{"id":2635,"date":"2011-10-31T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-31T15:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2011\/10\/former-ceo-accused-of-targeting-churchgoers.html"},"modified":"2011-10-31T15:21:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-31T15:21:00","slug":"former-ceo-accused-of-targeting-churchgoers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2011\/10\/former-ceo-accused-of-targeting-churchgoers.html","title":{"rendered":"Former CEO accused of targeting churchgoers"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div style=\"background-color: white;color: #333333;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14px;line-height: 1.5;margin-bottom: 1em;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px;text-align: left\">With confidence and zeal, Ephren Taylor riveted audiences at mostly black churches with a list of his impressive accomplishments and an uncanny business sense. He had the blessing of top clergy as he gave financial seminars from the pulpit on Sundays, promising rock-solid investments \u2014 only many of the churchgoers said they haven\u2019t seen a dime.<\/div>\n<div class=\"leftFloat\" id=\"cxLeftRail\" style=\"background-color: white;clear: both;color: #333333;float: left;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 13px;margin-bottom: 0px;margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 20px;margin-top: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px;text-align: left;width: 205px\">\n<div style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-top: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px\">\n<div class=\"cxElementGraphic\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-top: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"cxImageStoryLeft border666\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/multimedia\/dynamic\/01171\/GADG203_1171654l.jpg\" style=\"border-bottom-width: 0px;border-color: initial;border-left-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-top-width: 0px;width: 205px\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"imageCaption leftFloat\" style=\"float: left;font-size: 12px;margin-bottom: 10px;padding-bottom: 5px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 5px;width: 205px\">Lillian Wells, 60, faces foreclosure as she sits in her home Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 in Covington, Ga. Wells lost $122,000 in her life savings that was given to Ephren Taylor\u2019s company after hearing him speak at an Atlanta church. (AP Photo\/David Goldman)<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"cxElementCaption\" style=\"font-size: 12px;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-top: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-top: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px\">\n<div class=\"cxElementGraphic\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-top: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"cxImageStoryLeft border666\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/multimedia\/dynamic\/01171\/GADG201_1171513l.jpg\" style=\"border-bottom-width: 0px;border-color: initial;border-left-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-top-width: 0px;width: 205px\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"imageCaption leftFloat\" style=\"float: left;font-size: 12px;margin-bottom: 10px;padding-bottom: 5px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 5px;width: 205px\">Lillian Wells, 60, faces foreclosure as she sits in her home Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 in Covington, Ga. Wells lost $122,000 in her life savings that was given to Ephren Taylor\u2019s company after hearing him speak at an Atlanta church. (AP Photo\/David Goldman)<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"cxElementCaption\" style=\"font-size: 12px;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-top: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-top: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px\">\n<div class=\"cxElementGraphic\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0px;margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-top: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"cxImageStoryLeft border666\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/multimedia\/dynamic\/01171\/GADG205_1171655l.jpg\" style=\"border-bottom-width: 0px;border-color: initial;border-left-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-top-width: 0px;width: 205px\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"imageCaption leftFloat\" style=\"float: left;font-size: 12px;margin-bottom: 10px;padding-bottom: 5px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 5px;width: 205px\">Lillian Wells, 60, faces foreclosure as she stands in the dining room of her home Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 in Covington, Ga. Wells lost $122,000 in her life savings that was given to Ephren Taylor\u2019s company after hearing him speak at an Atlanta church. (AP Photo\/David Goldman)<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"cxElementCaption\" style=\"font-size: 12px;margin-bottom: 10px;margin-left: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-top: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: white;color: #333333;font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14px;line-height: 1.5;margin-bottom: 1em;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-top: 0px;text-align: left\">Read the rest <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ajc.com\/news\/nation-world\/former-ceo-accused-of-1213482.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With confidence and zeal, Ephren Taylor riveted audiences at mostly black churches with a list of his impressive accomplishments and an uncanny business sense. He had the blessing of top clergy as he gave financial seminars from the pulpit on Sundays, promising rock-solid investments \u2014 only many of the churchgoers said they haven\u2019t seen a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Former CEO accused of targeting churchgoers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With confidence and zeal, Ephren Taylor riveted audiences at mostly black churches with a list of his impressive accomplishments and an uncanny business\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2011\/10\/former-ceo-accused-of-targeting-churchgoers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former CEO accused of targeting churchgoers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With confidence and zeal, Ephren Taylor riveted audiences at mostly black churches with a list of his impressive accomplishments and an uncanny business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2011\/10\/former-ceo-accused-of-targeting-churchgoers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-31T15:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.ajc.com\/multimedia\/dynamic\/01171\/GADG203_1171654l.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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