The Real Housewives…Oops..I mean Preachers of LA!!!?

The Preachers of LA…

Reality TVs latest casualty.  Just when we couldn’t get enough of the Housewives LA, ATL, Basketball Wives, R&B divas, and my favorite, Love and HipHop, we now have the Preachers of LA.  I wouldn’t necessarily call this the official review of the show, but more or less a few observations of what I saw.  I mean there’s so much that we can talk about when it comes to this.  I would say first and foremost, there are gonna be people that watch the show just so they can speak about the negativity that comes with churches and people of the cloth and pulpit.  So with that said, let’s just go with “haters gon hate”, and that’s really all I can say about that.  This show is only one episode old, and has already invoked so much controversy.  From that of a former Crip leading a ministry from the driver’s seat of his Bentley, to the gospel singer seeking redemption with his “comeback” concert.  It already seems laughable from that point of view, but let’s not forget, this is “reality” tv.  

While I would say that there are some bad things in this show, I’m not going to just harp on that.  I will speak about what I believe is the purpose of this show.  I gotta start with the negative stuff first though.  So I’ve read many articles saying “Why would these pastors subject themselves to a reality show, when they know they will just focus on the negative?”  That’s actually a fair question, and believe me, this episode did in fact have a lot of negatives.  The Bishop that seemed to care more about getting paid, than spreading the gospel.  When asked if there was a ministry that couldn’t afford to pay his entourage, would he still go, he replied, then I wasn’t lead to be there.  Of course, that’s me paraphrasing what he said.  Now I’m not saying that he meant it to be negative, or that we actually heard the whole conversation, but that my friends, was a little negative and/or a bit condescending.  The truth is that the word of God is free, and that you don’t need money to hear it.  Second truth is that, those who don’t agree with his message, don’t have to watch or attend his church service.   Another truth is that he’s a show that claims to be reality tv, but most of us know that in “reality television”, most of the actual truth is pretty skewd at times, and rarely shows exactly what happened in a particular situation.  

This show was actually kind of a struggle to watch, because I myself, am all about the prosperity of anyone who believes in God.  And while we won’t always see the people of God prospering, it does happen.  I’m okay with a pastor being rich, and having money, the same way I’m okay with Diddy or Drake, or Kerry Washington having money for their gifts as well. That’s part of our issue in the world.  These are people and they should be able to receive some of the same luxuries that others have.  Of course, not at the expense of the people.  I hear people say all the time, well the pastor is rich, and the members of the congregation are poor and struggling.  So the truth about that is, most of the prosperity churches generally have seminars, and ministries on how to better yourself, with family, relationships, and especially financial matters, it’s just that some of the members of the congregation don’t generally take advantage of them.  They don’t walk up to wealthy or successful people and say, “hey, can you tell your story” or “can you show me some of the things you did to get to where you are?”  That’s the problem with us, we are like the proverbial “crabs in the bucket”, and we don’t want others to be successful if we aren’t.   We are the people that put pastors on a higher pedestal.  We hold them in a higher regard, because they lead people.  We make sure they are fed first at events, and they get praise at their anniversaries.  That’s stuff “we” choose to do that’s not in the Bible, but we do it anyway.  Then when they fall, we are that much more harsh on them.  We have to take a little responsibility in this too.  I will say this though, some of the cast do seem as though they care about the fame a little more than others, with their bodyguards carrying, their suitcase, while their “assistant” carries his personal belongings.   I’ll leave it at that.  

I saw a tweet that Fred Hammond (gospel artist and minister) said… He basically said that the people who won’t celebrate these people on the show for their success, are the same people who will be watching and celebrating Scandal on Thursday nights!!  Ouch Fred!! That hurt.  He’s right though, I do love Scandal (#Good Jake/#Bad Jake, LOL!).  And while Fred is correct in his assumption, most celebrate the show Scandal for it’s great script and “dramatic fiction”  That’s just it!  It’s definitely fiction and we all know that.  The thing about the Preachers of LA is that it’s not fiction, and there are members of the clergy out there, that love the money, and the fame, and the Word of God tends to take a back seat to the politics of everyday church and them making that money, or getting their in the mainstream markets.  

Look, I know what we saw in the first episode wasn’t all good, but there are some good things that can come from this show.  People need to see that God is able!  That He has an extreme amount of grace (unmerited favor).  Enough to take a gang-banging killer that used to be a Crip, and put him in a place where he can do some extreme good.  Where he can redeem those who have been in bad places before, and we all have been in bad places.  That’s real.  That’s the reality of the whole thing.  No one cares, that they have nice cars, in fact, a lot of us want a nice car.  We do however care about the fine line that comes between having that nice car, and loving all that the secular world can offer.  Don’t condemn a prosperity preacher for talking about having good things, because we all want good things.  And most of them got those things they have, by serving the Lord, and His purposes.   We should all be so lucky.  I’m not saying that this will be the show for you, but you should give it a chance to catch some steam so we can start seeing some of the positive ways, that these men help people, through GOD to change lives. 

More to come…