Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Uneducated Progressive Lawyer’s would be far better Than Trump’s Clowns!



Perhaps the biggest problem with the recent withdrawal of Trump's judicial nominees's isn't that they're so unfamiliar with complicated laws; instead it might be that they got this far before the media decided to report on it; or perhaps it's that the laws are so complicated in the first place, and that the elites use this complexity to manipulate the majority and enable them to rob us blind.

Not that I think we should allow these nominees, including Matthew Petersen to go through, but it shouldn't take an advanced education to realize that the elites are rigging the system, and part of the way they do this is to make laws too complicated for most of us to understand, so that we're expected to rely on "experts" to make decisions for us.

Another major problem is that the vast majority of these nominees aren't getting much coverage at all, including some others that are almost as incompetent or that many of these nominees that have been exposed as being so bad have been in government all along without much if any attention. They've drawn attention to Brett Talley's previous support for the Ku Klux Klan, which led to his withdrawal as a nominee as a judge but before this nomination he was already Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice and now that his nomination for a judge ahs been withdrawn he's still in that position and hardly anyone is paying attention. Jeffrey Mateer, who claimed that a transgender lawsuit is part of "Satan's Plan" served as the First Assistant Attorney General of Texas before his nomination, and now that the media attention is gone he's still in that positions.

I'm not a fan of Matthew Petersen, but he seems mild compared to some of Donald Trump's other nominees as far as I can tell after looking him up. If he did use reasonable discretion and supported the intent of the law, at least as they present it to the public, to defend us all equally, then he might be more qualified than the vast majority of judges that often use complex legal procedures to help rig the political system for campaign donors.

However, he's been a member of the United States Federal Election Commission for almost ten years and remains there now that his nomination has been withdrawn, yet I haven't heard anything about him speaking out against the political establishment and media only covering candidates that collect enormous amounts of money from corporations ensuring that only candidates they support can get the name recognition they need to get elected essentially rigging the entire election process as part of a routine!



I haven't heard him, or any other politician speak out about how allowing a fraction of one percent of the richest people in the country control over ninety percent of the media, which is exactly what the first amendment was supposed to prevent, and use this control to preselect which candidates are chosen as nominees similar to the way Beijing decides which candidates are allowed to run in Hong Kong; but most people don't even seem to notice and repeating propaganda to keep them distracted is also routine!

What isn't routine is reporting on the vast majority of the judges that have been nominated all over the country to lower courts that are already making major decisions, until a handful of the worst get nominated to the Supreme Court, and even then the worst of it isn't reported, while the report a sampling of it in a lower profile manner than what is on TV like the following article exposing a handful of additional extreme candidates that weren't mentioned on TV:

3 Trump Judicial Nominees Withdraw, Raising Some Questions About Vetting 12/19/2017

.... It took longer for the handwriting to become clear for Brett Talley, a 36-year-old Justice Department official, ghost hunter and believer in the paranormal.

He was approved by the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote in November, despite a rare and unanimous unqualified rating by the American Bar Association. But as his nomination sat waiting for a vote by the full Senate, news organizations reported that he had failed to disclose key information required for all nominees on his Senate questionnaire. Specifically, he failed to disclose thousands of controversial blog posts under a pseudonym, including one supporting the early Ku Klux Klan, and failed to disclose that he is married to the chief of staff for White House counsel McGahn.

Finally, there was Jeffrey Mateer, an outspoken supporter of religious liberty, nominated with the strong support of his home state senator, Ted Cruz of Texas. Shortly after the nomination was announced, gay rights groups called attention to frequent comments Mateer had made calling same-sex marriage "disgusting" and likening it to polygamy and bestiality. Speaking about a lawsuit brought by a transgender student, Mateer, said "it just shows you how Satan's plan is working and the destruction that is going on."

The three nominees who have withdrawn are not the only ones who could have problems. Damien Schiff, nominated for the Court of Federal Claims, wrote a blog post that called Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy a "judicial prostitute." Another, Thomas Farr, has been accused of lying about his role in suppressing the black vote in North Carolina. Both have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and are awaiting confirmation.

But others have sailed through quickly with GOP support. To cite just one example, John Bush, a prominent Republican lawyer was confirmed in June for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit despite some 400 often intemperate and very political blog posts under a fake name — posts that linked to so-called alt-right reports containing conspiracy theories and false information, such as the discredited claim that former President Obama was not born in the United States.

Pressed at his confirmation hearing by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Bush said he regretted having equated the Supreme Court's 1857 decision upholding slavery with the court's 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision, and he maintained that he would have no difficulty following the Roe ruling.

The breakneck speed of nominations and confirmations makes it sometimes look as though the Senate "will confirm anyone who has a temperature of 98.6," observes Russell Wheeler, a Brookings Institution scholar who studies the judicial appointment process. He thinks that the Trump nominees may be "more uniformly conservative" than nominees in previous Republican administrations because Trump has given "freer rein to the [conservative] Federalist Society." Complete article

While the majority are relieved about a handful of Trump's fanatical nominees being withdrawn there are more being approved with little or no reporting. And even nominees from the so called progressives are more right wing than they're letting on, including Merrick Garland, who wouldn't have been considered progressive at all if not for the fact that the GOP decided they could stall for a year. Barack Obama carefully selected someone to please these right wingers instead of trying to at least nominate a real progressive and make a good political argument for it to expose the GOP, and they stonewalled him anyway.

Obama and the rest of the establishment Democratic Part have had an incredible knack for caving to the Republican Party, which is part of the reason they couldn't get the progressive support they needed to get elected and what enabled Donald Trump get elected in the first place!



By now most people have forgotten how favorable to corporate interests Neil Gorsuch is as I mentioned in a previous article, Propaganda Campaign For Fascism In Progress, but he's demonstrated over and over again that he supports corporate control of the government and economic system, including his most famous case Hobby Lobby, which allowed employers to make religious and health care decisions for workers. Now that he's on the Supreme Court the media hardly mentions him at all, which is more effective than a campaign to make him look moderate, because if people aren't thinking about him they won't realize how extreme he is.

When they were pushing the public relations campaign one of Obama's young female lawyers did a commercial to support him which was clearly designed to make him look moderate, but he's unlikely to support women's rights at all, perhaps even abortion. In addition to not caring about women's rights, he's also demonstrated that he cares more about corporate profits than protecting the environment like his mother and even if the "Fascism Forever" reference in his yearbook was partly a joke, it accurately reflects his ideology, now and when he was in college, which is why it made it into the yearbook!

It shouldn't be too surprising that one of Obama's lawyers supported him, after Obama caved on every prosecution against Wall Street corruption when he was in office!

I could go into a long list of things that are obviously being rigged for the benefit of the rich at the expense of the rest of us; and in many cases lawyers that use complicated laws created by other lawyers are making arguments to justify epidemic fraud, trying to convince us that they're the "experts," but the final results favor the ruling class almost every time; and if there is an exception it's almost always because there's an enormous demand for it at the grassroots level!



Energy companies spend an enormous amount of money on propaganda about how they're working to create jobs and protect the environment; but if that were true many of the disasters that have happened, including the Gulf Horizon never would have happened. A few months ago Federal Judge ruled that the Public Has No Right To Know About Dakota Pipeline Spill Risks 04/19/2017 but whether it's because the media is getting a cut of the loot in the form of advertising sales or not this was only reported in a low profile manner. Additional reports from Robert Bullard author of "Dumping in Dixie," among other sources, expose that there's an enormous of pollution killing thousands of people, yet it is hardly reported in the traditional media and judges and lawyers have complicated arguments that are designed to convince us this is justified!

But you won't hear about that in the media or debated by political candidates unless the grassroots start getting their candidates from alternative media outlets!



Mainstream media is spending an enormous amount of time telling us they're defending democracy by exposing Trump's scams; however the reason he was elected in the first place is that they gave him obsession coverage in and refused to cover sincere grassroots candidates. The Russia conspiracy they keep obsessing about can't be nearly as bad as the fact that they only cover corrupt candidates! 



Somehow none of the candidates that they are willing to cover or news reporters ever speak out against the wars based on lies including weapons of mass destruction when it can actually stop the wars; but after it's too late they're trying to convince us that they're digging for the truth to expose it!

If they wanted to inform the public they would have reported more on disclosures like Scott Ritter, which was demonized when it counted; or kept anti war pundits like Phil Donahue instead of firing him! Then after they fight wars based on lies the only candidates they cover are those that supported them when it counted, rigging future elections for more wars based on lies!



They make psychological research into the indoctrination of children by advertisers a trade secret and make it illegal for insiders to report when oligarchies gradually reduce the quality or quantity of merchandise they're selling to consumers. Trade secrecy laws also prevent them from telling the public about "slotting fees" that stores rent to oligarchies, or that supposedly competing manufacturers are making their products in sweatshops next to each other.

The claim that this is a "free market" is a lie! they now have a small number of oligarchies dividing up the market; and people familiar with alternative media or good non-fiction books know it!



These lawyers, judges and lawmakers creating and enforcing these laws aren't even trying to do a good job pretending to support a reasonably fair system, assuming anyone is actually paying attention. But of course they have researched all kinds of ways to keep us distracted so that a large percentage of the public is obsessed with celebrities or sports so they rely on them to tell them what to think.

It doesn't take a genius to recognize many of these scams especially if more people learn where to look, which isn't traditional media that represents a fraction of one percent of the public!

I'm not saying that some of these complicated legal arguments aren't necessary; butt they could and should make a large portion of them much simpler so that the public can understand it.

Once we get a more educated public with the help of alternative media outlets, at least until we have major media reform, then we should find a better way to nominate judges and report on their record, long before they get nominated to the Supreme Court and it becomes clear that there have been fanatics in the judicial system all along.

I don't know whether it's better to rely on elections for judges or appoint them but either way the public needs to be better informed and if corrupt politicians or political operatives rig the system we need a reasonable way to get the fanatics out if they don't serve our interests!



Tuesday, December 19, 2017

For profit insurance has an incentive to betray people after disasters!



