excerpted from the Gospel Grapevine column of Snake Oil # 2, early 1994:
STOP THE PRESSES...The following report ran Friday, November 5, 7:25 am on WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas: "Lawyers for TV evangelist Bob Tilton go to court this morning in Houston. Candice C***** of Houston claims Tilton raped her when she worked for him in 1982. She claims she never filed a complaint because Tilton paid her hush money for 11 years. Lawyers for ex-followers of Tilton want to talk to C*****. They believe she could help in their lawsuits against the minister." That same evening Channel 8 retracted the story saying, "We broadcast that report without first speaking to C***** or Tilton. Today spokesmen for C***** and Tilton deny the statements. The report was broadcast as a result of a mistake by Channel 8. Channel 8 retracts the report in its entirety, and we apologize to Candice C***** and Robert Tilton for our error." As this issue of Snake Oil goes to press, no other mention of the Tilton rape has appeared on TV or in print. Notice that Channel 8 never said that the report wasn't true, just that they shouldn't have broadcast it. Will Candice C***** become Robert Tilton's own Jessica Hahn? What other scandals are the TV stations and newspapers sitting on, waiting for the OK from their legal departments? The mind boggles. Now that Bob is off the air, a good scandal is the only way we can keep up with him...
In other Tilton news, Snake Oil readers were already aware of the marital problems in the Tilton household, but now it's official: Robert and Marte Tilton have filed for divorce, citing "conflict of personalities."...
ROBERT TILTON UNPLUGGED !
I'm angry and I'm confused. At 2:30 AM, Saturday, the 30th of October, 1993, the end credits rolled on the final broadcast of Robert Tilton's Success N Life . The 10-year series ended unspectacularly with a rerun from circa 1990, a good solid show, but not even one of the best. No special announcement was forthcoming, no reassurance that Bob someday would return. The credits faded and then...The Psychic Hotline. The news broke in late September that SNL would be discontinued, cancelled everywhere, even here in Bob's hometown of Dallas. The only explanation given by Bob's attorney, J.C. Joyce, was that the cancellation was due to attacks against the ministry in the media and in the courts. I have to admit that I never thought it would happen. But it's really over. And for what purpose? What purpose??? Is the world really a safer place now that Robert Tilton is off the air? Or will inferior, substandard seed faith evangelists like Wayne Parks simply move in and claim SNL's market share? I never thought I'd be nostalgic for the eighties. Bob, we're gonna miss ya. In light of Bob's untimely departure from the airwaves, the news I had planned to share with you partners this time seems very trivial, but I'll try to keep my chin up and carry on...
OUTTA THE PRAYER CLOSET One of the most frequent questions I'm asked in my capacity as president of The Robert Tilton Fan Club is, "Does Bob know about the Fan Club, and if so, what does he think?" Well, recently that question was answered. I've always maintained a policy of not harassing Pastor Tilton, his family, or his church members. The temptation to interfere -- ever so slightly -- grew too great to resist this past August when Brother Ben, Sister Wendy, and myself decided to join a few dozen Word of Faithers who were staging a protest outside the District Courthouse in downtown Dallas on behalf of their embattled pastor who at that time was still refusing to turn over private Church documents to the Court. Ben and I were there to tape the event for a Fan Club video we're working on. Sister Wendy, who is a huge Robert Tilton fan and a zealous Recreational Christian to boot, brought along her own sign proclaiming "Robert Tilton Turns Me On!" and attempted to join the protest march. Well, the Word of Faithers either didn't like her sign or thought that her halter top and hot pants were inappropriate. They broke her sign and gathered in a circle around her and began cursing her in "tongues." To make a long story short, the whole ugly mess ended up on the 6:00 news that night. A few days later a reporter from the Ft Worth Star Telegram caught up with Bob at court and asked him about his Fan Club. "They don't bother me. They seem harmless," Bob said, then added: "They are very unaware of the depth of their sacrilege."