A Bold Admission

Ex-convict and faith-healer Leroy Jenkins, in full makeup, stuffed into a flashy powder-blue suit and crowned with a rather bad hairpiece, was asked in June 1987 on a CNN-TV interview about the Bakkers’ reported extravagance and misuse of the ministry’s money. He defended them vigorously by explaining how he handles his funds:The contributors didn’t ask where [the money] was goin’. They don’t ask me what I’m gonna do with the money, and if they did I’d tell them, “None of your business!” I’d say, “You gave it, and that’s as far as we go. God blessed you for givin’ and He didn’t bless you for tellin’ me what to do with it.

At least Leroy tells it like it is: The evangelists take the money and spend it. There’s lots of it, and a lot more where it came from. It’s as simple as that. It appears that the easy, foolproof way to get rich in America is to learn about twenty quotations from the Bible, dress in an expensive suit with lots of gaudy jewelry, and rent an auditorium. Tell all the lies you want. Exaggerate your history or invent it entirely. Label all your opponents as “tools of Satan.” Answer any and all arguments and objections by quoting scripture. Beg for money, incessantly. Oh. I almost forgot. Ordain yourself as an Anointed Minister of God. Then watch the money roll in. It’s tax-free, and you can use it any way you want.

5

The Mail Operations of Faith-Healers

I Have a Little List

It would be well to understand something about the mailing list business. The selling of names and addresses is a well-established and legitimate pursuit. Those in the mail order, service, and specialty businesses need selected lists for their mail campaigns. From various polls, surveys, and other sources, data are gathered on every imaginable aspect of individuals. This information is then sorted and coded into various categories. Religion, race, age group, gender, income, real estate holdings, hobbies, and dozens of other variables are recorded. Customers can purchase lists limited to, for example, males owning one or more automobiles—in order to sell them specific products or services. A swimming-pool maintenance firm can limit its list to those who own pools and have a certain minimum income, factors that would make them likely to purchase that service. Similarly, evangelists can purchase lists for their purposes (selected for income, religious affiliation, and age, particularly) and will also create their own lists as new names come to their attention through their campaigns and “crusades.” In the trade, there is a sub-list known as a “Code Seven” document. It is a carefully culled selection of names and addresses of those who have given substantial amounts to religious organizations and are likely to do so again. But while the swimming-pool businessman will pay only 6 to 10 cents for each name he obtains, the evangelists will give up to $4.00 each for the coveted Code Seven items. Those names can return small fortunes to the purchaser several times a year, year after year, for only the investment of a begging letter and perhaps a cheap wooden or plastic souvenir every few months. A list is usually sold to a mailer along with the legal, limiting provision that it can be used only a specified number of times for the price paid. Lists are protected against further use by the insertion of “marker names” that are invented by the supplier. Should the list be used improperly, mail sent to those false addresses will come to the attention of the list vendor, and action can be taken. Substantial sums have been awarded in court for improper use of these lists. Until automated, computer-personalized mailing systems came into use, the biggest mail operation in the evangelist business was run by A. A. Allen from his Miracle Valley, Arizona, headquarters. Allen employed 175 people there, sending out as many as 55 million pieces of literature annually. That was before 1970; but when modern technology brought swift, economical, highly efficient electronics to the business of mail solicitation, the Allen effort began to pale in comparison.