QUESTION:
I watch television evangelists and listen to religious programs on the radio. My godmother often tells me that I should not watch or listen to these things because they teach things against the Orthodox Faith but, they always teach from the Bible so what could be wrong with that? What do you think?
REPLY:
The difficulty is that Protestants teach from the Word of God, but they do not teach the Word of God. This is especially true of television evangelists who gear their message toward raising money. Television and radio preachers are often performers. Like wrestlers, they have scripts and choreography. Every move, every wave of the hand, every emotional outburst is pre-planned and rehearsed. It is essentially a theatre of meaningless emotionalism. The Bible is only a prop and a source for script material. The doctrine they teach is almost never accurate. It is practically impossible to listen to these sectarian preachers without absorbing not only some of the doctrines they teach (and their doctrines are chosen not by whether they think they are true or not, but by their emotional effect); worse, it is not possible to avoid absorbing some of their attitudes and general concepts of Christianity. The cold, proud arrogance of the "born again" cult is well known. Less well understood is the deep, deadly spiritual delusion which possesses these people and which they pass on to their followers. Some of this is certain to rub off on those who watch or listen to their performances on television or radio.
+Archbishop Lazar
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