Many would obey, tossing away bottles of digitalis, nitroglycerine, and other important maintenance medications. He may have once been branded a charlatan, but Popoff could probably see that we never stopped making space in our hearts for a guy like hima guy who knows what we want to believe. He believes in divine magicto enrich you, to heal you, or just to entertain youbut not at the expense of the work ethic. After all, in an age when a TV tycoon can win the White House, vowing to build walls and move markets with sheer chutzpah, there's opportunity for a clever fellow who knows that people running on pure faith fall easily in love with big promises. His wife stuck with him, even after he was sued for allegedly going all "bad touch" on employees during mandated "quiet time.". I had expected to be rebuffed. But it was him. This Halloween, there are spookier things than ghosts or the number of womens costumes attempting to make cats and other household pets sexy. As a parsonage, it is tax-free. His ministry became so popular that he attracted between 8,000 and 10,000 worshipers to his megachurch every week, and his broadcasts brought in scores of letters with personal requests for prayer and (naturally!) But a key component of his act eventually spelled his downfall. [11] Billed as "The Miracle Boy Evangelist" in print advertisements, the ads also claimed he was born in a West Berlin bomb shelter, and had been rescued from a Siberian prison camp. Awkward. He was introduced to Popoff when Popoff was only 15; Skelton was the organist in Popoff's father's road show, then in Popoff's, off and on, from 1965 to 1990. Popoff is better than he knows. It's not something I snapped my fingers and it magically appeared. There was no church sign outsideand certainly no sign of a church inside. Get converts, get time on the slopes, get a tax exemption. I was flitting between channels when I happened upon BET. But one by one, they fell to disgrace: Jim Bakker paid off a woman who'd accused him of rape; Jimmy Swaggart was caught with a prostitute at a roadside motel. No matter: He knew that we weren't there for his preaching. He had everything. Paul is the guy who does the deliveries. In the late 1980s he was exposed as a fraud on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. (Turned out, an One time they came with 130 gallon-size jugs.. [41] Respondents were promised miraculous protection from disease and disability, along with financial prosperity (which might include "divine money transfers directly into your account"), if they slept with the water for one night before drinking it, then prayed over the empty bottle and sent it back to Popoffwith a donation. I wasn't aware yet of the ski vacations or his affinity for tennis or how much he adored his Bentley. I find it difficult to believe all of Duplantis followers are under a spell, though. For an hour and a half, he answered my questionsabout miracle spring water, James Randi, bankruptcy, his tennis game, the Holy Spirit. Peter Popoff was a seller of "miracle water" regular water that was purported to have mystical, miraculous properties. He spent two or three minutes with each hopeful worshipper, leaning in to whisper, and thenwhat they'd come for, what they neededtouching them. I sensed the same ambivalence when I met Larry Skelton. Appliances had been delivered. The government started taking action in the early '90s, and Tony found himself on the wrong side of the law. They want to take the stand. I measure it out and add it into the drums.. The scene dissolved to a woman sharing a bit of testimony with Popoff and the crowd. Late last November, my nationwide dragnet for tickets to see Popoff snagged something. He came to me when I least expected. But she soon began to worry that she wasn't really working for a church. Bed Bath and Beyond Coupon 20% entire purchase, Target Circle: up to 50% off with Target promo code, Join Michael Kors KORSVIP and receive 10% off your first purchase using Michael Kors Coupon Code, 2023 Cond Nast. Animals and humans drinking from the spring were purportedly spared radiation sickness. "[45] Ole Anthony of the Trinity Foundation, founded in 1987 to research the claims of televangelists, said, "Most of these guys are fooled by their own theology"referring to other televangelists such as Joel Osteen and T. D. Jakesbut in the case of Popoff, "he's fundamentally evil, because he knows he's a con man. One former resident of Washington D.C. who recently relocated to Palm Beach, Florida, and is quite happy to be pictured with private jets, surely will be pleased to know that He had an answer for everything, or almost everything. I held up my broken finger. There's a lot of ground to cover with Jerry Falwell. In 2012, another of the Crouches' granddaughters sued the couple, claiming that she had been sexually assaulted by a TBN employee when she was 13 and that Jan had turned a blind eye and blamed the child for the attack. What's the deal? Back in the '70s and '80s, Swaggart was one