It was once said: "The best thing you can do for poor folks is to not be one."

While it's unclear who originated that saying, the man who seemed to embody the principle was Dr. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, better known to the rest of us as Rev. Ike, who died this week at age 74.

If Michael Jackson was the King of Pop, then Rev. Ike was the King of Pop Preaching, giving personification to the blessed bling-bling, holy roller stereotype that seems so present in today's black church. But Ike was unabashed about riches being a goal, and he appealed to many -- especially during the '70s -- who were tired of preachers whose message was for their congregations to suffer and wait for their reward in heaven.

And I gotta say, of all the cats in the holy hustle game, he was probably the most colorful.

In fact, he was pretty clear that most people misinterpreted the Bible when it comes to finance:

"The love of money is not the root of all evil,
It is the lack of money.
Have you ever seen a rich man down in the street mugging someone?
No!
You can talk all you want about the pie in the sky and the sweet bye and bye,
but what about the good ol' now and now?!"

Ike was the son of a Dutch-Indonesian Baptist preacher and an elementary school teacher in Ridgeland, S.C., and he eventually founded his own church there. But the conventional message was not enough for him, and he wound up in Boston with his first foray into superpreaching through the faith-healing game. You know, stuff like slapping people on their foreheads and "curing" their paralysis.

He streamlined his message by the time he got to New York and eventually opened up in a theater in Manhattan, calling it the Palace Cathedral, which is still in existence today. From there, he became arguably the first successful black televangelist to send his message through the airwaves.

But his flamboyance and money-driven message parted with the traditional dirge of most preachers and earned him the resentment of many who felt he was a charlatan. Their position was one of social change and class struggle. Ike felt it was better to get rich than to wait for manna from heaven to come raining down.

And looking at it pragmatically, as gaudy as he was, Ike may have had a point. Positive self-affirmation goes a long way, and Ike always preached a "God-in-you" philosophy without any real emphasis on a waiting for a "heavenly reward." He also felt that really understanding the power of wealth could transform one's life. Believe it or not, A.D. Williams, maternal grandfather of Martin Luther King, was also said to have been a preacher who emphasized keeping one's financial house in order (albeit in a different style than Ike).

But the way Ike did it was unique in its own right and really deserves mention as the beginning of the modern black megachurch movement. T.D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar even Joel Osteen would be nowhere if it hadn't been for Rev. Ike.



And goodness knows Ike got paid preaching material wealth to other people. So much so, that he aroused the suspicion of the Internal Revenue Service. He was so money-driven that if I weren't paying attention, I'd suspect he was Ayn Rand's answer to the civil rights movement.

So, it's up to you to judge whether Ike was a heretic or if his ideas were actually ahead of their time. One thing's for sure, black folk sure love themselves some preachers. Ike was simply one of those who knew what it took to get people looking in his direction.