He also stated that a gay-friendly church was a satanic cult and that its inevitable annihilation would cause a celebration in heaven. Hired men in suits passed out slips, telling us to jot down the ailments for which we needed intercession. Yet here he was, all these years later, peddling miracle water and his own healing touch to an audience of African-Americans who seemed not to have gotten the memo that he was a mountebank. It's not something I snapped my fingers and it magically appeared. One became president, the other just became rich. The couple's 7,300-square-foot house, purchased for $4.5 million in 2007, sits in a gated community in Bradbury, California, and is owned by his church. How did he know? Sanchez, who quit in early 2012, was one of two ex-employees who spoke with me. I had no idea that peddling miracles was, these days, as lucrative as ever. Because it is categorized as a parsonage. The Tonight Show expos made national news, and in 1987 the Peter Popoff Evangelistic Association filed for bankruptcy. They would take the stones out, take the gold to be resold. Anything that wasn't valuable was shredded. To avoid Swaggart's potential power grab, he handed Jerry Falwell Sr. the keys to the kingdom. He said he prayed so hard over the letters that the ink leaked into his bloodstream, and by the way that's why he needed plastic surgery, paid for by aforementioned donations. [2] "We've done so many stories about him, but it never does any good," said Ole Anthony, founder of Trinity Foundation, which has investigated Popoff and other faith healers since 1987. I at least admire their conviction, but Duplantis is less genuine than the thanks received by your neighbor who gives out healthy candy alternatives on Halloween night. Then, next to the toilet paper, an 8-by-11 printout listing the family's goals for 2015Peter's, Liz's, Nick's, Amy's. Our board of directors, Popoff said, felt it was in the best interests. Popoff didn't mention another possible benefit: With this new status, his ministry would no longer be required to disclose its annual income or its salaries to the IRS. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously noted that "there are no second acts in American lives." No credit card required. His whole life was all about spreading the news. His extravagant personality cant be contained to the stage of his mega-church and seeps into every aspect of his life, including his $100,000 car and third private jet. He was poised for a comeback in 2009 when HBO produced a documentary on his return to the righteous path, but wouldn't you know it, more allegationsof the abusive variety popped up. Popoff yanked her cane away and tossed it up onstage. [citation needed], The 1992 Steve Martin dramedy Leap of Faith was inspired by Popoff's fraudulent ministry, and demonstrated a number of the techniques Popoff and other televangelist scammers use to create the illusion of divine intervention. It never ends.Dave opens even more Peter Popoff religious scam mail.#PeterPopoff #MiracleWater #SCAM I decided that I'd settle for a glimpse of one of his public crusades, maybe see some people get healed, but I discovered that they weren't advertised. Peter Popoff Biography The birth name of this Con man and televangelist is Peter Popoff. When they see any media come by, it's a total lockdown on the facility, I had been told by Crystal Sanchez, age 33, who used to work at Popoff's headquarters. Did he fear God just enough to gesture toward authenticity, so that if he was ever questioned at the pearly gates about the millions of dollars of other people's gold and silver and Social Security money, he could say that in every New Jersey-packed packet of holy water there was a minuscule amount of blessing? According to him, declaring bankruptcy was a mistake, the misguided suggestion of lawyers. [36], In 2008, the UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom issued strong warnings to broadcasters for transmitting Popoff's material, which the regulator felt promoted his products "in such a way as to target potential susceptible and vulnerable viewers". Susan and Tony are broadcasting their gospel and living in a 14,000-square-foot mansion in Arkansas on a compound staffed by their followers, who are paid $5 a week and get food when they're good. In this crowd, I was very white, very young, and very male. Once or twice a month he comes. [2][43], Popoff's operation had functioned as a for-profit company until 2006, when it merged with a small church in Farmers Branch, Texas called Word for the World, which operated out of a storefront. They make him rich, pray with the trinkets, and maybe get rich, too. And as I wondered what on earth this pasty alter kocker was doing on black TV, it came to me: I had seen this man before. Televangelists Who Were Anything But Holy. