$5 vows were just not acceptable … it’s gotta be a THOUSAND!
Remember Robert Tilton, the televangelist with the gravity-defying hair and promises of wealth beyond your wildest dreams? He was the embodiment of 1980s excess, preaching a gospel of prosperity while raking in millions from his devoted followers. His “Success-N-Life” program was a masterclass in emotional manipulation, convincing viewers that financial sacrifice was the key to unlocking God’s blessings.
But behind the flashy suits and charismatic sermons lurked a darker truth. Tilton’s ministry was built on a foundation of questionable practices, preying on the vulnerabilities of his audience and allegedly discarding their heartfelt prayer requests in favor of cold hard cash.
This is the story of a man who rose to the pinnacle of televangelism, only to fall from grace amid accusations of fraud and deception. We’ll delve into the inner workings of his controversial ministry, exploring the tactics he used to extract money from his followers and the devastating consequences for those who believed in his promises.
Get ready for a deep dive into the dark underbelly of the prosperity gospel movement, as we uncover the secrets behind Robert Tilton’s rise and fall.
Yes, this is the Robert Tilton who captured the pocketbooks of hundreds of the faithful.
His most famous line in this short video … “We’ve seen midgets grow!”
This *should* have been the end of his ministry.
In 2015, Denis J. Bekkering wrote a thesis in fulfillment for his Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, titled “Drag Queens and Farting Preachers: American Televangelism, Participatory Media, and Unfaithful Fandoms.” It is 817 pages long, more than half of which is Bibliography!
From the abstract:
This dissertation aims to expand the scope of research on religion and fandom by offering cultural histories of “unfaithful” fan followings of three controversial American televangelists – Robert Tilton, Tammy Faye Bakker/Messner, and Jim Bakker – dating from the 1980s to 2012, and consisting of individuals amused by, rather than religiously affiliated with, their chosen television preachers.
Following are a few excerpts…
Page 72-73:
Photo of Marte & Robert Tilton. Seminar By Word of Faith Satellite Network, January 1, 1986.
Writing in 1984, sociologist Jerry D. Cardwell proclaimed Robert Tilton to be one of the “rising stars” of American televangelism. The “handsome” Tilton and his “attractive” wife Marte, the “picture of a well-groomed, articulate, and prosperous American couple,” stood at the head of the Word of Faith World Outreach Center Church in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch. Sunday services at the megachurch, along with Tilton’s “regular teaching show,” Success N Life, were broadcast live across the country, in part through Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s PTL satellite network. Throughout his overview of Tilton’s ministry the Episcopalian Cardwell often betrays his status as a bemused mainline outsider. He expresses astonishment at having witnessed Tilton and his parishioners not only speaking, but singing, in tongues, and recounts an energetic service in which “many, if not most in the congregation were enjoying the service by clapping their hands, jumping, dancing, and raising their hands to the Lord.”
What most struck Cardwell, however, was Tilton’s incessant solicitation of donations, backed by the preacher’s “guarantee” that those who made financial sacrifices to his ministry would “reap the rewards of success.” In contrast to “traditional, mainline churches,” Cardwell reported that the televised services from Word of Faith were filled with “continual, impassioned pleas and direct orders to give to the ministry,” and he noted that during one service many in attendance opened their checkbooks at Tilton’s command. Likewise, Tilton’s Success N Life program was packed with appeals for donations: “If he begins with Bible exposition, the talk ends with a statement on giving money. If he begins with the ‘born again’ experience, he still ends with a discussion about giving money.”
Page 76-77:
The principle of “Seed Faith” is a promotional characteristic of Tilton’s online ministry to this day.
The success of Robert Tilton’s ministry, as with all television ministries, depended on convincing individuals of his sincerity and religious authenticity. This task was made difficult, however, by the longstanding cultural association of American revival preaching with religious fakery – an association enmeshed in the very fabric of Tilton’s programming. As John Fiske writes, an “essential characteristic of television is its polysemy, or multiplicity of meanings.” While each television text carries a “preferred reading” desired by its producers, it is also marked by “semiotic excess,” containing within it “traces of competing or resisting discourses available for alternative readings.” In the case of Robert Tilton’s programming, great efforts were made to convince audiences that the televangelist was a sincere and genuine conduit of the divine. However, the potential for reading Tilton as a deceptive and bizarre religious fake was also often built into his programs, generally in the form of refutations.
