Though America's so-called "religious marketplace" is currently experiencing an exciting trend toward greater diversification, with Christianity at large experiencing a substantial decline alongside dramatic increases in those claiming either an atheistic or agnosticlifestyle, the seemingly lawless industry surrounding certain religions continues to prosper. With Jon Stewart currently wandering the pastures of retirement (?), to whom do the intellect-starved masses of the United States turn for a swift televised evisceration of this angering reality?
Thankfully, John Oliver is still here to provide weekly injections of desperately needed truth. "This is about the churches that exploit people's faith for monetary gain," says Oliver before launching a twenty-minute summary of his seven-month investigation into the practices of Robert Tilton's Word of Faith Worldwide Church. As part of his exploration of institutionalized hypocrisy of the highest order, Oliver corresponded with Word of Faith via snail mail after initiating the correspondence with a $20 donation and a letter requesting he be added to the official mailing list.
Over the course of 26 letters (nearly one a week), Oliver ended up sending over $300 to Tilton's ministry. The tactics were simple, if not insultingly so. Letters from Word of Faith included such maddeningly stupid guilt tactics as placing a dollar bill inside a bible overnight before adding 49 other dollar bills and sending the entire 50 to the church, in addition to one particularly bizarre request for Oliver to trace his foot over an outline of Tilton's own foot.
As is public knowledge, the IRS classifications and exemptions which promote such corruption are still firmly in place. Thankfully, this only inspired Oliver to quickly establish his own "church" perfectly named Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption:
