Ok on the infomercial circuit theres a televangelist named peter popoff that’s claiming all sorts of miracles that happens because of him and his “living water” apparently he gives it away free I thought he sold it but since the infomercial goes all over the place …
It shows him in a service with disabled people throwing walkers and such and all of a sudden dancing round and people saying " I was in debt 30,000 til I bought this stuff and I got a check for 50,000 the next day and other so called miracles (for a pop culture reference theres an episode of good times that shows a preacher like this that jj almost joins until he overhears how fake and what a con it is )
So is he covered by this because of his religious status or just no ones dared to complain yet
lol I wish I could use it … but maybe that’s why he gives it away … so he can hook ya on the mailing/donation list and not get busted for selling snake oil
As far as I know, there aren’t any applicable laws regarding so-called “prosperity theology”. John Oliver had a multi-episode parody of this (“Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption”). which he set up perfectly legally and used to ask for “seed money” on the (obviously joking, but 100% legal even if he wasn’t) promise that God would reward donors with greater riches later on.
Apparently, numerous donors decided to interpret the “seed” aspect in an undesired way, and the Church was officially closed.
Popoff was once famous for knowing impossible details about the folks who came to his revivals. Then on an episode of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, James Randi revealed that Popoff wore a tiny earpiece and his wife fed him those details via radio.