In this post I talk about hype. Why people believe it, why people buy into it. Why do smart, well to do people get involved with TV evangelists? Find out more in this post by Asif Zamir.

1. Don’t believe the hype
November 28, 2004 by Asif Zamir
I was invited to a church on the east end several times and after some nagging I decided to
check it out. When I drove up to the ultra massive building, many parking attendants guided
my car to a parking spot. The place was so big, staff were driving around the parking lot in
golf carts to keep things organized. On the inside of the main sanctuary, there were many tv
cameras (I think I counted 6 real tv cameras). The music was good. To be fair I’m good with
just about any kind of worship music. There were many announcements. Finally the speaker,
a guest from Brazil, went up to the podium and began to speak. About a few words into her
sermon I knew this was going to be a big nasty prosperity gospel money grabbing message
which would make me angry, so I dint’ bother getting too comfortable.
20 minutes into the message, the speaker did something I’ve heard about but never seen in
person. Gold colored material appeared on her hands and arms. She then made a claim it
was pure gold and even had written verification from a supposed expert company, this letter
was projected on one of the several large screens, it said that even diamonds were there too.
lol. At that point hundreds of people ran up to the front and began rubbing her, as if she was
a genie in a bottle. I couldn’t believe I was seeing this. I recommend people to churches all
the time in different cities and even countries, and I was glad to scratch this church off my
list. I just wish I could scratch it out of my memory.
I was waiting for the big kicker and it happened after a few more minutes. She proceeded to
tell us that God just told her that we should all give her $100 today and if we do, God would
bless us, but if we disobey, we would be in trouble with God. Hundreds, maybe more than
1,000 people ran up to the front and started throwing money at the lady. The room had
maybe 3,000 or 4,000 people in it at the time, maybe more. I got up and walked out of the
service. I’ll never return to this church but I know others who will, and I won’t try to convince
them not to. I won’t say a word about it.
There are people who are dumb enough to believe the hype. Most of the people who ran up
to rub the lady’s hips for her gold did it because they saw other people doing it first. The
people running up to give their money, most do it because they see others doing it. Just
because other people are doing something dumb doesn’t mean you should join in. The
person who invited me is a well educated, super smart person who comes from a family of
smart people, she’s regularly sceptical of everything. So it’s not just stupid people who fall for
this stuff.
God doesn’t do these bizarre gold related ‘miracles’. They are not from God. But if you tell a
person to just live faithfully and forget all that mumbo jumbo they get bored. People want the
insanity. They want the hype. They prefer a sensational story instead of the plain truth. They
want gold dust, they want a good speech about prosperity, they want to be lied to if it makes
them feel good. They don’t mind if it puts their walk with God in jeopardy, as long as they
stay entertained.
Today’s society hears the truth and refuses it. They prefer to buy into the lie, even if it costs

2. them their eternal soul.