Making Money By Plagiarizing

Every generation has a group of religious leaders that make a lot of money off the Bible and lessons found in the Bible.

This generation of men and women making money off the message that can be found by just reading the Bible.

Maybe we just need our Bible read to us and don't trust what we read? I read a few of the books written by Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, John Maxwell, and John Haggee because it seems strange to me that these men can make lots of money writing books based off of what they believe is important to living the good life.

Joel Osteen lives in a big mansion that was paid for by the sales of his book.

Rick Warren claims he only keeps 10% of the profits made from his book sales. There is no doubt that 10% of his book sales made him very rich. 

John Maxwell is more of a guy that writes books about leadership. He makes a lot of money from his books.

John Haggee is the leader of a megachurch that has 22,000 members.

Joyce Meyer makes money off her books and her ministry. She used to take a $900,000 salary from the ministry. She claims to use the royalties from her book sales and takes a much smaller salary. 

These are just some of the rich religious men and women making money off the need to find direction using some ideas from the Bible. 

It seems odd that religious men can make so much money and not find problems in the wealth made from weakly veiled plagiarism of the Bible with a nice mix of secular ideas to be palatable to a large segment of the population. Yes, these are smart men and women living in a society that rewards them for their writing and preaching.

Sure, these aren't the only men to make money off the Bible and they won't be the last. It isn't like these men are selling us on new insights into the word of God. It is just that they know how to get people to hand over their money without being able to feel the tinge of guilt from profiting off something that isn't original.

Just imagine Jesus writing books and making money off it. It is hard for me to picture it. Maybe it isn't hard to imagine.