One of the new found blessings of having cable television for the first time in six years are all the “great” religious programming we can now watch. Last week we tuned in to see the Inspiration network with Mike Murdock. He was talking about sowing our seed so that God will bring a harvest to our lives. What he was really saying was if you send money to this ministry then God will bless you financially. He was challenging people to send in $1,000 to his ministry and you would receive two things: a copy of his new book (most expensive book I have seen in a while) and financial blessing from God. He even went as far as to say if you have credit card debt, don’t send the money you owe to the card company. Instead, send it to his ministry in faith and watch how God will bless you because of your generosity.
I have to say this was the only time I have ever heard him speak and so I have to be careful about the conclusions I am able to draw from it. I did some looking online and it seemed like more of the same. It seems to be all about money. For every one reference to Jesus there are twenty or more references to giving money to his ministry. I keep asking myself how do these guys get on the air when there are so many decent people out there who really care who have no voice. I guess the networks are more interested in getting someone on air that can generate piles of cash rather than preach the truth. Sad. Have any of you heard him speak or watched more of his programming? Is this a fair representation of what he typically preaches about or did I just catch him at a bad time? It seems others have had the same impression:
19 Responses
Matt,
That’s pretty much every Mike Murdock message. Sow a seed and wait for God to make you rich. We watch him sometimes for entertainment, but its really just sad.
Tony
No you got him right. Listen for 5 minutes and you’ve heard what he has to say.
I wonder sometimes if the owners of some of these “Christian” networks have any ethics at all.
Royce
You have him down. I did a week of just watching the different religious preachers and every time he was on the subject matter didn’t change. I am most amazed when he uses bible verses to describe how much money you should send. For instance he might find some promise in a Hosea 2:4 (didn’t look this up so not sure what it says) and he will say if you send me $24 then you can claim this promise. Makes me sick.
I stopped watching these religious shows a long time ago because they just make me mad.
When I was a child, I had a friend who grew up in a very dysfunctional home where there was little income, too much booze, and lots of anger. My friend’s mother would get “religious” about every six months because she came from a fundamentalist church where fear was used to guilt-trip people. Every time this happened, she would use a credit-card to make a telephone donation to these televangelists. That always made me wonder, is it only the weak and vulnerable that the televangelist manipulates into fattening the wallet? And if so that makes the televangelist a predator upon the weak and vulnerable…the very opposite of Jesus (who advocated rather than preyed upon the weak and vulnerable) whom they supposedly worship.
Grace and Peace,
Rex
I believe Murdock should be in prison; and a lot of others as well. While I agree mostly with both the Reformed COG and SDA, they both almost worship a human in their teachings; although I will say that the SDA has programs on the air that are NOT gold digging. Yes, they ALL ask for money; as the networks DO NOT air those shows unless they are paid to do so. (I’ve worked on/off in broadcasting since I eas a teen). I also dispise those that say send in your prayer requests (with a donation) and they will pray over a cloth for you. They stack up a thousand pieces of cloth and say a general prayer over them, then send you one. That is not praying for you in my opinion. I hear of someone ill and I silently pray to God, that he helps that person. Even though I have cable, most of the Christian programming does not come over my cable provider; or, God is blocking those programs. Now, if you’d like to send me $1 Trillion (lol)….. Pastor Don.
Mike Murdock is one of the most disgusting people on the planet. ALL he ever talks about is sending him (or whoever he’s schilling for at the time) your cash. Doesn’t teach from a bible but one of his so called “books”. It is a complete con job. The guy is sickening, preying on the less fortunate and sadly those who simply cannot afford to give up their cash to this pathetic creature. Murdock implores people to go to the phone, go to the phone, put it on your credit card, 100 fold return basically guaranteed by this criminal. He always says he “broke the back of poverty” with a thousand dollar “seed” (AKA, your hard earned cash), so send him $1000 bucks and God will reward you! Blah, blah, blah. Like one post said all you have to do is watch this moron for 5 minutes and you’ll realize what a fraud he is. And to that poster, you are correct, the owners of many of these “christian” networks are obviously lacking any ethics. Truly is pathetic that these criminals are allowed to commit their crimes “legally” on TV because it’s religion and these tv preachers are just spreading the word. Yea, right. A crook is a crook and using religion as a tool to obtain their ill gotten gain is revolting.
Mike Murdock is hilarious to watch. His house is huge, he has made so much money robbing the poor Christians, lol. He claims God gave him cars and planes and all sorts of crap.
