DALLAS — Ole Anthony, 82, president of Dallas-based Trinity Foundation Inc., and activist who spent years investigating the lifestyles of rich and famous televangelists, has died.
Anthony served aa a key national expert, including in news stories on WFAA and ABC News, in investigations into questionable or fraudulent practices of televangelists such as Robert Tilton, Benny Hinn, and Jan and Paul Crouch.
Anthony was the founding elder of a small church in East Dallas that modeled itself on first-century Christianity in lifestyle and mission.
In the 1990s, the non-profit Trinity Foundation began the Dallas Project, accepting the homeless into the homes of church members. The church continues to provide low-cost housing for needy families in an East Dallas block where many in the congregation live.
After learning that some desperate viewers had been persuaded to give money to televangelists, Anthony and the Trinity Foundation began to look into the lifestyles and questionable behavior of Dallas-area pastors like Tilton and W. V. Grant. The Trinity Foundation eventually obtained a private investigator license and a reputation as a valued source for journalists.
“He put the fear of God in many televangelists,” recalled Anthony’s long-time private investigator Pete Evans. “At the same time, he set an example that a pastor can be the servant of the people rather than lording it over a congregation.”
“He lived what he preached,” Evans told WFAA. “He laid down his life for the community around him and was fearless in the way that he attacked hypocrisy.”
Anthony and the Trinity Foundation gained fame due to their investigation into Tilton’s direct mail operation, which was featured on ABC’s “Primetime Live” broadcast. During the investigation, Anthony visited a Tulsa, Oklahoma, direct mail firm that helped Tilton raise millions.
The Trinity Foundation claimed Tilton’s direct mail operation kept the checks from donors but threw their prayer requests in the trash — a claim the ministry disputed. Anthony also appeared on the program, lambasting Tilton as someone who misused religion for profit.
Anthony served as an advisor in the Senate Finance Committee’s review of televangelist abuses from 2007 to 2010.
His followers would climb through dumpsters, comb mountains of documents and interview whistleblowers in a focused crusade against what Anthony saw as religious fraud. For a time, the Trinity Foundation also published “The Wittenburg Door,” a satirical Christian magazine.
Evans told WFAA that the Trinity Foundation will continue Anthony’s work tracking the money spent on huge mansions and private fleet of jets owned and operated by various televangelists.
“We have probably the world’s biggest data base of televangelists’ jet registrations and their travels,” Evans said.
Anthony was diagnosed with cancer in 2017, and died Friday.
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