don't cry because it happened, smile because it happened

I agree. An evil man dying of natural causes at an age beyond what most of us will ever statistically reach is hardly cathartic. Especially when the blueprint he laid down has created so many wealthy charlatans in his mold.

I don't see the purpose of televangelism. (except grifting believers for money)

Then you do see the purpose.

Really the only hope you have of convincing someone to take your religion seriously that isn't fear or violence is directly connecting to them

Disagree. Maybe if you widen how you define fear and violence far enough it's sort of true, but I still don't think that is accurate. For example you can use a person's lost sense of belonging to a community (and there's no need for it to be direct), or their flawed ideas about morality and its decay in a crumbling world, or even the promise that if they believe in the right magic things that they too will be blessed with health and happiness, or less altruistically, with wealth and superiority. There are countless ways to convince someone (particularly a person in a position to be vulnerable to it) to take your religion seriously between violence and direct connection, it's all a matter of knowing how to play to a person's specific wants and needs.

At best, these guys are only for people who already believe, and then they can just go to church and get a more personal experience there.

These televangelists are "for" anyone who will give them money. Already believing in the broader mythology that the televangelists are specifically using as the basis for the grift definitely helps, but the background societal acceptance of Christianity as the default American belief system is plenty enough to hook even some people who never even gave it much thought, especially if they're caught at a time of intense hardship or vulnerability. I'm sure it's easier and more common for people who have already bought into the "son of God sacrificed himself for our sins but came back to life and rose into heaven" but it can also include anyone in an emotionally vulnerable state where they're desperate to glom onto something that promises to improve their lives or lessen their suffering.

It's a different landscape now than it was 30 or 40 years ago especially given the internet, so I think it's easier now to be shocked that anyone would buy into this obvious grift. But look at all the other obvious grifts people buy into that we talk about here all the time, most of them now using the medium of the internet in place of the television medium of televangelists. From qanon to blue maga, from NFTs to AI fixing everyhing, from economic mobility under capitalism to worship of manchild billionaires. The internet exponentially increased the televangelist's competition for the attention of desperate and credulous people. But it used to be one of the most common and lucrative social grifts when channel-surfing was the most common way for people to connect to the broader world (or mistakenly think they were).

I guess televangelism is really just exploiting popular religion

Televangelism is popular religion. Maybe the following is a fine line and mostly what you meant anyway but I do think there is an important distinction. Televangelism is exploiting people by using the same old trappings of religion, but that is itself not an exploitation of religion. Is Scientology a religion or is it an "exploitation" of some kind of "real" religion? Are the Moonies exploiting religion, or are they another religion that exploits people?

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

• yewtu.be
• inv.nadeko.net
• yt.artemislena.eu
• piped.video

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

• yewtu.be
• inv.nadeko.net
• yt.artemislena.eu
• piped.video