Perry Stone
1
I've watched Perry Stone enough to form my own personal opinion of him and his teachings. I sort of enjoyed him for awhile, but then things went downhill from there. First, I logged onto his website www.perrystone.org and saw that he's calling himself "Dr." Perry Stone. Where's his "doctorate" from and what's it in? The website says: "In 2001, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws and Letters (LL.D.) from the Wesely Synod." C'mon folks. It is NOT proper---and is downright deceitful---to use an honorary doctorate to justify going around calling yourself "Dr.," as if you have a legitimate EARNED scholarly doctorate degree. My goodness, Muhammed Ali has rec'd many "honorary" doctorates, and even Yogi Berra rec'd one. Should we call Yogi "Dr. Yogi Berra"? Second, as a Catholic I take great offense to Perry Stone's "Elijah's Mantle" ministry, run by a guy named Bob Gesing, asserting in essence that Catholics aren't Christians. Gesing says on the website: "I was raised Catholic and converted to Christ in the Southern Baptist Church ...." When I first saw that, I e-mailed Mr. Gesing and complained. He e-mailed me back and promised to change the message. That was in January 2004. I checked back months later, and found that he hadn't fulfilled his promise. I e-mailed him again. This time he flat out refused to change the message (I guess he had figured that I'd never double-check after his first e-mail was sent to me). Either come out, Perry, and openly say that Catholics aren't Christians or make Mr. Gesing fix his message as he'd promised he would. Third, this "Communion" thing is a total joke. I watched Perry Stone and some other guy go through their "theology" about Communion. It was laughable. As the son of a Lutheran pastor who is now Catholic, and thus someone steeped in Eucharistic theology from both the Catholic and the Lutheran side of things, I was stunned that Perry's audience could be so totally lacking in knowledge about Holy Communion (in theology, church history, or any other aspect) that they could be taken in by his teachings. [Paula White is just as vapid on this same subject.] Then Perry started in on trumpeting why the audience should buy his "Communion kit." He quickly pointed out with extreme emphasis that the elements of his version of "Communion" start out and always remain merely bread [or a cracker] and grape juice, and do NOT ever become the "Real Presence" of Christ's Body and Blood. If so, then why would his audience need a $39 Communion kit? If the Communion elements are nothing but a common piece of bread or a cracker and some grape juice, you don't need ANY fancy anything. Grap a chunk of crust off your peanut butter and jelly sandwich or take one of your Ritz crackers, and take a swig off of a can of grape soda pop, and you'd have the same thing. For Perry to claim that the elements of his version of Communion are nothing but a cracker or sandwhich bread and grape juice, but then claim that you really should have a fancy Communion kit for it---that you buy from him---is totally contradictory. So, I e-mailed both Perry and Paula White about this, very nicely and sincerely. Did I get any response from either of them? Nope. Nothing, nada, zilch. Had I promised to send money, I bet I'd have gotten a reply. Catholic religious (priests, nuns, brothers, etc.) take vows for their lives in Christ's service of chastity, obedience and poverty. When I go to Catholic daily Mass there isn't even a collection plate passed, much less a call for money. In contrast, these TV evangelists are rich, richer and richest. In fact, they flaunt their richness as proof of being "blessed" or "specially anointed" by God. They usually get their money by promising back to their audience some financial blessing if the audience donates to THEM. Hey, people, wake up! Don't support these hacks. Instead, give to your local churches---the congregations and preachers who will perform your weddings, perform your baptisms, perform your funerals, and pastor to your personal spiritual needs.