The abovementioned clip from Success N Life is filled with examples. In discussing his seed faith theology, Tilton reassures viewers that it is “not a gimmick,” but that his theology rests on “a Biblical principle.”“To some it’s crazy,” Tilton acknowledges after pleading with God to aid an audience member, “But to those to whom this arrow was shot to, it’s not crazy, it’s your moment, and hour of deliverance.” Regarding the power of his anointed prayer cloths, to be sent out to those who write in to his ministry, and one of which, he promises, is “going to deliver someone from warts,” Tilton places words of skepticism in a hypothetical viewer’s mouth: “You say ‘Bob this sounds strange.’ It’s all in the Bible: Acts 19.”
Page 103:
In contrast, the editors of Zontar generally found seemingly insincere prosperity televangelists amusingly entertaining, with one preacher standing head and shoulders above the rest: Robert Tilton. Unlike “true believers” such as Howard C. Estep, whose program offered irreverent viewers “a peek into strange other worlds,” Jan Johnson ranked Tilton as one of the “outright blatant frauds” of religious programming. “I can’t believe that Tilton has any really core beliefs,” Johnson stated during our interview, adding that he nevertheless found the purported huckster’s programs to be “always funny.” The bulk of this amusement was ironic in nature, and derived from Tilton’s alleged insincerity, as well as his exuberant style and exploitative theology. In his article on “Cult-TV,” for example, Curran described Tilton’s “incredible Success N Life” as a “great seed faith classic,” and as the “best show” among the “truly unbelievable and demented Jeezuz programming available to adventurous cablewatchers.”
Page 120:
At the turn of the 1990s Robert Tilton’s ministry was soaring. Services at Word of Faith Family Church were packed, the ministry’s broadcasts reached across the United States and beyond, and millions of dollars were pouring into the ministry. By the end of 1991, however, the ministry was mired in scandal, initiated by an investigative report on the ABC newsmagazine Primetime Live. Hosted by Diane Sawyer, the report presented Tilton as an insincere religious fake with a shady past, who secretly lived like a king while exploiting his troubled supporters via pseudo-personal mailers and manipulative kitsch.
Most damaging was the report’s claim of having discovered hundreds of prayer requests which had evidently been eviscerated of their money and callously tossed, unread, into back-alley dumpsters.Scholars who have examined the Tilton media scandal have framed the Primetime Live report as a relatively straightforward unmasking of a hypocritical and greedy televangelist. Sociologist Anson Shupe, for example, describes the report as an “exposé of (Tilton’s) corrupt and cynical direct-mail fund-raising tactics,” and penchant for “manipulative showmanship.”
Page 127-128
Robert Tilton lost his lawsuit against an ABC News program that claimed he led an extravagant lifestyle and made false promises to followers. ABC’s Diane Sawyer did a segment on Tilton’s church for “PrimeTime Live” in November 1991.
While Primetime Live devoted considerable time to Robert Tilton’s ridiculousness and alleged historical penchant for parody, the crux of the report – an investigation of the televangelist’s mailing operations conducted with the help of the Trinity Foundation – was staunchly serious. First, the program aired the results of a hidden-camera infiltration of Response Media, the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company behind the ministry’s mailers, and described by Sawyer as the “nerve center of his ministry.” Sawyer reported that a small group including ABC staffers and the Trinity Foundation’s Ole Anthony had duped Response Media’s president, Jim Moore, into believing that they “were media consultants” for “Dallas minister” Anthony, and that they were looking to “start a big-money ministry like Tilton’s.”Captured on hidden camera, Moore emphasizes, among other things, the effectiveness of mailing out “free” trinkets. Some of these trinkets, accompanied by pseudo-personal letters “written by ghost-writers,” were intended to be returned to the ministry, ideally with a donation: “Miracle prayer cloths he promises to touch and place upon an altar. Cords he says he’ll place on a ‘Wall of Deliverance’.” Primetime Live’s hidden-camera investigation set up the program’s coup de grâce, which began with a clip of Robert Tilton affirming that he reached out to “people that are beat up, that are hurting.” “But how much,” Sawyer asks, “does Tilton really care about the beat up and the hurting?” The answer, according to Primetime Live, lay in how the ministry handled received mail, which was, allegedly, “forwarded, unopened to Tilton’s bank in Tulsa…the bank opens the followers’ mail, not to share the agony, but to get the money.”
