PHILADELPHIA — The Benham Brothers think they are very funny and very smart. They are 50-year-old tall, blonde, identical twins who have a series of scripted jokes that mostly amount to calling each other stupid and effeminate. They are not pastors, which is maybe why they are so bad at reading the Bible. I know because I watched them try this weekend.
The Benham Brothers were the second speakers to go on stage this weekend at a Christian wealth conference called Life Surge. The event was held at the Wells Fargo Center from 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., and it featured speakers like former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, and Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley. I went because I wanted to know what exactly a bunch of Eagles were endorsing with their presence.
The Benham Brothers set the tone with a message I really wish I could forget—one that promised that wealth is holy and faithfulness will make you rich. Here is the “biblical” evidence the Benham Brothers gave to justify their beliefs:
- God made the Earth, and the Earth is full of resources which are ours to claim.
- They are called “resources,” by the way, because they “reflect” on the “source” (God).
- In some English language translations of Genesis, God calls on Adam to “cultivate” the Earth. Cultivate—again in English—means to acquire or develop. So we should buy real estate.
- The first resource mentioned in the Bible is gold. That must mean something!
- In the Parable of the Talents, a property owner gives money to his servants, and then praises the ones who invest their money and return it greater than before.
- Jesus often talks about “multiplying” disciples. This is proof that faith creates multiplication as a concept, which will also apply to our money.
“You know, you have the poverty gospel on one side, and the prosperity gospel on the other. Both are wrong,” one of them said. God, they tried to argue for a good 30 minutes, wants you to be wealthy and financially secure, but that doesn’t mean that will magically happen. Finally, they had arrived at their point, which was that we needed to generate “passive income” because one day, our active income from our jobs might dry up. And that would probably be because we were CANCELLED for our BELIEFS.
The Benham brothers would know, after all. They had been introduced by the emcee as some of the first victims of cancel culture, because HGTV took away the show they had ordered six episodes of after Right Wing Watch reported that one of the brothers had said on a radio show that he believed homosexuality was a demonic ideology attacking the nation, and that the brothers had supported North Carolina's same-sex marriage ban in 2014. But, as they explained on stage, they were fine, because none of the evil people trying to cancel them could touch their passive income (houses they owned and invested money in).
“The devil doesn’t want you to own resources and real estate,” they proclaimed from the stage. “The church has been great at teaching us to be generous with money. They haven’t done much to help us generate it.”
This would all be expected and unsurprising behavior from a Christian wealth conference, if it weren’t for the fact that the Benham Brothers took the stage after Saquon Barkley.
Every single day last week, Life Surge texted me to remind me that the event was coming. On Friday, they texted, “Saquon Barkley will be the first speaker at 9:00 a.m. Arrive early to ensure you don't miss his time on stage!” This was smart programming on their part. I had no intention of being at this wealth event at the very beginning. But because I was reporting, I arrived promptly at 8:20 a.m. By the time Barkley went on stage, the arena was as full as it would be all day. By my estimate, about 3,500 people were there to see him speak.
At 9:14 a.m., Barkley came out to a standing ovation, sat in a director’s chair, and proceeded to answer a series of softball questions from emcee Chris Graebe. Barkley said that winning a Super Bowl was harder than chasing his two-year-old around (he was asked which was harder), that Chick-fil-A was his cheat meal, and that he didn’t think at all when he jumped over that guy’s head backwards during a game. He emphasized that he had a slew of mentors (his parents, his agent, his stylist/best friend) who helped him be the best he could be, and he said that he became serious about his faith because his daughter is passionate about the gospel and seems to want to preach, and he wanted to support her. He also revealed, to thunderous applause, that he became baptized on the same day that he signed his $41 million extension with the Eagles in March.
Barkley’s interview and testimony was an outlier compared with everything that came after. He arrived, talked about his faith, and left. The emcee did not ask him any questions about money or passive income or investing in case you get cancelled. But he was the bait, dangled at the beginning of the day to get people in the door.
The Eagles, in general, were the main promotional tool used for the event. I began seeing ads for it on Philadelphia sports television and then on Instagram weeks ago. The ads had photos of Sirianni, Barkley, DeJean and Brandon Graham. The font initially used to write PHILADELPHIA at the bottom of the ad was, as the Philadelphia Inquirer noted, an Eagles font before it was changed. Every reference to the “Eagles” was eventually removed from the Life Surge website and replaced with “national football” or simply “Philadelphia.”
