- The video discusses televangelists who exploit people's faith for monetary gain.
- It highlights examples such as Robert Tilton and Creflo Dollar, who have requested millions of dollars for personal luxury items.
- Televangelists preach the prosperity gospel, which suggests that wealth is a sign of God's favor and donations will result in financial returns.
- The video criticizes the predatory nature of these messages and the vulnerability of their followers.
- It also points out that donations to these televangelists are tax-free due to their status as religious non-profits or churches.

- The video discusses the lack of oversight on churches and the potential for abuse in the religious sector.
- The narrator shares their experience corresponding with Robert Tilton's church and the requests for money they received.
- The narrator decides to establish their own church, Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, to test the legal and financial limits of religious entities.
- They explain the process of setting up the church and the loopholes they discovered in the IRS guidelines.
- The video ends with a satirical church service, where the narrator asks viewers to send money to the church.

- The video discusses the desire for money.

The video discusses televangelists who exploit people's faith for monetary gain and highlights examples such as Robert Tilton and Creflo Dollar. It criticizes the predatory nature of their messages and the vulnerability of their followers. The video also discusses the lack of oversight on churches and the potential for abuse in the religious sector. The narrator shares their experience corresponding with Robert Tilton's church and decides to establish their own church to test the legal and financial limits of religious entities. The video ends with a satirical church service where viewers are asked to send money to the church.

U.S. tax law allows television preachers to get away with almost anything. We know this from personal experience.

Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption will not be able to accept donations from Church supporters from the states of Mississippi, Nevada, Pennsylvania, or South Carolina.  We apologize for any inconvenience.

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-♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ Churches, America's favorite place for redemption and sixth favorite place for chicken.

-♪♪ Churches are a cornerstone of American life.

There are roughly 350,000 congregations in the United States, and many of them do great work, feeding the hungry, clothing the poor.

This is about the churches who exploit people's faith for monetary gain.

And when I say that, you probably think of 1980s televangelists like this guy.

We've seen arms and legs that stop growing because the growth cells have stopped.

You can't say, I don't make this stuff up, just 5 seconds after you said the words, manda casabassanda.

That man is Robert Tilton, and though he, like many televangelists, was caught up in an expose decades ago, he never really went away.

Lupus, you complicated and not especially easy to describe manatee, you go, Lupus!

You vex us with your foul loopers, nurse, you go!

Now, though you may not be aware of it, televangelism is still thriving in this country, and Robert Tilton is just a very small part of it.

There are several large media networks devoted to televangelism, including Trinity, Inspiration Ministries, and Daystar.

And the preachers that appear on them can have incredible lifestyles.

Just earlier this year, a man named Creflo Dollar got people's attention with a bold request.

Pastor Creflo Dollar of the World Changers Church International facing harsh criticism after starting a fundraising campaign to buy this $65 million luxury private jet.

If I want to believe God for a $65 million plane, You cannot stop me.

You cannot stop me from dreaming is not how you ask for $65 million.

It's what you scream at your father when he tells you you'll never be a Broadway dancer.

Creflo Dollar wanting a private jet is not remotely unusual.

There is a pattern of preachers wanting high-end airplanes, and when they get them, they're not always particularly humble about it.

I had enough money to buy a beautiful Cessna Citation Jet.

And since there's so much jealousy in this room tonight, that I can feel over this.

A few weeks later, I bought another 1, worth 3 times what that 1 was.

sermon, it's the first draft of a Rick Ross single.

Now, now, preachers claim these planes are vital tools.

Look at Kenneth Copeland, who along with his wife Gloria, are among the most successful TV evangelists.

A few years back, he asked his followers to help buy a 20 million dollar jet, promising it would only be used for church business.

But a local news crew did some digging, and what they found will probably not surprise you.

It was a News 8 investigation last February which first raised questions about Copeland's apparently personal use of his new church jack.

Most notably for a ski trip to Colorado and visits to an exotic game ranch in South Texas.

Here's Copeland and his son John proudly posing with a pair of Axis deer, indigenous to India and Sri Lanka.

This guy's like a psychotic reverse Noah.

2 by 2, male and female, came to Kenneth Copeland, and he doth shot them right between the fucking eyes." -♪ ♪ -♪♪ Now, Copeland's ministry will tell you that he reimburses the church for trips like that, but that still means he has private jet reimbursement money.

