Background

In the early 90s, Trinity Foundation founder Ole Anthony began using the phrase “Wheel O’ Fortune” to describe the direct mail fundraising system developed by former tent crusade evangelist James Eugene Ewing and televangelist Robert Tilton.

For an ABC Primetime Live TV exposé, Anthony met with Response Media executive Jim Moore to discuss creating a fundraising campaign for a new religious TV program. A hidden camera and microphone recorded the conversation as Moore explained how donors felt compelled to make donations after receiving trinkets and other items sent by mail.

By dumpster diving, Trinity Foundation investigators obtained prayer requests and other data providing insight into modern fundraising.

When a viewer of Tilton’s Success-N-Life TV program called for prayer or to make a donation, they would be added to the church’s direct mail database. Codes were assigned based on prayer requests so the church could send personalized fundraising letters. For example, if a caller requested prayer for healing from cancer, computer-generated letters informed the caller that Tilton was praying for their healing.

Attorney J.C. Joyce’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, office served as the headquarters for Ewing’s ministry. Joyce also successfully kept Tilton out of prison after the Texas Attorney General launched a fraud investigation into Tilton’s Word of Faith Family Church. After the ABC Primetime Live program revealed that prayer requests were thrown away before Tilton could pray for them, upset donors sued the church. Countersuits were also filed.

During litigation, Joyce would tell the court, “The right to believe what we choose to believe is absolute. We even have the right to defraud people with that belief.”