I know those ads are important, because one of the first things that was said by Graebe was, “People tell me every day: I came to hear these speakers because I clicked on a Facebook ad. Or the person next to you would maybe say that to me.”
Life Surge puts on these events across the country. They claim to be a “global movement for believers.” On June 7, Life Surge will perform in Spokane, Wash. with Tim Tebow. A June 21 event in Louisville will feature Willie Roberson from Duck Dynasty, Tebow again, and Christian musician Natalie Grant.
Once they have you in the door with the promise of celebrities (in this case NFL players and coaches), Life Surge can sell you things. The padding is what allows Life Surge to claim that they are trying to help people, and not just offering up a pyramid scheme. The event has worship songs (mostly written by Bethel Music, a division of Bethel Church, which is perhaps best known for praying for the resurrection of a young girl for days and for members who believe they can perform miracles). There is a sermon. People share their testimonies about their relationship with God. There are dozens of digs at the Democrats and liberal beliefs, mixed with inherent endorsements of the Trump administration. McEnany, who served as press secretary during the first Trump presidency, spoke about her faith in the afternoon.
But no matter how much they pad the sales pitch with other material, Life Surge at its core is a scheme that preys on fear. As the Philadelphia Inquirer reported earlier this week, the founder of Life Surge has faced allegations of mismanagement, fraud, and deceptive business practices. Sitting there, listening for many hours, it became very clear to me exactly how scammy this whole thing is.
Right before lunch, self-titled entrepreneur Steven Champa took the stage for the real point of Life Surge: to convince people to spend $97 to learn about investing strategies online. The investment strategies themselves amount to the idea that you should buy stocks in the “demand zone” (or, as normal people say: low) and sell them when the stocks are in the “supply zone” (high). You will know how to do this by following the lead of mega-corporations, which you can do by simply paying $97 to receive the Life Surge online seminar and software. The other Life Surge seminars on investing and real estate are more expensive, and they're also stepping stones to even more expensive classes. The lifetime trading classes, for example, can cost up to $40,000.
All of this would maybe feel less slimy, or at least less manipulative, if it weren’t for the endorsement of the event by members of the Eagles. Before Barkley came out to speak, the emcee threw out signed footballs. Every single speaker on stage referenced talking to Barkley backstage, allowing their association with him to bleed into everything else they were saying. When Champa finished his financial seminar—which mostly emphasized that if your money is in a 401k, then some guy you don’t know is profiting off fees that you could have instead—he encouraged everyone to sign up for the $97 financial advice seminar. Some people who signed up, he teased, would get to take their photos with the Eagles.
There is very little that aggravates me more than watching people who are either evil or stupid poorly manipulate holy texts for their own gain. I was raised in the evangelical church in Texas. My father is a minister. I have read the Bible more than probably any other book I will ever read. And I have watched, for my entire life, people who want power and glory for themselves rip out the pages and make origami swans with them in order to get the words to line up just how they want them to be, so they can justify their own actions. Some of them are masterful at this. They can convince you that the Bible is textually pro-life even though the word "abortion" never appears. They can even get laws passed against homosexuality based on one verse. Watching someone who is a good manipulator do this is terrifying because, for just one second, you believe them. They’re so convincing if you just listen and don’t think.
I did not stay to hear the rest of the Eagles speak. After hearing the emcee say, “We’re so happy to have you here,” and McEnany respond, “Have us” while pointing to her pregnant belly, I decided I had heard enough. I have spent enough of my life in evangelical spaces to know when one second more is going to send me into a full tailspin. So I left, and ate a hot dog from a stranger’s Phillies tailgate in the parking lot. According to the Inquirer’s report of the day, Sirianni and the other players did not go on until 5:10 p.m., by which point their likeness and names had been used all day to promote some of the most blatant money-grabbing gospel hucksterism I've ever seen.
What I still don’t understand is what any of these men had to gain. They gave up hours of their Saturday to endorse a program that seeks to extract $97 from as many rubes as possible. I assume that they were paid for their time, but how much? If you were already a millionaire, how much would you have to be paid to be associated with a predatory seminar like this one, just because its creators believed in the same God as you? There is no reason for these men to endorse something like this, other than greed. It’s an extra payday to them. But that is, after all, what Life Surge wants you to do: Use your faith as an excuse to make as much money as possible, no matter who gets hurt.
