I wanted to share my experience as an employee of Reverend Ike, in the main office in Boston, Massachusetts. Rev. Ike was/is a popular African American minister in the 1960s who popularized his love of money and the “money tie”.

I looked on this forum to share info, but I don’t find anything at all about Reverend Ike! I think I know why. His church members are largely older African Americans and members of the Caribbean community, and as such are less likely to have access to computers, and are usually ashamed or feel guilty for having fallen for the tricks of the Rev, and are unlikely to share their experiences with their children, or family members. In fact, I specifically remember that the Rev encouraged his followers to keep this a secret from family members, if they wanted their wishes to be fulfilled. When I questioned a senior co-worker, she told me that keeping it a secret from family members meant that the followers would not talk about it to family members, and that those family members, if they knew what their parents or relatives were doing, would scold them, and would call the office to complain.

The sad part is that the Rev Ike must be doing very well, because there is absolutely no mention of him on this site. The fact that the most vulnerable—the aged—who are also socially and technologically isolated—have been and continue to be targeted by this man and his family is very sad indeed. It was very clear to me that they knew this was a money-making scam, and it continues to this day. (See web site below.)

If my experience can help anyone who has been a victim of Rev Ike, or prevent someone from becoming a victim, then I feel I will have helped someone. I share this because I witnessed, first-hand, the deceit, lies, and dirty tricks this guy played on his innocent victims.

When I started working for Reverend Ike in 1999 or 2000, I had never heard of him. It turns out, when I got to the interview, that he had once been a popular African American minister. His fame had peaked in the 1960 and 1970s. He now owns several homes in Florida, California, and in one of New York’s most affluent communities, and a church in New York. The office he owns in Boston, the main office, is within feet of Boston University, and as such, is worth a lot of money. Today however, Rev Ike and his family (his son is also a “minister”) continue to manipulate the young and old alike, with a very large mailing list.

The born-again, fundamentalist black minister has been the target of several IRS investigations. While his mailing s are not exactly fine art mailings, Rev Ike has learned how to manipulate thousands of his followers with unsophisticated and superstitious mailings that brings in millions per year. The “cool” minister of the 1960, not only brought people to his church, it quickly brought dollars into his wallet, (You can and should check out the “Reverend Ike’s Miracle Money Book: link. [store.revike.org]) popularizing the “money tie”.

Given the vernacular of the book titles on his website (http://www.revike.org/) it is clear that he has reached out to members of the new age movement. Consider the way he made that money, however, and there is little doubt that this is a con man running a scam. It is apparent that Rev Ike has always had the gift of gab, you’ve got to give him that, and he has turned those jingles into millions.

Check out these links, and pay particular attention to the language of money, and control in the CATEGORY section where he sells books, CDs, Tapes, etc. He is even offering an “Enemy Fixer” I can only imagine a small IRS wax doll, sort of like the Voodoo dolls that people stick pins in. I’ve listed just a couple of the book titles and videos he is selling but you do have to go to this site to see the madness therein. I am also sure that he or some temp agency (I was hired through a popular temp agency) staff is writing those books for them, or that they are all of his writing. Notice how the books don’t have any authors associated with them!

ENEMY FIXER: How many enemy franchises have you personally licensed this week? How much have these enemy franchises cost you?

Your Price $9.95

(Here he hints that his followers have “enemies” and for 10$ he will tell you how to “fix them”!)

Just look at these other equally terrifying titles, and remember, this is a guy who claims to be a Christian, and who has a non-profit church status, it means he is raking in the millions while selling this drivel, and he doesn’t pay any taxes!

God’s Private Phone Number (Imagine that!!)

Unfortunately, I guess they have a new graphic designer who can’t spell, because it says LOOSE your money. An obvious manipulation, of some kind, but if you don’t believe me, read on.

How to Loose Your Money (Can you imagine someone would order that???)

God’s Triple Winning Combination

This title is obvious:

How to Make People LOVE To Do Exactly WHAT you Want!

This next title claims you can control everyone and everything—if you are willing to PAY for the “secret”!
I Meet No One But Me
Learn the secret to instantly controlling every person and situation in you life.
Your Price $9.95

At the main office, in Boston, we were told never to disclose the office location. Cameras were installed in the lobby, so we could see who was at the door and selectively buzz-in those people we wanted to. We were just seconds away from Boston University, so we were not in a dangerous neighborhood. At first, I didn’t understand why they had taken all these precautions, then slowly, bit by bit, my co-workers shared there stories. They were eager to talk about the horrors they too had experienced.

