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I think that's what draws people away from organized religion in the first place....the perception of hypocrisy.
But honestly I think that most minds get it totally wrong. The Earth and everything on it was put here for people to enjoy. Sure, excesses financially would be wrong while our brethren go without, but I do not believe that a religious figure has to live in abject poverty for their words to hold currency.
I think to get to the root of faith, you have to give more regard to the message than the messenger. Contributions to any ministry are by choice.
Do you know what kind of people give to televangelism? I do, I volunteered to work the phones for a TCT Praise-A-Thon back in the spring, as an outreach project with my Church. It's not the blue haired spinster who is giving away her fortune to God while she holds a pomeranian on her lap. It's the unemployed, it's the retiree struggling to live, it's the person on their last dime and can barely afford food. I swear that as the people gave me their credit card information, that I wanted to transpose a digit just so that they wouldn't end up doing it. I prayed with these people, and the experience was very moving, one that I will never forget.
And I will say, the last thing that I will say about these people is that they were fools. That night, I saw pure faith in Christ.....which glaringly pointed out severe gaps in my own. I left after my shift, much different than when I started.
One can ruminate over whether that poor man's money went to golden cufflinks or a bottle of Dom Perrignon for a slick haired preacher, but the people that called were the true believers. If the preacher goes on a bender, I think he'll get it worse from the man upstairs than any of us ever could.
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