And yet, despite that personal wealth, people still send Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, and that arsehole with 2 planes, lots and lots of money.

And that's partly because they preach something called the prosperity gospel, which argues that wealth is a sign of God's favor, and donations will result in wealth coming back to you.

That idea sometimes takes the form of seed faith.

The notion that donations are seeds that you will 1 day get to harvest.

I don't understand why, but there's something happens at a level where people step into faith and give $1,000 that don't happen at other levels.

You're going to have a breakthrough through this $273

Listen, that's not enough money anyway to buy the house.

You get to that phone and you put that seed in the ground and watch God work it out.

The argument is, sow your money in the ground and you will reap returns multiple times over, except as an investment, you'd be better off burying your money in the actual ground.

Because at least that way, there is a chance your dog may dig it up and give it back to you 1 day.

But it can get even more predatory, because if, say, you don't have $1,000, or perhaps have significant credit card debts, seed faith can still work for you.

I have a feeling that somebody that wants a credit card debt wiped out, that if you'll use your faith as you sow, as you sow the thousand on a credit card, as you use your faith, as you use your faith, God's gonna wipe out your credit card indebtedness.

That is the equivalent of saying, the key to you losing weight lies at the bottom of this giant Costco bulk bag of peanut butter M&Ms.

And all of this, all of this would be amusing if the targets of these messages were not often vulnerable people like Bonnie Parker.

She did not seek medical treatment for cancer, instead choosing to sow money into Kenneth Copeland's church, and I'll let her daughter pick it up from there.

the notebooks, that if she sowed enough seed, which was money, the greater amount of seed that you sow, according to them, the better chance you have.

The better chance you have of getting healed.

At this point, I think it's clear that seed faith is the most disgusting seed-based concept since whatever the fuck chia seed pudding is.

Bonnie Parker gave thousands of dollars to the Copeland's church because she believed it was her best chance of beating cancer.

But, It's not an unreasonable interpretation of the Copeland's preachings.

Gloria Copeland sells numerous products on healing through faith, and has been skeptical in the past about going to the doctor.

We know what's wrong with you, you've got cancer.

The bad news is, we don't know what to do about it.

Except give you some poison that'll make you sicker.

You wanna do that, or you wanna sit here on Saturday morning, hear the word of God, and let faith come into your heart and be healed?

It's pretty clear that woman cannot hear the word of God, because if she could, I'm pretty sure he'd be shouting, -"Fuck you, Gloria!" Right in her ear.

And yet, and yet, not only is everything you've seen so far legal, but the money people donate in response to it is tax-free.

Because if you're registered as a religious non-profit, or especially a church, you are given broad exemptions over taxation and regulation.

The IRS, in fact, produced a scintillating video instructing its agents how to treat churches, and it contains a phrase that you would not normally associate with the agency.

Hello, and welcome to churches and religious organizations, do's and don'ts.

For reasons as old as the United States, the tax laws and regulations that govern churches and religious organizations are purposely broad and sometimes a little vague.

Oh, they are underselling that, because the films of Christopher Nolan are a little vague.

A text from your mom reading, please call, not emergency, but please call, very important, don't worry.

The IRS regulations are close to meaningless.

According to their tax codes, Not only is the term church not specifically defined, they make no attempts to evaluate whether the content of a doctrine is religious, provided the beliefs are truly held and are not illegal.

But truly held beliefs that are not illegal is almost every belief.

If you believe the best movie ever made is Lady in the Water, then your name is M.

Night Shyamalan, but congratulations, Mr.

Shyamalan, that belief could be a religion.

And being designated a church confers all sorts of benefits, like the Parsonage Allowance, which allows the Copelands to live in a 6.3 million dollar house, tax exempt.

Which only makes sense if by parsonage they mean, house that looks like it cost the net worth of Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons.

We actually asked the IRS how many churches they've audited in recent years, and they did 1 in 2014, and just 2 in 2013.

The odds of a church getting audited are basically the same as Gloria Copeland curing your fucking cancer.

When you can operate with so little oversight, it is amazing what you are able to do.

If you ever send him a donation, you cannot imagine what happens.

And luckily, you don't have to imagine because, and we should probably come clean here, We have been involved in a correspondence with Robert Tilton's church for the last 7 months to try and find out what he tells people.

So, settle in, because this gets incredible.

Back in January, I sent him $20 and a letter asking to be added to his mailing list.