Sawyer further asserts that “those items that people have prayed over and sent in, believing Robert Tilton would touch them and pray over them too. Well if some made it to Tilton, there are thousands that didn’t.” Primetime Live followed with its big reveal: shots of thousands of apparently discarded gimmicks and unread prayer requests, purportedly discovered in dumpsters behind Tilton’s Tulsa bank and Response Media.These images were Primetime Live’s emotional pay dirt: dozens of paper angels pulled from a garbage bag; a trashed miracle prayer cord; a “tracing where Tilton said he’d place his hand, ripped up by the bank”; “heartbreaking appeals from followers,” including a handwritten note pleading with Tilton to “pray for my husband (sic) eyes”; and, finally, a trashed envelope with “a prayerful message,” “personal photographs,” and a “seven-thousand dollar pledge.” “The money probably made it to Tilton,” Sawyer concludes, “the prayers went in the trash.”
Page 160-161:
Mrs. Bob Tilton # 2, Leigh Valentine, interviewed in 2009 on 100 Huntley Street.
In 1996 Robert Tilton became embroiled in an acrimonious divorce with his second wife Leigh Valentine, who publicly accused him of frequent drunkenness, physical abuse, a consuming greed, and of being a “perpetual liar.”Valentine also made an unsuccessful bid to claim a portion of Word of Faith’s assets, encouraging Tilton’s first wife, Marte, to also seek a share, to no effect.
Beleaguered by bad press and hostility in Dallas, Tilton surreptitiously decamped to Florida where, as Sean Rowe of the Dallas Observer reported in November 1997, he set about “preparing his own resurrection” out of “a South Florida television studio.” While Word of Faith was attended to by a “caretaker pastor,” Tilton began broadcasting a new version of Success N Life in select television markets across the country. Although his prosperity message remained the same, Rowe noted that the program’s style had changed considerably.
While the Success N Life of old was filmed on sets that resembled “lugubrious dens lined with leather-bound books,” Rowe jokingly described Tilton’s new set as “a Sunday-school vision of ancient Palestine, complete with Styrofoam ‘stone’ walls and a gurgling fountain.” Rowe further wrote that Tilton himself was a “little less frisky” in his new setting, and that the televangelist had left behind his expensive suits in favor of a more casual “Miami Vice” look, complete with “pastel pants” and “tropical sport coats.”
Robert Tilton (born June 7, 1946) is an American televangelist and the former pastor of the Word of Faith Family Church in Farmers Branch, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. At his ministry’s peak in 1991, Tilton’s infomercial-style program, Success-N-Life, aired in all 235 American television markets (on a daily basis in the majority of them) and brought in nearly $80 million per year; it was described as “the fastest growing television ministry in America.”
When ABC’s Primetime Live raised questions about Tilton’s fundraising practices, a series of investigations into the ministry were initiated, and Success-N-Life was taken off the air. Tilton later returned to television on a new version of the program airing on BET and The Word Network.
Robert Tilton was born in McKinney, Texas, on June 7, 1946. He attended Cooke County Junior College and Texas Technological University. He married his first wife, Martha “Marte” Phillips, in 1968. According to his autobiographical materials, Tilton had a conversion experience to evangelical Christianity the following year and began his ministry in 1974, taking his family on the road to, in his words, “preach this gospel of Jesus.” Tilton preached to small congregations and revivals throughout Texas and Oklahoma. His family settled in Dallas and built the Word of Faith Family Church, a small nondenominational charismatic church in Farmers Branch, in 1976. The church started a local television program then known as Daystar.
Tilton’s young church was growing steadily, but Daystar failed to expand beyond the Dallas area until Tilton traveled to Hawaii – his self-described version of Jesus’s forty days in the wilderness – and came upon an increasingly popular new form of television programming: the late-night infomercial. Tilton was particularly influenced by Dave Del Dotto, a real estate promoter who hosted hour-long infomercials showing his glamorous life in Hawaii, as well as on-camera testimonials lauding his “get rich quick” books. Upon his return from Hawaii in 1981, Tilton, with the help of a US$1.3 million loan from Dallas banker Herman Beebe, revamped Daystar into an hour-long “religious infomercial” with the title Success-N-Life.
On Success-N-Life, Tilton regularly taught that all of life’s trials, especially poverty, were a result of sin. His message consisted mainly of impressing upon viewers the importance of making “vows”—financial commitments to Tilton’s ministry. His preferred vow, stressed frequently on his broadcasts, was $1,000. Occasionally, Tilton would claim to have received a word of knowledge for someone to give a vow of $5,000 or even $10,000. When a person made a vow to Tilton, he preached that God would recognize the vow and reward the donor with vast material riches. The show also ran “testimonials” of viewers who gave to Tilton’s ministry and reportedly received miracles in return, a practice that would be used as the basis for a later lawsuit from donors charging Tilton’s ministry with fraud.
