Once you realise that they believe that God rewards piety with material wealth, it explains a lot about how they can be the way they are without being cynical deliberate fraudsters. Of course, the toxic result of this belief is that if you're poor, then you're just not being holy enough.
(That being said, I'm absolutely sure that at least some of them are cynical deliberate fraudsters. It's hard to give the benefit of the doubt to Popoff, eg.)
Combine that with the pseudo-Calvinistic doctrine that everybody - including them - is an irredeemable sinner saved only by God's grace, and you can see how someone who starts genuinely believing that they are being pious and holy starts to realise that they are getting more and more successful, and they become drunk on their own holiness. Their sinful lifestyle is only supported by their absolute knowledge that they are simply being rewarded by God for being so very damn pious.
Also, there's the belief that is as far as I can tell pretty unique to the Pentecostals that they are engaged in a constant war with the forces and influence of Satan. So anyone who speaks out against them is Satanic and certainly possessed by demons. Any critic is an enemy combatant in this spiritual war. Nothing they say can be trusted - their purpose is nothing less than to destroy God's kingdom.
Anyway, thank you for coming to my TED talk.
