| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
Remember When John Oliver Investigated Televangelists? Seems the IRS May Have Gotten the Message
Last week, comedian John Oliver revealed how some televangelists makes inordinate amounts of money which they spend on themselves in a segment you can watch again above or by clicking here. He even went so far as to set up his own church to show how ridiculously easy it was to set up a tax exempt religious institution. In the aftermath, two things happened, both of which can make a difference.
Firstly, according to Bustle, there has been media speculation about whether the Internal Revenue Service, aka the Tax Man, will audit televangelists now that they’ve been put on the spot.
Since Oliver’s episode, an organization called the Trinity Foundation, which probes religious fraud, has received more fuel for its fire. The organization argues that the IRS is contributing to religious fraud and the insane success of televangelism by not auditing churches. Trinity Foundation’s founder, Ole Anthony, said the IRS needs to step in so that the vulnerable people who might donate to televangelists are not continually duped and so that other churches can maintain their integrity, according to CBS News: “A few years ago, the IRS named Scientology a church. Since that happened, anybody can call themselves a church.”
The second thing that occurred after the segment aired is that thousands of donations were sent to the “Last Week Tonight” host’s fake church.
But not to worry — those donations won’t be heading into Oliver’s pocket. Instead they’ll all be sent to Doctors Without Borders.
—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata
Related Entries
- August 25, 2015 President of Israel Says Israeli Squatting in the Palestinian West Bank Is a ‘Right’
- August 25, 2015 Is Israeli Military Using Barak in Struggle With Netanyahu Over Iran Deal? (Video)
Source: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/remember_when_john_oliver_investigated_televangelists_seems_irs_20150825/