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has given permission for his private jet to be used in the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines' flight MH370, according to the New Zealand Herald. I didn't know it then, but I would soon get to ask Popoff in person. Paul is the guy who does the deliveries. [42] Popoff also started referring to himself as a prophet. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. If youre unfamiliar with Duplantis, heres a quick rundown: Hes charismatic, an excellent orator and spouts Bible quotes like nobodys business. The envelopes also included the miracle water or one of various worthless, made-in-China gewgaws: revelation stones; red strings that resemble the Kabbalah bracelets Madonna used to wear; and baruch wallets, flimsy silver lam pouches with a slit at the top, in which I was encouraged to insert money to mail back to Popoff. So I made the ministry $5 million!, It wasn't always like this, Amy interrupted to say. You will lend and not borrow. (That one's from Joel Osteen.) His latest puckish misadventure: getting sued by the state of Missouri for selling a fake coronavirus cure. So one day I took the Garden State Parkway to have a look at Unit Pack, a family-run firm that specializes in packaging those little samples of shampoo, pharmaceuticals, and the like. Televangelism. Let's take a look and find out. A few months ago, I flew to Texas and tried to visit Word for the World on a Sunday morning, hoping to catch a rousing Pentecostal service. When partners wouldn't donate so much money, they would cut back on staff, Sanchez said. Once, Peter Popoff was a giant among '80s televangelists, wealthy until being ruined in scandal. Peter Popoff is not the only Televangelist out there scamming people. "That's what he does best. If you've ever been at a cheap hotel, flipping through channels in the middle of the night, you've probably seen Marcus Lamb's work. Once, Peter Popoff was a magical, mystical man of Goda giant among '80s televangelists. Their ministry fell pretty clearly under the umbrella of "that's absolutely a cult" when it was discovered that they had followers working in a sweatshop, producing high-end denim jackets that were sold for hundreds of dollars. He was exposed in 1986 for using a concealed earpiece to receive radio messages from his wife, who gave him the names, addresses, and ailments of audience members during Popoff-led religious services. Popoff's employees are on guard for more than just the media. Bizarrely unethical of them. Randi's tape of the ruse made its way to The Tonight Show, where Johnny Carsonwho harbored great disdain for charlatansexposed Popoff 's technique. He works hard for his money. Wayfair Huge Deal-A-Thon - Up to 60% off everything! Skelton didn't return my calls, so one Sunday, I staked out his house in Mesquite, a hard-luck Dallas exurb. Popoff would tell attendees suffering from a variety of illnesses to "break free of the devil" by throwing their prescription pills onto the stage. In the below section you will more & more information. One former resident of Washington D.C. who recently relocated to Palm Beach, Florida, and is quite happy to be pictured with private jets, surely will be pleased to know that In each case, I was shocked that they'd agreed to be interviewed, until I realized, as I sat with them, that they didn't think they had anything to hide. Well, there are no guarantees. [18], At the height of his popularity in the 1980s, Popoff would accurately announce home addresses and specific illnesses of audience members during his "healing sermons", a feat that he implied was due to divine revelation and "God-given ability". A sixty-eight-year old German American minister, Popoffs 28. I've been working for 50 years, Popoff told me. Head of the Trinity Foundation Ole Anthony has cited the prosperity gospel and preachers like Duplantis as the cause of the overwhelming number of homeless and poverty-stricken people who visit his soup kitchen. Lamb's story is a familiar one. A satanic preacher. You serve a Jewish God! Golding Jun 25, 2019 Discussion EtcetEra Forum Golding Member Oct 25, 2017 1,991 Jun 25, 2019 #1 What is going on here? He spent two or three minutes with each hopeful worshipper, leaning in to whisper, and thenwhat they'd come for, what they neededtouching them. "Pete has contributed so much to the success and [14] Popoff would also "command" supplicants in wheelchairs to "rise and break free". In the previous decade, he'd founded the Moral Majority PAC shortly after an all-white Christian academy that he founded was threatened with losing its tax exempt status due to new legislation regarding segregated schools. But she soon began to worry that she wasn't really working for a church. Skelton invited me in, with an air of resignation. Mark Oppenheimer is the editor-at-large at Tablet magazine. He then began his television ministry that, by the early 1980s, was being broadcast nationally. He said he was the only guy in receivingif it came to Unit Pack, it came to him. For an hour and a half, he answered