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Genesis TV

Genesis TV channel on a TV screen
  • Posted at 11:30am
  • 30 October 2007
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT
  • 4 comments

There's a weird stack of channels around the Sky 760 mark, all devoted to Christianity. Most of them feature bellowing preachers doing the fire-and-brimstone act in a series of Charismatic Pentecostal Churches.

"Charismatic" is a strange adjective to use here, although I guess it's more enticing than calling them Annoying Pentecostal Churches. (It would be great if gaining charisma did just require you to shout loudly at groups of people. But it doesn't, believe me, I've tried. No, I don't want to talk about it.)

But amid all the speaking in tongues and instant healing is Genesis TV, who adopt a slightly more imaginative approach to their programming. Indeed, one of their ads encourages you to submit your own 28-minute programme to be shown on the channel for the knockdown price of just £250, which is a bargain whichever way you look at it. You'd probably get away with submitting anything, as long as you plonked a crucifix in the corner of the screen.

Yesterday evening they showed a programme called Focus on Finance. This was presented by a Scottish chap called Terry Quinn, and while we might reasonably have expected him to sit down and quietly guide us through a family's typical monthly budget plan, explaining how best to spread our expenditure while simultaneously gaining the approval of the Holy Spirit, Terry only had two messages.

The first one took 20 minutes to deliver, repeatedly and at loud volume, and took as its inspiration Proverbs 16:20. "Ignorance is not bliss," he wailed to the point of hoarseness. "Ignorance is not bliss. Why am I repeating myself? Because teaching comes by way of repetition. Teaching comes by way of repetition. Come on! Ignorance is not bliss!"

Terry's point, essentially, was that you're not going to clear your debts by just praying to God and asking him to clear them for you. From the urgency and passion with which he delivered this message, it was as if he'd just toured various Charismatic Pentecostal Churches in the previous fortnight and seen congregations maxed out on their credit card bills and with huge consolidated loans, all pleading with him to explain why, after they'd blown 35 grand on a new Lexus 4x4, God wasn't able to meet the repayments.

Terry was so fired up in informing us that we need to "apply wisdom" to our financial situation – ie don't stick our heads in the sand – that God's role in the sphere of financial management was occasionally allowed to slip into second place. "Trying to rebuke the spirit of debt won't make it go away," he yelled. "But by all means pray over your bills," he added, reluctantly.

Terry had a particular message for pastors who repeatedly harangue their congregation to give their money to their churches. "Don't get offended, pastors," he said, reaching for a glass of water to soothe his larynx, "but you don't have a financial education." Although any pastors who manage to prise cash out of people by promising eternal salvation probably don't need that much financial education. Unlike their destitute congregations.

Terry was worn out by the time it came to deliver his last message, which used the story of David and Goliath to urge people to "confront what's controlling you" – be it a nine-foot tall, uncircumcised Philistine or, more likely, an urgent reminder to pay your bill from Thames Water.

The Genesis TV channel is on Sky 772.

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  • Posted on 30 October 2007
  • at 12:28pm
  • by marysiak

I'm fairly sure we could come up with a few 28 minute programs they might balk at showing.

  • Posted on 30 October 2007
  • at 12:19pm
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT

I watch it so you don't have to, charleston.

  • Posted on 30 October 2007
  • at 12:03pm
  • by charleston51

Bless Rhodri Marsden. These columns are my daily bread. They revive my spirits. Bless Rhodri Marsden. I'm repeating myself because ignorance is not bliss. I am not ignorant, I read this column daily, and I am redeemed from all boredom! and I haven't even got a TV! Bless Rhodri Marsden.

  • Posted on 30 October 2007
  • at 12:00pm
  • by burkesworks

And they didn't even play Supper's Ready. I'm very disappointed.

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