It's hard to imagine that this would even happen once; however it has, or something close to it, as described in the following article and even though this is unlikely to happen to many more people insurance fraud is bound to impact almost everyone, either directly or indirectly:

Couple sue after insurance agent tells police their hibiscus plants were pot 11/18/2017

SARVER, Pa. (AP) -- A couple who say they were handcuffed for hours in a police patrol car after their hibiscus plants were confused for marijuana are suing the police and an insurance company.

Edward and Audrey Cramer say in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that a Nationwide Insurance Co. agent investigating a fallen tree at their Buffalo Township home sent photos of their flowering plant to police. The lawsuit alleges that Buffalo Township police officers with assault rifles went to their home on Oct. 7 to investigate.

Audrey Cramer, 66, said she was partially dressed when she went to the door and police would not let her put on pants before she was handcuffed.

"I was not treated as though I was a human being," she said. "I was just something they were going to push aside."

Edward Cramer, 69, said he returned home a half-hour later to find his wife in the back of a police cruiser and officers pointing guns at him. He also was placed in the cruiser despite trying to convince the officers the plants were hibiscus, not marijuana. "They actually ignored me," he said. "They wouldn't even listen. I said, 'I can show you pictures on the internet.'"

The Cramers eventually were released without charges. They are seeking monetary and compensatory damages and court costs. Complete article


For profit insurance is one of the biggest scams if not the biggest, in the economic system. They spend an enormous amount of money from your premium dollars on advertising, commissions, lobbying, and many other bureaucratic expenses; and a large portion of these expenses are designed, not to improve service, but to increase profits which are also subtracted from the amount of money they pay out on claims!

They never mention this in the advertisements you see on TV!



Instead they keep repeating claims that you can "save" money by switching from this company to that; which can't possibly be true for all of them; and if they're spending all that money on advertising as the way they compete with each other it can't be true for any of them!

Insurance companies spend an enormous amount of the money they collect in insurance premiums on advertising that provides no information that helps consumers make informed decisions; instead it drains the money available for claims! And on top of that they spend an enormous amount on lobbying and financing campaigns so neither the media or the political establishment has an incentive to inform the majority of the public about how effective single payer is in other countries.

If the public is going to find out about the basic fundamentals of insurance they have to find out about it at the grassroots level or from alternative media outlets, which many of them are doing; which is why there is an enormous amount of support for single payer despite the lack of information provided by the most powerful institutions in the country!

Another thing the media practically never tells you is that after disasters like Hurricane Harvey, Katrina, Andrew etc., if you Google any given disaster and lawsuit against insurance companies you'll find an enormous number of people that thought they were covered but couldn't collect! There are plenty of lawyers, aware of this, like the following that are offering to help collect, but they'll want their cut too:

Homeowners Facing Denied Claims After Hurricane Harvey 08/29/2017

As Harvey dumps trillions of gallons of water on Houston, leaving homes and belongings permanently destroyed, we’re sorry to report that our neighbors and communities may be facing another disaster—a flurry of insurance companies that refuse to honor their policies. Dan Karr, the founder of a company that creates reports on insurance providers, believes that the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey will soon mirror the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Katrina.

The Ghost of Katrina Continues to Haunt the Gulf

In 2006, hundreds of destitute homeowners on the Gulf Coast filed lawsuits against insurance companies who denied claims after Katrina. The core issue was whether or not a client’s home was destroyed by floodwaters or by wind. Complete article


One of the most fundamental principles of propaganda is that if you repeat a lie often enough and suppress the truth or relegate it to the fringes then the majority of the public will believe it; and this is exactly what the insurance companies and the media are doing to preserve the for profit insurance industry!



They never explain the most basic principles of insurance, or pooled risk, to the public, instead giving them an enormous amount of hype.

Insurance is pooled risk where everyone puts a modest amount of money into a fund that is saved for a disaster; and when someone has problems they can draw from that fund for an emergency. There are always some administrative costs but if it is only used when necessary and they provide full disclosure there is a much better chance of minimizing that.

"Socialized" insurance doesn't guarantee that this is minimized; however if it is accompanied by full disclosure than it has a much better chance of accomplishing this than for profit insurance, especially if they can keep almost all of their activities secret due to proprietary information laws, which is a fancy way of saying they're carrying out a conspiracy to confuse the public with sophisticated language. There are plenty of reports in foreign media about their own insurance systems, and although they may not be perfect they work much better than ours and if the media, or alternative media reported on it then we could do as good as them, or if they provide full disclosure and fix what ever mistakes they might have, even better!



Another thing they never tell us is that, with Climate Change escalating, there are a growing number of storms which leads to more claims than they can pay out so they might be looking for ways to cut corners to keep their profits up. Stories about people being terrorized because their insurance company sent police information about possible drugs, that could conceivably save them from paying claims, might be rare but it is inevitable that much more problems come about one way or another, and the insurance industry has to be aware of it! One insurance company has tried to put the best spin on this and appear as if they're taking a moral stance according to, Insurance giant Axa dumps investments in tar sands pipelines 12/12/2017 As far as for profit insurance goes this might be as good as it gets and in the short term if we can't convert to a Single Payer system right away, some people might want to give them preferential treatment; however that won't be good enough in the long term.

The majority of insurance companies and the mainstream media, which hardly reported this story, especially on television where most people get their news are still trying to prop up the same broken system and convince people the solution to their problem is to buy more insurance without much if any prevention, which means that insurance has already turned into a Ponzi Scheme that is inevitably going to collapse!

There are, of course an enormous number of stories about crimes, including murder, arson, and other fraudulent schemes that are encouraged by insurance as well including Murdered woman's kids, not husband who killed her, must get her $500K in life insurance, U.S. judge says 12/18/2017 where a judge has ordered insurance companies to pay out even though the victim appears to have been murdered, even though it isn't to the heirs that carried out the murder. As I reported previously in articles listed below this is just one example of times where money from insurance was used to pay out claims even when it was a result of crime committed for insurance purposes; and these are just the ones that were exposed! There's no way of knowing how many cases there were that weren't exposed and if they expose them after the fact they can rarely ever get more than a fraction of the money back.

This can be minimized by reasonable regulation that is designed to minimize incentive fro fraud including banning full coverage or buying more insurance than people absolutely need. In a Single Payer system it might all be automatic and it is unlikely that it would pay out as much for damages as people lose in a disaster but that would only encourage prevention which is what people should focus on in the first place. Instead of buying more insurance it would be better to minimize dangers to health by eating healthy and exercising driving safe, making homes safer from fire, etcetera covering any given field.

There's little or no chance that people within the political establishment are going to allow major reforms if they have any choice; however with a growing number of people recognizing how corrupt the traditional media is, if enough go to alternative media outlets for their information and elect alternative candidate the media tries to ignore then we can eventually push for single payer minimizing the waste from insurance.

If other countries can do it so can we, as long as people take their heads out of the sand!



The following are some of my past articles on this subject:

For-Profit Insurance is Government Authorized Crime Syndicate

Cops Killing And Arson For Insurance Routine?

Killing Kids For Insurance Is Semi-Routine

Life Insurance and media companies are encouraging lots of murders

The “Fiscal Cliff” and the coming collapse of the insurance industry





The following is some additional data on the subject including reports on expenses from insurance that have nothing to do with serving the best interests of customers. One of these expenses are paying journalists to publish puff pieces, that are actually advertisements in disguise, let me know if you recognize one.

Industry Profile: Summary, 2017 Total for Insurance: $117,673,483 retrieved 12/18/2017

In the 2012 election cycle, the insurance industry contributed a record $58.7 million to federal parties and candidates as well as outside spending groups.

The 80/20 Rule: How Insurers Spend Your Health Insurance Premiums 02/15/2013

Where does my health insurance premium really go? 04/14/2014

10 Things Life Insurers Won't Tell You 06/19/2011

Do Life Insurance Companies Really Pay their Claims? By Kymberly Redmond 2017

Hurricane Harvey: Anticipating a Flood of Claims and Litigation 09/01/2017

20 of the most recognizable actors in the commercial world 01/04/2012 seven include insurance comercials

7 Richest Commercial Actors 02/21/2014 three including Dennis Haysbert, Stephanie Courtney aka “Flo” and Dean Winters aka “Mayhem” are for insurance

The 37 Richest People In Advertising, Ranked By Income 05/13/2013





Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Evangelical belief in the Apocalypse, accurate or not, is shaping policy



There are an enormous number of people that think current events are related to the "End of Days" or the "Apocalypse," but many rational skeptics have major reasons to doubt this, at least in it's entirety since there are plenty of problems with these alleged prophecies. However there are an enormous number of skeptics, or perhaps I should say pseudo-skeptics, that go too far like an emphatic tweet, The #EndTimes significance of the #USA recognizing #Jerusalem as #Israel's capitol is... ZERO 12/06/2017 which is typical of the way many so-called skeptics treat beliefs they consider absurd.

One incredibly obvious way that belief in the Apocalypse is impacting our world is that even if there is nothing to it, as skeptics believe, there are an enormous amount of religious people that do believe it, including many that are having major impacts on world events, including the conflict in Jerusalem. Donald Trump's recent declaration that Jerusalem will be recognized as the capital of Israel predictably set off massive protests, as experts knew they would; and it's not the first time. Ariel Sharon also made a trip to the Temple Mount on September 28, 2000, with a armed escort of 1,000 Israeli police officers, knowing that this would enrage the Palestinians and set off the Second Intifada.

There's also an incredibly long history of this conflict which the traditional media rarely ever goes into; and only people that pay attention to alternative media outlets will be familiar with it. The short story of it, in case you're relying on the traditional media is that the Palestinians aren't the ones responsible for the Holocaust, nor were they responsible for running the Jewish people out of Jerusalem almost two thousand years ago, that was the Nazi's and the Roman's. The most powerful Palestinians, as well as Israelis and just about all other governments have a long history of getting away with anything, but it's the Palestinian working class that have been forced out of their land to enable the Jewish people to return to their land and they've come up with an enormous amount of propaganda to make them seem evil. When pushed to a breaking point they have occasionally struck out with violence; but not nearly as much as the Israelis. For a more accurate history see Jimmy Carter's "Peace Not Apartheid," John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" or numerous other good books on the subject which mainstream media rarely ever mentions.