Within 2 weeks, he sent me a letter back, thanking me for my donation and claiming, I believe that God has supernaturally brought us together.

I saw him on television and I sent him some money.

He wasn't my dead lover who came back to help me with some pottery.

But soon afterwards, he sent me a second letter, and inside, there was a 1 dollar bill, which was exciting, until I saw the inscription instructing me to send it back to him with your best Prove God tithes or offering.

That's right, I had to send the 1 dollar back with an additional recommended offering of $37, which I did.

So, at this point, we're just 2 letters in, and Already, it's like having a pen pal who's in deep with some loan sharks.

This correspondence continued back and forth, like this, until March, when he sent me 3 small packets of colored oil that I was instructed to pour on letters and send back to him by specific dates, along with more money.

And in April, I got a letter in a manila envelope with the message, check enclosed.

I've seeded and I've seeded and I've seeded.

Then I open it, and this is true, it was a check for $5 from me made out to Pastor Tilton's church.

And then he sent me a piece of fabric in the shape of some mountains.

I assumed at this point I'd somehow reached the mountain level.

And surprise, surprise, he asked me to send those mountains back to him with some more money again.

So I did, and then he sent me another letter with another single dollar bill inside.

He told me to put that dollar bill in my Bible for 1 night and then send it back the next day with 49 more dollars, so that he can have it blessed with oil, and send me a one-dollar bill back that has been blessed, adding, I must warn you not to rob God with your tithes and offerings.

And then for emphasis, I can't urge you enough, do not let this 1 dollar bill stay in your house.

I kept that 1 dollar bill because fuck him.

I received another oil packet, more prayer cloths, and even, and this is true, an outline of his foot.

Which I was asked to trace my foot on and mail back to him with more money.

So, as of tonight, I have sent him $319 and received 26 letters.

And again, this is all hilarious until you imagine these letters being sent to someone who cannot afford what he's asking for.

So at this point, I was getting pretty angry and looking for a sign of what to do.

So, I watched a little more Robert Tilton, and the most amazing thing happened.

There's a person watching me, and you've been very frustrated with your purpose in life.

Because I'm extremely frustrated right now, as it seems my purpose in the last 7 months has been to send you money through

So, so I will ask, what's that message that you have for me?

Just then, I had a word of knowledge for someone that's really been seeking God, you have, for a particular purpose or decision in your life.

And that is when I realized the message Robert Tilton was sending me was that I should set up my own church to test the legal and financial limits of what religious entities are able to do." And so,

We filed paperwork last week, establishing a church called Our Lady of perpetual exemption.

To make sure we did this correctly, we had this actual tax lawyer walk us through the process.

Now, while the IRS does not have a definition of a church, they do have a 14-point test as a guideline for churches.

But not only do you not have to meet all 14 points, we'd already met some of them by accident.

instance, you need an established place of worship, but we meet every Sunday in this studio in New York.

Our lawyer also advised us our church needed to be a distinct legal entity, so we registered our church as a non-profit corporation in Texas, a state I do not live in, have never lived in, but which is somehow completely fine for us to incorporate a church in.

Now, the IRS's guidelines suggest you need a creed and form of worship, but our lawyers suggested we could fulfill the worship requirement by merely leading everyone in some specific ritual, such as having congregants silently meditate on the nature of fraudulent churches.

Let us do exactly that, and bow our heads in silent contemplation.

And finally, finally, according to our attorney, the best case for church membership will be made by those individuals who are actually present in the live studio audience who will profess belief in the church's creed.

So what do you say, live studio audience?

you profess your belief tonight, brothers and sisters?

Then there is only 1 thing left for us to do.

-♪ Brothers and sisters, welcome to our lady of perpetual exemption.

I am your mega-reverend, thank you, brothers and sisters, your mega-reverend and CEO, John Oliver, And can I tell you, I am so blessed tonight?

So blessed to be joined by my radiant wife, Wanda Jo Oliver.

And praise be to all of you watching us tonight or joining us online at www.ourladyofperpetualexemption.com.

But most of all, praise be to the IRS, that most permissive of government agencies.

Wanda Jo, I have heard the word of prophecy.

It says the viewers at home must plant a seed.

Preferably in the form of cash, although we do take checks.

It can be $5, it can be $10, it can be $77.

Because we ain't interested in your seeds!

Please send us your actual money to this address at the bottom of your screen.

