cable tv as novelty

I was 16 when cable tv came to our small town. The only places that had cable back then (1978) were larger cities (at least that's how I remember it being). HBO was such a novelty. Watching full length feature films, with NO COMMERCIALS, only months after their theatrical release was unheard of. I still remember watching the original "Superman" (w/Christopher Reeves) having just seen it in the theaters a few months before. Cable tv was a godsend. No longer did we have to go outside to point and aim the antenna to the station we wanted (due west for OKC channels, northeast for Tulsa). Picture quality was amazing...I'm sure those things are taken for granted these days.

Mostly I remember HBO but also watched the PTL Network. Don't ask me why. I was kind of young for that, for one thing. I probably didn't realize how ridiculous it actually was but for some reason I was fascinated by Jim Bakker and the idea of a "PTL Club". I even sent a letter to them so I would get a nifty little PTL tie pin. It was pretty cool. But I quickly realized it was all a scam... Bakker and all those people were faith healers of the "name it and claim it" stripe. He had this poor boy believing that if I had enough faith God would do anything I asked of him. The one thing I wanted more than anything at the time was to have 20/20 vision. I wanted to be able to see clearly without eyeglasses. So one night Bakker was doing one of his little prayers where were supposed to ask God for what we wanted/needed and presumably when we opened our eyes it would be done (that's probably not exactly the way it was supposed to be but I was very young and can be excused for thinking of it the way I did). So I prayed. Fervently. Faithfully, or so I thought. I convinced myself that this was going to work. Of course when I opened my eyes I was just as legally blind as I was when I closed them. So what went wrong? According to the Bakker gospel I just didn't have enough faith.

It was all a load of bullshit, I realized. But from that moment on I developed a sick fascination with televangelists that I harbor to this day. I see them for what they are. Charlatans. Snake charmers. Decievers. Liars. Hypocrites. Extortionists. But in a twisted way...entertaining. I don't make fun of them because I know how so many people have been fleeced and negatively impacted by these hucksters. But by the same token they amuse me. So many of them are so obvious. It's a real wonder, in my opinion, that so many are taken in with their schtick. I also like to spot the flaws in their doctrine. I'm fascinated watching HOW they do what they do.