John Oliver Takes On Televangelists On 'Last Week Tonight'

John Oliver Tears Apart Televangelists Who Scam Money From The Poor

British funnyman John Oliver used his TV show to take on the bizarre cult of "predatory" televangelists in the USA, and even ended up starting his own church just to see if he could.

He started off showing us a few truly odd clips from real TV priests who essentially beg for donations on television, then went on to highlight the plight of people trapped in the mindset of donating money they can't even afford.

Because they think giving money to the church will cause money to come to them.

Bonnie Parker didn't seek medical treatment for cancer because she thought giving money to a televangelist would save her

The clip may be 18 minutes long, but it's SO worth it. Every minute just gets better and better. John goes on to explain how these god-bothering TV channels are registered as churches, which basically allows them to completely avoid the taxman. John then went on to tell us how he signed up to one of the televangelist's mailing lists and things got very, very weird.

Coloured oils, magic dollar bills and foot tracings might seem totally hilarious when John Oliver is the one paying for them, but things get a bit more worrying when you realise the people who are being tricked into paying the money often can't afford it.

Oh, and John Oliver set up his own church just for kicks and giggles. It's called Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, and you can donate now and it's even possible to call a hotline at 1-800-THIS-IS-LEGAL.

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