Robert Tilton
Robert Tilton | |
---|---|
Born | Robert Gibson Tilton June 7, 1946 Televangelist |
Employer | Word of Faith World Outreach Center Church |
Television | Success-N-Life (1981–1993; 1997–?) |
Movement |
|
Spouses | Martha Phillips
(m. 1968; div. 1993)Leigh Valentine
(m. 1994; div. 1997)Maria Rodriguez Tilton
(m. 2002) |
Website | www |
Robert Tilton (born June 7, 1946) is an American
When
Life and career
Robert Tilton was born in
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[5] – 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.[5] Upon his return from Hawaii in 1981, Tilton, with the help of a US$1.3 million loan from Dallas banker Herman Beebe,[1] revamped Daystar into an hour-long "religious infomercial" with the title Success-N-Life.[5]
Success-N-Life
On Success-N-Life, Tilton regularly taught that all of life's trials, especially poverty, were a result of
A
As a result of Tilton's television success, Word of Faith Family Church grew to become a
Ministry and fundraising scandal
In 1991,
Allegations of exploitation of vulnerable people
Anthony, a Christian minister whose organization works with the homeless and the poor on the east side of Dallas, first took an interest in Tilton's ministry in the late 1980s after encountering needy people who told him they had lost all of their money making donations to high-profile televangelists, especially Tilton. Curious about the pervasiveness of the problem, the Trinity Foundation got on the mailing lists of several televangelists, including Tilton, and started keeping records of the many types of solicitations they received almost daily from various ministries.
Former Coca-Cola executive Harry Guetzlaff came to Trinity after he had been turned away from Tilton's church when he found himself on hard times following a divorce. He had been a longtime donor and gave up his last $5,000 as a "vow of faith" just weeks earlier. Guetzlaff's experience, combined with the sheer magnitude of mailings from Tilton's ministry, spurred Anthony, a former Air Force intelligence officer and licensed private investigator, to start a full investigation of Tilton's ministry. Guetzlaff joined Anthony in the task of gathering details on Tilton's operation and later did much of the legwork in uncovering the paper trail for the ABC News investigation.[13]
Undercover investigation
In a November 21, 1991, promotional appearance on
Meeting with Response Media
The team, armed with hidden cameras and microphones, arrived for a meeting at Response Media, the Tulsa-based marketing firm handling Tilton's mass mailings, to discuss a proposal sent by Anthony to Response Media about fundraising for a religious-based TV talk show. The director of Response Media, Jim Moore, described for Anthony and the hidden cameras (concealed in the undercover Primetime Live producers' glasses and handbags) many techniques used by Tilton to raise funds for his ministry. Moore also said that Tilton was doing "far better than anyone knows" and described the main strategy Tilton employed for such a high return rate on his mailings—that is, send the recipient a "gimmick" that compelled the recipient to mail something back in return, and most recipients would include some money along with it. Moore declined to disclose how much Response Media was paid for its services or how much money the mailings were generating for the Tilton ministry.[1]
However, as part of his sales pitch to Anthony, Moore disclosed that the response letters generated by the fundraising mailings Response Media sends out for its clients were never delivered to the client; instead, they were sent unopened to the client's financial institution or other institutions of choice. "You never have to touch it", Moore added in response to a clarification question from Anthony about dealing with the gimmick objects sent to the potential donors in the mails. One of the ABC producers asked whether this was a standard practice—"So the mail goes straight to the bank?"—and Moore asserted that it was: "The mail goes to the bank, and they put the money in your account. We just get the paper with the person's name and how much they gave."[1]
1991 Primetime Live documentary ("The Apple of God's Eye")
Trinity members, acting on this information, started digging through
Denial
Tilton vehemently denied the allegations and took to the airwaves on November 22, on a special episode of Success-N-Life entitled "Primetime Lies", to air his side of the story. He asserted that the prayer requests found in garbage bags shown on Primetime Live were stolen from the ministry and planted in the dumpster for a sensational camera shot, and that he prayed over every prayer request received, to the point that he "laid on top of those prayer requests so much that 'the chemicals actually got into [his] bloodstream, and... [he] had two small strokes in [his] brain."[15] Tilton remained defiant on claims regarding his use of donations to his ministry to fund various purchases, asking, "Ain't I allowed to have nothing?" with regards to his ownership of multiple multimillion-dollar estates. Tilton also claimed that he needed plastic surgery to repair capillary damage to his lower eyelids from ink that seeped into his skin from the prayer requests.[16]
