Scott
09-22-2007, 05:48 PM
ATLANTIS, Fla. (AP) ? The Rev. Rex Humbard, a former itinerant preacher whose televangelism ministry once reached more parts of the globe than any other religious program, died Friday a family spokeswoman said. He was 88. Humbard died of natural causes at a South Florida hospital near his Lantana home, family spokeswoman Kathy Scott said.
The son of evangelists, Humbard evolved his ministry from revivals across the country to a permanent home in Akron, Ohio, and television. He realized the potential of the new medium in the early 1950s and became known to millions by the 1970s. But financial overreaching eventually eroded his organization.
As with his contemporaries Billy Graham and Oral Roberts, Humbard's ministry began to flourish in the post-World War II era.
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His ministry suffered from internal disputes and extensive borrowing. In the 1970s, federal and state regulators complained that millions of dollars in notes that he had issued to followers over the years violated securities laws.
Read more here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7008423.stm)
Wonder if he'd have made it so big if his daddy had named him Elmo?
The son of evangelists, Humbard evolved his ministry from revivals across the country to a permanent home in Akron, Ohio, and television. He realized the potential of the new medium in the early 1950s and became known to millions by the 1970s. But financial overreaching eventually eroded his organization.
As with his contemporaries Billy Graham and Oral Roberts, Humbard's ministry began to flourish in the post-World War II era.
<snip>
His ministry suffered from internal disputes and extensive borrowing. In the 1970s, federal and state regulators complained that millions of dollars in notes that he had issued to followers over the years violated securities laws.
Read more here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7008423.stm)
Wonder if he'd have made it so big if his daddy had named him Elmo?