Peter Popoff
| Peter Popoff | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Peter George Popoff July 2, 1946 West Berlin, Germany |
| Residence | Bradbury, California |
| Occupation | Televangelist |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Popoff (1970–present) |
| Children | Amy Cardiff, Nickolas Popoff, Alex Popoff |
Peter Popoff (born July 2, 1946) is a German-born American televangelist, fraudulent faith healer, and self-proclaimed prophet. He initially rose to prominence in the 1980s, conducting revival meetings and hosting a nationally televised program, during which he performed seemingly miraculous cures on audience members. After an electronics expert demonstrated in 1986 that his "divine" revelations were being fed to him by his wife via a wireless radio transmitter, Popoff declared bankruptcy the following year. He has since resumed his faith healing sessions "in a manner identical to his method prior to his exposure as a fraud", despite being exposed once again in 2007.
Researcher and bioethics expert Fred M. Frohock cited Popoff as "one of many egregious instances of fake healing."Ole Anthony of the Trinity Foundation, which has investigated televangelists since 1987, said, "Most of these guys are fooled by their own theology", referring to other televangelists he considers scammers, including Joel Osteen and T. D. Jakes; but in the case of Popoff, "He's fundamentally evil, because he knows he's a con man."
Popoff was born in occupied Berlin (West Berlin) on July 2, 1946, to George and Gerda Popoff. As a child, Popoff emigrated with his family to the United States, where he attended Chaffey College and University of California, Santa Barbara.
Popoff married his wife Elizabeth in 1970 and the couple settled in Upland, California. He then began his television ministry that, by the early 1980s, was being broadcast nationally. His miraculous "curing" of chronic and incurable medical conditions became a central attraction of his sermons. Popoff would tell attendees suffering from a variety of illnesses to "break free of the devil" by throwing their prescription pills onto the stage. Many would obey, tossing away bottles of digitalis, nitroglycerine, and other important maintenance medications. Popoff would also "command" wheelchair-bound supplicants to "rise and break free". They would stand and walk without assistance, to the joyous cheers of the faithful. Critics later documented that the recipients of these dramatic "cures" were fully ambulatory people who had been seated in wheelchairs by Popoff's assistants prior to broadcasts.
...
Wikipedia