Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption

On August 16, 2015, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver broadcast a segment about televangelism, the practice of using television broadcasts for Christian church services. In the segment, Oliver criticized televangelists like Kenneth Copeland and Robert Tilton for using donations from their programs to pay for private luxuries and pointed out that such donations were tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) regulations. The host opined that part of this was due to the IRS's lax requirements; he pointed out that only three churches were audited in 2013 and 2014. During the satirical infomercial segment of the episode, the comedian Rachel Dratch appeared as John Oliver's fictional wife Wanda Jo Oliver; she later reprised the role in episodes featuring spinoffs of the church and in Last Week Tonight 2019 segment about psychics. The "megachurch" used a toll-free phone number to permit callers to donate to the church, and said that all monetary donations would be redistributed to the charitable relief organization Doctors Without Borders upon the church's dissolution. Oliver criticized the practices used by televangelists for donations, which included promising that donations and prayer would cure sickness or that donations would get rid of credit card debt. Oliver criticized pastors such as Tilton, Copeland and his wife Gloria, Creflo Dollar, and others for using the IRS's religious tax breaks for personal luxuries. == Response and dissolution ==

Oliver later announced that in response to the episode, viewers of Last Week Tonight had sent in "thousands of dollars", international currency, a check for $65billion, and different packages of seeds, including semen (in reference to the "seed faith" gospel the show was parodying). Callers to the toll-free number heard a pre-recorded message from Oliver demanding donations. A week after the announcement of the church's creation, Oliver devoted a short segment of his show to the donations the church had received, which included money from around the world. Oliver said he had received "thousands of envelopes with thousands of dollars" from donors, displaying several US Post Office containers full of mail. Oliver told viewers that the more money they sent in, the more "blessings" would be returned to them, adding that "that is still something I'm—amazingly—legally allowed to say". A message on the church's website stated: "We're also not closing down because you all kept sending us actual seeds, even though we explicitly told you not to. We're closing because multiple people sent us sperm through the mail." Upon the church's dissolution, Oliver announced that the tens of thousands of dollars received would be donated to Doctors Without Borders and mockingly said that "if you want to send money to a fake church, send it to Scientology". == Reception ==

Matt Wilstein, writing in Mediaite, compared Oliver's stunt to the comedian Stephen Colbert's "Colbert Super PAC", which Colbert used to test the limits of the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC. Many reviewers agreed with Oliver's characterization of televangelists as "frauds". Some reviewers found that Oliver's criticism of the IRS was incomplete and useless; others criticized Oliver's failure to discuss the long history of tax-exempt status for churches. The IRS and the televangelists discussed in the segment did not publicly comment. == Spinoffs ==

On April 8, 2018, Last Week Tonight broadcast a segment about crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which dissuade pregnant women from getting abortions, often through misinformation. Oliver highlighted an image of a van that would park outside centers to advertise free ultrasounds. Oliver announced the van at the end of the segment on CPCs with Rachel Dratch as Wanda Jo, who made multiple incorrect medical claims to point out the right CPC workers have to misinform patients. Oliver finished the segment by saying: "This is all perfectly legal and there is absolutely nothing stopping us from parking outside an abortion clinic tonight and haranguing people in the morning." Pro-life organizations and CPC operators criticized the segment for presenting a "one-sided" argument, with one CPC founder calling it a "hate piece". On June 27, 2021, Last Week Tonight broadcast a segment about health care sharing ministries (HCSMs), which are religion-based organizations where members' premiums directly pay the healthcare costs of other members, exempt from tax. Oliver discussed the lack of regulation on HCSMs, allowing the organizations to deny coverage for anything, and advocated for states to pass laws mandating that HCSMs disclose their practices and properly allocate funds. In 2018, Florida eased restrictions on HCSMs, changing the criteria from mandating that an HCSM have people of the same religion to having people who "share a common set of ethical or religious beliefs". Oliver announced the new organization in an informercial at the end of the Last Week Tonight segment about HCSMs, bringing back Rachel Dratch as Wanda Jo. Oliver stated that 5,000 Florida residents could sign up for a $1.99 fee and receive a JohnnyCare-branded set of bandages in return. ==See also==