How Easy is it to Convince Someone to Give You Money?

I have an infection on my leg (don't get too excited, it is not life threatening) so I am at home today (recommended by doctor). Anyway, I am flipping through the channels to check out what is on.

On the menu I saw something about the 700 club was on so I put it on just to see what kind of bullshite they talk about. They were doing a story about this married couple. Evidently, one day the family accountant called the husband and asked why he doesn't donate to anything. I missed the part about why he decided to donate to the 700 club/CBN/Pat Robertson, but he said that when he started donating he received a promotion at work.

They soon decided to start donating more and went on about how things finally started going their way. After that bit was over, they went back to some guy who had a telethon type setting behind him. A bunch of people answering phone and taking donations. And there was a crawl on the bottom of the screen with name after name, where they were from and how much they give a month.

It seems like the majority of the people give $20-$30 a month, but there were $100/month, $120/month, etc sprinkled in there. Then I saw someone who donates $209/month. Is it that easy to convince people that if they send them money, god will reward them? There are families, with kids, who are in need. Kids who are deprived, etc and people are convinced that their money would be better spent by donating to these jokers?


If it is tl;dr for you.

- Saw something on the 700 Club (that Pat Robertson dude)

- They ran a story about a family who started donating and the husband received a promotion. They decided to donate more.. More good stuff happened.

- There is a crawler on the screen showing people's name and how much they donate per month. It is a lot of names and I saw donations ranging from $20/month - $209/month.