There are roughly 350,000 congregations in the United States, and many of them do great work: feeding the hungry, clothing the poor,John Oliversays, opening his latestLast Week Tonightreport. But this is not a story about them. This is about the churches who exploit peoples faith for monetary gain.
As Oliver explains, televangelism is still thriving in this country, with preachers like Robert Tilton using the prosperity gospel to squeeze out mind-boggling amounts of money from their impressionable audiences. One televangelist,Creflo Dollar, used a fundraiser to buy a $65 million jet, and many others Kenneth Copeland,James Payne, Todd Coontz, Henry Fernandez utilize this concept of seed faith, asking their devotees to make monetary investments for miracles.Oliver explores the story ofBonnie Parker, who pledged thousands of dollars to Copelands church in hopes of beating cancer.
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For churches, this money is tax-free because of broad IRS exemptions and vague definitions of what constitutes a church. Oliver reads from actual IRS documents, which explain that theIRS makes no attempt to evaluate the content of whatever doctrine a particular organization claims is religious, provided the particular beliefsare truly and sincerely heldand the practicesare not illegal.
Last Week Tonightdecided to explore how these churches operate, so in January, Oliver sent Tilton $20 and asked to join his mailing list. One month later, the hostreceived a letter containinga dollar and instructions to Send it back to me with your best Prove God tithes or offering. Oliver continued to send money ($319 total), receiving random oils, pieces of fabric in the shape of mountains and an outline of Tiltons foot.
Realizing how easy it is to create a church and to stretch the definition of church for evil Oliver creates his own greed-hub, dubbed Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption. The Mega Reverend and CEO is joined by his wife,Wonder Jo Oliver (Rachel Dratch), and asks his audience congregation to send him money.Praise be to the IRS, Wonder Jo exclaims, the most permissive of government agencies!