As a result of Tilton’s television success, Word of Faith Family Church grew to become a megachurch, with 8,000 members at its height.
In 1991, ABC News conducted an investigation of Tilton (as well as two other Dallas-area televangelists, Grant and Larry Lea). The investigation, assisted by Trinity Foundation president Ole Anthony and broadcast on ABC’s Primetime Live on November 21, 1991, alleged that Tilton’s ministry threw away prayer requests without reading them, keeping only the accompanying money or valuables sent to the ministry by viewers, garnering his ministry an estimated US$80 million a year.
PrimeTime Live exposé of Robert Tilton.
Government involvement
Despite Tilton’s repeated denials of misconduct, the State of Texas and the federal government became involved in subsequent investigations, finding more causes for concern about Tilton’s financial status with each new revelation. After nearly 10,000 pounds of prayer requests and letters to the Tilton ministry were found in a disposal bin at a Tulsa area recycling firm in February 1992, along with itemized receipts of their delivery from Tilton’s main mail-handling service in Tulsa rather than from the church offices in Farmers Branch, Tilton admitted in a deposition given to the Texas Attorney General’s office that he often prayed over computerized lists of prayer requests instead of the actual prayer requests themselves, and that prayer requests were in fact routinely thrown away after categorization.
As each revelation became increasingly more damaging, viewership and donations declined dramatically. The last episode of Success-N-Life aired nationally on October 30, 1993. By that time, viewership had fallen 85 percent and monthly donations went from $8 million to $2 million.
In 1992, Tilton sued ABC for libel because of its investigation and report, but the case was dismissed in 1993. Tilton appealed the decision in 1993; although the findings of the original court were upheld in 1995 … Tilton once more appealed the decision, this time to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1996, but the court refused to hear the case.
Reviving Success-N-Life
After moving to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1996, Tilton returned to the airwaves in 1997 with a new version of Success-N-Life, buying airtime on independent television stations primarily serving inner city areas. The new version of Success-N-Life returned to Tilton’s previous message of asking for “vows of faith” from viewers instead of exorcisms.
The Word of Faith Family Church and World Outreach Center was finally formally dissolved by Tilton in 1996. Though Tilton was still listed as the church’s senior pastor, he had not preached at the church since March 16, 1996
In March 2005, Tilton started a new church in Hallandale, Florida, not far from his home in Miami Beach. The church had already existed for some time under the pastorship of former televangelist David Epley. Tilton’s new church, now called “Christ the Good Shepherd Worldwide Church”, had approximately 200 members in 2007. On May 13, 2007, the church moved into a new location in Miami and was officially renamed “Word of Faith Church”, much like the original church in Dallas.
When Tilton returned to television in 1997, he established his ministry’s headquarters in Tulsa, where his lawyer J. C. Joyce’s offices were located, and set up a post office box as its mailing address. A woman employed by Mail Services, Inc., a Tulsa-area clearinghouse that handled mail sent to Tilton’s ministry, said that when she worked for Mail Services, Inc. in 2001, prayer requests were still routinely thrown away after donations and pledges were removed.
Trinity Foundation still monitors Tilton’s television ministry as part of its ongoing televangelist watchdog efforts. In a 2003 interview published in the Tulsa World, Anthony estimated that with none of the Word of Faith Family Church overhead and with television production costs at a fraction of the original Success-N-Life program, Tilton’s current organization was likely grossing more than $24 million per year tax-free.
Healing Fail … January 2012
A televangelism classic. A man with a broken collar bone is attending a church service lead by Robert Tilton. Tilton lays hands on the man’s collarbone and prays for it to be healed. Tilton Triumphantly proclaims the man healed and instructs him to move his arm around to demonstrate the healing. But the man’s facial expressions suggests he’s going to need a half-bottle of Ibuprofen after the service … Tilton, after noticing the man’s reaction, hastily moves on to the next person, “What kind of pain are you in?”
Corrupt pastor Robert Tilton wants his congregation to cover $81,000 to pay his court fine.