I wrote to days star to state my opinion off dr murdock here is the response i recieved,
I’m sorry you took that reply the way you did…I didn’t mean it to be rude…just “matter of fact”…
If I don’t like someone I just turn the channel…yes you have a right to your opinion…we all do.
You sent a very “rude” email”…go back and read it …”get rid of Mike Murdock”…how rude was that?
No explanation or anything? The reason I know how well he’s liked? I will tell you how I know…emails
from our Partners and phone calls…if he wasn’t liked by many people…he couldn’t stay on the air.
These people support him…I rarely get a bad comment on Mike Murdock…99% of them are good.
I get over 1000 emails a month from Partners and many phone calls…so…yes…I do know how our viewers
feel about our different Programmers…hope this answers your questions….Daystar Staff
Sandra Trammell
Partner Service Manager
p: 877.805.2132
http://www.daystar.com
Seems to me if we we dont agree with his teachings we better be phoneing or emailing Daystar.
as everyone casts stone at Mike Murdock, i beg to ask what do you believe in? If it be Jehova God please play our part and leave the rest to Him. Him (Mike), You And me are all products of Grace Let Us allow God to be the Judge
Morris,
So only God can judge? If so, then what do we do with convicted murderers? Or convicted rapists? Shall we set them free and “let God be the judge?” Mike Murdock is a horrible thief and he rapes and pillages needy people. Why can we not judge him? He should be burned at the stake. If not, then we need to open the doors to our prisons and let everyone go free.
The difference is criminals & murderers are found guilty for their deeds. You are judging Mike Murdock without having concrete evidence. He quotes the Bible to back his sentiments about finance and prosperity. I don’t see anything wrong with that. Please my friend, DO NOT JUDGE
its just funny tonight i was flipping channels and this crook comes across the screen. i was mesmerized by what i heard him say. i was thinking this man is getting by with legalized theft in Gods name yet im working for little of nothing. was funny to hear him say so and so bought him clothes every 6 mos, how he happened to be in Hong Kong at some fancy mens clothing store and out of the blue in walks 2 preachers who buy him his clothes and all this BS about how people just bought him stuff, yeah people did buy him stuff, the poor people he rips off then and now, the ones who don’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of as the saying goes. What a Crook yet a Genius for getting away with Legalized Theft.
I ran across some literature about Mike Murdock and Benny Hinn,a few days ago. Well tonight I was flipping channels and saw Mike Murdock,so I listened. He did no preaching! NONE,all I heard over and over and over was send seed of $1,000. Where was the Sermon?? This is God’s message to me? NO! I don’t mean to Judge,but this left a bad taste in my mouth.I don’t have to send Mike murdock money to gain God’s favor.I have to ask for it and believe that God will give it to me. I also don’t need Mile Murdock to ask for it for me. Jesus gave me the Authority to ask for my self.
I agree with you Kelly about having the authority to ask for yourself. Lets not JUDGE Murdock because we CANNOT prove that he is a crook. ONLY GOD knows whether he’s a fraud.
WHAT most disgusts me is what ALL are saying. 5 MINUTES sums up his word on religion. Money makes his religion successful so you SHOULD send money to.be like mike. The worse is his travels throughout other countries and all the ministers, preachers, and those like him ,who have been told by his to buy Mike some clothes. Mike boasts of giving his clothes money away to a seed to god, and everywhere he goes some minister of god was spoken to by his to buy Mike clothes. Mike even boasts of having clothes with the tags still on them that he has has yet to wamear because of everyone running into him while he’s at some tailor being fitted for a new suit and in walks so and so, and so and son’s friend, all to buy Mike some clothes because god told them ro. I’m as disgusted with this phobia as everyone else, and I would think those I this field would do something to out this fake and get him off the air!!
He actually spends some of the money he scams on charity. A whopping 1-3%. Because that all you need to legally keep non profit status. The part of this that upsets me the most is the elderly people that are sending money in expectation of it back in one hundred fold. I’m surprised no fraud charges have been brought up. Or that a family member of one of his victims hasn’t assassinated him or at least gave him a beat down. Mike is proof there is not god. Why would god let someone use him to rip people off.
Why is it that Mike Murdock and so many like him are not brought up on charges by some legal authorities to shut this man down as he is a crook. Why do we let him get away with his lies and his con-artist way in the name of God? Why doesn’t some kind of legal authorities bring up charges on him? Why does this country allow this liar to manipulate the poor for his personal gain? We as a country put out legal action against network marketing schemes and yet nothing is done about Mike Murdock. Why is it he gets away with this?
The way these guys get on the air is they pay the network for that air time. Anybody can do it.