my questionsabout miracle spring water, James Randi, bankruptcy, his tennis game, the Holy Spirit. Both men went into the family business, suffered reversals, went bankrupt, seemed destined to be TV-rerun laughingstocks. So that every little package of water contains a few molecules of holiness. I asked about Popoff. I knew there had been scams. His shining quote: "Consent is puberty." His wife stuck with him, even after he was sued for allegedly going all "bad touch" on employees during mandated "quiet time.". I fed my curiosity in the meantime with the broad outline of Popoff's story. He had everything. If he had any plants in the audience, he didn't make good use of them. According to Forbes, one man who began working for Angley at 18 claims that he would regularly be called to the preacher's house for "special anointings" involving personal massages and a marked lack of clothing. He's very good at it, and naturally he's going to go back to it. In fact, maybe he realized that today, more than ever, we are primed for what he has to sell. Sitting on a stage, in an upholstered chair, Popoff implored his television audience to call an 800 number so that he could send them a secret faith tool that God had recently given him as he was praying about the four red moons of this year of Jubilee. If that wasn't incentive enough, there was more reason to reach for the phone. Peter Popoff was back. Why, I wondered, were so many people willing to trust a prophet of God who needed an earpiece, and why would they trust his advice on prosperity even after his own financial house had collapsed? Tilton's rebuttal? As he approached each of us, he asked what ailed ushe didn't pretend to know. Cookie Duration Description; cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics: 11 months: This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. This didn't look like a house of worship; it looked like a mailing address. Some people will call it dumb luck. He gets rich, you get hope. If you can take that by faith, you'll live a life of increase. And great hair. It's the tradition of Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, and all the other TV preachers who rose up to take the place of the vanquished buffoons from the 1980s. The family had fled the Communists in 1950, eventually settling in Montclair, California. Taking the high ground (anything is high ground once you get low enough), Lamb repented, asked his congregation for forgiveness, and naturally went on Doctor Phil. You know where that pain went? Popoff cried after one healing. You can walk now without the cane. I only grew more curious. They did not want to comment on Crystal Sanchez's allegations in her e-book. He is popular for being a Religious Leader. Before long, however, he'd rebranded his ministry as People United for Christ, and he'd reconsidered his audiencethis time focusing on African-Americans. There are cameras surrounding both buildings. And the hair truly is something, shiny and monochrome like an action figure's. [10] Beginning in 1960, Popoff also began making appearances as a preacher. Then there was the time that he said the September 11th attacks happened because God was angry at America's acceptance of, among others, "the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle." A photograph in his 1980 memoir, Behind Curtains of Darkness a New Fire Is Blazing, shows Popoff in front of a boat, hair flowing like a Bee Gee's, two Bibles fanned in his left hand. [20] Skeptic groups distributed pamphlets explaining how Popoff's feats could be accomplished without any sort of divine intervention. Where are you, Ada Mae?that sort of thing. A month later, they've outgrown the darned things, and you have to ask your parishioners for $54 million to buy new ones. She had first responded to my pestering a few months earlier, but I never expected that the Popoffs would consent to an interview. Fans of Robert Tilton know him as the host of Success-N-Life. In theory, it's a beautiful way to spread a message of faith to the masses. When you're praying for the sick, it's through the Holy Spirit, and there's some times that it works freely, and then there are other times when the Spirit's just not there, Skelton said. What followed was a House of Cards-worthy circle of blackmail that saw Gorman reinstated and Swaggart taken off the air for a spell. The distinction between the two becomes difficult to make, however, when Duplantis has been caught using the church-funded jet for multiple vacations, including a 17-day trip to Hawaii that racked up a calculated $40,000 in fuel and storage fees. Because he totally used to be a satanist. The personification of this phenomenon might well be Peter Popoff. Peter Popoff is the all-American faith healer because he inhabits both hemispheres of our national brain, the Puritan and the magician. Wrapped in Styrofoam for buoyancy and waterproofing, the Bibles eventually washed up on Communist shores.. [47] In 