Secret Service Seizes Gospel Tracts

By Joseph Farah

If and when the Secret Service visits the offices of Living Waters Ministry in Southern California to seize more “counterfeiting evidence” in the form of gospel tracts designed as $1 million bills, agents better be armed with a warrant.

Ray Comfort, the world-renowned evangelist and head of the ministry, says he is not inclined to turn over any more copies of one of his most effective tools for witnessing just because some Treasury agents demand them.

Comfort was advised by his attorneys not to hand over the same gospel tracts seized Thursday June 1st during a Secret Service raid on Living Waters’ partner ministry in Denton, Texas. “The thinking is that if agents show a judge a copy of the $1 million tract, he will laugh ‘till he cries and then, after catching his breath, will thank the agents for a good laugh and then ask them to stop wasting his time” [and taxpayers real money], explained Comfort.

The controversy began Thursday, June 1st about 1 p.m. when Secret Service agents visited the Great News Network in Texas threatening to arrest Tim Crawford for hiding evidence in a counterfeiting investigation and then seizing 8,300 gospel tracts designed as ‘million-dollar bills.’

Three Secret Service agents asked Crawford if he was responsible for printing the bills (gospel tracts) that appear on one side to be a $1 million dollar bill and present the message of salvation through Jesus Christ on the opposite side.
Crawford suggested they talk to his boss, Darrel Rudus, the founder of the organization that trains evangelists from around the country in the techniques of witnessing their faith.

By telephone with the agents, Rudus offered his opinion that it was impossible to counterfeit something that wasn’t real – a $1 million bill. But the agents explained that someone in North Carolina had attempted to deposit one of the million-dollar bills in a bank account. The address of the Great News Network was on the back of the bill so that’s were the Secret Service went first.

Though Rudus’ group distributes thousands of the tracts, it did not originate them. They are the work of Comfort’s Living Waters Ministry, which distributes millions of them a year.

Before he got off the phone, Rudus was convinced the agents were going to drop their demand for the Great News Network’s tracts. But later, he reports, the agents again demanded them from Crawford, threatening him with arrest for “concealing evidence.” Rather than face arrest, Crawford turned over approximately 8,300 of the million-dollar tracts which he had in stock. The agents left a receipt and their business cards.

Comfort told WorldNetDaily (WND) he was stunned by the action of the Secret Service and expects agents to visit his offices as well. He said he has no plans to abandon the use of the tracts, which are among the most popular of the many his organization distributes. Living Waters is known for its television program, The Way of the Master, and an association with Christian actor Kirk Cameron. “I’m not going to stop printing them,” Comfort said. “How can you possibly counterfeit something that is not real – a $1 million bill?”

Comfort’s group is being represented by the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy (AFACLP) in the case. “I am more than a little amazed that the Secret Service has chosen to harass Ray Comfort because of his $1 million gospel tracts,” said Brian Fahling, senior trial attorney for AFACLP. “It is abundantly clear to anyone with a modicum of common sense that the bills are not made with an intent to defraud, but rather, they are distributed with the intent to reveal the Truth [of Jesus Christ]. No thinking person could believe the bills are real. If the Secret Service does not cease from this intrusion upon the free speech rights and free exercise rights of Ray Comfort and others, that agency will be explaining its outrageous conduct to a federal judge.”
On the back side of the tract it reads: “The million dollar question: Will you go to Heaven? Here’s a quick test. Have you ever told a lie, stolen anything or used God’s name in vain? Jesus said, ‘Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already with her in his heart.’ Have you looked with lust? Will you be guilty on Judgment Day? If you have done those things God sees you as a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer at heart. The Bible warns that if you are guilty you will end up in Hell. That’s not God’s will. He sent His Son to suffer and die on the cross for you. Jesus took your punishment upon Himself – ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ Then He rose from the dead and defeated death. Please, repent (turn from sin) today and trust in Jesus, and God will grant you everlasting life. Then read your Bible daily and obey it.”

The front of the tract is clearly marked with “This bill is not legal tender.” It also includes the message “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” the words “Department of Eternal Affairs” and a picture of President Grover Cleveland. The website address for the radio program of Comfort and Cameron, “The Way of the Master,” is also emblazoned on the bill.

“Apparently some cognitively challenged individual in North Carolina attempted to deposit one of the bills into their account, and the Secret Service decided that was enough for them to treat the bills as counterfeit,” said Fahling. “By that type of reasoning, if someone should attempt to deposit Monopoly money in a bank, the Secret Service could seize all the Monopoly money held by Americans. Surely the Secret Service has more important things to do.”

Rudus says he won’t be deterred from distributing the tracts in the future. “Show me the law we’re breaking,” he told WND. “How can you counterfeit bills that do not exist.” Rudus suspects the unknown individual in North Carolina didn’t actually try to deposit the tract into their bank account. “People drop these tracts for others to see and read,” he explained. “That’s the purpose of a Bible tract. I have no way of knowing, but if I were going to guess, I suspect this person just included the tract along with a deposit and someone got offended.”

Comfort said: “People love this gospel tract. It’s my personal favorite because it makes people laugh, and the reason they laugh is because they know that there’s no such thing as a million dollar bill. When it comes to producing counterfeit money, there must be an intent to defraud. This wasn’t produced with the intent to buy anything, or to get change.…It was produced as a gospel tract. That’s its sole intent. Besides, any bank teller or shop assistant who is duped into giving change on a million dollar bill shouldn’t be behind the counter.”

The above article is from the June 3, 2006 on line edition of WorldNetDaily.com.