If you do this, and this is real, great things will happen to you, and that's apparently something I'm allowed to say.

Praise loopholes in all their blessed loopiness!

Let me talk to the brothers and sisters at home.

Touch your hand to the screen right now and we shall cure it.

You probably didn't even know that you had lupus, but you did, but you don't anymore.

Call this actual number right now, 1-800- Because amazingly, all of this is.

Call this toll-free number and plant your seed.


Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ Churches, America's favorite place for redemption and sixth favorite place for chicken. -♪♪ Churches are a cornerstone of American life. There are roughly 350,000 congregations in the United States, and many of them do great work, feeding the hungry, clothing the poor. But this is not a story about them. This is about the churches who exploit people's faith for monetary gain.

And when I say that, you probably think of 1980s televangelists like this guy.

Speaker 1: I'm just getting into a prophetic vein. Mamamukosolobasata. Mandadekindidindebebo. Someone with a digestive tract problem. Quickly call.

Mandadebakasata. We've seen midgets grow. We've seen arms and legs that stop growing because the growth cells have stopped. Manda debassata.

Speaker 2: I don't make this stuff up. What?

Speaker 0: Please, please. You can't say, I don't make this stuff up, just 5 seconds after you said the words, manda casabassanda. That man is Robert Tilton, and though he, like many televangelists, was caught up in an expose decades ago, he never really went away.

Speaker 2: Healing, go into those knees. Arthritis, go! In the name of Jesus. Tumors, go! In the name of Jesus.

That 1 calling with lupus. Lupus, you foul devil. You bow to the name of Jesus. Lupus, you bow to the name of Jesus. You go in Jesus' name.

Speaker 3: Lupus, you complicated and not especially easy to describe manatee, you go, Lupus! You vex us with your foul loopers, nurse, you go!

Speaker 0: Now, though you may not be aware of it, televangelism is still thriving in this country, and Robert Tilton is just a very small part of it. There are several large media networks devoted to televangelism, including Trinity, Inspiration Ministries, and Daystar. And the preachers that appear on them can have incredible lifestyles. Just earlier this year, a man named Creflo Dollar got people's attention with a bold request.

Speaker 4: Pastor Creflo Dollar of the World Changers Church International facing harsh criticism after starting a fundraising campaign to buy this $65 million luxury private jet.

Speaker 3: If I want to believe God for a $65 million plane, You cannot stop me. You cannot stop me from dreaming.

Speaker 0: You... You cannot stop me from dreaming is not how you ask for $65 million. It's what you scream at your father when he tells you you'll never be a Broadway dancer.

Speaker 3: I can do it, dad! I've got the music in

Speaker 0: me!" But here's the thing. Creflo Dollar wanting a private jet is not remotely unusual. There is a pattern of preachers wanting high-end airplanes, and when they get them, they're not always particularly humble about it.

Speaker 5: I had enough money to buy a beautiful Cessna Citation Jet. Cash. And since there's so much jealousy in this room tonight, that I can feel over this. A few weeks later, I bought another 1, worth 3 times what that 1 was. Cash.

Act happy over my blessing, folks.

Speaker 0: Ooh. I bought a jet, cash. I bought a bigger jet, cash. Fuck the haters, act happy

Speaker 3: for me. That's not a

Speaker 0: sermon, it's the first draft of a Rick Ross single. Now, now, preachers claim these planes are vital tools. Look at Kenneth Copeland, who along with his wife Gloria, are among the most successful TV evangelists. A few years back, he asked his followers to help buy a 20 million dollar jet, promising it would only be used for church business. But a local news crew did some digging, and what they found will probably not surprise you.

Speaker 6: It was a News 8 investigation last February which first raised questions about Copeland's apparently personal use of his new church jack.

Speaker 5: This is a preaching machine.

Speaker 0: -♪♪

Speaker 6: Most notably for a ski trip to Colorado and visits to an exotic game ranch in South Texas. Here's Copeland and his son John proudly posing with a pair of Axis deer, indigenous to India and Sri Lanka.

Speaker 3: Holy shit!

Speaker 0: This guy's like a psychotic reverse Noah. 2 by 2, male and female, came to Kenneth Copeland, and he doth shot them right between the fucking eyes." -♪ ♪ -♪♪ Now, Copeland's ministry will tell you that he reimburses the church for trips like that, but that still means he has private jet reimbursement money. And yet, despite that personal wealth, people still send Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, and that arsehole with 2 planes, lots and lots of money. And that's partly because they preach something called the prosperity gospel, which argues that wealth is a sign of God's favor, and donations will result in wealth coming back to you. That idea sometimes takes the form of seed faith.