I mention this because for decades I thought I was reasonably well informed about current events because I paid attention to the news; however it wasn't until I started checking out alternative media outlets and better non-fiction books that I realized how much I was missing.

This is just one of many examples where the political establishment routinely makes one absurd decision after another that predictably leads us into war based on lies! Most of them don't seem to have any connection to the Apocalypse; and people that rely on traditional media might not know how bad and obvious many of these decision are but those that are more familiar with alternative media or good non-fiction books that the majority of the public rarely read might suspect that either the political and media establishment are incredibly incompetent or they routinely and intentional maintain a permanent state of war.

Of course another one is the North Korea conflict; and as I have pointed out in numerous articles including Even Bernie Sanders Ignores History of North Korea Conflict! which reviews the history and how Jimmy Carter helped negotiate a deal that could avhe avoided this confrontation without what seems like far-fetched conspiracies and Looming North Korea Nuclear Apocalypse Result of Incompetence? Or Staged? which also speculated about a possible irrational conspiracy that might be related to a partial staging of events that might be considered more far-fetched, although I tried to separate speculation from hard facts.

However with the mainstream media and political establishment behaving in such an insane manner the official version of truth often becomes as insane as the so-called conspiracy theories they often ridicule. In many cases, like the Russian hacking claims from the mainstream media, the official version of truth is what we would have considered irrational conspiracy theories ten years ago; more importantly they have an enormous number of obvious flaws, like that Russia could never have done more to rig the election for Donald Trump than the mainstream media that covered him obsessively while ignoring honest candidates!



And with this incredibly absurd clown as president and the obsession with the Russian propaganda conspiracy theory that ignore the fact that only candidates that get massive amounts of coverage from the mainstream media have a chance to get the name recognition needed to get elected, so anything Russia might have done can't be nearly as bad as what the mainstream media did to ensure that we had two incredibly corrupt candidates to choose from that everyone hates.

Furthermore, skeptics routinely ignore the fact that there has been extraordinary evidence for a major unsolved mystery about our early history for thousands of years, which might indicate the possibility of an unknown advanced intelligence of some sort that has influenced early history. If so this could theoretically be the same unknown advanced intelligence that religious people refer to as "God."



Of course unsolved mysteries about ancient megaliths are difficult to conclusively connect to Biblical prophecies and even more difficult to connect with insane current events; however it might be enough evidence to indicate that people should at least keep an open mind and consider different possibilities.

However even if you don't think some of these fringe beliefs are worth considering there are others that do including Florida Republican state Senator Doug Broxson as indicated in the following article:

Theological scholar explains horrifying reason Trump’s supporters celebrated Armageddon in Pensacola 12/10/2017

In a Pensacola, Florida rally Friday evening, Republican state Senator Doug Broxson suggested to supporters of Donald Trump that the president’s controversial decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem may usher in the biblical end times.

“Now, I don’t know about you, but when I heard about Jerusalem — where the King of Kings [applause] where our soon coming King is coming back to Jerusalem, it is because President Trump declared Jerusalem to be capital of Israel,” Broxson predicted. The crowd cheered.

This week, theological scholar Dr. Diana Butler Bass wrote a Twitter thread explaining the link between recognition of Jerusalem, evangelical Christians, and the apocalypse. That is important because rebuilding the Temple is the event that will spark the events of the Book of Revelation and the End Times.”

According to Bass, the counsel of evangelical adviser that Trump surrounds himself with take such “End Times” prophecies literally

“Of all the possible theological dog-whistles to his evangelical base, this is the biggest,” she continued. “Trump is reminding them that he is carrying out God’s will to these Last Days. They’ve been waiting for this, praying for this. They want war in the Middle East. The Battle of Armageddon, at which time Jesus Christ will return to the Earth and vanquish all God’s enemies.” Complete article


Dr. Bass and most moderate theologians clearly think this is a flawed or irrational way of interpreting Biblical prophecy, assuming there's any legitimacy to it at all, and I don't disagree; however, for those that accept the legitimacy of Biblical prophecy and think that God is worth worshiping there are plenty of Biblical quotes that at least seem to support these conclusions, although there are also many other ways that the Bible can be interpreted. The fact that the Bible is so unclear should raise some question about why, if God is so merciful and benevolent, he doesn't maintain an honest line of communication advising on how to avoid these wars instead of speaking in riddles that could be interpreted in many different ways.

However, for Religious fundamentalists, that doesn't seem to be an issue and many allegedly believe Donald Trump to be the messiah as indicated in the following article as well, although I suspect there are as many others that might consider him the Antichrist:

Trump's Jerusalem Syndrome: Whose End of Days Messiah Does He Think He Is?

The president just gave Jerusalem to the Evangelicals for Christmas, as a capital of their very own. After all, who else but Trump could make the Apocalypse great again read more: https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.827558 12/0/2017


Is this the prophesied End of Days?

For some ecstatic observers of Trump's White House declaration this week, in which the president formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, there is ample reason to believe that it is.

"The prophets' words of prophecy are coming forth from the Bible and becoming facts right before our eyes," said Likud lawmaker and prominent Temple Mount movement figure Yehuda Glick, appearing on Israel Channel 10 television Wednesday evening as Israel awaited Trump's expected announcement on Jerusalem. 

Quoting from the opening words of the book of Lamentations, in a reference to Jerusalem, Glick noted that once Jeremiah had wept, crying "How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations!" 

But the rise of the State of Israel, coupled with Trump's declaration, had now changed all that, Glick suggested: "So Mister Jeremiah, I'm sending you a WhatsApp: 'Jerusalem is no longer alone like a widow. Jerusalem is recognized as the capital of the Jewish People.'" Complete article


If there is an advanced intelligence religious people refer to as God why would he want to stage a "Battle of Armageddon" designed to bring in the prophesied "End of Days" thousands of years after the alleged predictions were made?

What could God possibly gain by doing this, and how?

Should we trust a God that communicates in this manner, assuming he exists?

That one is actually easy to answer, if the Bible is the literal truth, as fundamentalists, which should be referred to as literalists, believe, or even if it isn't.

First of all if you consider the Bible the literal truth the word of God is hard to portray as trustworthy or moral according to many Biblical stories about atrocities including numerous ones that are obvious entrapment like Exodus 9:12 "But Yahweh made Pharaoh stubborn and, as Yahweh had foretold to Moses, he did not listen to them;" 14:4 "I shall then make Pharaoh stubborn and he will set out in pursuit of them; and I shall win glory for myself at the expense of Pharaoh and his whole army, and then the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh.' And the Israelites did this;" and 14:17 "while I, for my part, shall make the Egyptians so stubborn that they will follow them, and I shall win glory for myself at the expense of Pharaoh and all his army, chariots and horsemen;" all which indicate that the reason the Egyptians didn't obey God was because HE "made Pharaoh stubborn" not because they chose to disobey him of their own free will, which should be considered obvious entrapment!



The Bible is a series of one example after another staging Wars for all the wrong reasons including Deuteronomy 9:4-5 "Do not think to yourself, once Yahweh your God has driven them before you, 'Yahweh has brought me into possession of this country because I am upright,' when Yahweh is dispossessing these nations for you, because they do wrong. You are not going into their country to take possession because of any right behaviour or uprightness on your part; rather, it is because of their wickedness that Yahweh is dispossessing these nations for you, and also to keep the pact which he swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Religious people routinely claim that they have some form of higher morality because they're doing God's will, however the explanation for his will, if it exists at all, is as absurd as many of the stories in the Bible. Throughout history many of the most important improvements in morality didn't take place because they obeyed the perceived will of God but because they obeyed it; however regrettably, they often give credit to God, perhaps, because it is easier to get people to go along with the improved sense of morality.

From the beginning of the Bible to the end, one thing that is fairly consistent, is that it teaches blind obedience, without much if any critical thinking skills so many religious people don't question the most obvious flaws in the Bible. Some of the most important verses teaching blind obedience are those that use violence to intimidate children that don't blindly obey orders or believe what they're told to believe including Proverb 13:24 "Whoever fails to use the stick hates his child; whoever is free with correction loves him." There are also verses telling people not to use corporal punishment much that it kills the child; however they're clearly far more concerned with controlling the child than looking out for the best interest of him or her.

This is especially clear in Genesis 19:8 which says "Look, I have two daughters who are virgins. I am ready to send them out to you, for you to treat as you please, but do nothing to these men since they are now under the protection of my roof,'" implying that innocent girls can justifiably be sacrificed for the benefit of angels sent by the Lord.



A God that remains silent while this is going on is supposed to be considered a higher source or morals? Fundamentalists clearly think so, which may be why there is such strong support for Roy Moore and denial about the allegations against him even though anyone that looks close at the details should have many doubts. If as Moore's defenders claim there is some doubts about his accusers, then there should still be more doubts about his bad denials, often implying that he might have dated teenage girls when he was in his thirties. Alabama is one of the states that uses Corporal punishment the most in schools, and presumably at home as well, which leads to blind obedience to authority and a lot of long term emotional dysfunction, including, as I've pointed out in several articles, higher murder rates in the states that still use corporal punishment in schools. It is also the state with the most sex abuse by teachers of students according to Education expert declares Alabama ‘ground zero’ for teachers having sex with students 03/31/2016

Alabama is one of the most religious states in the country and there's good reason to suspect that their religious beliefs and child rearing tactics have a major impact on their willingness to look the other way at these problems and cover them up.

If this isn't enough to indicate that Religion is as much if not much more about control than it is about moral values, or if people think that the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus changed that numerous verses including Matthew 10:34-8 "'Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword. For I have come to set son against father, daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law; a person's enemies will be the members of his own household. 'No one who prefers father or mother to me is worthy of me. No one who prefers son or daughter to me is worthy of me. Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me," should raise major doubts about that.



These are the teachings of a cult intent on controlling their followers!

Many religious people not only believe that there may be a great battle that could destroy the world, but they want it!

I'm not convinced they understand why.



This should be enough evidence to prove that either God doesn't exist or that he isn't the benevolent merciful being that can be trusted to pass moral judgement over us.