Further revelations
After Trinity members spent weeks poring over the details of the documents they and ABC had uncovered, sorting and scrutinizing each prayer request, bank statement, and computer printout dealing with the codes Tilton's banks and legal staff used when categorizing the returned items, Anthony called a press conference in December 1991 to present what he described as Tilton's "Wheel of Fortune", using a large display covered in actual prayer requests, copies of receipts for document disposition, and other information which demonstrated what happened to money and prayer requests which the average viewer of Tilton's television program sent him.[17] When both Tilton and his lawyer J. C. Joyce reacted to the news by claiming the items Anthony was displaying had somehow been stolen by "an insider", Anthony responded in a subsequent interview that "Joyce was our mole—a lot of this stuff came from the dumpster outside his office."[17]
Primetime Live's original investigation and subsequent updates included interviews with several former Tilton employees and acquaintances. In the original investigation, one of Tilton's former prayer hotline operators claimed the ministry cared little for desperate followers who called for prayer, saying Tilton had a computer installed in July 1989 to make sure the operators talked to no caller for longer than seven minutes. The former employee also revealed very specific instructions were given to them in terms of how to talk with callers and they were told to always ask for a $100 "vow" at a minimum. Also in the original report, a former friend of Tilton's from college (who remained anonymous and was shown in silhouette) claimed both he and Tilton would attend tent revival meetings as a "sport" and would claim to be anointed and healed at the meetings. He added the two had often discussed the notion that after graduation they would set up their own roving revival ministry "and drive around the country and get rich." In a July 1992 update to the investigation, Primetime Live interviewed Tilton's former maid, who claimed prayer requests which were sent to Tilton's house by the ministry were routinely ignored until he told her to move them out of the house and into the garage; according to the maid, "they stacked up and stacked up" in the garage until Tilton had them thrown away. In the same interview, Tilton's former secretary came forward and claimed Tilton lifted excerpts from "get rich quick" books and used them in his sermons, and she never saw him perform normal pastoral duties such as visiting with the sick and praying with members.[15]
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.[17]
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.[18]
Failed libel action
In 1992, Tilton sued ABC for
Tilton sued for fraud
Several donors to Tilton's television ministry sued Tilton in 1992–1993, charging various forms of fraud. One plaintiff, Vivian Elliott, won $1.5 million in 1994 when it was discovered that a family crisis center for which she had made a donation (and recorded an endorsement testimonial) was never built or even intended to be built.[8] The judgment was later reversed on appeal.
As part of the
The decline of Success-N-Life also led to the end of Tilton's 25-year marriage to his wife Marte, who had been administrative head of the Word of Faith Family Church and World Outreach Center, in 1993. Dallas lawyer Gary Richardson, who represented many of the parties suing Tilton for fraud, attempted to intervene in the Tiltons' divorce, citing the potential for the divorce settlement to be used to hide financial assets that were currently part of the many fraud cases; Richardson's petition to have the divorce action put on hold until after the fraud cases were settled was denied.[17] Marte intervened in Tilton's second divorce from Leigh Valentine, who had asked the court to include the church and all its assets as community property in the proceedings. Under Texas law, property accumulated during a marriage is considered community property and thus subject to division between the parties in a divorce. The jury eventually ruled against the request.[21]
Lexington Academy
Lexington Academy was a small private Christian school in Farmers Branch that was founded in the early 1980s by Robert and Marte Tilton. The name "Lexington" was chosen in honor of the
Reviving Success-N-Life
After moving to
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, when he named Chattanooga, Tennessee, minister Bob Wright as senior associate pastor,[7] and its membership had declined to less than 300.[17] The church building was purchased by the city of Farmers Branch in 1999 for use as a future civic center; however, the economy suffered a downturn and the plans were scrapped, and the building was finally demolished in 2003 to make room for a new Dallas Stars-sponsored youth hockey center.
