Blog: We Have a Grifter Problem.
This may not be the best time to release this given the internet firestorm in the Christian community as some Eastern Orthodox guys are going after GodLogic calling him a grifter, but either way, it needs to be said. While we can debate who has a legitimate basis for being called a grifter, the issue is still there: the church has become a proverbial petri dish for grifting.
This isnโt to say that grifting in the church is a new phenomenon. Itโs not. Whatโs possibly the earliest example of grifting in the early church can be found in Acts 8:9-25, in which Simon the Sorcerer tries to buy the Holy Spirit so he could impress people. Other examples of this can be found in the broader context of why epistles such as Colossians and 2 John were written, namely, to combat various heresies being spread by false teachers. Sadly, as the church grew, this problem didnโt go away. Not to completely bash the Roman Catholic church, but they have had one of the worst track records when it comes to grifters in the church, a few even being popes, such as Pope Alexander VI.
However, though this has always been an issue, the advent of T.V. and social media has only made things worse. It has become easier than ever for grifters to reach and grow a large audience and exploit their trust and admiration for fame, power, and money. T.V. made this easier since if you had charisma and could negotiate with the station, you could grow your following that way. Social media made the world even more accessible to grifters since anyone with a phone and a social media account can start talking and getting people to follow them.
But with all of this talk about grifting, I should probably define it. The broad definition of grifter is someone who uses fraudulent means to get money. In this case, those fraudulent means are more specifically acting a certain way or saying certain things to appeal to a particular group of people.
A perfect example of this would be Candace Owens. Candace rose to fame in the late 2010s when she proclaimed that she left the Left and joined the Right. She was quickly applauded for this and welcomed with open arms into organizations like TPUSA, Prager University, and the Dailywire as a black conservative influencer. She quickly made her fortune from this but was eventually dropped from all three groups. TPUSA allegedly dropped her for making controversial statements about Hitler and defending Kanye Westโs antisemitic tweets. She eventually left PragerU for Dailywire in 2021, and though she left on good terms according to Dennis Prager, he eventually wrote her a 15-page letter which addressed her antisemitism. That letter was written in 2024, after she had been fired from the Dailywire for antisemitism. Today, her hatred of the Jews and general insanity have many questioning if she was ever a conservative at all, or if she was doing it all for money. If the latter, then no one would argue that she wasnโt successful.
We see this type of behavior today in the Christian community with many influencers being happy to pretend theyโre Christians to gain a following and money. An example of a Christian grifter would be Neeza Powers, a dude who identified as a woman for a while before claiming to find Christ and detransitioning. He gained a large Christian following on Instagram, had a sponsorship with Hallow, started a Christian clothing brand, and was booked for interviews with huge podcasters like Isabel Brown, as he documented the days from his conversion and subsequent detransition journey. Then, in April of this year, he announced that that he was retransititioning to female and it appears his real motives are now apparent.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y0hLA9m48gc
Thatโs also not mentioning how people began noticing that his testimony was likely made up, with major discrepancies in everything from his transition timeline to his age.
Sadly, the church, instead of doing anything to thoroughly vet these โChristiansโ before letting them influence the flock, has only contributed to creating an environment suitable for these grifters to make their mark.
Besides T.V. and social media making it easier to grift, the church acts desperate for new representatives and lacks discernment. Over the past few decades, weโve seen church growth stagnate or begin declining. Even in the wake of the Charlie Kirk shooting, while we like to believe thereโs a revival in the church, church growth has only increased in certain areas in a few denominations. It isnโt widespread. Church attendance is still largely stagnant or on the decline. Add to that the anti-Christian sentiment that plagues society, and the church is desperate for anyone who is willing to say they are Christian or, at the very least, claim to believe in Christ. The more vocal they are about it, and the more power and influence they have, the more the church clings to them. Just look at how many people in the church almost view Trump on the level of Jesus. Many of them do that because heโs powerful and claims to be Christian and uphold Christian values, even though there are plenty of examples we can point to that show that heโs not a Christian.
Additionally, on the note of lacking discernment, discernment has become a bad word in many churches. Most of this is due to the fact that many churches subtly discourage asking questions and have adopted a model of toxic empathy. Many churches view discernment as judgmental, and as everyone knows, the Bible says not to judgeโฆor something.
Because of this, while there is a point where we can give people the benefit of the doubt, when itโs taken so far where people feel like any doubts they may have about the person is judgmental instead of wise discernment, then there are fewer people willing to stand up to the grifters.
Thus, to stop the grifters, itโs up to the church to fix it. By church, Iโm not just talking about outsourcing the solution to the internet apologists or the people who are just very outspoken on this topic. I mean the entire church: apologists, pastors, elders, and the average laymen.
Grifters thrive in an environment where they know that the majority of people donโt know enough to argue against what theyโre saying. They may start subtly at first but soon become more overt. To use Candace Owens as an example, she did this, starting off as another conservative voice. She soon had a meteoric rise and eventually became more overt in her actual opinions while still keeping the veneer of being a conservative and โJust asking questions.โ She could get away with this because she had already grown a loyal band of followers who were willing to buy into what she was saying and not challenge it or do the research to see if what she was saying was true.
In order to combat the grifters then, the people in the church need to become well acquainted with their Bibles. Stop outsourcing all your thinking to your pastor or favorite Christian influencer. Stop cherry-picking verses. We live in a world where people have more access to study tools and translations of the Bible than ever before. You can even listen to it if you donโt have time to read it yourself. Use those tools to learn what the Bible actually says. Knowing what it says will make it harder for grifters to hop into the church because they will find themselves being called out if they say or do anything that isnโt in the Bible or is against Biblical teaching.
The second thing we need to do is get over the fear of speaking up. As I said before, many churches sadly discourage asking questions. Often, itโs subtle. It might come in the form of your pastor answering your question in a round-about manner that doesnโt actually answer the question. Sometimes, however, itโs more overt. If you speak up or ask a hard question, you might be rebuked for it. โYouโre being judgmental.โ โYou have a religious spirit.โ โYouโre being Pharisaical.โ Those words might cut, but if itโs over a serious point of doctrine, get over it. Truth matters more than your feelings. The truth might hurt in the short run, but a lie will hurt in the long run.
If we can get back to reading our Bibles and not being afraid to think for ourselves and speak up when we see or hear something off, then a lot of our grifter issues may be solved.
Until next time,
M.J.
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