You Can't Cheat an Honest Man - James Walsh [100]
However, by the mid-1980s, Success-N-Life, the Tiltons’ television show, was sputtering. It was being carried on only six stations. He came to realize that his vibrant church sermons—described by one of his followers as “having the excitement of a close Cowboys game”— needed even more punch for his television audience.
Among his sources of inspiration, Tilton said, was TV real-estate pitchman and alleged Ponzi perp Dave Del Dotto. Rather than just talking about the righteousness of worldly success, Tilton started offering viewers specific stories of people who’d made it. “Sure, some people think the TV shows are kind of exaggerated,” says one supporter. “But you’ve got to realize who he’s trying to reach: the downand-out, the lowest of the low, the most desperate.”
In the mid-1980s, Word of Faith considered $6 million to be a very good year. Six years later, annual receipts exceeded $100 million and Word of Faith had 850 employees. Tilton’s annual salary was estimated at more than $1 million.
The Tiltons claimed to have 8,000 members in their church. But, more importantly, they received 220,000 letters a month from people who watched their television program. No longer a weak performer, Success-N-Life was carried nationally on 212 television stations. The show was seen in an average of 199,000 households each day.
But Tilton’s rapid growth and aggressive pro-business proselytizing had led to some disgruntled investors and attracted the attention of the regulators. In late 1991, Texas authorities told Tilton that his Word of Faith Family Church & World Outreach Center was being investigated on charges of consumer fraud. The state attorney general was seeking a court order to seize Tilton’s financial records...and was sharing his information with federal investigators.
In November 1991, the television news magazine Prime-Time Live aired a story that raised allegations of mail fraud in Tilton’s ministry. The news show portrayed him as a huckster of dubious pyramid schemes. Brother Bob angrily denied the charges and dismissed the news media in general as “agents of the devil.”
Criticisms about Tilton’s lavish lifestyle seemed to unnerve him. He and his wife stopped wearing their Rolex watches and driving their Mercedes-Benzes. But their efforts came a little too late to quiet their critics. “Tilton, in terms of just being an outright sham...is just awful. And he may be the only [television preacher] I’ve ever said this about,” said Jeff Hadden, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia. “If Tilton believes himself, he has created the greatest act of self-deception of all of them.”
J.C. Joyce, a Tulsa lawyer who had become Tilton’s main spokesman, responded to Hadden harshly: “I guarantee you he has never set foot in Robert Tilton’s church. It doesn’t take any giant to critique something. Any fool can do it.”
Declining to say how much money Word of Faith brought in annually, Joyce said, “The church pays every single obligation it has on time. That’s the only thing that’s important. It doesn’t make any difference whether the church is making $2,000 or $100 million or $125 million.... All the man wants is to be left alone to preach.”
A New Age Profit Battles Ponzi Complaints
There are many parts of America, and the rest of the word, where traditional religion doesn’t have much influence. Even in these places, though, there’s the need for some framework of spiritual thought. Enter the New Age movement, which combines watered-down psychology with the softest elements of religion and mysticism and adds a dash of occult superstition. The result is usually an outlook on life that avoids guilt and emphasizes physical and emotional comfort.
Many people dismiss the New Age movement as a ridiculous product of West Coast flakiness. But it does create a religious-like trust in some. Ponzi perps know this.
In January 1995, the White House confirmed that Anthony Robbins, a California-based