In March 2005, Tilton started a new church in
Current ministry
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
In 1998, The Washington Post reported that Tilton's following disappeared after the investigations but he had "joined dozens of other preachers to become fixtures on BET".[29] Consequently, Tilton, along with Stewart and Peter Popoff, received "criticism from those who say that preachers with a long trail of disillusioned followers have no place on a network that holds itself out as a model of entrepreneurship for the black community."[29]
Steve Lumbley, who worked for Tilton's ministry in 1991 when the original Primetime Live investigation took place, told a reporter for the Dallas Observer in 2006 that reports of prayer request disposal that were the centerpiece of the ABC exposé were highly exaggerated. In an article for the Observer blog "Unfair Park", Lumbley asserted that "[t]he mailings all had some kind of gimmick. They weren't godly at all. But the primary allegation that came out of that—that prayer requests were thrown away—was categorically untrue, and I can guarantee you that was not a normal practice." However, Lumbley, who now runs a Christian watchdog website called ApostasyWatch.com, does credit ABC and the Trinity Foundation for exposing Tilton's unethical fundraising tactics, noting that, "God was using Ole and ABC to chastise Tilton and bring him down."[30]
Trinity 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.[27]
Satire
In 1985, two men began distributing a video they compiled lampooning Tilton and his ostensible conversations with God. The video exploits Tilton's facial expressions and preaching style. The original video contained no title screen and was roughly edited. The video featured a medley of footage from Success-N-Life overdubbed with well-timed sound effects of flatulence. Unofficial VHS copies of the video circulated in the U.S. through the late 1980s under such titles as Tooting Tilton, Heaven Only Knows (the first title by the original distributors), Pastor Gas, The Joyful Noise, and The Farting Preacher. After the hosts of The Mark & Brian Show, a radio program in Los Angeles, mentioned the video on the air, the video's authors saw the market potential and began selling official copies of their creation. Similar videos have since been made with more recent footage of Tilton and are distributed throughout the Internet, all under the Farting Preacher name. The video distribution (including digital bootlegs distributed online) expanded public awareness of Tilton and his controversial television ministry.[17]
The song "I Know" on the Barenaked Ladies' 1996 album Born on a Pirate Ship includes the lines: "If a hundred monkeys each could get their own show / perhaps one day a chimp might say," followed by a sample of Tilton saying, "and you have faith! You just need to use it, saith the Lord."
The musician Pogo created the song "Hoo Ba Ba Kanda" using the sounds and words of Tilton from his program.
The comedy material of Ron White also includes mention of Tilton. In the opening to White's act in the first Blue Collar Comedy Tour movie, White says that "while sitting in a beanbag chair naked eating Cheetos", he finds Tilton on TV and believes Tilton is talking specifically to him: "Are you lonely?" "Yeah." "Have you wasted half your life in bars pursuing sins of the flesh?" "This guy's good ..." "Are you sitting in a beanbag chair naked eating Cheetos?" White gapes in horror before squeaking "Yes sir!" "Do you feel the urge to get up and send me a thousand dollars?" (pause for effect) "Close! I thought he was talking about me there for a second. Apparently, I ain't the only cat on the block (who) digs Cheetos!"[17]
In the early 2000s, the Trinity Foundation put together a number of news broadcasts, including the initial Primetime Live piece, from the years surrounding the investigations into Tilton's ministry on a DVD entitled The Prophet of Prosperity: Robert Tilton and the Gospel of Greed. The DVD also includes segments from The Daily Show's "God Stuff" (hosted by Trinity member John Bloom, a.k.a. Joe Bob Briggs), excerpts from the Pastor Gas videos, and a number of mocking music videos, as well as moments from Success-N-Life showing Tilton's more outrageous claims of "visions from God."[17]
The name "Tilton" is referred to in the song "Cash Cow (A Rock Opera In Three Small Acts)", from the album called Squint by music artist and film director Steve Taylor, where it says:
The cash cow! The golden cash cow had a body like the great cows of ancient Egypt, and a face like the face of Robert Tilton—without the horns. And through the centuries, it has roamed the Earth like a ravenous bovine, seeking whom it may—lick! [between about 1:11 and 1:36 on the CD version]
Tilton's antics are also lampooned in the area of software technology by Douglas Crockford. Crockford created "The Tilton Macro Preprocessor", which he describes as "one of the ugliest programming languages ever conceived".
Bruce Prichard, who portrayed Brother Love in the WWE, has stated that the character was largely based on Tilton's way of speaking.
The comedian and satirist
That's right ... I had to send the $1 back with an additional recommended offering of $37, which I did. So at this point, we're just two letters in and it's like having a pen pal who's in deep with some
loan sharks.[31]
Oliver set up his own "televangelism" megachurch on his broadcast, which he called Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption.[31]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "The Apple of God's Eye", produced by Robbie Gordon, Primetime Live, first broadcast November 21, 1991.
- ISBN 978-0-6642-2409-7.
- ^ "Success N Life with Robert Tilton". roberttiltonlive.com. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
- ^ a b c "Prosperity and Healing: Is it Promised to the Believer?, Ken L. Sarles, retrieved June 11, 2006.
- ^ a b c "Robert Tilton's Heart of Darkness", Scott Baradell, first published in the Dallas Observer on February 6, 1992, p. 18; quoted in Christianity In Crisis by Hank Hanegraaff, Harvest House Publishers, 1993, p. 347.