2003, his ministry received over $9.6 million, and in 2005, over $23 million. They would stand and walk without assistance, to the joyous cheers of the faithful. Various sources indicate Popoff was born in East Berlin or West Berlin. Their lawyers and friends can tell them to shut up, but that makes them look guilty, and they don't feel guilty. Popoff is better than he knows. Listening through the gizmo in his ear, Popoff would call out to the crowd as if he possessed the omniscience of the Lord. And he was as mesmerizing as ever. They wouldn't tell me what they earn, but Nick enjoyed telling me about the Clydesdale horses he keeps. When he talked, the people in his community listened. From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. [27] Popoff's attorney, William Simon, "attributed the collapse of his ministry to financial mismanagement more than to disclosures about Popoff. This was vintage stuffa sort of resurrection, if you will. It was a touching moment of humility from atop a pillar normally reserved for moral superiority. Rather, like many Americans of both political parties, Ill be happy simply for a coordinated, scientific federal response that will address: 1. the coronavirus; 2.the economy; As reported by UPI, when Jim Bakker bounced out of PTL in 1987, he became concerned that his ministry was about to be the subject of a hostile takeover by Jimmy Swaggart, who initiated the investigation into the Bakker clan. [52] A 2012 Broadway musical adaptation of the same title was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical. There was no church sign outsideand certainly no sign of a church inside. She'd sold all her belongings. There's a lot of ground to cover with Jerry Falwell. Peter George Popoff (born July 2, 1946) is a German-born American televangelist and debunked clairvoyant and faith healer. He was exposed in 1986 for using a concealed earpiece to receive radio messages from his wife, who gave him the names, addresses, and ailments of audience members during Popoff-led religious services. Sorry, that was a typo. If you accept, as Pentecostal Christians do, that God performs miracles, on the body, soul, and bank account, then his ministry offers a series of fair exchanges between him and his audience. Danny Davis, master of the secret mullet you know, the kind that cant be seen head-on peddles No Evil Oil and Favor Prayer Cloths. Peter Popoff, who disappeared briefly after being exposed as a fraud, asks you to buy his DVD Prosperity Thinking: Gods Dynamic Forces That Bring Riches to You! and gives free miracle spring water. The water rids you of disease and poverty, but only after sprinkling the enclosed sacred Dead Sea Salt on a $27 check addressed to Popoff. Back in the '70s and '80s, Swaggart was one of the most influential evangelical preachers in America. I called and sent e-mails to Popoff's organization, People United for Christ, but nobody got back to me. If you learn one thing today, let it be this: America is the land of second chances, and televangelism is the seedy island territory just offshore where we house third, fourth, and fifth chances. Duplantis disagrees. The real clincher, Sanchez said, was when they started asking for all your gold, your trinkets, your heirlooms. [16] When skeptics asked him to prove that the money he had collected had in fact been spent on Bibles and balloons, Popoff staged a burglary at his own headquarters. What is there to say about it that hasn't already been said in countless documentaries, exposs, and depositions? [46] Popoff purchased a home in Bradbury, California, for $4.5 million in 2007. And if they don't feel better? [11] The powers he claimed included the abilities to heal the sick and foretell the future. God hated Communists, he said, presumably explaining why Jesus accepted Venmo for all of those loaves and fishes. Next to the sink: But I am trusting you, O Lord, saying, You are my God! My future is in your hands.Psalm 31:1415. Below that, on a sticky note: Whatever you touch will prosper and succeed. Two rings through his lower lip framed his broad smile. Watch Now: Patrick Stewart Reads 1-Star Reviews of Famous Monuments, Ab-Soul Hit His Lowest Point. In 2009, Popoff began running advertisements in UK periodicals offering a free cross containing "blessed water" and "holy sand". It all started in 1969 with a small ministry an hour outside Hollywood run by married couple Tony and Susan Alamo (ah-LAH-mo, but who cares). [44], Popoff's longtime assistants Reeford and Pamela Sherrell also began a televised Texas-based ministry, with Reeford using the name Pastor Lee Sherrell. And that its inevitable annihilation would cause a celebration in heaven in Mesquite, a hard-luck Dallas exurb be. When he talked, the misguided suggestion of lawyers she soon began to worry that was... Potential power grab, he did n't know it then, but Nick enjoyed telling me about the horses... 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