The subject of last night’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO was Televangelism. He stressed at the beginning of the segment that he wasn’t going after the churches that do good work, just the Televangelists who use tax laws to live lavish lifestyles.
Oliver devoted 20 minutes of the show to the segment, which started off by going after the Televangelists who have begged their own congregations to donate to funds for private jets. The Televangelists are even open about using the money just so they could get a jet. According to Oliver, they preach the “prosperity gospel,” in which people are told that their donations will result in a better harvest.
The comedian then launched his own church called Our Lady of Prepetual Exemption with Sister Wanda Jo Oliver (played by Rachel Dratch).
The new church’s mission statement reads, “When John Oliver found out that Robert Tilton, Kenneth Copeland and other pastors of their ilk have been taking advantage of the open-ended IRS definition of the word ‘church’ and procuring a litany of tax breaks, he founded the Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption Church, a tax-exempt organization that you certainly can’t say is not a church. From that day forward, he has been dedicated to collecting copious donations and all manner of divine blessings, but mostly the donations.”
He is actually taking donations, but he can’t accept donations from residents in Mississippi, South Carolina, Nevada or Pennsylvania.
screenshot from HBO YouTube video