of the most influential evangelical preachers in America. Wrapped in Styrofoam for buoyancy and waterproofing, the Bibles eventually washed up on Communist shores.. I held up my broken finger. Popoff received the transmissions via a receiver and earpiece he was wearing and repeated the information to astonished audience members. Once or twice a month he comes. You've been to Europe? Our board of directors, Popoff said, felt it was in the best interests. Popoff didn't mention another possible benefit: With this new status, his ministry would no longer be required to disclose its annual income or its salaries to the IRS. [25] Popoff initially denied Randi's accusations and accused NBC of "[hiring] an actress to impersonate Mrs. Popoff on a doctored videotape". When partners wouldn't donate so much money, they would cut back on staff, Sanchez said. No, not just a satanist. Falwell certainly had the resume to back up the job. As he approached each of us, he asked what ailed ushe didn't pretend to know. In 2003 and 2005, his service got more than $9.6 million and $23 million, individually. Sitting on a stage, in an upholstered chair, Popoff implored his television audience to call an 800 number so that he could send them a secret faith tool that God had recently given him as he was praying about the four red moons of this year of Jubilee. If that wasn't incentive enough, there was more reason to reach for the phone. I took a bathroom break in Popoff's private lavatory, right off his office. Hallelujah! Three years later, revenues for Popoff's ministry were just over $35 million. No credit card required. Ted Haggard was the Chiclet-toothed face of evangelism for three years as the president of the National Association of Evangelicals. They made blood sacrifices. He touched it, and then he let loose a loud stream of glossolalia, speaking in tongues, as Pentecostals do. Paula White, as quoted by Newsweek, doesn't seem to agree with that, saying, "Anyone who tells you to deny yourself is from Satan." Televangelist Jesse Duplantis and his ministry based in Destrehan, La. While he is more or less the nicest guy in the world, he also drives a Bentley and lives in a house worth more than 5 million bucks. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, more than 40 years later, their media empire has an estimated value of $750 million. As previously mentioned, Popoff has something of a checkered past. If God created man and man created the small two-way radios that Popoff and an assistant used to have secretly communicate while Popoff was performing, then hallelujah. Let's take a look and find out. He found the church at a young age and started preaching as a teenager. He referred to the attacks as "what we deserve." But I had never heard about him before. Sanchez said that the buildings were essentially big processing centers for cash, checks, and valuables. "[27] Jason's video footage was also aired on the Nova episode "Secrets of the Psychics" in 1991. A month later, they've outgrown the darned things, and you have to ask your parishioners for $54 million to buy new ones. [citation needed], The 1992 Steve Martin dramedy Leap of Faith was inspired by Popoff's fraudulent ministry, and demonstrated a number of the techniques Popoff and other televangelist scammers use to create the illusion of divine intervention. You will lend and not borrow. (That one's from Joel Osteen.) So that every little package of water contains a few molecules of holiness. And if a fellow is clever enough, he can remake his kingdom and amass quite a fortune. In each case, I was shocked that they'd agreed to be interviewed, until I realized, as I sat with them, that they didn't think they had anything to hide. The walls were covered with little inspirational notes. In reality, he said, the expos on The Tonight Show barely hurt his finances. We go through Poland Spring.. And Lord, was he rich! Peter Popoff Popped. A lot of that has to do with the minister's legal troubles and fall from public grace. [49] He drives a Porsche and a Mercedes-Benz. Please Share your prayer needs with Prophet Popoff below. For the Lord worketh in mysterious ways. Peter George Popoff (born July 2, 1946) is a German-born American televangelist and debunked clairvoyant and faith healer. I looked like the real deal: a man in need of supernatural healing. In a roundabout way, it was true. Popoff would tell attendees suffering from a variety of illnesses to "break free of the devil" by throwing their prescription pills onto the stage. He said he prayed so hard over the letters that the ink leaked into his bloodstream, and by the way that's why he needed plastic surgery, paid for by aforementioned donations. To fans of Mike Warnke, it's Sunday morning. You know how it is. And tubs and tubs of gold and stones came in. Prestigious debunker James Randi exposed the trick on national television, and Popoff was never heard from again. He got a jet. There are cameras surrounding both buildings. I signed up for his mailing