Up Next: Pastor Melissa Scott

If you've stayed up late on any given week-night, you've probably seen "Pastor" Melissa Scott. She's young (looking), wears a clerical collar (similar to Roman Catholic collars), and exegetes (exegesis: literally "drawing out of") biblical Greek texts. As a seminary student, I was curious to see how well she could teach from the original Greek, if her methods were sound, etc. She gave a fairly biblically sound message, so I dug deeper to find out who she is and what she's about.

As you may know, many televangelists are frauds. They live millionaire's lifestyles (feeling that they are actually entitled, mind you!), flaunting control over the Holy Spirit rather than being led by it. Prosperity gospel is the selling point, and people often send money in the hopes of receiving monetary blessings back from God. As a result, televangelists often peddle religious pornography, giving the people what they want to hear instead of sound biblical teaching, and leaving a wake of religious disdain by non-believers. Heretical teachers I've heard on TV include Joel Osteen (subtly heretical), Benny Hinn, Peter Popoff, Jim Bakker, . . ., the list goes on and on. Often I think they are simply misled by the idea that God's favor = monetary gain, thus they feel their message is justified simply because of the millions of dollars they receieve. The void of properly trained pastors leaves the door open for doctrinal heresies, and the information age allows these heretics to broadcast their messages unchecked. (My plug for seminary education) After seeing Melissa Scott exegeting Scripture, I was intrigued, for she did not represent the typical televangelist.

I have since learned that Melissa Scott is the widow of heretical televangelist Dr. Eugene Scott. Gene Scott, a genius who only respected his own authority, created his own brand of Christianity. He seemed to have a genuine faith in God, only he believed in a hedonistic lifestyle and believed that God accepts you as you are. If you are an adulterer, that's who you are, so don't stop being that! It's no surprise, therefore, that Gene's messages were totally unique. He would often curse during his messages, smoke stogies, and present a "bevy of beauties" that would be displayed around him while he sermonized. All of these were his way of practicing what he preached. Romans 6 seems to have escaped his watchful eye: "Are we to continue sinning that grace may abound? By no means!" He lived the life of typical televangelists, peddling the "do whatever you want" gospel rather than the "get whatever you want" gospel. He built a religious empire that many televangelists would envy, including owning mansions, expensive cars and paintings (including a Monet and Rembrant!), and other expensive heirlooms. His favorite line: "Get on the phone!" He had a laundry-list of problems, all of them stemming from his hatred of any authority, including God's authority in his life, causing him to be the subject of a 1980s documentary: God's Angry Man. Gene was an ironic man: a man with genuine faith and somewhat sound messages, but a faith which was lived out by his own standards of what he thought life should be like.

Gene Scott died in 2005; Melissa Scott is his widow. Melissa was one of the girls that would prance around Gene during his broadcasts from home, which flaunted his possessions rather than hide them. A trophy to be put on display, Melissa left her previous profession as a porn star (no kidding, her stage name was Barbie Bridges), divorced her porn-industry hubby in 1994, and married Gene in 2000 (I think). At the time, Gene was 39 years older than Melissa and had been married twice before. She took up the reins of Gene's ministry, preaching in a similar style to Gene via the exposition of Greek scripture. She even sings hymns and professes herself a sinner.

Is she for real? I doubt it. If anything, her theology is almost entirely what she gleaned from Gene, who was considered a heretic by the orthodox church community. Through Gene, she saw first-hand the benefits of televangelism and prostituting the gospel. Granted in the telecast that I saw, she did not ask for money and also mentioned that was no "800" number to call as proof to her sincerity to be on the doctrinal straight-and-narrow and not another televangelist, I feel that as she gains in popularity, the opportunities will arise for her to reap fortunes in the future just like her late husband. Why would she marry Gene in the first place is beyond me, other than the benefits that could come her way via marriage, which included inheriting Gene's huge estate and televangelistic empire. I'm forced to conclude that if she were true to the gospel, she would turn off the cameras and let God do the work of spreading her message, or get a seminary degree to lend credence to herself as a pastor. As of now, though, she seems content on picking up where Gene left off, and my advice would be to avoid her like other television preachers; they may sound legit, but they often are not.