St. Matthew's Churches ripoff - I did not know you have to pay for prayers these days. Tulsa Oklahoma

How difficult is it to say your own prayers and not use an televangelist rip-off intermediary --or a rip-off as these guys?
Nobody else, especially a complete stranger and religious rip-off artist, knows your situation better than you do. And if you believe in the omnipotent power of G*d, HE knows what you want and what is best for you before you even ask -- or so the Scripture goes...
I once got to witness what REALLY happens in a charismatic sort of televangelist rip-off establishment. It was supposed to be Christian but I really think it was more like Voo Doo economics in the most literal sense.
I guarded the huge plastic hog buckets stuffed with cash that the big ugly men in the too-tight suits and shoulder holsters barely visible would take to the fortified central location where it was all dumped into one large container. There was so much money, since the hog buckets were circulating constantly, the accountants couldn't count it all until services were over. I think about the poor, the ignorant,desparate,ill,and elderly who gave until they were broke then took out loans on their vehicles and whatever else they had so they could give even more...It made me sick then and it makes me sick now.
It was also my job to deal with disaffected and disenchanted former followers who wanted to make a literal laying on of hands --fists, feet, teeth,bullets, etc. on the televangelist for having ripped them off for thousands, yea unto the hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years for miracles promised, purchased and ultimately not delivered...
The arrogant pompadored a*s who called himself a televangelist would whip those poor people into a frenzied,crazed hysteria with his excellent harangues for money, sort of like a Hitler oration --and as their tears would flow, so would the money. This guy did it all, the fake "healings" and casting out "demons," ( well-paid,professional actors secreted into the congregation in advance) and the loud band with the percussion designed to reach primitive emotions and drown out rational thought.
Auto-suggestion ran rampant as did emotions. These folks were so drab,uptight and fearful of going to hell that this was their one release and they paid dearly for it. Sundays and Wednesdays were their BIG DAYS to LET IT LOOSE!
The hideous beauty of this racket is that when he and his wife of the moment were away on a lavish vacation in Europe ( represented to the humble,often hungry faithful as "ministering to the soul-starved and suffering souls in Europe") or more exotic locations, there were folks in the congregation who were still able to keep up the momentum of generating that cash until the flurry of currency would be all that you could see in the room where the offerings" in the hog buckets were brought. He had created a real money-making machine that generated cash on its own momentum without his constant presence --and that was the ONLY miracle I witnessed the entire time I was there!
The faithful were also urged to fast and to send him the money they would have spent on food!
He made more money by asking for volunteer workers to power the "prayer lines" and other fund-raising efforts and office functions. Only the pistoleros who protected him and his money and his property got paid and paid very well indeed.
Apparently like the St. Matthew's folks, this so-called televangelist offered to pray for you (and prey on you) for big bucks. Letters from people who wanted prayer but couldn't afford the price were taken to the dumpster out back and trashed. SO were the other prayer requests --AFTER being ripped open and the money dutifully extraced, of course. He was making millions.
His lifestyle off the camera, after the "faithful" departed from his place of worship was something else. He and his blonde-dyed and pampered wives or mistresses and/or certain trusted insiders would get booze, rich food, luxury cars and opulent residences that his downtrodden followers never got --especially the custom-fitted designer clothes. His tastes ran to the ultra extravagance of the hillbilly nouveau riche ...all justified by his creative interpretation of the various Judeo-Christian Scriptures...
Because I had a nondisclosure statement, I can't describe ALL that went on afterhours. Read "Elmer Gantry." It's dead-on.
The fact that this decadence was founded on money from the desparate, suffering,ill, poverty-stricken, often elderly, ignorant and devout souls made it even worse to me. It had to stop!
But you have to admit that there are a lot of greedy people who actually believe if they send in their "seed money" faithfully that G*d will "prosper" them and they too can live like the televangelist guy... Greed and ignorance can be injurous to your financial health.
Too lazy to say your own prayers?
The look on the news media reporters' faces when someone finally showed them the dumpster where the pathetic prayer requests were dumped and the disgust and sadness on their faces when they read a few of the crumpled fistfulls of broken promises and empty dreams...beyond words. The media expose and the huge outrage of repulsion and backlash that followed were only successful in ending his fraud for a few years before he resurfaced in another state and is out pounding for pennies again... Giver beware.
Please don't rely on strangers to do your praying for you!
(This advice ONLY applies to ONLY to televangelists and unscrupulous religious rip-off artists.)