However whether it's the restoring of Jerusalem as the capital, "Wars and rumors of wars," including the threat of nuclear Armageddon with North Korea that could easily have been avoided or Hurricane Harvey along with many other natural disasters including the California fires, and many others, there are a growing number of people that think this is related to the "Apocalypse" or the "End of Days."

If this God does exist and he partially predicted this what could he be trying to accomplish, how, and why? And why does he communicate in riddles or prophecies?

Can there be any doubt that if God exists he has an undisclosed motive?

There should be no doubt, to reasonably well educated people, that if God exists, and is so powerful and smart that he could have come up with much better advise on how to avoid all the religious wars and the holocaust fought based on what they considered his will was, simply communicating openly and honestly would have done that.



With Climate Change coming it is difficult to completely rule out the possibility that something is going on and when you look at the Wild fires, as Bill McKibben recently pointed out, five of the worst twenty have happened since September.



Top 20 Most Destructive California Wildfires and other statistics from Cal Fire

Most other statistics aren't quite as bad; however when it comes to temperatures it's close, with ten of the hottest years happening in the last twenty years and several articles indicate that hurricanes and tropical storms have been more common in the last twenty years than in previous years

10 Hottest Years on Record all since 1998

List of the most intense tropical cyclones in East Coast and West Coast of the United States they've been more common in last twenty years other parts of the world aren't quite so clear.

The 10 strongest hurricanes ever to hit the Atlantic Ocean 09/07/2017 Five in the last twenty years; the rest going back to 1935.

15 of the deadliest, most destructive American hurricanes in history 10/04/2015

If God was able to predict Climate Change and described it in his prophecies could that be part of his motive?

Whether he could have or not there have been predictions of it going back to the sixties when Lyndon Johnson made a speech about it to congress in 1965 as I pointed out in Could Steve Bannon Be Providing Propaganda To Enable Climate Change Research Project? and Hurricane Apocalypse Coming With or Without Fringe Conspiracy Theory This means that someone knew about it and they could have taken actions to avoid some of it; but instead they catered to oil companies, so they could make massive profits, even though they knew it was destroying the environment.

This theory involved a variation of the theories expressed by the Ancient Aliens series on the History Channel, although they make an enormous amount of blunders, which I suspect are intentional, and in order for that theory to be viable a sincere effort has to be made to correct those blunders. The reason of these potentially intentional blunders might be that they may want to confuse the issue until it suits their purposes, assuming it ever does.

If this theory is correct it could potentially explain how massive megaliths were moved thousands of years ago and many other archaeological mysteries that aren't widely reported in the traditional media as well. It could also explain many of the alleged revelations that have had a major influence on our history, including those that allegedly inspired early religions and the best documented ones received by Joseph Smith in the nineteenth century. It could also explain a lot of other major unsolved mysteries including UFOs, mystics like Edgar Cayce, Padre Pio, Uri Geller, Jose Arigo, Edward Leedskalnin and many more; although there are still details that need to be worked out, and possible mistakes that need to be corrected.

This isn't a guarantee, of course, but if this theory is wrong there are still plenty of things that we should be sure of including that we need to do far more to protect the environment, allow protection of workers rights, reduce epidemic levels of fraud from religions and corporations, allow a much more diverse media to reach the majority of the public including ones that are willing to cover all candidates that want to run for office instead of only those that are supported by Wall Street campaign money and the six oligarchies that control the media and more.



However if this theory isn't right or somewhat close then there are still a lot of major unsolved mysteries that need to be explained about our history as well as current events. Are we supposed to believe that a brain surgeon would come up with a theory as insane as storing grain in the pyramids? How would you feel if you found out that your doctor had beliefs like that? Are we supposed to believe that the political establishment doesn't know how to come up with a more rational group of candidates than the clowns they've been covering?



The political establishment would of course say that these are the candidates that the public support; however before the public supported them they needed to get an enormous amount of obsession coverage while the media establishment refused to cover rational candidates. Furthermore there is an enormous industry of political operatives that study how to manipulate the majority of the public or as many as they can successfully fool; and they also have an enormous amount of help from religious leaders that are indoctrinating their followers to believe the most absurd things.

There's no way that a clown and accused pedophile like Roy Moore could come close to getting elected to the Senate unless a shocking percentage of the public had a cult mentality blindly following their leaders. These people believe that they can support one war after another based on lies oppose environmental protection and reasonable health care and still pretend they're "Pro-Life!"

The political and academic establishment is much more aware of the potential results of their actions and many of the disasters or conflicts that have been happening could have been avoided if they acted on the best research which is available to these academics and politicians. Like the conflicts with North Korea, Vietnam and in Israel and many other places there were people that understood the consequences much more than they let on to the public; but the information about this has been recorded in reliable locations so some of this isn't entirely fringe conspiracy theories, although there needs to be more details worked out and a sincere effort to actually get things right instead of intentionally trying to confuse the issues.

Also it wasn't entirely Donald Trump's decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem at all, as the media implies, this was also recommended by Chuck Schumer according to, Schumer says he advised Trump to declare Jerusalem Israel's 'undivided' capital 12/05/2017 On top of that this has been planned for decades with full support of the Congress with almost no high profile objections, although the full history of it hasn't been explained to the majority of the public. Only those that do a good job researching it on their own or have help from someone that does this research for them will be familiar with this history.

Many of the most important decisions are made without reporting the full consequences to the majority of the public, a large portion of whom isn't educated enough to sort through the details anyway. Instead they've been indoctrinated to trust leaders who routinely betray them, often accepting the choice of one incredibly corrupt candidate after another. The most devout religious people have been indoctrinated to worship their oppressors so they rarely hold them accountable and deny most of their epidemic levels of corruption or accusations about molesting teenage girls like Roy Moore or epidemic levels of corruption like Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu. Most people in they United States don't know it but Benjamin Netanyahu is involved in as many financial scandals as Clinton or Trump; or perhaps thanks, to denial or ignorance and complacency they're not even aware of the epidemic levels of corruption by Clinton or Trump either or at least not the one they support.



The faithful are routinely taught that God is constantly testing them for one purpose or another; and they often seem to believe that this is a test of their loyalty, which might be true for all I know but when loyalty means obeying orders when it comes to fighting one war after another based on lies, or when it means destroying the environment or looking the other way at epidemic levels of corruption then passing a loyalty test means flunking an intelligence test!



For additional sources see the following:

Is Donald Trump correct about the history of the Jerusalem Embassy Act? 12/06/2017 "We rate the statement Mostly True."

S. RES. 176 Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. MAY 24, 2017 With a vote of ninety to zero with ten abstaining, reaffirming plans to make Jerusalem the capital

Roll Call Vote 115th Congress - 1st Session On the Resolution (S. Res. 176 ) June 5, 2017, 05:32 PM

A corruption investigation could bring down Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 08/10/2017

All the Scandals Involving Netanyahu, and Where They Stand 09/05/2017

Why Israelis support Netanyahu despite scandals 11/09/2017

The #McResistance: In a vote just six months ago every Democrat in the Senate from Chuck Schumer to Elizabeth Warren demanded Trump move the U.S embassy to Jerusalem. #AIPAC #CUFI #Zionism https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS 12/10/2017

Are Vatican II and the Jewish Restoration to Jerusalem in Apocalypse? 12/06/2017

Rabbis to Trump: 'You are fulfilling prophecies' 12/07/2017

You Can Be an Evangelical and Reject Trump's Jerusalem Decision 12/06/2017

Why Is Trump Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem? 12/05/2017

At this point it would be harder to name news events that AREN'T signs of the apocalypse. 12/06/2017

Thursday, December 7, 2017

Media is aiding and abetting in Televangelist Fraud



The media routinely provides disclaimers claiming that they don't necessarily agree with the content of paid programming; however by allowing massive scams where they get a cut of the loot and refusing to sell advertisements that might interfere with profits, this raises major doubts about the legitimacy of this claim!

The commercial media has, for all practical purposes, abandoned any attempt to provide unbiased media coverage long ago and they've consolidated into six oligarchies that don't provide diversity at all; instead they're all for profit businesses who allow financial interests to decide the vast majority of their programming. This was brazenly demonstrated when they refused to sell Adbusters "uncommercials" even when they were willing to pay the going rate as described in the following excerpt:

Mainstream media has been censoring advertisements that interfere with their profit for decades, including refusing to sell Adbusters Un-commercials but it has only been reported in low profile locations!

Several women's groups joined Adbusters in purchasing four spots on the CBC show, Fashion File, and they attempted to buy airspace on CNN's Style with Elsa Klensch. Both networks refused to run the Adbuster's uncommercial. Adbusters also attempted to buy time on ABC, NBC, and CBS for a spot declaring the day after Thanksgiving, "Buy Nothing Day." None of the major networks would run the ad. Richard Gitter, NBC's vice president of advertising standards and program compliance, says that NBC doesn't air controversial ads. Gitter continued with more candor, "this action was taken in self-interest. It was a spot telling people, in effect, to ignore our advertisers" (Oldenburg). Complete article


There efforts to buy advertisements for their uncommercials go back close to twenty years, if not longer; however they have done little in the past ten years to push the issue, at least that I can find. The official version of truth, according to the advertisements, and often the content from the mainstream media, is a commodity, or at the minimum it is heavily influenced by financial interests. This goes beyond advertisements telling people to buy nothing, on Black Friday; they air an enormous volume of advertisements that are blatantly false like Colonial Penn life insurance, which doesn't cost much, but if they spend all that money on ads it's clear that they can't afford to pay out much for claims, and requests for charity, that also spend an undisclosed amount to pay for ads, leaving a fraction of the money for the actual charity, and much more.

Perhaps I'm wrong!

Perhaps you can figure out which ads really are providing accurate information that benefits the consumer. If so fell free to find it and let me know about it so I can correct this, but, if so, there has to be some explanation to how they can get the money for the ads without reducing the deal they give the customer, which is hard to believe in for profit industries, or even charities when they buy a large amount of ads or other products or services from for profit industries.

Can TV stations refuse to carry advertising? Apr 13, 2009

Adbusters suing networks for not airing spots 09/15/2004 updated 03/28/2017

Censorship of Advertisers 09/15/2003 This article claims that advertising has been protected by the first amendment; however it fails to mention the ads the media censors including Adbusters which sued the following year, although they had tried to buy ads prior to this article.

