The same old story ….

A bodybuilder loses 200 lbs through use of "age-defying" televangelist-sponsored diet shake.

The bodybuilder contacts televangelist, Pat Robertson, to push the shake to health-conscious Christians.

The televangelist winds up using image & story of bodybuilder for financial gain, telling bodybuilder to buzz off when he learns that it wasn't such a philanthropic, slimming for-Jesus project after all.

After offering the recipe for free on the 700 Club, Robertson ended up licensing the shakes & selling them at GNC.

Bodybuilder Phil Busch commented: "This was never about weight loss; it was all about money... they only had my photographs because I thought 'The 700 Club' was trying to help others & because I knew CBN was a non-profit. Had I known Robertson & his corporate buddies were making money using my pictures, I would have handled everything differently."

That was all back in 2005.

Now, as the trial is headed to court, Busch contends that Robertson threatened him: "I am going to kill you and your family."

Robertson's attorney denies the allegation.

Those interested in learning more about the shakes go here.

meanwhile, elsewhere in the land of the spiritual elite …..

Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed an IRS complaint against Brooklyn Park, Minnesota prosperity preacher Mac Hammond.

CREW charges Hammond used church funds to buy himself not only a jet airplane, but a stunt airplane as well.

Hammond, some readers might recall, last fall endorsed Rep. Michele Bachman (R-Fool for Christ aka. R-Bush Kissed Me!), which drew the first IRS complaint CREW filed against him for violating the prohibition against clergy endorsing political candidates.

Luxury jets - often purchased with church funds - are common among televangelists. Churches receive donations that are tax-exempt to the church & a tax deduction to the donor. So, when those funds are used to buy jets for televangelists to fly around in, US taxpayers are, in part, footing the bill.

Do you hear any Republicans screeching about that?