The notion that donations are seeds that you will 1 day get to harvest. Let me show you that in action.

Speaker 7: The size of your seed... Will determine the size of your harvest. I don't understand why, but there's something happens at a level where people step into faith and give $1,000 that don't happen at other levels.

Speaker 6: You're going to have a breakthrough through this $273

Speaker 0: seed.

Speaker 8: All you've got is $1,000. Listen, that's not enough money anyway to buy the house. You're trying to get in the apartment. You're trying to buy the house. That's not enough money anyway.

You get to that phone and you put that seed in the ground and watch God work it out.

Speaker 0: The argument is, sow your money in the ground and you will reap returns multiple times over, except as an investment, you'd be better off burying your money in the actual ground. Because at least that way, there is a chance your dog may dig it up and give it back to you 1 day. Good boy. But... But it can get even more predatory, because if, say, you don't have $1,000, or perhaps have significant credit card debts, seed faith can still work for you.

Speaker 5: I have a feeling that somebody that wants a credit card debt wiped out, that if you'll use your faith as you sow, as you sow the thousand on a credit card, as you use your faith, as you use your faith, God's gonna wipe out your credit card indebtedness. -♪ You're gonna...

Speaker 0: -♪ Think about that. That is the equivalent of saying, the key to you losing weight lies at the bottom of this giant Costco bulk bag of peanut butter M&Ms. Go find it, It's definitely down there. And all of this, all of this would be amusing if the targets of these messages were not often vulnerable people like Bonnie Parker. She did not seek medical treatment for cancer, instead choosing to sow money into Kenneth Copeland's church, and I'll let her daughter pick it up from there.

Speaker 9: I started finding notebooks.

Speaker 10: How long after she passed away. She believed, and I

Speaker 11: know she believed, because it's in

Speaker 9: the notebooks, that if she sowed enough seed, which was money, the greater amount of seed that you sow, according to them, the better chance you have.

Speaker 12: The better chance you have of getting healed.

Speaker 0: At this point, I think it's clear that seed faith is the most disgusting seed-based concept since whatever the fuck chia seed pudding is. -$1,000. Bonnie Parker gave thousands of dollars to the Copeland's church because she believed it was her best chance of beating cancer. And you might think, well, that's crazy. But, It's not an unreasonable interpretation of the Copeland's preachings.

Gloria Copeland sells numerous products on healing through faith, and has been skeptical in the past about going to the doctor.

Speaker 13: We know what's wrong with you, you've got cancer. The bad news is, we don't know what to do about it. Except give you some poison that'll make you sicker. --WOMAN LAUGHS IN BACKGROUND --Now... Which do you wanna do?

You wanna do that, or you wanna sit here on Saturday morning, hear the word of God, and let faith come into your heart and be healed? Hallelujah.

Speaker 0: It's pretty clear that woman cannot hear the word of God, because if she could, I'm pretty sure he'd be shouting, -"Fuck you, Gloria!" Right in her ear. -$5,000. And yet, and yet, not only is everything you've seen so far legal, but the money people donate in response to it is tax-free. Because if you're registered as a religious non-profit, or especially a church, you are given broad exemptions over taxation and regulation. The IRS, in fact, produced a scintillating video instructing its agents how to treat churches, and it contains a phrase that you would not normally associate with the agency.

Speaker 14: Hello, and welcome to churches and religious organizations, do's and don'ts. For reasons as old as the United States, the tax laws and regulations that govern churches and religious organizations are purposely broad and sometimes a little vague.

Speaker 0: A little vague? Oh, they are underselling that, because the films of Christopher Nolan are a little vague. A text from your mom reading, please call, not emergency, but please call, very important, don't worry. That's a little vague. The IRS regulations are close to meaningless.

According to their tax codes, Not only is the term church not specifically defined, they make no attempts to evaluate whether the content of a doctrine is religious, provided the beliefs are truly held and are not illegal. But truly held beliefs that are not illegal is almost every belief. Bros before hoes? That could be a religion. Red vines are better than Twizzlers?