On top of that these six oligarchies that control over ninety percent of the media only cover candidates that don't challenge their control of the media; although they provide an enormous amount of coverage for candidates that do a fair job pretending to represent the public making an enormous amount of promises, and occasionally even speaking out against the media; but when they get in office they routinely show their true colors.



Televangelist fraud is incredibly easy to expose, or at least to those capable of a minimum amount of rational thinking; however it's still an enormous business.

Why?

What makes religious people believe this even when many of these lies are so obvious? There's actually an enormous amount of research available on this, although it isn't presented to the vast majority of the public. I explained previously in Dobson’s Indoctrination Machine that a major part of the reason why many children learn to believe irrational claims is that before they develop critical thinking skills religious educators recommend they be taught or disciplined with authoritarian methods often using corporal punishment. This is often accompanied by emotional appeals, and at a very young age, often before they fully learn to speak English or walk, children learn to believe what they're told and to obey orders without question.

As I explained in Philip Zimbardo, Lucifer Effect, Stanford Prison Experiment and Eli Roth Stanley Milgram's Obedience To Authority experiment much more extensive than most people realize the military has been studying how to get obedience for decades, although they have claimed that they were trying to teach people how to avoid replicating the holocaust. The military is simply not in the practice of teaching their recruits to stop and think things through before they blindly accept orders from commanders sending them to war based on lies.

In addition to that, thanks largely due to support for corporal punishment based on their interpretation of the Bible the most religious states often ahve the highest murder rates as well as explained in Does lack of education increase violent crime? Religion? And blind faith in leaders, including many that routinely betray their followers has also contributed to the fact that poverty, lack of education and income inequality are worse in the states with the strongest religious faith.

If they spend all this money on Mega-Churches without taking care of basic functions of society, like child care, educating the poor or providing social help for dysfunctional families that are in abusive homes it's not surprising that they have more violent crime in the most religious states, and as I'll elaborate more on below it is worse in most of the areas that have the largest concentration of Mega-Churches, often led by televangelists that are involved in one scam after another. These scams are often reported much better on the alternative media than in the traditional commercial media which is making an enormous amount of money selling these televangelists air time; so they have a financial incentive not to report it.

The most religious people are also more likely to blindly follow their leaders when it comes to politics and support of wars, which have been proven to be based on one lie after another. The largest rate of military recruitment is in the rural North West, where there's very little other work or high population; however the largest volume of recruits come from the Southern Bible Belt states, which also have the highest murder rates. And, as people can see from the current Senate Race in Alabama many of them are very reluctant to admit to themselves that their candidate has been implicated in child abuse.

Even after they admitted that there never were any weapons of mass destruction there was much more support for the war among evangelical leaders and followers according to Most Evangelical Leaders Still Support Iraq War 02/12/2008 And there were reports to indicate that this war, and many others were based on lies from the beginning including Scott Ritter who as this article reminds us, Pro-War Christians Should Come Clean 12/08/2004, disclosed the lies used to justify the Iraq War. Mohamed El Baradei also exposed these lies before the war began but few if any high profile ministers spoke out against it, either before or after the wear. During the Vietnam war there were much more clergymen including Martin Luther King Jr. and the Berrigan Brothers that came out against the war; however now there are almost none, at least that get any media attention speaking against current conflicts, even though it isn't hard to find research that exposes one lie after another that wars are based on.

These Clergymen claim to be "Pro-life!"

Real "Pro-life" people, especially those also concerned with quality of life, believe in protecting the environment, providing health care, education, child care and oppose wars while holding politicians accountable after they break one promise after another!

The same Evangelical preachers or other Clergymen that support one war after another are often also opposed to environmental protection economic policies that cut funds to social programs, educational opportunities for the poor, fair wages for the working class, diverse media and many more issues that benefit the vast majority of the public. On the rare occasions where clergymen do speak out for the poor they often do so in opposition to their own Church leadership especially in the Catholic Church which has a much more powerful hierarchy. Martin Luther King Jr. was of course one of the exceptions, who was much closer to his own community than any leadership he might have been accountable to and when both the Berrigan Brothers and Óscar Romero spoke out against the Vietnam War of oppression in El Salvador they did so without the support of the Vatican.

Many wonder why so many people vote against their own best interests one time after another; it's often because they're taught from birth to trust their leaders, instead of developing critical thinking skills so they can understand the issues, often very simple one!



Amazingly many of the most famous Televangelists, including Joel Osteen don't even bother doing a good job pretending to help their own communities, as demonstrated when he refused to open his door during Hurricane Harvey until after he was shamed into doing so. When this happened it wasn't the mainstream media that sells him enormous amounts of time on TV that shamed him, at least not initially; it was people at the local level that reported the story on social media. When it went viral the mainstream media finally reported on it; but they were quick to allow Osteen to have equal time to explain his views or much more time. Many of his followers may have accepted whatever explanation he had to offer them.



I can't imagine that anyone familiar with the story of Jesus overturning the tables of the "money changers" in the temple would think that he would have been too happy with modern televangelists if he were around today. But regardless of how happy he would have been my best guess is that most of the depictions of him with white skin that would have been more common in Europe than in the Middle East would have been accurate.



As I said above the most religious states also have the highest murder rates; and a large portion of the biggest Megachurches are also in cities with exceptionally high murder rates, especially in the South; however there are also a lot of them that are in small communities just outside of big cities, often with much lower crime rates. Glancing at some of these Churches indicates that it will show possible evidence of major amounts of economic inequality.

At least three of the five lists of megachurches cited below have over half the the ten biggest churches in cities with above rates of murder often well above and if you count the small communities that serve larger cities nearby it is even more. One of the remaining two only has three out of the top ten in cities with above average but six of the remaining seven are just barely outside of big cities with higher murder rates, although one or two isn't much above average. The fifth one is the longest and will take a closer look since it's alphabetical, but it probably indicates that over half of these megachurches are in areas with high murder rates. Part of the reason for this is presumably that in order to attract large congregations they have to be near big population centers and major cities have higher murder rates; however part of it also that the states with the biggest churches, as I reported in the previous article, are in the most religious states, especially the South that supports corporal punishment more, which also have higher murder rates.

Security has become an enormous expense for many of these Megachurches, often to keep hecklers from exposing the scams that many of these Pastors are involved in or, in some cases, to protect the pastors from their own followers. T.D. Jakes had to get a Restraining order against one of his own parishioners, and Joyce Meyers body guard was charged with murdering his own wife about six years ago. There are also many other stories about less popular preachers either being charged with murder or getting involved in domestic violence problems with their own families. Creflo Dollar was charged with abusing his own daughter and on another incident one of the preachers at his Church was killed. Ironically on at least one occasion a preacher who couldn't keep the peace in her own family used this to make her claim that she was an expert on domestic violence as a former victim. In "Spare the Child" Philip Greven explains that most evangelical preachers teach their followers to use corporal punishment to control their children and this escalates to more violence later in life. He also cites examples where many preachers have used these tactics on their own children and they often rebelled violently. Most modern preachers don't advocates this publicly anymore, although there are some exceptions including Pat Robertson who has recommended on television that an atheist child be beaten until he respects peoples religion.

This form of teaching is almost certainly a major reason why the most religious states have higher murder rates and most megachurches are in areas with higher murder rates as well.

Preachers don't turn out to be much if any less violent than the rest of society, although they may maintain better images, or at least they used to before the scandals about child sex abuse came out; however the media still gives them better coverage to preserve the impression that they do have higher moral values.

It doesn't take a genius to know that if a community spends millions of dollars on monuments that they only use once a week for purposes of worship and not much else while declining to provide funds for education, child care, and other social programs that it is going to cause problems one way or another.

This isn't something new; the cultures that built what we consider great monuments in the past, like the pyramids, obelisks, Stonehenge, Angkor Wat, the Bayon, the Easter Island statues and many other monuments that are still around today, all went into decline, mostly as a result of corruption and fighting wars instead of performing basic functions that they needed to maintain their culture.

Anyone familiar with alternative media outlets that do a better job reporting the news that the mainstream media refuses to cover already knows that massive portions of our society are already in decline and with all the bickering over tax cuts for the rich we're inevitably going to follow in their foot steps.



10 Largest Megachurches in Texas originally published in 2016 updated November 2017 Six of these megachurches are in cities with murder rates ranging from 7.43 to 13.77 the other four are just outside of these same cities and only one of those four has much more than 100,000 people, two of them have less than 50,000 with congregations of 24 to 28 thousand people clearly drawing from larger cities.

Top 50 Fittest Mega Churches in America 2015 08/15/2015

List of megachurches in the United States

Full List of Megachurches

Newsmax's Top 50 Megachurches in America 11/11/2015

Top 100 Largest Participating Churches in America 2017 Only three of the top ten Churches in this list are in cities with above average murder rates, another six are in communities with small populations near larger cities with above average murder rates and only one is in an small city with below average rates surrounded by other cities below average. The first thirty seven of these have more than 10,000 members and are in cities have average murder rates lower than the ones on the other lists.

Initial count lists seventeen megachurches in cities with above average murder rates, ten of those are close to, if not more than double the average murder rate, and three of them are three to six times the average murder rates; eight of them in small communities with below average murder rates, but they serve a much larger congregation which includes cities nearby with much higher rates; and only three with below average rates that are either farther away from big cities or large enough to be independent of them. These twenty eight Churches are the top ten from four lists after subtracting those listed multiple times.

Counting all the ones from the top ten of these lists including one just below a 10,000 congregation, with a massive television audience, and adding more with a minimum congregation of 10,000 there are a total of one hundred and thirty-four; seventy-five (56%) are in cities with murder rates above average; forty (30%) are below average serving cities with above average murder rates; and nineteen (14%) of them, including the only one with a little less than 10,000 members, are in communities with below average murder rates including some that also serve larger cities which are also below average. This means that 85% of these Megachurces draw resources from cities with above average murder rates, even though 30% are outside these cities. The current percentage is about 85% either in or near cities with above average murder rates; and 15% serving cities with below average murder rates.

