The church should be shocked by the televangelists' blatant parade of pagan ideas and their "gimme gospel of greed." The church should be ashamed for allowing a $2.5 billion business to prey on the elderly, the poor and the desperate and do it in the name of God. Trinity Foundation has been monitoring the activities of these "men of God" since 1973. For the first 15 years efforts were mostly concerned with analysis of the listening audience and its demographic makeup, the doctrinal positions of the broadcasters and the percentage of broadcast time they devoted to raising money. There are over 500 televangelists and about 350 religious television stations that are members of the National Religious Broadcasters Association. There are also approximately 750 radio evangelists on 1,550 religious radio stations who are NRB members. These TV and radio evangelists are vying for a donor pool of about five million people. Fifty-five percent of these people are elderly women. Another 35 percent is made up of what we call the desperation pool. These are the poorest and neediest members of society.-- those whose child has AIDS, whose spouse has cancer, those about to be homeless, those who are experiencing the worst kinds of suffering. Some are so needy that they often send in their food stamps or their wedding rings. The remaining 10 percent are those who might be classified as upper-middle class, who want a spiritual justification for their greed. One woman had received an inheritance of $53,000. Over time she had sent one of the word-faith televangelists $49,000. - gain is godliness - Cerenthus