On several YouTube channels, Facebook pages, and in thousands of Christian churches, preachers are saying that 2026 is the year for Believers. They are preaching prosperity and healing and ‘sowing the seeds that will ensure a bountiful harvest.’ This morning, I chased multiple rodents onto their online presence, where churches and preachers, evangelists and the enduring religious shyster-types proclaim that each of their messages are unique, profound, “Biblically based” truths. I find the idea remarkable – that each of thousands of voices is uniquely prophetic and God-inspired. The two hours I wasted chasing these shysters online and reading parts of their most recent declarations are not retrievable. However, they inspired me to write this Sunday’s lesson about conmen, shysters, grifters, and swindlers.
One is not a charlatan or grifter because he or she is religious. Many people believe that religious texts like the Bible and Torah are authoritative; they are reasonable and sincere people. Many people testify and cling to their Faiths; they are reasonable and sincere. Also, many people who believe religious texts are authoritative and cling to their Faiths are unreasonable, disingenuous, gullible, lonely, misinformed, resentful, or desperate. I speak to those who are desperate. Because many of their Faith leaders – preachers, youth pastors, preachers, pastors, priests, vicars – are keen to deceive The Desperate. Many Faith leaders preach about their ‘personal calling’ but have no evidence to prove it. They live selfish, unproductive, narcissistic lives and, like any good sociopath, will lie, manipulate, harass, and trick their followers. Desperate people are the easiest to fool.
And one is not religious because he or she is a fraudster. Religious belief or zealotry does not preclude a life of grift; nor does a life of grift preclude religious zealotry. A society’s structures and policies have something to do with that. In a society that regularly experiences economic collapse and high employment because its capitalist system does not tightly regulate the financial industry, people stop wondering whether a better system exists. People say, “It works for some! It’s not socialism!”
In the same way, a society that frequently experiences fallout from an unregulated, untaxed, fraudulent religious industry is a society that does not care about its most vulnerable and desperate people. The religious industry is wealthy and untouchable: schools, colleges, publishers, music, film, business, politics. Its powers are visible but murky. What happens in the shadows of industry and behind its closed doors is untold and barely whispered. America’s apathy toward financial and religious industries, its willingness to throw children, workers, small towns and rural communities, immigrants, healthcare, and public education under the bus to protect these industries’ powers is a testament to our nation’s corruption and downfall.
Who suffers most when the economy falters? Who suffers most when nefarious people lead churches, mosques, and synagogues? Who suffers most when government, finance, religion, and the wealthiest people conspire to share Power and split the profits?
Desperate people. Children, the elderly, the sick, the unhoused, poor, low-income, uneducated, unskilled. Laborers, single/unmarried parents, young people without generational wealth or community support, recent immigrants. People who live paycheck to paycheck. People with untreated mental illness, who are lonely because their families are gone, addicted to alcohol or mind/behavior altering drugs, or who have lost all hope in community and themselves.
How are the shysters among financial and religious industry leaders different from serial sexual predators and abusers? The only difference is that they’ve chosen respectable facades. American people are enamored by wealthy people; they believe that religious leaders deserve unconditional respect. What is more proof of our (un)democratic systems than Americans’ infatuation with the Wealthy and Powerful? When one among these entitled people has their crimes exposed, Americans are skeptical that the news media and DA’s office are being fair. So…sometimes the industry leaders and the sexual predators are the same people.
Otherwise, the shysters are like predators and abusers in most ways. They are adept liars, manipulators, and deceivers. They use people for their personal gain. They’ve no empathy and feel no shame for their actions. Yet, because they are adept liars, they are good actors. They are good actors who own mass media, social media, government officials, judges, journalists, and religious leaders.
Desperate people and people in temporarily desperate situations are among the easiest people to deceive because they are looking for helpers. They open themselves to leaders who offer sympathy and promise help. But it is all in their words. Their actions tell us who they are.
Back to the hundreds of YouTube posts from preachers and religious organizations this Sunday offering desperate Americans and immigrants some help. Beware. They use words to manipulate your emotions and thoughts. They use Inaction to profit themselves. What do they want in exchange for your following? They want money, power, and your unquestioning loyalty. That is all.