Forty-seven (35%) of these megachurches are in cities that have more than double the average murder rates; twenty-two are in cities with triple average murder rates; twelve of them in cities with four times average; six with five times average; College Park Ga. and Birmingham Al. have six times the average; Baltimore has seven times average; and Detroit has eight times average, each with one megachurch.



The states with the top ten murder rates for 2016 have a total of twenty-eight Megachurces; the states with the bottom ten murder rates have only only four; however, the top ten have a higher population; if two states to the bottom ten it is five adjusting for population. The next three states from the bottom don't have any so they could be added to adjust for population as well without changing it.

This will be updated more over the next few week to add all those available with a congregation of less than 10,000. These will be organized according to state, initially. They won't be sorted according to murder rates by city right away it at all. It is also clear that the ten states with the highest murder rates can expect to have much more megachurches than the ten states with the lowest murder rates, even after adjusting for population. Three of them don't have any on any of the lists that I've checked and at least three more only have a handful; all of the ones from the top ten have a large volume when going below the 10,000 member limit. The only four, with over 10,000 members, in the ten states with the lowest murder rates are all in or near cities with above average rates for the state, and three of them are in or near cities with above average rates for the nation as well.

Clearly there is an enormous correlation between higher murder rates and participation in the Megachurches, which are mostly if not entirely Protestant, although other religions have their own problems.

In some of the cases where the smaller Churches are in towns with lower murder rates they have congregations that are as high or much higher than their populations; this also goes for a couple of the small towns just outside of Atlanta, with a rate four times the average, that are just barely above average, including one with a congregation of 15,000 in a town of only 2,000; these two towns clearly draw people from the surrounding communities, including Atlanta. In most cases the high murder rates are almost certainly not in the immediate surroundings of the megachurches, especially those serving wealthy areas, which is probably a lot of them. Even the megachurches in large cities with high murder rates are probably not in the areas with the worst violence, although they may drain funds that could reduce those crimes. It's unlikely to stay quite as bad as this with a larger sampling but this is a large enough correlation to determine that megachurches are serving areas more violent than those served by smaller churches or more secular areas.

It's hard to see how there can be much if any doubt that these megachurches, often with multimillionaire pastors, are drawing funds from the local communities that could be used for services that could help address social problems and dramatically reduce violence. There should also be a serious debate about whether these Churches that are enriching pastors without addressing social problems should be considered charities or get a tax exempt status.

This will be updated over the next few weeks to include more Churches including most if not all that I can find with congregations above 10,000; and I will show the work, so those that want to check it will be free to do so, even if they want to distort it to suit their own views, which is common with statistics. Additional information has also been added Megalithic Churches correlated with local murder rates which includes a review of the Megachurches in Alabama below the ten thousand mark. These are even more extreme than the national average however it doesn't necessarily reflect statistics in other states, including a few that I glanced at and are clearly not as bad as Alabama, or perhaps the national statistics. In Alabama only nine out of thirty seven of their megachurches are in cities with below average murder rates for the nation, an additional three are in cities with murder rates that are barely below Alabama's rate but above the national rate. Almost half of the Megachurches in Alabama are in cities with three times the national average. Alabama doesn't have any cities with more than 220,000 people, so even many of their rural areas have high murder rates; however if they're this high in the areas with Megachurches in them they must be much lower in other areas, otherwise their statewide averages would be higher.

Average murder rates from 2002-2016 for the nation are about 5.54 per 100,000; they dipped down to 4.5 for a couple years but climbed back to 5.3, so most of the gains have reversed, at least temporarily in the last couple years. Recognizing the causes of violence and reducing them can help resume the steady decline since the early nineties.

Since the traditional media is getting a cut of the loot these Churches are gouging from the public, and the political establishment relies on religious support to get elected, it is highly unlikely that these findings will be reported widely, except perhaps through alternative media that is more concerned with educating the public. However if there is major political or media change this could change too, but it's unlikely without massive grassroots pressure.

Megachurches in cities with above average murder rates:

Houston Texas, population 2.2 million, murder rates above average from 2002-16: 12.91 New Light Christian Church in Houston 13,500; Second Baptist 20,650; Lakewood Church, Joel Osteen 43,500; Windsor Village United Methodist Church 17,000; Sagemont Church 17,700; Fountain of Praise 11,800; Woodlands Church, 18,385, is in an isolated community outside of Houston with about 100,00 people and no available crime rates

Fort Worth Texas, population, 810,000, murder rates above average from 2002-16: 7.72 Kenneth Copeland

Dallas Texas, 1.28 million, above average murder rates from 2002-16: 13.77 The Potter’s House T. D. Jakes 16,100; First Baptist Church Dallas Dallas Robert Jeffress 12,000; Greater Cornerstone Baptist Church 20,000

San Antonio Texas, 1.4 million, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 7.43 Community Bible Church 14,000; Cornerstone Church 17,000;

Charlotte North Carolina, 810,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 8.29 Hickory Grove Baptist Church 11,900; University Park Baptist Church 10,000; Elevation Church Charlotte (has another branch in Toronto) 19,000

Durham North Carolina above average murder rate from 2002-16: 11.4, 252,000 people World Overcomers Christian Church 11,700; The Summit Church 10,000

Anderson South Carolina above average murder rate from 2002-16: 11.24 population 27,000 surrounded by very rural areas including Greenville wit another megachurch and a rate of 7.03 and Belton with only 4,300 and average rate of 8.8 NewSpring Church allegedly 28,100 (31,800 weekly) which means almost everyone from town and out of towners to make up the difference; however another source lists the congregation at 23,055 which is still most of the people in town.

Greenville South Carolina above average murder rate from 2002-16: 7.03 population 62,250 very rural area Redemption AKA International Pentecostal Holiness Church 14,000

Charleston South Carolina, 130,000 above average murder rate from 2002-16: 10.65

Atlanta Georgia, 456,000, murder rates well above average murder rate from 2002-16: 22.59 First Baptist Church Atlanta Atlanta 11,000

Lithonia Georgia only one murder in fifteen years eight not listed; only about two thousand people average murder rate for those eight: 6.2 just outside Atlanta New Birth Missionary Baptist Bishop Eddie Long estimated congregation of 15,000

Norcross Georgia above average murder rate from 2002-16 (only eleven years recorded): 12.34 Just outside Atlanta with 22.59 average; only about 16,300 people Hopewell Missionary Baptist congregation of 15,000

College Park Georgia, 14,600, murder rates above average murder rate from 2002-16: 31.11 World Changers Church Int. Creflo Dollar 14,000 just outside Atlanta

Gainesville Georgia above average murder rate for the nation but slightly below average for Georgia from 2002-16: 6.05 population 36,000 near Atlanta with a rate of 22.59 Free Chapel 11,500

Jonesboro Georgia 4,600 above average for nation but below average for Georgia murder rate from 2002-16: 5.61 near Atlanta with a rate of 22.59 New Birth South Metropolitan Church 10,000

Louisville Kentucky, 263,000, above average murder rate from 2000-2: 12.37 full data not available but according to, Louisville homicides in 2017 already outpace last year’s all-time high 04/18/2017 it must be above forty. St. Stephen Church 10,700; Southeast Christian Church in Middletown bordering Louisville 21,800

Lexington-Fayette Kentucky typical murder rates not available but articles indicate it is above average murder rate; population about 310,000 Quest Community Church 10,000
INTERACTIVE | 2017 Lexington homicides 28 murders with a few weeks to go for a rate of about 9
Lexington Police Respond To Increase In Homicide Rate 10/23/2017 count was only 26 at the time of this article claiming that highest two years were 1999 and 2001 indicating average rate is probably above average for the nation but recently has climbed. It is still lower than many other big cities with less than double national average.

Nashville Tennessee, 625,000 above average murder rate from 1999-2011: 12.22 according to Nashville criminal homicides most in more than a decade 01/04/2017 current rates are as bad if not worse. Mount Zion Baptist Church 18,000; Mount Baptist Church 13,000

Memphis Tennessee, 657,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 20.09 Bellevue Baptist Church 30,000 / 6,800 weekly; New Direction Christian Church 10,950; Memphis Temple of Deliverance 10,000

Fort Lauderdale Florida, 176,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 7.43 Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale 30,000 / 18,500 weekly;

Jacksonville Florida, 853,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 11.89 Celebration Church congregation about 12,000; First Baptist Church of Jacksonville 28,000; Bethel Baptist Institutional Church 12,000

West Palm Beach Florida, 104,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 10.06

Miami Florida, 430,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 16.67 El Rey Jesús (King Jesus International Ministry) 12,500

Orlando Florida above average murder rate from 2002-16: 12.77 The Orlando Pulse shooting took place in 2016 sending the rate for that year up by about 18 and the average over 15 years by just over 1 population about 262,000 First Baptist Church Orlando 16,000

Oklahoma City Oklahoma, 621,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 10.07

Tulsa Oklahoma, 400,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 13.53 Church on the Move 10,000

Birmingham Alabama, 212,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 32.76 Church of the Highlands 43,600

Grand Rapids Michigan, 194,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 6.35 population about 190,000 Ada Bible Church 12,000 (Ada is an upscale Township within Grand Rapids with 13,000 people)

Detroit Michigan above average murder rate from 2002-16: 42.98 population 680,000 Triumph Church 11,600

Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 1.56 million, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 21.13 Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia 14,000; Deliverance Evangelistic Church 11,000; Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church Philadelphia 15,000

Albuquerque New Mexico, 557,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 8.48 Calvary of Albuquerque 16,800; Legacy Church 10,100

Las Vegas Nevada, 614,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 8.92

Cincinnati Ohio, 298,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 20.93 Crossroads Church — Cincinnati 22,700

Columbus Ohio above average murder rate from 2002-16: 11.97 population 836,000 World Harvest Church 13,000

Baltimore Maryland, 623,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 40.45 Empowerment Temple 10,000

Landover between Landover Hills Maryland, 1,800 rate of 3.65 and Cheverly Maryland, 6,450, rate of 7.21 near Washington DC with rate of 27.07 First Baptist Church of Glenarden 12,000

Trenton New Jersey,84,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 25.95 population 84,000

Richmond Virginia, 218,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 27.64 population 217,800 Faith Landmarks Ministries 10,000

