Recipients Of The Jesus Rug Warned To Keep Eyes Open
By JOANN KLIMKIEWICZ
Courant Staff Writer
May 9 2006

The envelope comes addressed "To a Friend" and with the promise that "the letter you write today could change your tomorrow."

And it could soon make its way to a mailbox near you.Inside the envelope, said to be from St. Matthew's Churches in Oklahoma, is an oversized sheet of paper bearing a lavender image of an eyes-closed Jesus.

Identified as a prayer rug, it asks the recipient to kneel on the paper, meditate on a blessing - and then notice whether Jesus' eyes appear to have opened. (This seems less a matter of divine intervention than a skillfully rendered optical illusion.)

Still, the mailing seems harmless. No blatant pleas for money. It asks only that recipients return the rugs with their names, addresses and prayer requests so the church can pass the rug's good fortune on to the next needy soul.Not so fast, cautions Ole Anthony, founder of the Trinity Foundation, a Dallas nonprofit watchdog working to expose religious scams. The rest