Same old crap: Money goes to the bank, prayers go to the dumpster

[kurth]

Prayers, cash flow into Tulsa
Watchdog: Monthly take is $6 million
by: ZIVA BRANSTETTER World Projects Editor
5/13/2007 6:02 AM

Each month, thousands of Americans receive envelopes postmarked from Tulsa filled with biblical trinkets such as a Bank of Heaven check listing God as president and Jesus as vice president. And each month, thousands of recipients send back cash, checks and their handwritten prayers to the organization, Saint Matthew's Churches.

One religious watchdog group, the Trinity Foundation, estimates the pitches bring up to $6 million every month. Though Saint Matthew's letters list only a Tulsa post office box, the letters and money flow back to a downtown Tulsa office building owned by the group's attorney, J.C. Joyce. There, in the basement of a building housing Joyce's law firm, a staff of 17 employees work up to 12 hours each day opening the letters, taking out cash and checks and depositing the rest in trash cans called "holy bins."

The facility features heavy security, with cameras, thick steel doors and is accessible only with special elevator keys. One worker's job is simply to bundle the large stacks of cash using a money-counting machine. "It's almost laughable if it weren't so sacrilegious," said Dick McClure, who worked for a company called Bixby Mail Inc. in Joyce's building. Records list Joyce as a corporate officer of Bixby Mail Inc., which was incorporated in 2001.

McClure, 67, of Sand Springs, said he took the job to make some extra income in March but quit several weeks ago because he had concerns about where the money was going. He said his job was to open thousands of letters to Saint Matthew's each day and note on the envelopes how much had been sent. He said one deposit slip he saw listed that day's total as $86,000. "You pull out all of the marketing material and you put it in what they call a holy bin. It's like a trash bin. People may have prayer requests on there; it doesn't matter . . . What they want to know is who gave it and how much." ...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070513_238_A1_hWatc18175

[tanyev]

1. "As soon a coin in coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs"

Yep, that scam has been around a long time.

[Fenris]

2. That's fucking sick.

[MadMaddie]

3. That's why it's time to remove the "Tax Exempt Status" from

churches....The churches should be taxed on a sliding scale....these churches are robbing the poor of their hard earned money.....I would think it qualifies as Fraud....and should be prosecuted as such....

[Chulanowa]

8. Definately fraud

After all, what is a church but an organization settling a product that there is no evidence for? If I go down to the dealership to pick up a Subaru, I'm not going to accept a "Get your car in the afterlife" payment plan, now am I?

[spoony]

10. Yes, I think that would, to some extent,

discourage the hideous practices of televangelists.

[magellan]

4. I had a friend who worked briefly for one of the big tele-evangelists

He said he saw this happening with his own eyes. The envelopes were torn open, money removed, everything else strewn on the floor for the cleaner to sweep up. This was back in the 80s. It's still the biggest con going.

[MadHound]

5. Fools and their money. . .

I've gotten these sort of hucksterism BS mailings. I find them rather laughable, except for the fact that people actually buy into these scams. Assholes playing on the gullibility, emotions and good will of people.

I used to live into a college town, but decided to move out to a rural area a few years back. Almost my entire compliment of junk mail changed. I now get the religious pitches, horse and tack catalogs, and ads for such upstanding publications as "Grit" and "Cappers". That's OK, it is recyclable.

[The Magistrate]

6. We Got One Last Week, Sir, Probably From This Very Outfit, As Tulsa Was The Return Address

Hard to know how dud for such people a mailing list with ouir name on it would be, but they seem to follow the 'oyster school' of propagation. Its hook was a paper prayer rug 'soaked in the power prayer' that was to be touched to the knees and sent back, with prayer requests and, of course, a 'seed' gift....

In my view, these people and any like them should be prosecuted as grifters, plain and simple.

[Rosemary2205]

11. I've gotten one from them too.

It told me to stick the holy prayer rug (8.5 X 11 photocopy) between my mattress and box spring and all my problems would be solved if I send it back. They also suggested a small donation to help further the work of spreading victory to other lost souls. :)


I put it in my own personal circular holy prayer bin instead. :)

[patrice]

7. Taking the money and selling Armageddon. I talked to a perfectly

"normal" middle-class young-lady today who told me the U.S. must stand behind "the People of God" (Israel) 100% up to and including nuclear war, because "the Bible says so."

I tried to get her to see how blasphemous that is, but I don't hink I was very successful.

There is absolutely NO doubt in my mind; churches ARE the anti-Christ.

[ComerPerro]

9. not much different than any other cash for prayers scam

[mrbill]

12. looks like JC Joyce rears his ugly head again.......

JC Joyce was once Robert Tilton's lawyer.