Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption was a legally recognized church in the United States established by the comedian and satirist John Oliver (pictured). Announced on August 16, 2015, in an episode of the television program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the church's purpose was to highlight and criticize televangelists, such as Kenneth Copeland and Robert Tilton, who Oliver argued used television broadcasts of Christian church services for private gain. Oliver also established Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption to draw attention to the tax-exempt status given to churches. During his show on September 13, 2015, Oliver announced that the church had received "thousands of dollars" and a variety of other items from viewers, and stated that the Church would be shutting down. All monetary donations were given to Doctors Without Borders. Oliver set up spinoffs of the Church in 2018 and 2021. The segments and later spinoff segments featured the comedian Rachel Dratch as Oliver's fictional wife, Wanda Jo.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Perpetual_Exemption

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1848:

The Benty Grange helmet, a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet similar to those mentioned in the contemporary epic poem Beowulf, was discovered in Derbyshire, England. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benty_Grange_helmet

1939:

Subhas Chandra Bose formed the All India Forward Bloc, a faction within the Indian National Congress, in opposition to Gandhi's tactics of nonviolence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Forward_Bloc

1999:

A Doppler on Wheels team measured the fastest winds recorded on Earth, at 301 ± 20 mph (484 ± 32 km/h), in a tornado near Bridge Creek, Oklahoma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Bridge_Creek%E2%80%93Moore_tornado

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

pen picture: 1. A written description, often biographical. 2. (art, archaic) A picture drawn with a pen. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pen_picture

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

To be my royal bodyguard, go youStraightway into the leafy places, whereGreenwoods have grown in nature's way and notFrom a man's sowing.   --Gnaeus Naevius https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gnaeus_Naevius