James Eugene Ewing

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James Eugene Ewing is the founder and manager of a mail-correspondence organization that has often been criticized and alleged as a scam that preys on low income and senior citizens. Under the name of "Rev. Ewing," Ewing's business has sent millions of copies of religious letters to individuals across the United States, offering prayer and requesting "donations" from their correspondents.

Ewing's organization has sent its mailings under a number of different names, including "St. Matthews' Churches," "Church and Bible Study in the Home by Mail," "Church By Mail," and "Bible Harvest Prosperity Plan." The return address of these mailing is always a P.O. box (currently located in Tulsa, Oklahoma). The content of the letters is designed to appeal to the faith and belief of the recipient, stating that the ministry or church will pray for the individual if he or she sends a donation. Ewing's organization often offers inexpensive "anointing oils" and "prayer rugs" through the mailings, as an enticement for monetary donations.

Critics of Ewing's mail-correspondence organization (including the National Better Business Bureau) have claimed that these mailings are tailored to appeal to senior citizens, low-income families, mentally handicapped persons, and even homeless persons -- people who are often especially susceptible to pleas for mercy and compassion. The letters themselves are printed in combinations of typewritten script and "handwritten" messages, in order to appear as though they have been especially written to the person who receives the letter.

In 2003, Ewing's organization was sending out an estimated 1 million letters per month. The earnings from this mail correspondence has brought revenue to his business ranging in the millions. Ewing's mail "ministry" is officially registered as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt church.

Ewing's organization has also provided advice and assistance for mass-mailing campaigns to several televangelists, including Peter Popoff and Robert Tilton. According to an October 1993 memorandum from to Ewing to his lawyer, J.C. Joyce, Ewing used a computer demographics program that identifies and isolates some of America's poorest sub-ZIP codes to identify targets for Ewing's clients--Tilton among them--to send mailings soliciting for new seed-faith "vows". The memo noted, among other details, that "[t]he size of each special area is about two to four city blocks[...][a]nd thank God there are tens of thousands of them across the nation."[1]