By summer of ’93, Robert Tilton’s ministry was struggling after a year and a half of legal battles and steadily declining donations. In this rare clip from Dallas area TV, Bob needs $81,000 to pay a fine imposed by state district judge Eric Moye, a sanction for Bob’s ministry being a year late producing court-ordered documents for review. Watch as the master manipulates and cajoles his congregation, trying to get 81 people to shell out $1000 each, right there on the spot, as special guest Kenneth Copeland looks on.
Observations from the following clip: Prayer cloths, prayer oil, “free” book. “There’s some white people watching me.” A Woman prospers and doesn’t have to buy her clothes at K-Mart any longer. Tilton sees demonic figures. “Someone is now making a $1,000 vow in faith. Here’s a $10,000 vow and a $5,000 vow!” Crawls all over a mound of prayer requests. “There’s an arm being healed right now.” “When that prayer cloth comes, let them cut it up and put it in a loved one’s pocket” I promise you’ll not make it through the full 14 minutes and 51 seconds.
Via Internet Archive (Aug. 2002) — Second Coming: A jet-settin’, Scotch-sippin’ Robert Tilton washes up in South Florida and he still wants your money.
by Sean Rowe, Dallas Observer
Sitting in Ross Perot’s favorite booth at a fancy Dallas restaurant, Leigh Valentine eats half of her low-fat redfish and then explains her husband’s “disguise kit.” The kit contained several fake moustaches and a $1,200 custom-made wig. Robert Tilton, the Texas televangelist, carried it everywhere, and during their first year of marriage he wore disguises “50 percent of the time,” Valentine says.
It’s a tale she’s told before, under oath in divorce court–the disguise kit, and the nights aboard a yacht in Fort Lauderdale or in various mansions where Tilton would throw her down stairs, slam her against walls, or hurl cordless telephones at her head; how Tilton would drink himself into blind rages and declare he was the Pope, or wake up in the night screaming that “rats were eating his brain.”
Valentine, a former Miss Tallahassee, Florida, further explains why Tilton felt compelled to use disguises in 1995 but probably doesn’t anymore, and why, despite having spent $6,000 on private detectives in Texas and Florida, she has no idea where her husband is right now.
If you want to find Robert Tilton these days, a good place to start looking is at a South Florida television studio. While members of Tilton’s Dallas church may believe that Tilton has vanished from the face of the Earth or is busy doing God’s work in some Third World backwater, he’s in fact alive and well and living in South Florida, busily preparing his own resurrection.
Nearly five years have passed since the TV empire that Tilton ran from his Farmers Branch church collapsed under the weight of scandal. But, if you saw him on television during the late ’80s or early ’90s, you will not have forgotten Robert Tilton. Not the Howdy-Doody dimples, nor the frosted pompadour. Not the bizarre facial contortions, nor the antics. (Tilton once climbed atop his desk to wallow in a pile of viewers’ prayer requests; he told his TV audience that he had undergone plastic surgery because ink from those same prayer requests had seeped into his bloodstream and created bags under his eyes.)
According to former Word of Faith church members, Tilton employed hundreds of minimum-wage “prayer warriors” to answer his toll-free hotline. When viewers called in, their names and addresses were entered in computer banks. The master list was then used to generate mailings to the faithful–and more pleas for money–over and over again.
“Do you need more money?” reads the question on an envelope received by a California resident a few months ago. A pair of pennies is visible through a cellophane window in the envelope.
Inside the envelope is a message from Tilton: “Take the miracle request prayer sheet that I have enclosed with the coins and carefully write down the areas of your life (especially financial) where you want me to release my anointing on your behalf… and then WRITE A CHECK FOR THE BEST POSSIBLE GIFT THAT YOU CAN GIVE!! Make it a widow’s step-of-faith and give the devil a black eye by placing the biggest, largest, most generous gift (that would defy natural reason) into God’s work.”
Tilton includes instructions to pray over the coins and send them back with a check. “Your two token coins will be placed in my New Testament Treasury Chest for me to bless every day,” he writes. “I will then send you an anointed miracle coin to use as your miracle reminder and as a point of contact to carry with you wherever you go.”
The following paragraph on the “Dream The Dream” page is such an amazing word salad, that it’s worth pointing out. As Google Gemini observes, there are more than a few issues…
… Martin Luther King. had a Dream … “If you have a dream you are not Poor.. with hard work, preserving and no mater how many times you fall or fail you can achieve Greatness… isn’t that what you are looking for. ??? .. It’s in Jesus in You. . what’s Your Dream .. you can Become .. you can be .. one of God’s megaMillionaires in the making I am called to help you … Go to RobertTilton.Com get my Free stake your claim to youf Dream book .. sent to you instantly by email. .. we are creating & building the largest WholePerson Prosperity/Salvation Church in the World 1 Million LEEP Lifestyle EnRichment Evangelist Partners Worldwide Affiliate paid ministerial compensation. nothing is impossible Only believe. How can you read this pure revelation knowledge and not even click. It’s beyond me. Preached to to much doing nothing with it. Seriously.