Baton Rouge Louisiana, 229,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 23.67 population 228,900 Family Worship Center Jimmy Swaggart and Donnie Swaggart 15,500

New Orleans Louisiana above average murder rate from 2002-16: 54.02 population 384, This rate does not calculate the years 2005-6 in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina which contributed to a major increase that continued to 2007 which is calculated before dropping back down. according to Murder Rates in New Orleans, La, 2004–2006 it was 96.6 in 2006 485 more than 2005 69% more than 2006. population dropped significantly as a result of the hurricane. Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist 10,000

Hammond Indiana above average murder rate from 2002-16: 12.7 population 78,300 next to Gary with rates of 56.05 First Baptist Church of Hammond 17,700

Gary Indiana, 78,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 56.05

Indianapolis Indiana above average murder rate from 2002-16: 14.35 population 848,800 Eastern Star Baptist Church 10,000

City data figure for Honolulu Hawaii, 337,000, full crime rates not available but according to Honolulu Crime Rate Report (Hawaii) there were 16 murders in 2012 and a projected figure of 15 for 2017, which comes to a rate of about 5 which is average for the nation but above average for Hawaii which in the bottom ten and according to Busy year for HPD homicide investigators as number of killings increases 2010 they had 23 in 2010 and 26 in 2004 which were their highest years, above average for both the nation and Hawaii, implying it're probably above average for both the nation and Hawaii. New Hope Christian Fellowship 14,500

Bakersfield California, 369,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 7.73 Valley Bible Fellowship congregation 12,000

Los Angeles California, 3.9 million, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 9.86 Hillsong Church; First African Methodist Episcopal Church Los Angeles 10,000; West Angeles Cathedral 20,000

Sacramento California, 485,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 8.9

Gardena California above average murder rate from 2002-16: 5.78 population 60,000 just outside of Los Angeles with a rate of 9.86 City of Refuge 10,000

San Francisco California above average murder rate from 2002-16: 8.59 population 852,000 Glide Memorial Church 12,600

San Bernardino California, 215,000 above average murder rate from 2002-16: 21.28 The Rock Church and World Outreach Center 14,450

Modesto California, 209,300 above average murder rate from 2002-16: 7.01 Calvary Temple Worship Center 11,800

Santa Ana California, 335,000 above average murder rate from 2002-16: 5.95 Templo Calvario Assembly of God 11,000

New York, New York, 8.5 million, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 5.81 New York murder rates have been dropping steadily for years and for the past four years it has been the second city out of ten, with more than a million people, to drop below the national average, but over a fifteen year period it's still above average. Greater Allen A. M. E. Cathedral of New York 20,000; Brooklyn Christian Cultural Center 13,000; Brooklyn Tabernacle 10,000; Hillsong Church 3,000

St. Louis Missouri, 317,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 40.43

Kansas City Missouri, 470,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 22.22

Chicago Illinois, 2.7 million, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 17.85 New Life Covenant Church Chicago 15,500; Salem Baptist Church 10,100; Living Word Christian Center 18,000; Apostolic Church of God 10,500

Phoenix Arizona, 1.5 million, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 10.79 Calvary Community Church Phoenix 11,400; Dream City Church aka First Assembly of God 21,000

Jackson Mississippi, 171,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 28.4

Washington District of Columbia, 659,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 27.07 Temple of Praise 18,000

Denver Colorado, 664,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 7.89

Little Rock Arkansas, 198,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 21.19

Minneapolis Minnesota, 407,000, above average murder rate from 2002-16: 11.26 Mount Olivet Lutheran Church 13,000 5,900 active

Megachurches in cities with below average murder rates with small population just outside of larger cities with above average murder rates:

Peoria Arizona below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.74 about 167,000 people just outside of Phoenix Arizona with an average of 10.79 Christ's Church of the Valley 27,000

Sunset Hills Missouri below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.39 8,500 people just outside of St. Louis with an average rate of 40.43 FaithChurch.com serves two other Missouri towns near St. Louis with rates unavailable and West Palm Beach with lower rates, also has large television audience. 25,000

Alpharetta Georgia below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0.93; 63,000 people just outside Atlanta with an average rate of 22.59 North Point Community Church serving 38,000 people another source has lower estimate of 30,600

Lawrenceville Georgia, 30,000, barely below average murder rate from 2002-16: 5.062 near Atlanta with rates of 22.59 12Stone Church 16,000

Grapevine Texas below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.38 only about 48,000 people just outside Dallas (13.77) and Fort Worth (7.72) Fellowship Church 24,100

Southlake Texas below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0.91 50,100 people just outside Dallas (13.77) and Fort Worth (7.72) Gateway Church 28,000;

Flower Mound Texas below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.44 population about 69,000 just outside Dallas (13.77) and Fort Worth (7.72) The Village Church 10,400

Rockwall Texas below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0.51 with about 41,800 people near Dallas with a rate of 13.77 Lake Pointe Church almost 12,000

Highland Village Texas below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0.92 North of Dallas (13.77) and Fort Worth (7.72) The Village Church 10,200

Tyler Texas slightly below average murder rate from 2002-16: 4.94 population 101,000 relatively close to Dallas with a rate of 13.77 Green Acres Baptist Church 14,000

Carrollton Texas, 128,350, below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.48 just outside Dallas with a rate of 13.77 Covenant Church 11,000

Edmond Oklahoma below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.15 only about 88,600 people bordering on Oklahoma City with average rate of 10.07 LifeChurch.TV 20,000

South Barrington Illinois no murders in fifteen years but only about 4,800 people surrounding suburbs only slightly higher but short drive from Chicago with an average rate of 17.85 Willowcreek Community Church serving 22,500 people

Rolling Meadows Illinois below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0.56 population 24,300 near Chicago with a rate of 17.85 Harvest Bible Chapel 11,000

Troy Michigan below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.15 with population of 83,000 near Detroit with a rate of 42.98 Kensington Church 15,000

Grandville Michigan, 15,800, below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.42 near Grand Rapids with a rate of 6.35 Mars Hill Bible Church 10,000

Southfield Michigan, 31,300 below average murder rate from 2002-16: 3.38 just outside Detroit with a rate of 42.98 Word of Faith International Christian Center 11,000

Raleigh-North-Carolina slightly below average murder rate from 2002-16: 5.03 population 440,000 near Durham with only 251,000 people but a rate of 11.4 Hope Community Church 15,000

Matthews North Carolina below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.11 population about 30,000 just outside of Charlotte with a rate of 8.29 Elevation Church 25,000;

Mount Pleasant South Carolina, 77,800, below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.04 just outside of Charleston with a rate of 10.65 Seacoast Church 12,000

Palm Beach Gardens Florida below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.61 with only about 52,000 people only other town with more population is West Palm Beach with about 100,000 people and a rate of 16.06 Christ Fellowship Church congregation about 26,200

Cooper City Florida below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0.41 population about 34,000 near Fort Lauderdale with a rate of 7.43 and Miami with a rate of 16.67 Potential Church 11,200

Longwood Florida below average murder rate from 2002-16: 5.29 population 13,900 near Orlando with a rate of 12.77 Northland, A Church Distributed 22,000

Lino Lakes Minnesota below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0 only about 21,000 people with Centerville in the middle with less than three thousand but it's just outside of Minneapolis with a rate of 11.26 Eagle Brook Church 22,480
Hugo, Minnesota murder rates unknown but probably low only 13,000 population near Minneapolis with rates of 11.26 Eagle Brook Church 17,100, presumably the same church with two towns, and two member estimates, listed bordering each other

Manheim Pennsylvania below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.96 with 4,900 people in between Harrisburg with rates of 24.08 and Philadelphia with rates of 21.13 LCBC Church 15,000 congregation

Munster Indiana below average murder rate from 2002-16: .95 only about 23,000 people just outside Hammond with rates of 12.71, Gary with rates of 56.04, and Chicago Ill. with rates of 17.85 Family Christian Center with 15,000 congregation

Conway Arkansas below average murder rate from 2002-16: 3.98 low but rising population going from about 46,000 to about 64,000 near Little Rock with a rate of 21.19 New Life Church 14,000 congregation

Nicholasville Kentucky below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0.35 population 29,100 Near Lexington with rough rate of about 5 to 9 rough data Southland Christian Church 12,600

Germantown Tennessee below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0.71 population 19,500 just outside of Memphis with a rate of 20.09 Germantown Baptist Church 12,000;

Littleton Colorado below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.94 with about 45,000 near Boulder with a rate of 7.89 Red Rocks Church congregation 12,000

Colorado Springs Colorado, 445,800 barely below average for the nation above average of Colorado murder rate from 2002-16: 5.03 relatively near Denver with a rate of 7.89 New Life Church 12,000

Leawood Kansas below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0.95 with about 34,000 people bordering Kansas City Missouri with a rate of 22.22 The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection 22,000 / 10,200 weekly

Brandon Mississippi below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0.64 about 23,000 people just outside Jackson with rate of 28.4 Pinelake Church 10,000

Sayreville New Jersey below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.24 population 45,260 near Trenton with rates of 25.95 and New York with rates of 5.81 Faith Fellowship Outreach Center 11,100

Fort Washington, Maryland crime rates unknown but probably low with about 23,000 people near Washington DC with rates of about 27.07 Ebenezer AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church 10,000

West Covina California below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.71 108,000 people just outside of Los Angeles with a rate of 9.86 Faith Community Church 10,000

Diamond Bar California below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.73 56,000 people between Los Angeles with a rate of 9.86 and San Bernardino with a rate of 21.28 Calvary Chapel Golden Springs 12,000

Granite Bay California rates unavailable but probably low, only about 20,000 people just outside of Roseville with rate of 1.1 and Sacramento with rates of 8.9 Bayside Church 16,000 or 11,300 congregation depending on source
Roseville California, 128,600, below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.1 near Sacramento with rate of 8.9

Porter Ranch, Los Angeles California wealthy community of 30,000 people probably below average murder rate but figures unavailable Los Angeles rate of 9.83 Shepherd Church 10,500

Riverside California slightly below average murder rate from 2002-16: 4.69 population 3019,000 near San Bernardino with a rate of 21.28 and Los Angeles with a rate of 9.86 Harvest Christian Fellowship 15,000

