Plucking the Eagle's Wings

Plucking the Eagle's Wings

confessed that he was attempting to get a compromising picture of the evangelist to sell to a tabloid magazine. The plan was to ruin the minister's credibility in the public eye by printing the pictures in a national tabloid magazine. A seed of doubt would have been planted and he would have been pronounced in the wrong because of guilt by association. No amount of retractions would have restored the man's or the ministry's reputation. Would anyone have believed it was a setup? Had the photographer not been caught and confessed, a powerful ministry would have been destroyed by a calculated ploy. The following true story identifies yet another setup, this time on television. Another Setup Several years ago, a television tabloid show ran an expose on three nationally known ministers. Its theme was exposing the lies and deceit of televangelists. While one of the ministers was correctly called to account due to dishonesty, the other two were attacked unethically. In one case, the television show host contacted the minister and said they had heard that he would be the next Billy Graham. They wanted to interview him and do a special report on his ministry. Once they arrived and the cameras rolled, the interviewer said nothing about Billy Graham. The person began to accuse the minister of manipulation, improper fund raising, and other dishonest acts. The minister was grossly misrepresented, causing the decline of the ministry work. Those who knew the minister confirmed that the information presented by the media as fact was indeed a list of half-truths, contradictions, and lies. Missionary and evangelist Jack Harris is a personal friend of mine. My family has stayed at his home when we ministered at the Life Christian Center in Fenton, Missouri. Jack attended a large church in Dallas, Texas and worked in the church's television ministry. Jack noticed from the outset of the television ministry that the minister spent a great deal of time in prayer and fasting. Jack said, "He was a very anointed man and we saw some outstanding spiritual results in the church and ministry." As the television ministry grew, the minister hired a company in Tulsa to do ministry mailings and to receive prayer requests and donations. According to Jack, the organization had a reputation of integrity and was owned by a fine Christian businessman. Routinely,

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