What a month this has been! After someone tried to deposit one of our Million Dollar Bill tracts in North Carolina bank, Secret Service agents seized 8,300 of them from our sister ministry “The Great News Network” in Texas on the charge that they were "counterfeit" bills. The problem is--you can’t counterfeit something that doesn’t exist, and there is no such thing as a million dollar bill. Besides, you would think that having, “Department of Eternal Affairs,” “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “www.WayOfTheMasterRadio.com,” and “THIS NOTE IS NOT LEGAL TENDER,” on the front, along with a 170 word gospel message on the back would be a clue that this isn’t a government issued bill.
Darrel Rundus, the head of The Great News Network, was interviewed about the incident, and it suddenly became national news. This caused a run on the tract, and we went through 500,000 in one day. We immediately put in an order with our printer for a million and a half more, and we now have a partial print available. The Great News Network’s lawyers are taking the Secret Service to court to try and get the property back (the tracts were seized without a warrant). We will update you as this takes shape.
Meanwhile, a brother named Chris Bowen was giving out Million Dollar Bill tracts in Las Vegas from his wheelchair (he has Muscular Dystrophy). Suddenly he was approached by a Secret Service agent who threatened him with arrest for passing out counterfeit money, seized his tracts, and said “Living Waters is in big trouble.” Chris now has lawyers representing him for the infringement of his First Amendment rights.
We have been expecting a visit from the Secret Service since the first incident, but haven’t yet heard from them. If they do give us a “cease and desist” order, we will stop sales immediately. In case that happens, we have printed 100,000 of a special “Secret Service Version” (it says that in the seal), which complies with their specifications for those making copies of currency that actually exists—that is to say it is 1.5 times the size of a normal bill. (We have always followed this requirement when copying bills that actually exist. A good example of this is our Giant Money, which is an oversized copy of a $100 bill... or Big Money, which is an oversized copy of a $1000 bill.)
We hope that the Federal Government will be consistent in their desire to seek justice. They have a huge job ahead as a Google search on "million dollar bill" returns more than 38,000,000 results; including hundreds of for profit businesses producing genuine-looking million dollar bills. Since 2002, our ministry has produced more than 5,300,000 million dollar bill tracts--if the Secret Service intends to try to round those up, they are certainly going to have their hands full. Meanwhile, the country is at war, terrorism is a real threat, and our borders are busting. This cartoon published in the Dallas Morning News editorial sums up the fiasco.