I learned, for example, that the reason for the cameras and the fact that there was no listing in directories for the “church” was for security reasons. Duh. People were angry. What people? The family members of the people who had been duped into surrendering their life savings. The man who found out his mother had been conned into sending the Rev her last 80$, instead of buying food. I was told that the “church” received threats on a consistent basis—from those angry people; and that people often put dirty, used condoms in the mail: so that’s why Dolores was wearing those plastic gloves when she opened the mail! I just thought she has OCD!

“Flush the toilet three times and repeat…and send your check of at least $40.00 before 12 midnight Friday night or else you will ____.” This was one of the mailings I worked on. I had been hired as a graphic designer: I was polishing the Rev’s lies, cementing the Rev’s threats: surely, if there was a hell, I was going to it with the rest of them!

At first I think I was in shock, more like PTSD. No, I told myself, I don’t write the body copy; I'm not even coming up with the design—they’ve had this planned for years, I’m just the guy who puts it all together in Quark. I’m not responsible for this. But after a while, those defense mechanisms stopped working. I had to face the music!

While it was true that Rev Ike and his minions did that, I did have a hand in this. In the case with the threat above, the “Flush the toilet three times” mailing (I called it the toilet mailing) all I did was punch in a word, apply a boldface style to it, color it and that was that.

But I want you to think carefully, now, about just what it was that Rev Ike and his minions had crafted. It was diabolical! It was the worst of worsts! What I was doing by placing that word there was giving the impression that there was another word under the word I had placed there. It was a veiled threat! The “or else” preceding the boldfaced type means that the only word we could be covering up would be “die”, or some other threat—the outcome a negative one, and as such, Rev Ike was playing with people’s emotions, superstitions, even their religious beliefs. I am not a psychologist, but I can see the serious implications. I cannot imagine the god of the Christians would be pleased with the fact that Rev Ike was rolling this dark Trojan Horse onto his stage.

Clearly, Rev Ike knew what he was doing, frightening a superstitious follower. He was directly using the Caribbean-based superstitions of his followers against them! The sad thing is that the fear tactics worked, and those poor souls sent their money in!

At the time I had been hired, I was a Buddhist, and it didn’t take long to start seeing just who Ike and his “church” were all about. I tried to get more information, but I had to be careful, after all, I didn’t know who I could trust. I had also been told that so and so “believed” and knowing that some of those workers were under the sway of this guy worried me, but I soon learned that this was just a show, and that one woman, in particular, was just pretending to be a believer: her only belief was in trying to get as much of the Rev’s money as she could, even if it meant putting on an act for the rest of the office.

But as the days went by I started wondering what would happen to me for working for such a company. I soon realized I would have to double up my mantra recitation to counter the negativity I was obviously involved in! I dispatched an urgent email to one of my Tibetan teachers in India: What do I do? I decided to stay: I had lots of excuses, both real and imagined: I needed the money, it wasn’t so bad. But I was increasingly more frustrated. When I talked to others about my feelings, somehow my comments got to the Rev. Suddenly, the Rev’s wife made an unannounced visit.

By the time the Mrs. had left, my ears were buzzing with stories about IRS investigations, and a gay lover. I knew the Rev had a gay male lover, because I had the chance of speaking to him one day. I soon found out a lot of things about Rev. Ike. There are things on the internet, but Rev Ike has some very powerful attorneys working for him. Here is one related story (http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-2376770.html) (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n25_v88/ai_17501628) The second link seems more complete. Why this was not featured in the Los Angeles Sentinel, is beyond me. For some reason, the articles about Rev Ike are difficult to find, but once you start digging. (I must add that I never heard about this case until today, when I Googled Rev Ike!)

Consider the toilet flushing mailing, and just what is at the heart of that. At first it just funny, but then it was downright bizarre, and then just disgusting. This is how that mailing worked. First, the letter was sent out and inside was a tiny little sachet with powder. I think it was talcum powder. The person was then told to “flush it down the toilet while chanting Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves Me“, or something equally preposterous, three times. AND, at the same line, they were urged to “mail in your check of at least $40.00 before tomorrow night at 10 p.m., or else you will _____. ” In another campaign they used dried flower petals; there was some reference to the Rose of Sharon.

