Probably because if you're actually into Jesus, as in, what is taught by him in the Bible and not the bastardized evangelical prosperity gospel white Jesus that

Probably because if you're actually into Jesus, as in, what is taught by him in the Bible and not the bastardized evangelical prosperity gospel white Jesus that Americans are into, you wouldn't really seek out money apart from having enough to live on. Also worth noting that being active in an organization like a church provides one with a sizable community of people, many of whom are probably at least doing okay, and depending which church, can be quite wealthy and they will automatically find you more trustworthy because you are in "their group," so fraud is baseline easier to execute. And, in the odd event you are caught out, a well performed "reformation" will have you as a in-good-standing member of that community again, and probably benefiting from the charity of it's members in short order. This is a big part of why MLM/pyramid schemes, the Mormons, and the state of Utah are so deeply intertwined. And I mean, let's not leave out the obvious one: people big on magical thinking aren't generally the best at critical thinking. This is not to say that religious people are the only ones who can be scammed, that's of course nonsense. But people who believe things like "god has a plan" and indulge in the just world fallacy freely and "everything happens for a reason" are on balance just plain easier to manipulate, and even if as that one quoted pastor says, that Hwang is a true believer, well that could just mean he believes his schemes are god's plan, that his actions are god's creation, that what he has done is what he was put on this earth to do, and all that. He could be a swindling liar or a true believer, it doesn't matter. How many people have done diabolical things in our history believing whatever deity they believe in had created them to do it? It's just motivated reasoning. You believe in a just and mighty god, and you have ideas for how to do anything, steal from people, amass wealth, harm people, whatever, and it just so happens that you find all the passages from your god that cosign what it is you already wanted to do? No kiddin, weird how that always works out.