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Originally Posted by irishgrl
I think it is heinous the way those televangelists prey on older people. I dont think it is so much that they are buying their way into heaven as they are supporting a cause, I dont know for sure, but I think they get some sort of token "gift" like a book or something for their "donation" but older folks who can feel their mortality creeping (running?) up on them tend to focus on their relationship with God and many DO go overboard in an attempt to make up for slack times when they were younger.
The sad thing is, their hard earned cash (or dearly parted with pension or ssi payments) is not put to worthy use, but rather the further buildup of the televangelistic ministry. Many of those organizations have been found to be corrupt, the front men driving fancy cars, living in estates with pools and tennis courts all bought and paid for with those poor souls' money....It is just a shame.
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when I read your post.
Robert Tilton used to be a big nationally known Tulsa based (con-artist) televangelist, Who preyed exclusively on the elderly. He would get up on his pulpit and nearly BEG the elderly to send him money, In exchange for payments of over $100 a month (Or you could just send $$$$ in via snail-mail and he would pray over envelope), He would prey for your soul, Your loved one's illness, etc. and it was disgusting to see how many fell for it.
Tilton was making over a million dollars, every few months via his 'televangelism' and without a care that the $$$$ being sent in might be the only money the elderly had left.
I loved when his 'kingdom' came crashing down though, It started innocently with an elderly woman who wanted Tilton to pray for her sick/dying husband...Which Tilton did, For $100 a month. But a problem arose when workers at the Bank, where the elderly woman did business, discovered that her account was being hit for that monthly $100 amount SIX MONTHS after her husband had already passed from this life! So when the Bank called local investigators to explain this major problem with how this elderly woman's bank account was nearly wiped out by "Tilton Ministries", they (Tulsa Police dept) finally had a ossible clue they were longing for, After a lengthy investigation into how Tilton was possibly running his 'con' and past reports of saying he has done this 'con' time-and-time again.
Tilton & his money grubbing/lusting flock of morons tried to deny any wrong doing, and said the money received was legally retained in exchanged for being blessed, and that each letter (Received with $$$$) was personally blessed by Rev.Tilton himself...But that was to be found not true (Keep readin' it gets interestin')
The investigators soon discovered that the address for letters with money that were to be sent to Tilton's "ministries" was instead being forwarded to a local bank, Where they proved that he never blessed anything when they discovered letter-after-letter that those elderly folk sent to him to be blessed, Still in their original envelopes folded up & never read, Only missing the money and worse of all was the letters were found in the dumpster behind the Bank!!
A Bank teller was questioned about the letters found in the trash, And she said that she was instructed by the person who wanted the letters forwarded to the Bank to remove ANY $$$$ from the letters and to dispose of the letters immediately after removing the money, That she was not to read the letters what-so-ever...That person (Who she later identified) was Robert Tilton! Among the letter's discovered in the trash bin, Was a letter from the elderly woman asking why she was still being requested to send $100 a month for her husband even though he had already passed away months earlier.
His jig was up and he was FINALLY busted and later sent to prison after being found guilty of mail fraud (Among other things). After a bit of time had gone by he played the overused 'con' of "I found religion and God will forgive me" ruse which is popular among convicts in prison. Last I heard is that he is starting to do the whole tele-evangelist BS again...
I lived in Tulsa for a few years as I attended Tech School...I would never live there EVER again, There's a church on EVERY street corner of Tulsa, Matter-of-fact, according to an TV news segment about Robert Tilton's downfall, Tulsa has the highest amount of churches per capita of ANY city in the United States of America!
Let's put it like this, Have you ever had an extremely attractive person of the opposite sex, flirt with you endlessly, Taking "NO for an answer" to only find out this person was just flirting with you to get you to attend her church because that's was asked of her by those running the church? I have...And in Tulsa that is no frikkin' surprise to me
