Dear Phil,
I know that you did thousands of “Dr. Phil” shows and may not remember me. My name is Doug Perry and I lead a Christian ministry called Fellowship of the Martyrs. Back in 2012 a family that was here with the ministry was going through some marital problems and the husband kidnapped the kids, took them across state lines and then realized that he’d committed four counts of “Parental Kidnapping” and his only defense was to claim that he had to do it because they were in terrible danger. Despite having lived with us for three years and donated and never had a concern, all of a sudden he claims that we ruined his marriage and were trying to take away his kids. He called every media outlet that he could think of to tell his story.
Your show saw it right away as an opportunity to get ratings by demonizing our ministry. At that point we had spent over five years housing homeless, feeding thousands through our food pantry and caring for local needs. I had sold all I had and given it to the poor. We have no paid staff and live on faith, trusting God to provide for us. You took the entire machinery of your television show and studio and pointed it at this tiny ministry and pulled the trigger, willing to lie in whatever way would get you the most ratings. We prayed about whether to go on your show, knowing full well that it was going to be a setup and what you were going to do. Why did we go anyway? Because God said to go – and because we are unafraid of whatever Man might say. Jesus said to rejoice when you’re lied about and slandered.
Even before you brought me on stage, you showed deceptive pictures – a broken gutter that wasn’t even on one of our houses, a pile of used tires because we’d just put new ones on, half of a room with an unmade bed where the other half of the room was spotless, even a goofy picture of me mugging for the kids when the pictures of the father accusing us was in a suit and tie. The whole taping of the show was an attempt at a series of “gotcha” moments to make me and this ministry look bad – many of which didn’t land and were edited out because they were baseless and stupid. (Show recorded in December of 2012 and aired on May 21st, 2013.)
You ended the show by quoting one third of a sentence from one of my videos. Your big “gotcha” moment to end the show was a video of me saying, “in fact, last night I prayed that God would kill everybody on the planet.” You stood there wagging your head like I was an idiot, all the while knowing that you were taking it out of context and lying through your teeth. For someone considered one of the top 50 most influential Christians in America, you surely knew better. The entire quote from the video was, “I’ve prayed for years that I would die to self. In fact, last night I prayed that God would kill everybody on the planet, that they would die to self, to their flesh.” That’s the very essence of the Christian walk! Every beauty queen that says she wants “world peace” is saying the exact same thing, -praying that men would humble themselves, be sacrificial and wash one another’s feet. You HAD to know what you were doing and the potential harm it could do to me, my reputation, this ministry and even the people we’re helping.
When the show aired we were featured by the Kansas City Star newspaper in a horrible light. The same day the paper came out, the board of the non-profit that owned the building where our food pantry and offices were located voted to eject us immediately. It took months for us to reestablish a place for the food pantry – many people in need did without thanks to you. Lots of people might have helped or moved here, but for the lies you told. The damage you did on that show continues to ripple, as the show is in syndication and every three to six months replays somewhere in the English speaking world – and we continue to get hate-filled emails from people in South Africa and Australia and elsewhere.
Now, I know that God is on my side. I don’t regret going on the show and I’m not writing because I need you to make me feel better. At that time you were making $50 million dollars a year atop a media machine that was probably worth a billion dollars. And you took all of that and pointed it at that little $100,000 a year ministry where no one draws a salary and all we do is care for the poor – and it barely left a scratch. We’re still here, doing what we’ve been doing all along, housing and feeding and loving people, living in community and trying to get “churchianity” to be more like Jesus. But the “Dr. Phil” show is over.
I can’t do anything about the reruns in syndication that may run forever or the stack of legalese you made us sign, saying that we wouldn’t sue even if you lied about us. But I can tell you that you did wrong and you need to repent. You purposely used us for your ratings without regard to consequences, you knowingly twisted details and lied, even bringing on other people to lie. You knew FULL WELL what you were doing – or else your staff tricked you into it, in which case, it’s still your fault.
I’m telling you that you need to publicly confess this sin and repent to God for the harm you’ve done to His people – and not just us. Repeatedly you encouraged and promoted psychics and occultists, while giving the people of God a hard time. You’re going to have to answer to God for this.
To be clear, I am not threatening anything physical. I don’t wish you any harm. I’m writing to you for YOUR sake because I don’t want you to suffer the consequences SPIRITUALLY for your actions. I am a man of God, focused on the eternal, not the physical. And eternally speaking, you’re in big trouble.
If you want to talk, I’m happy to talk to you or pray with you. I’m not hard to reach. I pray that you would hear my heart and get right with God. This is a serious thing. The people responsible for the syndication of the “Dr. Phil Show” are also guilty and need to really look at how they are using innocent people for their own benefit.
Doug Perry
Fellowship Of The Martyrs
fotm@fellowshipofthemartyrs.com
www.FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com
www.LibertyDisasterRelief.com
{ Why am I releasing this now? Because on May 1st, Phil McGraw was tapped by Donald Trump for the Religious Liberty Commission and is being touted as a leader in the Christian community. He has a new book encouraging Americans to “reclaim the principles of hard work, independence, faith and ingenuity.” He has shown me by his handling of us that he is entirely willing to take the lazy, disingenuous way by looking for an easy target, spinning to suit him, telling salacious lies and completely disregarding how his attacks will effect those he used for his purposes. Here is the link to the original show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEAtCklCaWE . Following the airing of the show, at the Lord’s direction, I released a video on YouTube entitled, “Dr. Phil Raped Me.” It’s link is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CV0yVqj4p4&t=76s . Here is a video about his big Gotcha moment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWNRvL1jFH8&t=27s . We even did a cartoon of what it might be like if Jesus Christ was on the Phil Show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYaKGIKZJzs&t=10s . You decide if you think Phil is a Christian and he’s a pillar of virtue. No. For the sake of his soul, Phil McGraw needs to repent to God and to this ministry and to anybody else that he used and abused for selfish reasons. He’s currently NOT a “Christian leader” that should be respected and looked to for guidance on what Jesus would do.}