Year In Review: Publicity Making Ministry's Million-Dollar 'Bills' A-'tract'-ive
December 27, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A California-based ministry has sold more than half a million gospel tracts designed to look like a million-dollar bill after federal agents seized thousands of the tracts. The ministry where the tracts were seized is now saying it may be filing a federal lawsuit over the visit from Secret Service agents concerned about counterfeiting.The "million-dollar" tract, published by Living Waters Ministry in Southern California, has been a successful evangelical tool for thousands of Christians and scores of ministries. But the Secret Service thought the gospel tracts being handed out by a Denton, Texas, ministry looked too much like real money, and recently seized 8,300 of the tracts. The federal agency took that step after someone in North Carolina reportedly tried to deposit one of the "bills" in a bank account. On that particular tract was the address for Great News Network.
Great News Network president Darrel Rundus takes exception to the Secret Service's premise. He points out that there is no such thing as a million-dollar bill, and something that does not exist cannot be counterfeited. And he has a theory about the supposed bank deposit. "Now all too often, Christians will make a deposit at a bank and will include a million-dollar bill [tract] -- not as a line item on their deposit, but just as a way to get the gospel tract in someone's hands," he explains to Associated Press.
The message on the back of the tract, says Rundus, may have offended someone. "They might be of a different persuasion or different faith; they might be an atheist -- and therefore they're offended at the fact that this Christian tried to 'push' the gospel on them, so to speak," he says.
Nevertheless, a Secret Service spokesman insists someone tried to deposit one of the tracts at a bank, and says close facsimiles of currency are illegal, although no charges were filed. Rundus, however, has a problem with the fact that three federal agents entered his ministry's office and demanded the tracts.
"They didn't have a warrant [and] they didn't have a court order to seize any property," he shares. "The Constitution says no one can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process, not to mention the fact that we're simply expressing our First Amendment free-speech right to these gospel messages."
Consequently the ministry leader says he plans to file a federal lawsuit this week. "We're not looking for any monetary compensation, but we have enlisted legal counsel to file the proper paperwork with the federal judges to get the U.S. Secret Service off our trails, so to speak," he says.
Rundus figures the publicity from the incident will spread the gospel more than the seized tracts. "What the enemy may intend for evil, God will turn to the good -- and all things work to the good for those love Him and are called according to His purpose," he says. "So we felt like this was going to be a good thing, and $415 worth of gospel tracts would be worth the millions of dollars worth of publicity."
Publicity Sparks Demand
Indeed, the ministry that printed the tracts can attest to the increased popularity of the million-dollar tract. Ray Comfort, president of Living Waters Ministry, says demand for the tracts has soared. "The Secret Service have done us a great service," said during an interview this week. "Our staff were just about lying on the carpet, they've been so busy all day."
Comfort says a new supply of million-dollar tracts will be printed, but with a few modifications. "We need to get a reprint, but we don't want to go ahead and get the same thing again in case they do a cease and desist," he explains.
"So we're producing what we're calling the 'Secret Service' version, which is a million-dollar bill which is to the requirements of the Secret Service." That means it is one-and-a-half times the size of a normal currency bill. "We've got better graphics [on this version], it's bigger and better, and we're ordering 100,000. We should have them in a week or so," says the ministry head.
As to the alleged charge of counterfeiting, Comfort is curious why his ministry's tract has been singled out. "If you type in 'million-dollar bill' on Google, you'll get something like 38 million results," he says. "So there's a lot of people out there selling million-dollar bills, from Toys 'r' Us" to Walgreens -- all sorts."
Meantime, he says he will file a lawsuit against the government over the issue. "Our lawyers are suing the Secret Service, by the way -- not for monetary gain, but just out of principle -- because it is an infringement of First Amendment rights," he explains.
Comfort is represented by the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy. More than five million of the tracts have been sold since 2002.