list. [44], Popoff's longtime assistants Reeford and Pamela Sherrell also began a televised Texas-based ministry, with Reeford using the name Pastor Lee Sherrell. He was also the guy who got really upset about the purple Teletubby back in the '90s. And getting off crutches, that was big, toothis is why people needed Popoff's healing touch. If you can take that by faith, you'll live a life of increase. And great hair. We preach financial blessings. Popoff yanked her cane away and tossed it up onstage. Their lawyers and friends can tell them to shut up, but that makes them look guilty, and they don't feel guilty. Apparently, plants in the audience would chat people up or get them to jot down details, then feed their information to Liz, who passed it on to her husband through an earpiece. To most people, it's exhausting. They wouldn't tell me what they earn, but Nick enjoyed telling me about the Clydesdale horses he keeps. It appeared to me that Popoff was exploiting more than just American forgetfulness. Birth Name: Peter Popoff Occupation: Religious Leader Born In: Germany Birthdate: July 2, 1946 Age: 76 years old (as of 2022) Ethnicity: Unknown Nationality: American Sexuality: N/A Peter Popoff was born on the 2nd of July, 1946. The family had fled the Communists in 1950, eventually settling in Montclair, California. If he had any plants in the audience, he didn't make good use of them. In his extracurricular life, Popoff came to see himself, in those Cold War years, as a kind of Christian 007, sneaking Bibles into Communist lands. Do you know how old is Peter Popoff? Among other things, she's a hard and fast believer in the prosperity gospel, and also claims that all world leaders are put in power by divine grace and that to disagree with them is to disagree with the will of God, shining a whole new light on the place of pharaohs in society. He believes in divine magic-but not at the expense of the work ethic. God hated Communists, he said, presumably explaining why Jesus accepted Venmo for all of those loaves and fishes. Popoff was homeschooled after the eighth grade, so he could travel and preach with his father. Both seem to be running cons, but both have followers who either don't notice or don't care. He said he was the only guy in receivingif it came to Unit Pack, it came to him. If I wasn't going to see a service, I still wanted to visit Popoff's office. He lives in a rather large estate on the shores of Eagle Mountain lake just north of Fort Worth, and somehow his 60+ acre estate of improved lakefront property with a private runway and fully Everyone had a story: Addictions had disappeared. "Flim flam is his profession," Randi explained to reporter Matt Meaghan. According to Pete Evans, an investigator from the religious watchdog group the Trinity Foundation, the prosperity gospel posits that if you give x amount of dollars, youre going to get that multiplied and given back to you [by God].. I met the very friendly father and two sons who owned the place, and they confirmed for me that they do business with Popoff, but they didn't say much more. I'm watching you." I asked about Popoff. Skelton invited me in, with an air of resignation. As a result, some televangelists have resorted to wacky tactics to get your money. When I got home, I began devouring episodes of the new Popoff show. Sanchez, who quit in early 2012, was one of two ex-employees who spoke with me. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, thenView saved stories. I called and sent e-mails to Popoff's organization, People United for Christ, but nobody got back to me. Program Overview", "White Preachers Born Again on Black Network; TV Evangelists Seek to Resurrect Ministries", "Miracle Water: Ripoff or For Real Part II", "Prophet or profit? GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. [38] "Debt cancellation is part of God's plan", according to Popoff, who taught that God would respond to prayer and seed-faith by providing financial blessing. And ever since then, I know, I personally know, that he is by the book and careful. So one day I took the Garden State Parkway to have a look at Unit Pack, a family-run firm that specializes in packaging those little samples of shampoo, pharmaceuticals, and the like. After graduating from college, Popoff married his wife, Liz, and they embarked on an itinerant life, preaching the Pentecostal gospel across the country. I only grew more curious. Got a question? While religion can be a wonderful thing, providing community, solace and moral grounding, it is susceptible to human abuses. They did not want to comment on Crystal Sanchez's allegations in her e-book. In a broadcast from 2015, Duplantis and fellow preacher Kenneth Copeland said it was because regular airliners are filled with people who would constantly be asking them to pray. I mentioned his $4.5 million house. Though he didn't focus on TV, he lived the good life as a minister and Christian comedian, traveling the world spreading his message that the devil is coming for