That could be a religion. If you believe the best movie ever made is Lady in the Water, then your name is M. Night Shyamalan, but congratulations, Mr. Shyamalan, that belief could be a religion. And being designated a church confers all sorts of benefits, like the Parsonage Allowance, which allows the Copelands to live in a 6.3 million dollar house, tax exempt.

This is their house. That is a parsonage. Which only makes sense if by parsonage they mean, house that looks like it cost the net worth of Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons. We actually asked the IRS how many churches they've audited in recent years, and they did 1 in 2014, and just 2 in 2013. The odds of a church getting audited are basically the same as Gloria Copeland curing your fucking cancer.

And when you can operate... Here's the thing. When you can operate with so little oversight, it is amazing what you are able to do. Look at Robert Tilton. If you ever send him a donation, you cannot imagine what happens.

And luckily, you don't have to imagine because, and we should probably come clean here, We have been involved in a correspondence with Robert Tilton's church for the last 7 months to try and find out what he tells people. So, settle in, because this gets incredible. Back in January, I sent him $20 and a letter asking to be added to his mailing list. Within 2 weeks, he sent me a letter back, thanking me for my donation and claiming, I believe that God has supernaturally brought us together. And supernatural is a bit of a stretch.

I saw him on television and I sent him some money. He wasn't my dead lover who came back to help me with some pottery. But soon afterwards, he sent me a second letter, and inside, there was a 1 dollar bill, which was exciting, until I saw the inscription instructing me to send it back to him with your best Prove God tithes or offering. That's right, I had to send the 1 dollar back with an additional recommended offering of $37, which I did. So, at this point, we're just 2 letters in, and Already, it's like having a pen pal who's in deep with some loan sharks.

This correspondence continued back and forth, like this, until March, when he sent me 3 small packets of colored oil that I was instructed to pour on letters and send back to him by specific dates, along with more money. So I did that. And in April, I got a letter in a manila envelope with the message, check enclosed. And I thought, fantastic! I've seeded and I've seeded and I've seeded.

Here comes my harvest. Then I open it, and this is true, it was a check for $5 from me made out to Pastor Tilton's church. This went on for 7 more letters. And then he sent me a piece of fabric in the shape of some mountains. I assumed at this point I'd somehow reached the mountain level.

And surprise, surprise, he asked me to send those mountains back to him with some more money again. So I did, and then he sent me another letter with another single dollar bill inside. He told me to put that dollar bill in my Bible for 1 night and then send it back the next day with 49 more dollars, so that he can have it blessed with oil, and send me a one-dollar bill back that has been blessed, adding, I must warn you not to rob God with your tithes and offerings. And then for emphasis, I can't urge you enough, do not let this 1 dollar bill stay in your house. And you know what?

I kept that 1 dollar bill because fuck him. -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪

Speaker 3: That's... That's why. So, that 1 I kept. That... That 1 I kept.

But... But

Speaker 0: that did not stop him. The letters kept on coming. I received another oil packet, more prayer cloths, and even, and this is true, an outline of his foot. Which I was asked to trace my foot on and mail back to him with more money. So, as of tonight, I have sent him $319 and received 26 letters.

That's almost 1 a week. And again, this is all hilarious until you imagine these letters being sent to someone who cannot afford what he's asking for. So at this point, I was getting pretty angry and looking for a sign of what to do. So, I watched a little more Robert Tilton, and the most amazing thing happened.

Speaker 2: There's a person watching me, and you've been very frustrated with your purpose in life.

Speaker 3: That might be me, Bob. Because I'm extremely frustrated right now, as it seems my purpose in the last 7 months has been to send you money through

Speaker 0: the fucking mail. So, so I will ask, what's that message that you have for me?

Speaker 2: That's so strong just then. Just then, I had a word of knowledge for someone that's really been seeking God, you have, for a particular purpose or decision in your life.

Speaker 0: And that is when I realized the message Robert Tilton was sending me was that I should set up my own church to test the legal and financial limits of what religious entities are able to do." And so,

Speaker 3: that is what we have done.

Speaker 0: We filed paperwork last week, establishing a church called Our Lady of perpetual exemption. And it was disturbingly easy. To make sure we did this correctly, we had this actual tax lawyer walk us through the process. Now, while the IRS does not have a definition of a church, they do have a 14-point test as a guideline for churches. But not only do you not have to meet all 14 points, we'd already met some of them by accident.