- ^ SacrifyX (June 3, 2014), Robert Tilton Needs Your Money More Than You Do, archived from the original on December 21, 2021, retrieved May 1, 2019
- ^ a b c "Second Coming: A Jet-Settin', Scotch-Sippin' Robert Tilton Washes Up in South Florida and He Still Wants Your Money", Sean Rowe, Dallas Observer, quoted by Cephas Ministries, retrieved June 11, 2006.
- ^ a b CBS Evening News with Connie Chung, CBS, first broadcast April 22, 1994; as compiled on The Prophet of Prosperity: Robert Tilton and the Gospel of Greed, DVD produced by The Trinity Foundation, publication date not specified.
- ^ "TV Preachers Seen as 'Beggars': Public Dislikes Evangelists' Onscreen Methods", Dallas Morning News, first published on November 21, 1992; quoted in Christianity in Crisis by Hank Hanegraaff, Harvest House Publishers, 1993, p. 348.
- ^ "A Myth Shattered: New Report Shows Christian TV Ministries Not Focused on Money". Retrieved April 15, 2017.
- Dallas Morning News. Retrieved May 17, 2007.
- ^ Success-N-Life home page, retrieved March 3, 2009.
- ^ a b "The Antichrist of East Dallas", Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker, first published on December 6, 2004; retrieved June 11, 2006.
- ^ Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, aired November 21, 1991, as compiled on The Prophet of Prosperity: Robert Tilton and the Gospel of Greed, DVD produced by The Trinity Foundation, publication date not specified.
- ^ a b c Follow-up segment to "The Apple of God's Eye", Primetime Live, first broadcast November 28, 1991.
- ^ Bender, Stephen (November 22, 2000). "Oh God, you devil". Salon.
- ^ a b c d e f g h The Prophet of Prosperity: Robert Tilton and the Gospel of Greed, DVD produced by The Trinity Foundation, publication date not specified.
- ^ "The Resurrection of Robert Tilton". Archived from the original on July 28, 2011. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
- ^ a b Wilonsky, Robert (August 8, 2006). "The Robert Tilton Files". Dallas Observer. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
- ^ Carelli, Richard. "Supreme court rejects suit by television evangelist Robert Tilton". AP NEWS. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
- ^ "Tilton's Church to Retain Assets". March 3, 1997. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
- ^ "Tapps.net".
- ^ "WalkSports.com". Retrieved April 15, 2017.
- ^ Lexington Academy Yearbooks 1988-1998
- ^ The Word Network program listing page, retrieved January 8, 2007.
- ^ "Bob's Back, and More Entertaining than Ever", Steve Blow, Dallas Morning News, published September 25, 2004, retrieved June 18, 2006.
- ^ a b "Robert Tilton: From Downfall to Windfall" Archived February 19, 2005, at the Wayback Machine, Ziva Branstetter, Tulsa World, first published May 4, 2003; quoted by The Trinity Foundation, retrieved June 17, 2006.
- ^ "Robert Tilton trades mega TV ministry for hotel in California". WFAA. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
- ^ a b "White Preachers Born Again on Black Network; TV Evangelists Seek to Resurrect Ministries". The Washington Post. September 3, 1998. Archived from the original on January 3, 2013. Retrieved May 17, 2007.
- ^ "The Robert Tilton Files", Glenna Whitley, Dallas Observer "Unfair Park" online blog, dated August 6, 2006; retrieved October 4, 2006.
- ^ a b c d August 17, 2015, Christian Post, Comedian John Oliver Lampoons Televangelists on 'Last Week Tonight' Show; Opens Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption Church, Retrieved August 18, 2015, "...In his critique, Oliver said he and his team corresponded with televangelist Robert Tilton's Word of Faith Worldwide Church for seven months which quickly became predatory in nature..."
Further reading
- Bekkering, Denis (2018). American Televangelism and Participatory Cultures: Fans, Brands, and Play With Religious "Fakes". Palgrave Macmillan.
- Bender, Stephen (November 21, 2000). "Oh God, You Devil". Salon. Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
- Branstetter, Ziva (May 4, 2003). "Robert Tilton: From Downfall to Windfall: Living on a Prayer". Tulsa World. Archived from the original on February 19, 2005. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
- Rowe, Sean (November 6, 1997). "Second Coming". Dallas Observer. Archived from the original on February 9, 2001. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
- ——— (January 1, 1998). "The Resurrection of Robert Tilton". Miami New Times. Archived from the original on December 10, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2018.