you and you'd better be ready to fight him. I still can't decide. And if they don't feel better? In 1989, Bakker was convicted on 29 counts including mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy, and sentenced to 45 years in prison. He switched lady friends with Gary Busey. Cut to the mid-'70s. And we in the audience were eager to believe in his powers. I put it in his bed, I put it on his pillow, and my son joined the church and he got saved and he's still in churchand then I got $3,800 and new furniture., Such blessings! He went bankrupt, he lost everything he had, he had to start over. Like, 1,500 people followed him. Oh, also, he stole his wife's body from the compound after it was shut down. I was in a hotel bed, enrobed in terry cloth, my teeth brushed, my hand aloft holding the remote. His home town is West Berlin. So I asked friends in ten locales spread across the country to give $10 to Popoff, then sit back and wait for tickets. His church, the Church of the Christian Crusade, spread a staunchly conservative interpretation of Christianity. In advance., The day after I talked with Skelton, he called me and asked if I could include one last sentiment, and I said I would. Yeah, he died in jail. In December, Popoff's daughter, Amy Cardiff, called me. [22], Popoff was also the inspiration for a character in the 2012 thriller film Red Lights, a psychic who uses information fed to him via a hidden earpiece to persuade the audience at his shows that he is receiving personal details psychically. James Randi on Peter Popoff and Skepticism, "Scam Everlasting: After 25 Years, Debunked Faith Healer Still Preaching Debt Relief Scam", "1950 U.S. Census, Entry for Georg and Gerda Popoff Family", "The Annual Report of Private Giving for the Year Ending June 30, 2011", "Tent-show healers lay on technology, not hands", "God's Frequency is 39.17 MHz: The Investigation of Peter Popoff", "TV Evangelist Denies Use of Radio in Healing Service", Evangelist Popoff Off Air, Files Bankruptcy Petitions, "Secrets of the Psychics. And then came something I didn't expect: love from the crowd, people rubbing me on my back after I sat down, touching me, giving me high fives, saying, Praise the Lord! It felt so good that even if my pinkie had been causing excruciating pain, or even if I'd had a far worse condition, something that in my heart I'd known was incurable, I'm sure that, for the moment, I would not have noticed. Before I knew it, he was upon me. How old is Peter Popoff? Popoff, he said, sends his own pre-blessed water, in a 16-ounce bottle, to add to all the jugs of Poland Spring. Soon after the "healing", they watched her quietly leave the room. Was any of it true? You know where that pain went? Popoff cried after one healing. With a promise to heal the sick, Popoff convened huge crowds, where he relied on a shtick that involved calling out the name and ailment of someone in the audience he had never met, as if God had just vouchsafed him the information. Why, I wondered, were so many people willing to trust a prophet of God who needed an earpiece, and why would they trust his advice on prosperity even after his own financial house had collapsed? I'll tell you where that pain went. Angley haspreviously been accused of operating a cult where followers are taught that enough prayer can heal HIV and "childless men are encouraged to have vasectomies and Angley who preaches vehemently against the 'sin' of homosexuality is himself a gay man who personally examines the genitals of the male parishioners before and after their surgeries.". Popoff is of the same generation as Bruce Springsteen, and he clearly shares the Boss's compulsion to never let an audience down. Which complicates any theory that he is trying to get something for nothing. Sorry, that was a typo. I took your holy water and put it in my son's shoes, she said. [13] His miraculous "curing" of chronic and incurable medical conditions became a central attraction of his sermons. For a real thriller, look no further than the flagrant manipulation of religion occurring in our own state. "His scams are endless. Wayfair Huge Deal-A-Thon - Up to 60% off everything! Ernest Angley has been having a rough go of things lately. They moved into radio, then television. I had found Sanchez after reading The Real Truth Behind People United for Christ, the e-book detailing her time there that she self-published in 2013. [52] A 2012 Broadway musical adaptation of the same title was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical. Tilton's message has been clear from the start: Poverty is the result of sin, and also please send money. [2][43], Popoff's operation had functioned as a for-profit company until 2006, when it merged with a small church in Farmers Branch, Texas called Word for the World, which operated out of a storefront. She had first responded to my pestering a few months earlier, but I never expected that the Popoffs would consent to an interview. 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