Speaker 3: For

Speaker 0: instance, you need an established place of worship, but we meet every Sunday in this studio in New York. And apparently, that genuinely counts. Our lawyer also advised us our church needed to be a distinct legal entity, so we registered our church as a non-profit corporation in Texas, a state I do not live in, have never lived in, but which is somehow completely fine for us to incorporate a church in. Now, the IRS's guidelines suggest you need a creed and form of worship, but our lawyers suggested we could fulfill the worship requirement by merely leading everyone in some specific ritual, such as having congregants silently meditate on the nature of fraudulent churches. So...

Let us do exactly that, and bow our heads in silent contemplation. And lo, another box was ticked. Amen. And finally, finally, according to our attorney, the best case for church membership will be made by those individuals who are actually present in the live studio audience who will profess belief in the church's creed. So what do you say, live studio audience?

Do you profess your belief? I said, do

Speaker 3: you profess your belief tonight, brothers and sisters? Then there is only 1 thing left for us to do. Let's go to church. -♪ Let's go to church! -♪ -♪ Let's go to church!

Speaker 0: -♪ Brothers and sisters, welcome to our lady of perpetual exemption. I am your mega-reverend, thank you, brothers and sisters, your mega-reverend and CEO, John Oliver, And can I tell you, I am so blessed tonight? So blessed to be joined by my radiant wife, Wanda Jo Oliver. Please welcome her. Please welcome her.

Speaker 3: Wanda Jo. Wanda Jo, praise be. Praise be, Wanda Jo. Praise be, Wanda Jo.

Speaker 0: And praise be to all of you watching us tonight or joining us online at www.ourladyofperpetualexemption.com.

Speaker 15: But most of all, praise be to the IRS, that most permissive of government agencies.

Speaker 0: Wanda Jo, I have heard the word of prophecy.

Speaker 15: Hallelujah! What did it say, my John?

Speaker 0: I'll tell you. I'll tell you, my Wanda. It says the viewers at home must plant a seed.

Speaker 15: A seed! An almighty seed! Yes. Preferably in the form of cash, although we do take checks.

Speaker 0: It can be $5, it can be $10, it can be $77. We need you to sow your biggest seed.

Speaker 15: That's money. Don't send us seeds.

Speaker 0: That's right, Wanda. Please do not send us actual seeds.

Speaker 15: Because we ain't interested in your seeds!

Speaker 0: We ain't interested! We ain't interested! Please send us your actual money to this address at the bottom of your screen. If you do this, and this is real, great things will happen to you, and that's apparently something I'm allowed to say.

Speaker 15: Praise! Praise legal! Praise our tax attorney! Praise loopholes in all their blessed loopiness!

Speaker 0: Let me talk to the brothers and sisters at home.

Speaker 3: Do you

Speaker 0: have debt?

Speaker 15: Debt be gone!

Speaker 3: Do you have lupus?

Speaker 15: The demon plague.

Speaker 0: Touch your hand to the screen right now and we shall cure it. Touch your hand to the screen right now.

Speaker 15: Curse you, curse you demon lupus. Bedevil us no more.

Speaker 3: Curse you lupus! You probably didn't even know that you had lupus, but you did, but you don't anymore. It's a miracle. It's a miracle. It's a miracle tonight.

Speaker 15: It's a miracle.

Speaker 0: Miracle. Do not delay. Call this actual number right now, 1-800- Because amazingly, all of this is. This is all legal. Call this toll-free number and plant your seed.

Speaker 15: Plant it deep in him.

Speaker 3: Okay.

Speaker 0: -♪♪

Speaker 15: Plant your seed in his mouth, plant it all over his face.

Speaker 3: Okay, Wanda, keep it together, Wanda. Keep it together.

Speaker 15: Praise seed! Praise seed! Praise seed!

Speaker 3: Call this number, sow your seed, and ye shall prosper.

Speaker 0: Wanda, Wanda,

Speaker 3: do you feel the Spirit?

Speaker 15: Do you feel the Spirit?

Speaker 3: I feel the Spirit! Do you feel the spirit at home? Call the number on your screen right now. Call this number. Call it.

Call it. Call it. On your screen. Call it. Actually do it.

Actually do it now. Because it's Robert Hilton, Kenny Cochran, and all these bastards who get away with it, and we get stopped. Truly, we have witnessed a fucking miracle tonight. Give us money. Give us money.

We want money. You

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Televangelists: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)