Dear Doves,
Please pray that the devil's attempts to disrupt this ministry are not successful. In Jesus' name. Amen
MK--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 47 Issue: 4 - Thursday, August 04, 2005--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Member's Report: Combat Situation Report
Last year in August, I reported to you the following: "We must be doing something right, because we are encountering stiff enemy resistance on almost all fronts."
The report was issued shortly after changes to Canadian hate speech made it necessary for me to pack up and leave Canada for the free speech protection of the United States. As I noted then, it isn't a case in which I feel I, or the Omega Letter, are being persecuted.
Persecution is what happens to civilians. The Omega Letter is a combat vehicle -- what we were going through back then was most accurately termed an enemy counteroffensive.
Back then, we had problems with certain ISP's refusing to deliver the Omega Letter, or automatically classifying it as spam. (America Online STILL regularly shifts the OL to its spam box, or, depending on content, rejects it altogether.)
We had similar problems with other ISPs, like EarthLink (owned by the Church of Scientology), and a number of smaller ISPs with whom Mike has done battle over the years. We're getting better at fighting it, but it remains a constant battle.
You'd think that the Omega Letter was hard-core porn, if it weren't for the fact hard-core porn seems to sail right through most ISP spam filters. Obscenity-laced offers from sickos wanting to entice me to visit their webcams show up in my email box a half-dozen times a day.
I have filters on my email client, Mike has installed porn and spam filters on our email server, but still, spam and porn manage to get through.
And we still get at least a half dozen complaints a week from subscribers who didn't receive their Omega Letter. In every case, it is the subscribers' ISP who is blocking us because of 'offensive content'.
We have been getting a lot of unfavorable attention from former members who seem to delight in reposting some of our member's-only comments on other message boards. By and large, the point seems to be that we are 'intolerant' of certain topics and should be shunned.
The recent series of arguments in the forums appears to be at the heart of our latest series of attacks. Apart from holding up the Omega Letter to ridicule for refusing to compromise our doctrine, I've been taking quite a personal beating via email as well.
One former member, infuriated with me for not permitting another round of Rapture arguments, emailed me to demand a refund of their subscription payments, plus a refund of a donation they had sent on behalf of Wylie's family. According to the email, I was not just a liar, but a thief who was scamming the members and stealing money from widows and orphans.
Last year in August, I also reported to you that we were under financial attack as well. Our main merchant service provider, 2Checkout.com, sent us an email saying the following:
"Due to the recent changes in our “Prohibited Products Listing" following risk utilization analysis it has been determined that we can no longer support donation payments. As the reseller we will support only those sites that offer a service or product. Donations will no longer be permitted.
This e-mail serves as your 2-week notice that we will no longer be accepting donations through your 2Checkout account.
Be advised that you should remove any donation payment links for 2Checkout, and that after this two-week period any donation payments for this account will be canceled.
Regards, 2checkout.com, Inc."
To that point, we had been doing business with 2Checkout for more than two years, and I was curious as to why we were being singled out when the 2Check admin page offered code snippets under the following ad copy: "Want to accept donations for your site? Click here to grab code snippets to add to your site."
In any case, we removed any donation links from the 2Checkout.com - and since half our members pay their subscriptions via 2Checkout, our donations plummeted -- as would be expected -- and has never fully recovered.
We took another hit from 2Checkout again yesterday, coincidentally coming only a couple weeks after the former OL member accused me of stealing from widows. (For the record, Renea has a full accounting of every penny sent her family (thanks to Gayle) and the OL even absorbed the service charges so Renea got the full amount donated.)
And, since 2Check refuses to process donations, the only donations that came in for the Porterfields came via PayPal or check. (Those who used 2Checkout donated by purchasing a gift subscription for Wylie, which was perfectly within 2Checkout's terms of service.)
There is no place on our website where a subscriber can link to 2Checkout and process anything other than a subscription, either annually, or monthly. But I got the following email YESTERDAY from 2Checkout.
"Dear Omega Letter, You were previously advised we do not accept donations, you agreed to no longer have this option on your site after 2004-08-19. I see that you have continued to accept donations. Due to knowingly violating the TOS, sales have been suspended and the account is scheduled for closure on 8-17."
I went to the 2Checkout vendor's site and found that every subscription or payment to 2Checkout since August 1 was refused. Our account balance as of this morning was zero.
So, while they have scheduled our vendor account to be 'closed' on August 17, they have ALREADY closed it, effective August 1st, two days BEFORE they notified us.
To date, they have refused to reply to our queries or to tell us where or how we violated their terms of service.
2Checkout has always taken a hard line where the Omega Letter is concerned. But canceling our account FIRST without prior notice and, to this point, still without explanation, is nothing short of hostile.
Over the years, 2Checkout has collected thousands of dollars in credit card fees from us -- the majority of which come from donations. Suddenly, out of the blue, they claim they have simply decided to cut that revenue stream from their business portfolio. Doesn't make sense, does it?
