John Oliver takes down the televangelists, thanks to small investigative non-profit Trinity Foundation

[Update: ‘CBS This Morning’ interviewed Trinity Foundation president Ole Anthony in a follow up to John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” piece.]

John Oliver skewered televangelists, the Prosperity Gospel and abysmal IRS oversight in a way that’s uniquely his own during an episode of Last Week Tonight, which aired Sunday on HBO. Oliver put it all together in one of his signature takedowns. (See above)

Nowhere in the program does it mention the source of most of this information: Trinity Foundation, a Dallas-based, public religious non-profit charged with keeping tabs on religious fraud and helping its victims.

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Could the same IRS that is unwilling to prosecute blatant religious fraudsters shut down the only organization that is keeping an eye on them?

Trinity worked for months with the program, providing video, photos and reams of documentation. The result, of course, was hilarious. But after we’ve all had a good laugh and the smoke clears, the televangelists will continue to ply their trade, defaming the Christian gospel and the selfless work of millions of believers around the world, many suffering fierce persecution.

And that’s the way it’s been going for Trinity Foundation since it started monitoring religious broadcasting in 1974, before many in John Oliver’s audience were born.

In a rather sad retrospective of its history earlier this year, the foundation’s newsletter ticked off its failed attempts to get something done about religious fraud, and laid out the problems:

  • Televangelists seem to thrive on bad publicity. Despite numberless segments on media news programs (PrimeTime Live, 60 Minutes, major newspapers and local TV across the country), these exposes only strengthened the loyalty of televangelists’ followers (Satan is attacking us!) and had no effect on the money they sent in.
  • Law enforcement is hamstrung. Trinity worked with numerous state attorneys general and U.S. Attorneys across the nation, exploring different tactics to stop the fraud, without significant effect.
  • The IRS is restrained by vague guidelines and political fears. As Oliver pointed out on the program, the IRS has no real way to define what a church is. A direct-mail operation can call itself a church, or a comedy show, as Oliver did by registering his Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption.
  • Congress won’t act.  Trinity threw itself into helping Chuck Grassley’s Senate Finance Committee investigation of the top money-making televangelists. After five years, the investigation fizzled, and Grassley, the chairman, asked the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) to make recommendations that didn’t include any new legislation at all.

Just before throwing in the towel, Trinity President Ole Anthony saw a disturbing piece of information that rekindled the flame.

A respected scholarly missions journal – The International Bulletin of Missionary Research – reported that money embezzled by Christian workers and religious leaders around the world will exceed the total funding for world missions again in 2015, and then will double in the next 10 years to $100 billion.

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Trinity President Ole Anthony, who ain’t gettin’ any younger.

Anthony was stunned.

“In the past, we’ve estimated that the business of televangelism rakes in $3-5 billion annually through fraudulent promises and techniques,” Anthony explained. But because religious TV is ubiquitous around the world, the lavish lifestyle it models and the prosperity gospel it preaches create an atmosphere of spiritual entitlement that can overwhelm other moral considerations.

“More generally, the example of opulent mega church buildings or lavish lifestyle all send a subliminal signal that says God’s plan is all about the success of self.”

“For years, we’ve been criticized for concentrating on a fringe problem, putting energy into something that wasn’t important to the mission of the church; it was even seen by some as an attack on the church itself,” Anthony said. “These current findings show – to the contrary – that our concern has been directly relevant to the church’s overall mission.”

So instead of quitting, Trinity broadened it scope to include religious fraud around the world, not just in the United States.

But Trinity has a problem.

In the past it has benefited from a small number of people giving (very) occasional donations to fund it’s meager staff  [Its office is in one half of a duplex in old east Dallas]. But IRS regulations require that, as a “public” foundation, it must have a broader public base, with a multitude of small donors.

That’s right. The same IRS that is unwilling to prosecute blatant religious fraudsters could shut down the only organization that is keeping an eye on them.

Anthony, although gifted in investigations and gaining access to the media, is so averse to (and inept at) asking for funds himself that the organization could falter within months. I believe that would be bad for America and for the cause of Christ. So, this is really a plea for everyone to throw a little money Trinity’s way.

You can do that by going to their website here.

Many thanks!

About Skippy R

Skippy R is retired after toiling as a scribe for a large denominational newspaper in Texas for about 40 years. He's written for The Wittenburg Door and Beliefnet. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Mrs. Skippy, and leads a Bible study in his home. Mostly spends time running after his grandkids. He is -- what are they calling it now? -- a Jesus follower.
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4 Responses to John Oliver takes down the televangelists, thanks to small investigative non-profit Trinity Foundation

  1. Sally Moore says:

    Hey Skippy, That was a sad broadcast. While I wholeheartedly agree that prosperity preachers money grubbing and making these promises is very bad I do have some concerns which I hope that you will speak to. I am concerned that the tone of some of these articles and videos may leave the impression that speaking in tongues, having words of knowledge, or signs wonders and miracles as outlined in scripture are no longer viable. How do you, and Trinity, balance going after these egregious offenders while not appearing to attack Christianity as a whole, or making Believers seem really gullible and stupid.
    While I totally agree that these folks are way out of Scriptural waters with their methods and practices and wonder how they sleep at night–I worry that by playing devil’s advocate, that you are really working his game plan for him and causing folks to turn away from following Jesus. Is there an equal and opposite reaction that y’all offer to support the REAL Christian principles of giving, and the real purpose of Holy Spirit gifts?

  2. Skippy R says:

    Since at least all the elders at our little church plus some other members pray in tongues and we pray for healings every Sunday, and we try to “die daily” like Paul says, we’re especially upset when hucksters use the ploy of a “move of the Holy Spirit” to rip off desperate people and enrich themselves. I hope we’re advancing His kingdom in small ways in our daily life, but only God knows if we are. I’m certainly aware of the beam in my own eye. Guess we’ll all find out one day.

  3. Jed K. says:

    It looks like the fraudsters are un-stoppable (2 Timothy 3:13)
    It’s like a vicious/devious cycle, delaying the 2nd coming or the
    Growth & Promotion of the True Church, from what I see of it (Eph 4:14; Eph 5:26)

  4. Professional Skeptic says:

    Skippy must be a very nice person to have given such a softball answer to Sally’s question. I wonder if the real answer isn’t a bit different. No bible expert here, but I seem to recall someone saying something like, “True religion is this, to care for the widows and orphans.”

    So to someone outside the church, to see televangelists get away with bilking widows and orphans for millions and the rest of the church turning a blind eye or giving them a pass, how can you think that Skippy’s folks are the Devil’s advocates? It seems to be that the entire REST of the Church is taking the Devil’s side, by making televangelism acceptable and only this tiny voice is saying, “What they are doing is wrong.”

    Christianity is willingly participating in making itself irrelevant by their utter refusal to stop the planet in its tracks and throw televangelists off. If you haven’t called your congresscritter or state attorney general to complain about televangelist fraud, you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

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