The Eagle’s Nest Mail Room

One of W. V. Grant’s former employees gave an impressive description of his mail operation in Cincinnati:[Grant’s] mailing room was incredible. It looked like a post office. It had these big tables with states labeled at the head of each one, where the mail was coming in from and going out to. Most of the workers were women.... I never knew how to act around those people. I thought you’re supposed to be nice, wear a tie, talk pretty. But you’d go back there to QC Agency and you’d never have heard such foulmouthed language. Even the women in the mail room! The way they’d be talking! I’d think, these women are working for W. V. Grant?

The Tulsa Postman’s Burden

Oral Roberts sends out more than 27 million letters and publications annually. The operation is so large that his mailing room has its very own zip code, 74171. This rather makes us doubt Roberts’s assurance to the faithful that he personally reads each and every letter. As an example of the high-powered rhetoric that Roberts sends out, consider the letter in Appendix IV. The signature is in blue ink, appearing to be handwritten. There are a number of subtleties here that I should point out. This letter was not just entered into a computer to keep in touch with the faithful. It was carefully designed by a master hand, and it was guaranteed to appeal to lonely, frightened people. The elderly have always been the major targets of the evangelists, and this letter is also worded to appeal to them. Note the inference that Roberts “sat down and wrote” to the recipient, the appeal to the “pen-pal” aspect, and the strong suggestion that Roberts has read the letter that was sent by the person receiving this one. The recipient is also invited to correspond with Roberts on a personal level. This could not happen, in view of the tens of thousands of responses Roberts could expect. The letters begging for money followed soon after this one was received.

Copying a Good Idea

Reader’s Digest often sends out mailings that have the familiar alternate red-and-blue diagonal stripes along the envelope edges. This is usually used to designate an airmail letter, and at one time, before U.S. mail began delivering all first-class mail by air, envelopes so marked assumed greater importance than surface-delivered mail. To many, particularly to older folks, these envelopes still stand out, and this gimmick must be effective, because it is used by prominent mailing houses. Evangelist Rex Humbard has carried this idea a bit further. In December of 1986, those on his mailing list received a letter in the red-and-blue design with a return address that read, “Hotel Inter-Continental, Jerusalem, P.O. Box 19585, Jerusalem.” The apparent cancellation in the upper right-hand corner of the envelope read, “Seasons Greetings From Jerusalem.” The impression given is that this letter arrived via airmail and that it was mailed from Jerusalem. The smallest print on the envelope, in place of the stamp, read “U.S. Postage paid. Rex Humbard Foundation.” In actuality, this was a bulk-mailed piece that was sent from Akron, Ohio, though there is no way the recipient could know this without having the means to refer to the postal permit number, since there is no real cancellation used on such bulk mailings. On the face of the envelope, apparently scrawled there in blue, it says:Please open immediately! In this letter is a beautiful gift for you ... from Jerusalem. The land of the Bible ...

A typical Oral Roberts computerized letter.

  The “beautiful gift” was a simple, cheap paper bookmark printed by “Palphot,” a West German printer. The gift was not from Jerusalem, and it was not made in Jerusalem. It was the usual junk come-on. The letter included with this stunning gift appeared to be on Hotel Inter-Continental stationery. It gave, scribbled across the top apparently by hand in the same blue pen, further assurance that: This beautiful Bible bookmark is a Gift from Maude Aimee and me ... We bought this in the holy city of Jerusalem ... Just for you!

The letter began:Dear Precious Partner,   Just a few hours ago I completed my special time of prayer at the Seven Miracle Places in the Land of the Bible—the Holy Land.

And further on, it said:Maude Aimee and I purchased for you in Jerusalem—the Land of the Bible—the enclosed bookmark.

The letter tells the recipient that an “urgent situation” has suddenly developed back in Akron that requires “over $135,000” immediately. Enclosed also is an envelope that seems to have been hand addressed (again scrawled in blue pen) as an offering envelope. A further small note repeats the plea for money, and is written (actually printed) on what appears to be a sheet torn from a Hotel Inter-Continental scratch pad; the words “for the convenience of our guests” appear under the hotel’s logo. There is no question about it. This mailing is false, misleading, and mendacious. It is another cheap trick designed to part the faithful from their money.