Submitted to Google Gemini Advanced for grammar and understanding.The AI even wrote a revised version:
The paragraph contains several grammatical errors and lacks clear structure, making it difficult to understand the intended message. Here’s a breakdown of the issues and a revised version:
Original:
• Grammatical errors:Misspellings (“mater,” “youf,” “Preached to to much”), incorrect punctuation (excessive ellipses, missing commas), and capitalization inconsistencies. • Lack of coherence:The ideas jump from Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to financial prosperity through Jesus to a vague call to action without clear transitions. • Unclear message: It’s unclear what the author is trying to convey, whether it’s a religious message, a motivational speech, or a promotional advertisement.
Revised:
“Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream… a dream that poverty could be overcome through hard work and perseverance. If you share this dream, remember that greatness is achievable, no matter how many times you stumble. Jesus can empower you to reach your full potential.
I’m called to help you achieve your dreams, including financial prosperity. Visit RobertTilton.com to receive my free e-book, “Stake Your Claim to Your Dream,” and learn how to become one of God’s mega-millionaires.
We’re building the world’s largest WholePerson Prosperity/Salvation Church with 1 million LEEP Lifestyle Enrichment Evangelist Partners who receive compensation for their ministry. Nothing is impossible if you believe.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity. Act now and claim your dream.”
Analysis:
The revised version addresses the grammatical errors and attempts to clarify the message. However, it still presents a potentially misleading message, as it seems to conflate religious faith with a guaranteed path to wealth. The claim of creating “mega-millionaires” through faith and participation in a church program raises ethical concerns and should be approached with caution.
The “FREE” course titled “Daniel’s 21-Day Challenge” looked interesting so I clicked on it to continue the course … purely out of curiosity.
Here’s where the page took me…
Well, at this point, naturally I had to click the blue button … and then this … Pledge Vow Gift payment REQUIREMENT. I went ahead and pledged a million dollars on an ongoing daily basis and added it to my cart.
And then I attempted to check out, but since my coupon code was invalid, I decided against the donation. And besides … whoever heard of a coupon code for a donation?
I was really looking forward to that “FREE” “Daniel’s 21 Day Challenge” course … oh well.
Now this next page is REALLY puzzling … I was not sure “what” I was paying for, nor “what” I was getting. Perhaps you can decipher the offer…
Co-Operative Advertising Donation
The Cooperative Advertising Program is in conjunction to the Affiliated Marketing Ambassador Ministerial Compensation Program, where Success N Life™ International & Robert Tilton will help generate referrals & sales for you. Success N Life™ believes in mutual assistance towards the goal of WholePerson Prosperity™ for Everyone Worldwide.
Being Involved in & contributing to the Cooperative Advertising Program will allow us to generate Affiliated Marketing Ambassador Referrals & sales for you through all of our OMNI MEDIA Platforms:
TV Air Time, Radio Air Time, Seminars & Conventions, Social Media Platforms & More…
The pain for Norma Smith of Dallas, Texas, was acute. Her husband was dying of a liver disease, and the doctors weren’t able to help. But she found hope in God and in televangelist Robert Tilton, who in solicitation letters promised that if she donated money, he’d personally pray for her husband and that he would recover. Only one problem: Norma Smith kept on receiving solicitation letters from Tilton promising her husband’s recovery – after he had died! She sued, saying that she had been defrauded by the wealthy evangelist. She wasn’t alone. Hundreds of other former followers of the Texas preacher have filed suits against Tilton, claiming that he defrauded them with promises of miracle medical cures and financial prosperity if they sent in prayer requests and – of course – money.
These cases all raise interesting church-state questions. Can a promise of spiritual blessing be grounds for fraud when the blessing never materializes? What if the promise is made by an artful con artist using religion to earn a fast buck? Does the state have a duty to protect unwary believers from religious fraud? Can a minister be sued for misrepresenting God? All these questions and more were tackled in the numerous legal cases surrounding Texas evangelist Robert Tilton. The only problem: many might not like the answers.
