Politicians and political parties have long understood the power of perception. They take 30 seconds on a television ad to show you the candidate and why you should vote for him. The idea is to package the person before the camera and present the best picture possible. The picture and the candidate may be entirely manufactured to keep you from seeing what he really believes. In the realm of religion many groups have adopted this same mentality. You have “religious leaders” on television with smiles and words about all that God does. They package the individual and the efforts, for the most part, are to hide from view who this person is.
I have yet to see many of these programs where at some point the viewing audience is told to send in money. They need money to keep the “gospel” on the air. You are never told about how much money the speaker makes, what kind of car he drives or the neighborhood in which he lives. Why not? If the audience saw this person who has such a “special connection” to God living better than they do, they might just ask why. Deception then is part of the act to keep the money flowing in to the corporations.
Another contributing factor is what I call the “community church mentality”. They engage in physical acts of blessing humanity and they sell it on the basis that this “church does not judge you”. People then searching for the easy religion brought about by the Jeroboams of this world will find acceptance in churches that do not judge them (I Kings 12). The problem in such groups is, no judging results in no responsibility. God said the whole of man’s responsibility to Him is to fear Him and keep His commands (Eccles. 12:13). The world, like Felix of old, needs a convenient season to find God (Acts 24:25). Felix spent 2 years talking with Paul and never found God. It is the way of the cross that leads home.