Religious tracts look like a million dollars, say feds
When does an evangelistic tract become contraband?
A Denton, Texas-based evangelistic ministry and the U.S. Secret Service are locked in a legal dispute over that question after agents seized dozens of packs of tracts resembling $1 million bills.
In the past three years, the Great News Network has distributed tens of thousands of the tracts, which feature “1,000,000,” a picture of President Grover Cleveland and, in small type, the words “This is Not Legal Tender” and “Department of Eternal Affairs.”
On the back, wording around the edge of the tract begins: “The million-dollar question: Will you go to heaven?” The tracts are the same size as a standard dollar bill.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis of Dallas denied the network’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have affirmed that the tracts do not violate U.S. counterfeiting laws.
The tracts came to the Secret Service’s attention after a North Carolina resident tried to deposit one in a personal bank account. Agents confiscated the tracts from the ministry on June 2.
“Overall, the bill appears very similar to actual currency,” Solis concluded. “In essence, the bill could be characterized as a modified reproduction of actual currency.”
The lawyer representing the ministry said he was “very disappointed” with the judge’s ruling and plans to appeal.
“It’s like (they think) the reasonable American is an idiot,” said Brian Fahling, the senior trial attorney with the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy. “What about the 5 (million) or 6 million who haven’t gone running to their banks?”
He estimated that millions of the tracts have been distributed by Great News Network and others who have ordered them from Living Waters Publications, based in Bellflower, Calif. Fahling said the tracts have a number of “disqualifying marks,” and Cleveland does not appear on U.S. bills currently in use.
“There’s never been a $1 million bill, and I trust there never will be,” he added.