Do you like conspiracy theories?
     Imagine there is a multi-billion dollar scheme to systematically prey on the most desperate members of our society in the name of God, using computerized demographic data. The scheme locates its victims by the U.S. Census Bureau and collects its money by making use of the U.S. Postal System. And the various strands in this web lead to one man in Beverly Hills, Calif.
     It sounds far-fetched, but the scenario is real.
     People unknowingly feed money into this perverted pipeline because the church refuses to take a stand against it out of a misguided fear of jeopardizing its own religious freedoms. By its silence, organized religion is acting as Dr. Kevorkian to the country's poorest believers, aiding them in a spiritual suicide of massive proportions.
     It's time to cry out, "Stop, in the name of God!"
     In 1992, we established a victim's hotline (1-800-229-VICTIM) for people who believed that they, or their loved ones, had been harmed by ministries, especially televangelists.
     Since then we have received thousands of calls and by following up on these complaints, we've collected files on more than 300 suspicious religious organizations.
     We found that a television presence is only one cog in the machinery of the religious scam artists. Under the guise of taking prayer requests, they take advantage of sincere people in dire need, turning them into grist for their money-making mill.
     And the religious direct mail appeal has become the virtual monopoly of one man. The Rev. Gene Ewing is the creative genius of religious direct-mail. We call him "God's Ghostwriter.
     In 1968, he rescued Oral Roberts' organization, doubling revenues from existing donors in one month. Just one of Ewing's letters, produced for televangelist Rex Humbard, brought in a return of $64 for each direct-mail letter sent. Ewing is the modern-day father of the "seed-faith" concept that fuels the multi-billion dollar industry known as the "health-and-wealth gospel."
     You've never heard of Rev. Ewing? That's the real brilliance of his scheme. He realized early on that televangelists who carry tens of millions of dollars in overhead do it only to generate mailing lists... and to make themselves "personalities." But that high profile only invites criticism and public scrutiny. Ewing has developed a method to do away with television "advertising" and to prospect for new donors through the mail, using U.S. Census tracts.
     His version of Christianity written in his direct-mail letters is so marginal as to be believable only to the most desperate and isolated individuals. His letters frequently include instructions to open them when alone, to not talk with anyone about them, and to resist the devil's suggestions that they not be answered.
     Ewing's direct-mail expertise is unparalleled. In the Fall of 1993, he was taking in $26,640 per day from a "membership" base grown over a 42-year period. But the new computer programs and marketing strategies are catapulting him to 1.1 million mailings per month, generating 9,500 new "members" every day.
     Utilizing U.S. government census tracts and a new computer program, Ewing is targeting his mailings of postcards to tens of thousands in 2- to 4-block pockets of grinding poverty-ridden neighborhoods.
     The postcard is purportedly from "a group of praying grandmothers" who were deep in prayer when the Holy Spirit brought this household to their attention. "God will bless you," it says, "if you return the bottom portion of the postcard with the correct name and address."
     Ewing is getting an eight percent response rate from unsolicited mailings addressed to "occupant." In a five-month period he exceeded his previous 42 years income with "no end in sight."
     He provides creative services from an extensive product catalogue to many of America's failed TV-preacher superstars: Rex Humbard, Robert Tilton and W.V. Grant, to name a few, and many other evangelists use or have used Ewing's mailings, including Rev. Ike, Oral Roberts, T.L. Osborne, Jim Bakker, Don Stewart, and Billy James Hargis.
     In 1982, the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status for Ewing's organization "Church by Mail," because it did not meet the requirements of a 501(c)(3) organization. The decision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
     In 1984, Ewing began using yet another 501(c)(3) organization "Church and Bible Study in the Home by Mail," which continues – on a tax-exempt basis – the very same activities ruled to be non-exempt.
     Our investigation revealed a twisted genius who produces millions of dollars a year for himself and his small band of associates.
     We examined Ewing's extravagant lifestyle, his labyrinth of interlocking organizations designed to obfuscate income and ownership; his use of other people's money to finance his operation; the suffering and deception inflicted upon his unwitting victims; the cold, hard numerical evaluation, projection and conversion of millions of needy people's dreams and prayers into millions of dollars; the incredibly garish, tasteless perversions of Christianity he uses to coax money out of the millions of people on his mailing lists; and the way in which he sells these same "creative campaigns" to other evangelists.
     In biblical churches, an evangelist is available to personally meet with people 24 hours a day, and his words are tested by his life. He will live as the poorest of the poor, not the richest of the rich. A true evangelist will live and experience people's suffering instead of living in grand isolation in movie-star-modeled homes.
     An early Christian book called the Didache was the manual of discipleship for first century Christians. In it, believers were warned to shun any man who comes in the name of God asking for money because he's a false apostle.
     Men like Ewing exist because the local churches have not done their job of caring for the poor, the homeless, the widows and orphans around about them.
     It's time for the church to cry out, "Stop, in the name of God!"