The Biggest Little Mail Room in California

Evangelist Peter Popoff had four high-speed printing presses, along with binding equipment and other machinery, at his extensive headquarters in Upland, California, with which he prepared the huge mailings (100,000 pieces at a time) that he sent out in response to the nine or ten full bags of “prayer requests” that came in to his ministry every week. Says Ira McCorriston, Popoff’s former controller:Popoff works his mailing list very well. He hits them hard—two or three letters a month—and he’ll send four pieces of literature out to advertise a meeting.

At least some of those letters would contain a “gimmick” of some kind. Prayer cloths, sacred gloves, shoe liners, or gold lame ribbons would be included, along with some esoteric instructions on how to activate the magic charm for health and/or wealth. One of the Popoff mailings in January 1986 contained a tiny packet of pink crystals and a nickel-sized round wafer sealed in plastic wrap. The letter that came with it (addressed to one of my pseudonyms) said:Let me say this first, generally, all through God’s Word no one received a miracle from God unless they did something that seemed unreasonable to the carnal mind ... So, God asks you to do that which is unreasonable, which doesn’t correspond to your natural reasoning. That which you’d never think of doing.... As a BELIEVER take the wine and bread I was led to send you ... then take the S-P-E-C-I-A-L PRAYER slip and write on it the urgent problems you face and the needs you have today. Next ... put this wine and bread that I have prayed over in your Bible at Matthew 26: 26-29. Then put your prayer slip inside the enclosed envelope. And be sure to include your SEED-GIFT for God’s Word. (The Lord spoke about $177.00. Pray about this.) ... MAIL THE ENVELOPE TO ME. Don’t let doubt enter your mind. Act today! James, after this prayer blessed wine and bread have been in your Bible three days take them out in faith.... Eat the bread, eat the health of the body of Jesus.... Then pour the wine into a small amount of water and drink it. (You will actually see the water become unfermented wine; the kind Jesus used.) ... When you place your PRAYER SLIP in the envelope, try to include the amount the Lord put on your heart for His work. IT’s YOUR MEASURE OF FAITH FOR THIS IMPORTANT TIME!... YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT TO DO.

Contrast this with a rather less ambitious mailing by Oral Roberts in 1983. He sent out a few wafers to his followers, saying:Now, Partner, I have enclosed this packet containing the bread, the symbolic element of the body, for our Holy Communion service on May 22 at 2 p.m. CDT.

If Roberts had had the imagination, he too would have included a few crystals of artificially cherry-flavored Kool-Aid. Yes, that’s what the “unfermented wine” was that Popoff had enclosed in his mailing! In addition, before every major public meeting, Popoff would have his office employees telephone selected individuals in the geographical area of each crusade, via the mailing list, and remind them to attend. Names of those people were obtained from a computer printout of all “Code Seven” people on his mailing list. Proceeds from such a meeting—much of it in cash—could run from $10,000 to $50,000, depending on the area and the season. And because only the Popoffs ever handled or counted this money, most of it in cash, according to McCorriston, “You never really knew what went on out there in the field.”