Megachurches in cities with below average murder rates:

Plano Texas below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.55 About 278,000 people just outside Dallas Prestonwood Baptist Church 15,800;

El Paso Texas, 679,000, below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.4 Abundant Living Faith Center 12,400

Austin Texas, 913,000, below average murder rate from 2002-16: 3.57 Hyde Park Baptist and the Quarries Church 11,000

Burlington Washington, 8,600 barely below average for nation above average of Washington murder rate from 2002-16: 5.37 near Mont Vernon with 33,10 and rate of 2.37 barely above average for the state Christ the King Community Church 17,000

Lake Forest California murder rates below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.03 with only about 80,000 people modest drive from Los Angeles but surrounded by other small towns Rick Warren ministries Saddleback Church congregation about 24,000

El Cajon California below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.83 only about 103,000 people but nearest large city, San Diego has about same rates Shadow Mountain Community Church about 8,000 congregation plus television audience second only to Osteen's Church

Vista California below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.27 about 98,000 near San Diego with a rate of 3.67 North Coast Church almost 12,000

San Diego California, 1.38 million, below average murder rate from 2002-16: 3.67 The Rock Church congregation 14,000

Irvine California below average murder rate from 2002-16: .98 about 248,500 people surrounded by other small communities modest drive from Los Angeles Mariners Church 13,600

San Jose California below average murder rate from 2002-16: 3.31 just over one million people Jubilee Christian Center 14,000

Williamstown, New Jersey St. Matthews Baptist Church 13,000
Williamstown, New Jersey incomplete data but probably low surrounded by other rural towns also low

Vienna Virginia below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.49 population about 16,400 surrounded by other small towns with low rates but relatively close to Washington DC with rates of 27.07 McLean Bible Church 11,000

Ozark Missouri below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.13 population about 19,000 near Springfield with a rate of 5.33 James River Church 11,270

Springfield Missouri, 165,000, average murder rate from 2002-16: 5.33

Des Moines Iowa, 209,200 below average for nation but above average for Iowa murder rate from 2002-16: 4.32

West Des Moines Iowa below average murder rate from 2002-16: 0.73 with only about 63,000 people just outside of Des Moines with a rate of 4.32 Lutheran Church of Hope congregation 12,000

Henderson Nevada below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.48 population 277,000 just outside of Los Vegas with rates of 8.92 Central Christian Church 21,100

Toronto, 5.7 mullion, murder rates 2012 1.4 Elevation Church & Charlotte 19,000

Springdale Arkansas below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.25 population 76,000 surrounded by other small towns with low populations Cross Church 16,000

Melbourne Florida, 78,000, average murder rate from 2002-16: 5.43

West Melbourne Florida below average murder rate from 2002-16: 2.03 only about 20,000 people Melbourne rates about 5.43 Calvary Chapel Melbourne 10,000

Lafayette Colorado below average murder rate from 2002-16: 1.59 about 27,000 people but near Boulder with 100,000 people and low rates and Denver with almost 600,000 people and moderately above average rates Flatirons Community Church 15,500



The following are a sample of the many scandals surrounding televangelists or megachurches:

Media Fails to Report on Joel Osteen’s Unsavory Choice of Charity 10/24/2017

Prayer leader slain at Creflo Dollar's Ga. church 10/24/2012

Four men cleared of wrongdoing in Joel Osteen church heckling case 06/22/2016

Joel Osteen Impersonator Infiltrates Actual Joel Osteen Event 11/09/2017

Pastor Jeffress: Megachurch's Members Armed, Would Take Down a Shooter 11/06/2017

Security guard who stopped shooter credits God 12/10/2007

TD Jakes Sues Alleged Dangerous Stalker Who Is Ex-Church Member 02/18/2014

Security forces are a way of life for many big churches Dec. 2007 shootings at New Life Church in Colorado Springs

Why Scandals Hit Celebrity Preachers - TIME 09/28/2007 Juanita Bynum; Paula White, and her co-pastor husband Randy; and more

TELEVANGELIST BENNY HINN Heckled at Airport 'WORLD'S GREATEST SCAMMER' 07/01/2013

The day Pat Robertson's bodyguard pulled a gun on me (part 4) 12/19/2009

Evangelist Benny Hinn's son arrested in Brazil for 'beating up deaf and dumb man during one of his father's events' 02/18/2013

If You’re a Christian, Muslim or Jew - You are Wrong By Cenk Uygur 10/231/2005

Pro-Cruz Pastor Shot by Kyle Andrew Odom an Iraq War Vet Six Times and Lives 12/0/2017

Creflo Dollar and Believing Our Girls By Libby Copeland 06/18/2012

Black Mega Churches: attitudes towards corporal punishment and perceived guilt or innocence 05/18/2015

Pat Robertson: Non-Religious Children Should Be Beaten Until They Respect Christian Beliefs 01/05/2015

Exposing Televangelists and Thousands of christian Leaders 07/17/2014

The Worst Televangelist Product Scams Of All Time 07/25/2012

Former Episcopal Bishop Heather Cook sentenced to seven years in drunk-driving death of cyclist 10/27/2015



Inside Justin Bieber's Hillsong Church: Child abuse cover-up claims, rinsing its followers for money and facing 'cult' accusations 06/27/2017

Brutal Memes Mock Joel Osteen Over His Hurricane Harvey Response 09/01/2017

The following are the net worth of some of the richest and most famous pastors or televangelists, that often use their fame to influence politics, despite being involved in enormous amounts of fraud:

8 Richest Pastors in America These pastors inspire millions—and make millions. 12/0/2017 Kenneth Copeland: Net Worth $760 Million Fort Worth, TX; Pat Robertson: Net Worth $100 Million Virginia Beach, VA.; Benny Hinn: Net Worth $42 Million; Joel Osteen: Net Worth $40 Million Houston Tx.; Creflo Dollar: Net Worth $27 Million College Park, GA; Billy Graham: Net Worth $25 Million Billy Graham Evangelistic Association now run by Franklin Graham III his son in Charlotte, North Carolina; Rick Warren: Net Worth $25 Million Lake Forest, CA; Joyce Meyer: Net Worth $8 Million

Top 10 Richest Pastors In The World And Their Net Worth 09/08/2015 half of them abroad some unreliable

T. D. Jakes Net Worth: $18 million Dallas Texas

Paula White Net Worth 2017, Age, Height, Weight - Wealtholino

Paula White net worth: $5 Million

Jimmy Swaggart Net Worth: $1.7 million 09/28/2017 Entire familiy is part of ministry each of them with high incomes Baton Rouge La.

Ministry Makes $150 Million a Year : Rich Life Style Reflects Swaggart Empire's Wealth 03/14/1988

Oral Roberts Net Worth: $8 Million Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Jerry Falwell Net Worth: $10 million Liberty University Lynchburg, Virginia

Juanita Bynum Net Worth: $10 Million

15 American Pastors worth Millions, Who’s The Wealthiest? 12/0/2017 15. Minister Louis Farrakhan Net Worth: $3 million; 14. Bishop Noel Jones Net Worth: $5 million Los Angeles; 13. Bishop Eddie Long Net Worth: $5 million Near Atlanta in Lithonia ,GA.; 11. Rev. John Hagee Net Worth: $5 million San Antonio; the rest listed elsewhere

Suze Orman Net Worth: $35 million 06/12/2017

14 Reasons to Not Listen to Suze Orman 07/07/2014



The following are a fraction of the major crimes committed by preachers their families or in their churches, most of them are only reported briefly at the local level and more may be added:

John Bernard Feit a Former priest on trial for murder of South Texas beauty queen in 1960 12/01/2017

Ex-Minister Arrested in Murder Try : Crime: He is taken into custody at a Los Angeles church after being indicted in Texas on charges of attempting to kill his wife in 1987. She has been comatose since. 08/26/1992

Former pastor arrested in Cochise for murder of Florida woman 05/14/2015

Ronnie Leon Hyde Former Youth Pastor Arrested in Florida Teen's 1994 Cold Case Murder and Dismemberment 03/10/2017

Preacher Arrested in Alleged Murder Plot 11/30/2006 FRESNO, Calif. -- Even in 2004, when the Rev. Howard Douglas Porter eulogized a friend killed in a car crash in which Porter was driving, the victim's friends and relatives were suspicious. They feared Porter deliberately planned the crash to get his hands on the multimillion-dollar trust fund of Frank Craig, an 85-year-old farmer.

Preacher killed wife, stuffed body in freezer, police say 07/31/2008 Anthony Hopkins, 37, was arrested Monday night at the Inspirational Tabernacle Church of God in Christ in Jackson, Alabama

Baptist Preacher Arrested For Wife's Murder 01/05/2014 Richard Shahan, of Homewood, Ala., was arrested on New Year's day

Preacher Arrested for Murdering Wife 09/21/2007

Youth pastor arrested for allegedly murdering family on Thanksgiving 11/24/2017

Reverend Amos Hicks, Moss Point Pastor Held In Capital Murder Case 12/01/2004
Reverend Amos Hicks v. State of Mississippi pleaded guilty after killing his wife Lena in 2006

Slain Houston Tx. priest's son, Isaac Tiharihondi, arrested in Mississippi, charged with murder 02/04/2015

Edgar Ray Killen, Preacher charged with 'Mississippi Burning' murders 01/08/2005

Tennessee preacher's wife gets 2 months in killing 06/08/2017 A Tennessee woman, Mary Winkler, convicted of killing her preacher-husband who she said beat her, forced her to watch pornography and wear “slutty” clothes was ordered to spend two months in a mental facility on Friday.

Eddie Mallonee, a Tennessee Preacher, accused of trying to kill wife with banned poison 07/17/2013

A grieving son finds no justice on Rev. Maury Davis' path to redemption 06/18/2009

Defendant's ex-girlfriend: Pastor murdered after prostitution deal 08/24/2016

The Latest: Church shooting suspect charged with murder 09/24/017

Court sides with Sheri Coleman family in lawsuit against ministry 08/14/2014

Joyce Meyer testifies in secret for Coleman murder trial 04/07/2011