were mostly not wealthy either.

3. Scripture condemns this exact behavior. “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils” (1 Timothy 6:10). Paul describes false teachers who “suppose that godliness is a means of gain” (1 Timothy 6:5) and says they must be silenced because they are “upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain” (Titus 1:11). That is not a vague warning; it is a job description.

4. The New Testament predicted them. Paul warns of “false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:13). Peter says that “in their greed they will exploit you with false words” (2 Peter 2:3). The phenomenon is not an embarrassment the church discovered late; it was forecast in the founding documents.

5. Leaders were told to work for free. Elders are to shepherd “not for shameful gain, but eagerly” (1 Peter 5:2). Paul reminded the Ephesian elders that he had “coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel” and had worked with his own hands to support himself (Acts 20:33-34). The pattern is sacrificial, and the exceptions are rebuked, not promoted.

6. Jesus flipped their tables. He drove the money-changers out of the temple and overturned their tables (John 2:14-16). Put the televangelist next to that scene and ask which side of it he is standing on. It is not a close call, and Christians have been saying so for decades.

7. Test the whole orchard, not one tree. “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). That test cuts both ways: it condemns the corrupt ministry, and it asks you to look at what else the same movement produced — hospitals, schools, literacy campaigns, famine relief, and missionaries funded by ordinary people giving small amounts.

8. It grew fastest where money was scarce. “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith?” (James 2:5). The movement spread through slaves, artisans, and the urban poor of the Roman Empire, and it grows fastest today in places with the least disposable income. A religion that is really about money does not behave that way.

9. Its loudest critics are inside the house. Churches that publish their budgets, watchdog organizations, and pastors who have preached against the prosperity gospel for thirty years are all internal critics. If Christianity were a con, its own institutions would not be the ones policing it. Disapproval from inside is evidence that this is a departure from the teaching.

10. You don't apply that standard anywhere else. If the misconduct of adherents discredited a worldview, no worldview would survive — every tyrant of the twentieth century claimed one or another, and several claimed none. You do not reason from abuse to falsehood in politics or science. It is not a good argument here either.

The objection is really an accusation against specific ministries, and on that ground the Bible agrees with you. The person you are accusing of greed is the one who said foxes have holes and the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

Sources: Hank Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis; Gregory Koukl, Tactics; Michael Horton, Christless Christianity.

Related challenges:
• What does it mean to be a Christian? There are over 30,000 different groups, all of which answer this question differently. If agreement cannot be found on THIS issue, can the claims of Christians themselves be taken with any degree of seriousness?
• ALL sins are forgiven if you ‘accept Jesus as your savior’, right? What about the non-forgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit? We have a little CONTRADICTION problem here?!
• Why do arrogant Christians think they’re right about everything?