In another mailing, Rev. Ike had purchased hundreds of thousands of fortune cookies. Rev Ike also wrote his own gospel verses! He really did, he would write stuff, as though it was from the bible, but when I cross-referenced them one day, acting on a hunch, I realized they were not from the bible—he had written them! He would quote a scripture but he had totally reinterpreted it—it wasn’t even close!

For this particular mailing, Reverend Ike had hired intellectually handicapped individuals and kept them in a separate part of the main building, and I mean apart from other workers. And I say that because I never noticed them until one day, when I was shown how they were preparing this mailing. It was freaky. I had worked in mental health for ten years, but the workshops I saw were specifically run for the patient’s benefit, but here they were working for the Rev. which is a non-profit organization.

I was told it was a positive experience for them, but it was unlike any workshop I had ever seen. And the fact that they were in the basement (or in some out of the way place, away from the main offices) made it seem stranger. Who had “loaned” these patients to the Rev for this work? Did they not know who this man was and that he was making millions every year, milking senior citizens out of their savings and retirement money? Obviously not.

I should say, to be fair, that they—the clients, had their own workshop leader, but I still feel something wasn’t quite kosher. Wasn’t it a conflict of interest? A senior member later confided to me that some of the people who worked with us “believed”. “Be careful who you talk to,” I was warned.

The clients (I am trying to be politically correct here, but the terms change all the time) would then take those little pieces of paper (which I helped design, but not write, o mea culpa!!) and then they would stick them inside a clear plastic packet along with the fortune cookie, and then they would smash the little cookies to bits! They did this because we had to get the little verses into the packet, and so that we could stuff the fortune cookies in the Number 10 mailing envelopes.

If this is sounding like fiction, it is not! In another mailing, we sent out winning scratch tickets—yes, just like lottery tickets!—in which everyone won. Of course it was not a cash prize. It was a spiritual prize, some witty saying of the Rev’s, or something of the sort. Of course Ike managed to pull in millions with that campaign, for himself. This was the lottery drawing in which only Rev Ike won!—and in which everyone else lost! Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa!

A couple months went by and another of Rev Ike’s senior assistants (and let me tell you, I wish I could tell you the story about that one!) dropped by for a “surprise visit”. She made it very clear that she didn’t like the fact that I was a Buddhist. She had obviously had a meeting with the “believers” and I am sure she knew just how funny I thought her boss was! I had even cut out a picture of him, in which he was wearing a fur shawl around his shoulders, and had used it as the star on the Christmas tree in the lobby. Little did I imagine that some people really thought this guy was for real.

A day after the woman returned to Rev Ike’s side with her follow-up report, no doubt, the Boston office manager called us all into the meeting room and announced that he had been told “by the goose that lays the golden eggs”—as Rev. Ike had identified himself—to fire me. “Why?” I asked, in shock. “Rev Ike didn’t give any reason. He just told me that he was the boss and he wanted me to fire you.”

There had been a couple interactions during the woman’s visit, and I knew that this was about my being a Buddhist. I had been scolded for meditating in my personal office, during my lunch break; and a particular stack of Buddhist magazines had come to mind, as well as a candle and a plant, in my office. Thank goodness I didn’t have a Buddha statue in there, I might have been roasted me on wooden staves!

A month later, I filed a religious discrimination suit with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. A month after a deposition, and a meeting with Rev Ike’s attorney, they settled out of court.

If anyone has been impacted by the schemes of the Rev or his son, who is also a “minister” feel free to share your story. My lawyer had been so fascinated by Ike’s machinations, that he signed up for the Rev’s newsletters, which you to can do, on his website. But please don’t send him any money!



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2008 02:42PM by Rangdrol.

Rangdrol,

Wow! You actually worked for that cat? I wasn't aware he was still alive! My dad (long dead now) talked about seeing Rev. Ike get out of a rolls-royce or some car and always assumed he was a scam and rip-off artist because of that.

Hi Sparky,

Yeah, the office is still in Boston, as far as I know. Did you check the links out in my forum, the things he says, gosh, it's so sad, really. But you know many a major religion tells there people the same ridiculous things, like the Catholic church, in which I was raised. Scary. Where may I ask are you from? Cause the Rev hung out in New York, and also in Florida. Maybe even California. His son is now in the ministry. Also, if you check my link, just a couple years before I worked there, he was being sued for sexual harassment of guy who had worked for him! I am gay so I am not dissin' the guy, I knew he was gay cause it was a joke in the office, and I talked to his bf one day. The guy was suing him for 100 million$

I just wonder how many poor people he scammed, that has got to be the worst!