You know what is contained in the Omega Letter. So you have a pretty good idea, as do we, what got the Omega Letter moved to the 'prohibited products list'.
It has been clear from the start that the Omega Letter has been a prime enemy target. We've documented various egregious attacks over the years, but not all of them. (We'd sound like paranoid looneys if we did)
Understand me, here. These attacks are not against us personally -- they are against the Omega Letter. The enemy doesn't seem to like it, and does everything he can to keep us under wraps.
ISP's won't deliver the Omega Letter. We have been inundated with members who seem dedicated to disrupting our forums and taking over our forums as a vehicle to advertise other websites whose doctrine is more to their liking. Our comments and statements are being held up for ridicule at other membership board websites.
And now our ability to conduct commerce on the Internet is suddenly being curtailed -- for no apparent reason.
Last year, after we complied with all of 2Checkout's conditions, they reinstated our merchant account, and, given the expenses involved in setting up a new merchant service provider and converting our subscribers to it, we decided that half a loaf is better than none and continued doing business through 2Checkout.
Now, we are flummoxed. Our only other source for ecommerce is PayPal. Fortunately, PayPal has improved considerably over the past year. One no longer has to have their own PayPal account in order to use the service. PayPal doesn't place donation restrictions on us.
(2Checkout has yet to explain why THEY did -- or why they have canceled us despite our compliance.)
PayPal also processes electronic checks for those who don't want to use credit cards, processes debit card sales, and has also introduced a 'recurring payment' option. (It was PayPal's inability -- at the time -- to process subscriptions as 'recurring payments' that prompted us to seek out 2Checkout as an alternative in the first place.)
It's been a rough month. The enemy has been throwing everything he could at us. I find it interesting that we come under the most egregious attacks following the forum disputes over the OL's Rapture doctrine.
This time last year, we had just undergone a similar forum war that, like the most recent one, resulted in mass cancellations and a 'surprise' review from our merchant provider, 2Checkout.
I admit that I am getting tired. The attacks are beginning to take a real toll on us. Although the Omega Letter gets more than 1.2 million visitors per month, our paying subscriber base is very small -- bouncing between five and six hundred members.
We can't afford to hire anybody to help out, and so the entire load is divided between three people. Mike maintains the website, Gayle handles customer service and accounts.
And I write a full column six days per week, ensure the content is updated, and seek out and post featured commentary from other websites that are useful to our mission of providing you with information useful to answering the objections from skeptics you encounter during your own one-on-one evangelistic efforts.
I tried taking Sundays off and limiting my workday to something less than 12 hours a day the other six days. The result?
The forums got so acrimonious and some of the posts got so loopy that by the time I was aware of it, it was via emails from members announcing their resignation.
As I said, I am tired. The enemy attacks are wearing on me. Some of you have asked me why I haven't updated my picture on the website.
(In the last four years, I've gone as gray as quickly as President Bush has -- I don't think anybody would recognize me.)
I am not sure we can weather this latest blow, since the 2Check decision has instantly cut our revenue by more than half -- but I am determined to keep trying as long as God gives me the strength and you remain willing to stay on mission with me.
I'll keep on holding up my end, but to survive this, I need some help from my OL family.
First and foremost, I need your prayers. I am bitterly discouraged this morning, and it is only God's grace that keeps me from throwing up my hands in despair.
The recent effort at taking over the forums, and the resulting acrimony, took a real toll on my spirit. The nasty letters from OL members I thought were my friends have knocked me for a loop.
Please pray for encouragement -- I really, really need it.
Pray that the Lord will re-energize me and preserve me from the burnout I am beginning to experience. Pray for Mike and Gayle.
They are each doing the work of several people, day in and day out. And every time it looks like we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, we discover, just in time, that the light is attached to an oncoming train.
Although we have a huge following, our tiny subscriber base barely keeps us afloat now, and that has just been decimated by 2Checkout's inexplicable cancellation notice.
Please pray that the Lord will keep us going, emotionally, financially and spiritually, while we scramble for new solutions. (And that we don't drop the ball here at the OL while doing so.)
Those of you who subscribe via 2Checkout, please consider switching to PayPal. I will be sending out a mass email later today to all 2Checkout subscribers with information and links to PayPal to help you navigate the change.
But please, please, don't forget to pray for us. We'll keep on fighting the war, as long as God gives us the strength and resources to carry on.
I believe we are in the very last hours of the last generation before the return of Christ. I believe the enemy knows that, too, and he is pulling out all the stops in order to keep that information from as many people as possible.
2nd Peter 5:6-9 tells us that we aren't alone in the battle, and tells us exactly what to do in order to be victorious:
"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty Hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world."
"Cast all your cares upon Him, for He careth for you." I needed that this morning.
Maranatha! Keep the faith. And pray for us.
"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." (Jude 1:24-25)
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Archives of past issues of The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest plus many other Omega Letter member features can be found at: www.omegaletter.com