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Ole Edward Anthony (October 3, 1938April 16, 2021) was an American minister, religious investigator and satirist. Anthony was the editor of '' The Wittenburg Door'', a magazine of Christian satire. He was head of the Trinity Foundation, and in that capacity was involved in investigating the financial activities and alleged misappropriations of
televangelist Televangelism ( tele- "distance" and "evangelism," meaning " ministry," sometimes called teleministry) is the use of media, specifically radio and television, to communicate Christianity. Televangelists are ministers, whether official or self-pr ...
s. Anthony was born on October 3, 1938, in St. Peter, Minnesota. He was reared in the
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
faith. He served in the
U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...
from 1956 until December 1959, as a "special weapons maintenance technician" and had top-secret clearance, receiving the Good Conduct Medal and two "outstanding unit" awards. Anthony's investigative work into the fundraising tactics of big-money televangelists first came to national attention in 1991 following a '' Primetime Live'' hidden-camera investigation of televangelists. Anthony portrayed himself—a Dallas minister of a small church trying to learn how big-money ministries work—in the segment on fellow East Dallas minister
Robert Tilton Robert Gibson Tilton (born June 7, 1946) is an American televangelist and the former pastor of the Word of Faith Family Church in Farmers Branch, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. At his ministry's peak in 1991, Tilton's infomercial-style program, ''Su ...
. Anthony and the Trinity Foundation were instrumental in providing evidence for the many state and Federal investigations of Tilton in the years that followed, and he was often interviewed by reporters in preparations for stories on other televangelists. He was also the subject of a lengthy profile in the December 6, 2004, issue of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''. He was a close friend of writer and comedian
Joe Bob Briggs John Irving Bloom (born January 27, 1953), known by the stage name Joe Bob Briggs, is an American syndicated film critic, writer, actor, and comic performer. He is known for having hosted ''Joe Bob's Drive-in Theater'' on The Movie Channel fr ...
, who is also a member of the Trinity Foundation. Former members of the group have been critical of the foundation and Anthony. The Trinity Foundation's web site announced that Ole Anthony died on April 16, 2021, after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017.


References


External links


Interview on Scarborough Country

Video interview regarding Anthony's crusade to hold big-money Christian ministries accountable.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anthony, Ole 1938 births 2021 deaths Christians from Minnesota Military personnel from Minnesota 20th-century American journalists American male journalists Former Lutherans