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Thursday, May 21. 2009
In The Name of Jesus
Just received an e-mail from a Mrs. Mabel Shinider. The subject line: “Fulfillment of Grace to Christ the King.” In it Mabel asks forgiveness for her poor English (she’s from the Netherlands) and then, invoking the name and glory of Jesus Christ, she implores me to take control of an 8.5 million dollar trust fund she has set up in Nigeria.Mabel set up the trust fund because she is dying of “Pancreatic cancer of the lungs” and it’s spread to her brain. It gets funnier.
“Presently, this fund is still with them and the management just wrote me as the true owner to come forward to receive the money for keeping it so long or rather issue a letter of authorization to somebody to receive it on my behalf since I can not come over because of my illness or they get it confisticated. Presently, I'm with my laptop in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment for cancer of the lungs. I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only a few months to live, It is my last wish to see that this money is invested to any organization of your choice and distributed each year among the charity organization, the poor and the motherless babies home where I come from, and I want you a God fearing person to use this money to fund help some of the churches, orphanages and widows.”
And then, just to make it sound sincere, Mabel goes for your true Christian heart with this: “Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein. I shall wait at your prayerful reply soon. I want a person that is God fearing that will use this money to fund churches, orphanages and widows, single mother propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained. The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that giveth.”
In other words, don’t take Mabel up on this offer and then keep all the money for yourself! Why that would be a sin!
As many people know, Nigeria is home to all the biggest and most successful Internet scams of the world. No doubt this e-mail went out to millions and many, ignorant of most things including the Bible, will see the invocation of Jesus Christ and assume giving their banking information to this woman in order to administer the money to various charities will be the Christian thing to do because when you mention Jesus Christ, it’s just gotta be blessed!
According to surveys 80% of Americans claim to be religious and the vast majority claim some sect of Christianity as their religion. Anecdotal surveys of so-called “Christians” indicates a majority don’t read the Bible and are therefore unfamiliar with it; in other words, many American Christians are in a blissful state of ignorance and hope to remain that way.
It’s why the likes of Pat Robertson and Oral Roberts can prey on the poor and under-educated to reap hundreds of millions to fund their lavish lifestyles. Ever watch The 700 Club when Rev. Robertson starts a prayin’ and a healin’, calling out to a woman (or man) viewer who is suffering some horrible malady and Pat says he can feel Jesus Christ working to remove that pain, cure the person of cancer or whatever illness Robertson has chosen. It’s been going on for decades! Who can forget Oral Roberts telling his viewers God would “take me home” if the viewers didn’t donate millions of dollars to fond some construction at Oral Roberts University.
America is a great place to perpetrate these frauds; we have plenty of poor and illiterate people ready and willing to do God’s work by giving their money to unscrupulous people. They’d rather starve than not give what little cash they have to these people. Why? Because all of these con artists claim it’s all for the glory of God.
Just the other day John and I were watching The 700 Club as they were promising people that if they donated money for some cause their place in Heaven would be assured. These TV evangelists don’t appear to have any conscience. Whatever line works to bring in the millions to fund their well heeled lifestyles will be used. You get half a million people to donate $25.00 or more and you’ve made $12.5 million — in one day. When John and I were watching, the on-air people were looking to raise $75,000 in one hour and if I’m not mistaken they hit their goal.
This is funny: former Miss America (1973) Terry Ann Meeuwsen used to be a television news personality in my hometown of Milwaukee, WI. Now she co-hosts two programs for the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN), the parent of The 700 Club.But, due to the influence these con artists have with the constituencies of key members of government, we can’t officially call this sort of thing fraud and prosecute these religious leaders. America has a long history of religionists preying on the poor, weak and under-educated and that’s not likely to change.
The Nigerians, on the other hand, have to work a little harder. They set up schemes to get our banking information so they can drain our bank accounts, hoping that just a few of the millions who respond to their e-mails will not only bite, but they will also have substantial amounts of money in their accounts. And it works. 60 Minutes aired a segment on the scams and how the U.S. government is powerless to stop it because it originates in an African country that has no real government to speak of, certainly not one willing to kill a cash cow funding its own coffers.
Now, the Africans, like their American counterparts on religious TV, are using the name of Jesus Christ to catch their victims. You gotta hand it to those Nigerians, they have some cool scams!
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