As seen on TV

May I admit that there are times when I think I don't understand religion at all? This is Jan Crouch, one of the founders of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, a prosperity gospel outfit recently in the news. (Behind her is one of the actors ordained to play Jesus at her Orlando theme park, The Holy Land Experience.) Like other prosperity preachers TBN justifies its lavish sets and the luxurious perks of its leaders as celebrations of God's abundant bounty - a bit of a challenge to many Christians and perhaps to the tax code too. What I don't get is the hair (there's much more in the video). Jesus might want you in diamonds and pearls, villas and Bentleys and private planes, but the hair? Even Mary of Magdala's hair wasn't pink. What's it supposed to show, to say of God's love? Is God's blessing a frivolity, a front, a fake?