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Except when a friend who hasn't visited me first comes into town. Then I make him go through the six-rooms-in-a-circle tour of Oral Robert's life in the prayer tower for shits and giggles.
Rhema is full of kooks, and you can't trust the bastards. I have more than one acquaintance that did thousands of dollars worth of work (computers, consulting, whatever) for Rhema bigwigs who then refused to pay them because the Rhema people decided the people who did work for them weren't "right in the spirit." A friend of mine and I think we've figured out Rhema's "big" scam: They intentionally try to bankrupt their students. From what I understand, Rhema students are encouraged to start their flocks early. While they're doing that, Rhema is making them buy shitloads of 30-page paperbacks written by the founder that cost $65-$85 each along with regular tuition and other books. Once they graduate, they've got a flock and don't have money to move anywhere so they set up their church in their house, then in a strip mall and eventually build a church, probably tithing a large percentage of the church's money to Rhema. That's why there are so many churches in the greater Tulsa area.
That same friend used to like to prank call the Victory Christian Church during their live broadcast call-in shows. She called once claiming she was thinking of getting an abortion so she was immediately put on the air with the hosts who prayed with her, etc. She's pretty good at verbal manipulation so she got them going down a path of questioning that she wanted, and they were giving her advice amidst the questioning, and at one point they asked, "You just need to find a good man to take of you unlike the guy who ran out on you. Where did you meet him anyway?" She replied, "Oh, it was at your church." She was quickly let go so they could take other calls.
The attitude towards performance magic is strange. I once went into Mardel's because I was looking for tiny manila envelopes for a magic trick, and I thought they would have some of the kind that you put offerings in during collection time at church. I asked a sweet little old lady if they had some, and she led me to them, and as I was looking at them, she asked me what I wanted them for. She probably thought I was a youth minister or something, but without thinking I said, "A magic trick." She visibly stiffened and lost her smile, and I thought, "Ooops. Forgot where I was... Well, might as well go all the way." I then told her that it was a trick involving putting five cards, a five dollar bills, and a poker chip in the envelope and pulling them out and letting a spectator put the poker chip on the card they wanted, and I would bet them the five dollars that I predicted what card they would choose. She quickly went away as fast as she could. I got the act of gambling, tools of gambling, mind-reading, and basic magic in that trick for her. If only I had somehow worked in sex, it would have been perfect. :)
TlalocW
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