Have you heard of Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption? It’s a new church founded by HBO’s Last Week Tonight host John Oliver, reports The Huffington Post.
While Oliver followed all the “disturbingly easy” rules in creating his non-profit, tax-free organization, his intention was not to shepherd his own congregation. Instead, he did this to expose the evil deeds of true televangelists.
A recent episode of Last week Tonight was devoted to this topic, focusing on the seven month relationship Oliver cultivated with Robert Tilton, who is most well-known for his religious television show Success-N-Life.
Oliver sent Tilton money several times over the period of their relationship. At one point, Tilton sent Oliver a single dollar, threatening “dire consequences” if Oliver didn’t return the dollar with even more money.
The main point of Oliver’s rant is that televangelists prey on the downtrodden, those who can least afford to part with their money, by promising that the small amounts they donate today will lead to a windfall for them later in life, both monetarily and spiritually.
Oliver went on to point out that these televangelists live in style on the donations of their congregants, living in mansions that are legally called “parsonages.” Many of them, fly from location to location in their own private jets.
It gets more absurd. Without even trying, it turns out, Oliver’s television show met several of the legal requirements of becoming a church. With guest star Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live), he sealed the deal on the show by pleading for money, providing a gospel choir to create the mood, and even supplying a toll free number, 1-800-THIS-IS-LEGAL for folks to call.
And then there’s this … a level of humor that will renew your faith in humanity.
Can we get an amen for the catchiest sermon ever? Watch the preaching of televangelist Robert Tilton mixed into an addictive original track by Pogo.
You will be singing the praises of “Hoo Ba Ba Kanda” in no time.
Robert Tilton research from about 6 years ago up until 1 year ago…
From 2018…
Wow … BIG CROWD (mostly family)
The new “Affiliate Marketing Program for Robert Tilton. Bob is on the air talking about the “Success In Life” club where you participate financially … a two-way street (you pay and somehow or other get financially rewarded). Uh-huh … sure. About 17 minutes in you can see the “Lifestyle Enrichment Products.” This website looks like someone let all the air out of its tires.
With your Pledge Vow Gift payments will be donated to Success N Life International a subsidiary of Word of Faith Church, and adding to our Angel Fund where you can help Empty Vessels join the Success N Life Club and receive the tools to WholePerson Prosperity themselves and Worldwide.
When Paying on your Vow Pledge Gift you will receive Miracle Money Bonus Rewards through our Affiliated Marketing Ambassador Ministerial Compensation Program, which requires you to become a Success N Life Club Member, If you are not already a club member you will need to add it to your cart before making this pledge.
I submitted the above two paragraphs to Google Gemini Advanced AI and here is the response:
The program’s description is convoluted and confusing, making it difficult to understand the exact nature of the financial transactions involved. However, several red flags suggest it could potentially be a scam:
1. Vague terminology: The use of terms like “Pledge Vow Gift,” “Angel Fund,” and “Miracle Money Bonus Rewards” is vague and lacks transparency. It’s unclear exactly where the money is going and what the donor receives in return.
2. Emphasis on financial commitment:The focus is heavily on the donor’s financial contribution, with multiple mentions of “pledges” and “payments.” This raises concerns about the program’s primary motivation being financial gain rather than spiritual guidance.
3. Guaranteed rewards:The promise of “Miracle Money Bonus Rewards” suggests a guaranteed return on investment, which is highly unusual for a religious organization. This could be a tactic to lure in vulnerable individuals seeking financial stability.
4. Mandatory club membership:The requirement to become a “Success N Life Club Member” to receive the promised rewards adds another layer of financial commitment. This raises questions about the club’s purpose and whether it genuinely benefits members or primarily serves to generate more revenue.
5. Affiliated Marketing Ambassador Ministerial Compensation Program: This complex title further obfuscates the program’s financial structure. It implies a multi-level marketing scheme, where individuals are incentivized to recruit others to join the program.
Overall, the program’s lack of transparency, emphasis on financial commitment, promise of guaranteed rewards, and mandatory club membership raise significant concerns about its legitimacy. It’s advisable to exercise caution and conduct thorough research before participating in any program that seems too good to be true.
You Determine the Repeated Pledge Vow Donation’s Monthly Sum and Repetition Ranging Between One & Four Years.
