We’re doing it live!
The Big Tent Network, or BTN, is a faith-based American broadcaster. BTN has affiliates from coast to coast and on five continents and operates a massive television studio from its headquarters in Herndon, Virginia. It is part of God’s plan on Earth to spread his Word.
BTN offers news and entertainment programming, as well as its tentpole religious offerings. The largest audiences tune in for Robert Shanks Ministries with Robert Shanks, the Robert Shanks Gospel Hour, and the cherished Big Tent Miracle Revival, which has broadcast since 1961.
Through in-program appeals, dedicated fundraising programs like PrayerCall Live, and ancillary marketing, BTN rakes in untold tax-free millions every year. Some of the money goes to evangelical outreach, some of it goes to keeping the lights on, and most of it goes to sustaining the lavish lifestyles of BTN’s inner circle, lifestyles ordained by God as a reward for faithful service. Their prosperity is in direct proportion to their devotion to the Lord.
Of course not everyone sees it that way, and the view from inside BTN is considerably more jaundiced. While some staff and talent at the network are true believers, others see it for the gigantic machine for extracting money from the infirm, the desperate and the easily duped that it is. And like everywhere else in this wicked world, the organi- zation is not immune to petty power struggles, misguided passions, or dangerously bad ideas…
–from the introduction