Church Prayer Rug.

(Oklahoma): St Matthews Church’s, no date. First edition. Broadside. Double sided sheet of paper. One side bears a lavender image of an eyes-closed Jesus. Identified as a prayer rug, it asks the recipient to kneel on the paper, meditate on a blessing — and then notice whether Jesus’ eyes appear to have opened. (This seems less a matter of divine intervention than a skilfully rendered optical illusion.) And one is of course asked to send a donation to the (St Matthew’s) church. St. Matthew’s Churches were led by James Eugene Ewing, a one-time traveling preacher of the tent-revival variety, and alleged collaborator, of exposed televangelist fraud, Robert Tilton. Ewing has made millions off this and similar ‘Church by Mail’ scams, living a life of luxury with a fondness for fast cars in Beverly Hills, CA. Sheet measures. approx. 42cm by 27cm folded in quarter as issued. Accompanied by a smaller testimonial sheet.