Patriot Founder Dream Builder: Personal Pledge Vow
Bronze Founder Dream Builder: Pledge Vow of $1,000
Silver Founder Dream Builder: Pledge Vow of $2,500
Gold Founder Dream Builder: Pledge Vow of $5,000
Platinum Founder Dream Builder: Pledge Vow of $10,000
Vice-Presidential Founder Dream Builder: Pledge Vow of $25,000
Presidential Founder Dream Builder: Pledge Vow of $50,000
Chairman Founder Dream Builder: Pledge Vow of $100,000 Millionaire Founder Dream Builder: Pledge Vow of $1,000,000👀
Where is Robert Tilton now?
April, 2019. At about 4:10 in this video, the reporter flies to Los Angeles to interview Robert Tilton at his “monthly” church service. The meeting at the hotel began on a friendly note but when the cameras were brought into the small conference room with only 5 people in the “congregation,” things got tense and the crew was asked to leave.
The latest from a year ago…
Excerpts: “Someone needs to give a $33 offering online, right now. There’s also someone who needs to do $99. There’s also a person who needs to do $500 … they need to get this course and make a vow. And someone needs to do a $1,000 right now, today. As the video nears the end … “We’ve got to go, we’re out of time.” How do you run out of time for a YouTube video?
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This video from February 2023, may be the most recent media available for his ministry activities … it’s 57 minutes of Robert and his wife Maria talking to one another with several appeals for donations called “Make Your Vow of Faith” and sub-headings like “Debt Free Living and WholePerson Prosperity – Pay Your Bills Supernaturally” and “Receive Your ‘Time To Build & Your Dream Life’ Prosperity Course” inserted at the half-way point of the video.
Words and Acts of Faith
Here is our all-time favorite quote from Robert Tilton.
Robert G Tilton (age 78) is listed at 1436 Ridgewood Ln Sarasota, Fl 34231 and is affiliated with the Republican Party. He is a white, non hispanic male registered to vote in Sarasota County, Florida.
Other URLs used by Robert Tilton:
RobertTiltonLive.com (resolves to RobertTilton.com)
www.WFBN.tv
www.youtube.com/@WordofFaith Two Facebook pages?
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002075954134
www.facebook.com/OfficialRobertTilton/ Two X accounts?
x.com/roberttilton
x.com/realbobtilton BONUS VIDEO…
BONUS VIDEO #2…
Robert Tilton’s story is a powerful reminder of the perils of unchecked power and the potential for religious figures to exploit their followers’ faith for personal enrichment. His ministry, which promised material prosperity, ultimately devastated many spiritually and financially. This tale underscores the importance of discerning and evaluating religious leaders and their teachings through the lens of Christian faith. True spiritual fulfillment cannot be measured by wealth or material success but is found through sincere faith, a genuine relationship with God, and adherence to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Let Tilton’s downfall remind us to seek authentic spiritual growth and to hold so-called religious leaders accountable, ensuring they lead with integrity and a heart aligned with God’s will.
The Bible addresses the issue of deception and dishonesty through various examples and teachings, cautioning believers against individuals who falsely claim to possess special knowledge or skills. While the term “charlatan” isn’t used explicitly, the Bible vividly portrays individuals who embody the characteristics of such deceivers.
These figures are often depicted as false prophets, tricksters, or those with malicious intent, who deceive others by misrepresenting their identity, abilities, or knowledge. The Bible warns of the dangers posed by such individuals, whether they are religious leaders, teachers, or ordinary people who engage in fraudulent behavior.
The scriptures underscore the importance of discernment and vigilance, emphasizing the need to distinguish truth from falsehood. The Bible highlights the negative consequences of deceptive actions and urges believers to rely on divine guidance to discern the true intentions of others.
By exposing the tactics of those who exploit others through deceit, the Bible provides valuable lessons about the importance of upholding truthfulness and integrity. It serves as a guide for believers to navigate a world filled with various forms of deception, encouraging them to seek wisdom and discernment to protect their faith and well-being.
2 Timothy 3:13-17
While evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 Timothy 6:8-10
But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Matthew 7:21-23
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Revelation 22:18-19
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
Unless those who claim to be God’s spokesmen give evidence that their deepest motives and life patterns are to honor, glory, and magnify God, and to grow in humility, holiness, and obedience, we can be sure that God has not called or sent them. If they are orientated to money, prestige, recognition, popularity, power, sexual looseness, and selfishness, they do not belong to Jesus Christ. If they are proud arrogant, resentful, egotistical, and self-indulgent, they clearly are false prophets. The true test a beatitude attitude of humility. ~ John MacArthur