My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors. - Proverbs 1:10-19 (ESV)
In 2023, stirring hatred among the churched has turned into quite a lucrative business. Selling perceived grievance and victimhood these days have seen the rise of a new class of grifters. Grifter was a term popularized around the turn of the 20th Century in circus and carnival circles and it usually inferred small scale con-men and "grifts" designed to take people's money with the need to use force. It is defined today as:
"Grift was born in the argot of the underworld, a realm in which a 'grifter' might be a pickpocket, a crooked gambler, or a confidence man"any criminal who relied on skill and wits rather than physical violence"and to be 'on the grift' was to make a living by stings and clever thefts."- Miriam Webster
Perhaps it is doing a disservice and underselling the threat to continue to refer to the church grifter as such because the payoff is far greater than "small scale." Take the newest Bethel grifter extraordinaire, Sean Feucht. In 2019 the 30-something worship leader from the cesspool known as Bethel Church in Redding California decided to run for Congress. Since the district that contains Bethel had a Republican representative, he carpetbagged his way to a different California district to the south. He was trounced in the Primary in March of 2020. He seemed legitimately confused and despaired by the showing lamenting how it could be if he was really called by God to run as he thought. Fear not, for out of those ashes arose a new determined Feucht who would soon discover the grift of a lifetime - COVID 19. That's right, as COVID began to rage, Sean discovered that the apostate church was dying for strong culture warriors to sell them the grievance and victimhood they thrived on that was not so blatantly political but rather had an air or stench, of faux piety. Enter Sean Feucht the Troubador Political Worship Leader and his cross-country grievance-fest.
Feucht would troll sites where there was great civil unrest such as Portland after police brutality led to public protests or the George Floyd protests. He was not shy either about drawing the line in the sand over his "righteous" side and those that might have the temerity to oppose him for taking advantage of people in times of great strife. Like in Portland where he tweeted that his security was comprised of ex-military, ex-police and lovers of Jesus and freedom and if people dared to "mess" with their first amendment rights to worship God, they would "meet Jesus one way or another." I am sure we all remember when Jesus threatened the opposition with death, right? By the time this had rolled around in 2021, the large scale grift had already been long underway and paying off for Feucht big time.
In just one year, from 2019 to 2020, Feucht increased his income 31,000 percent - can I get a hallelujah! His ministry, which lists Sean as the only employee, went from $280,000 in revenue to 5.3 million dollars in just one year! Can I get an amen! Strangely, and possibly illegally, Feucht lists zero contributions and claims the money is all from speaking honorariums. That's a heck of a lot of honorariums. So, what did the suddenly flush with millions Feucht do? Did he thoughtfully and prayerfully give some to charities and gospel causes? Just kidding. He purchased two homes worth over two million dollars for himself. The first one was on a five-acre piece of land in Montana worth over 700K and the other was described by Rolling Stone as a home in the glitzy gated community of Coto de Caza in Southern California. Coto de Caza is home to many celebrities and perusing the real estate pages reveals that Feucht actually got one of the "cheaper" homes if it was only 1.3 million dollars. The average was much higher, and I saw one listing as high as eight million dollars. Nice digs if you can afford it, which now Sean Feucht can apparently. Not content with these, his "ministry" also purchased a one-million-dollar brick row house on Capitol Hill, so he can send people to lobby Congress on his behalf. Most investigative journalism shows this residence is rarely used. Who cares if you can afford it, right? This is the backdrop because Mr. Feucht continues this grift until today. He now finds a national platform on Charisma News because they are the source for all things dominionist these days. The above link is from the latest article Feucht has published on Charisma. I will be reviewing the lowlights so let us reason once again beloved.
