Free «Religious Fraud» Essay Sample

Various social sectors such as religion, charity, and mass media have been used as bases for white collar crimes. Some people have used the word of God to defraud others. For instance, Guy W. Ballard, Edna W. Ballard, and Donald Ballard were alleged to have high religious conduct and spiritual attainment. The case that involved the three people was known as, the United States v. Ballard (Noonan & Gaffney, 2001). These three individuals falsely represented to people that, they had power to heal people of diseases and ailments and to make well people afflicted with ailments, diseases, or injuries.

The three individuals said to have the ability to cure both curable and incurable diseases and that they had already cured a number of people afflicted with ailments and diseases. These false religious representations were made with an intention to defraud people and obtain money, and other properties from them. This case represents a type of white collar crime called religious fraud, in which the defendants misused their authority of preaching for the purpose of obtaining benefits from the defrauded individuals (Shupe, 1998).

Actually, religious defrauders cannot be caught sooner because they are usually seen as righteous people. If a person does not get healed, then he or she is said to lack faith in this spiritual healing. This type of white collar crimes could therefore cause a number of damages to human societies because it involved the sick as well as the exchange of money and other valuable properties. Individuals could avoid going to hospital because of the belief that Guy W. Ballard, Edna W. Ballard, and Donald Ballard, could use their spiritual powers to heal them.

Since it was a mere religious fraud, most of the individuals with serious sicknesses were likely to suffer more before they could make up their minds to get medical assistance in hospitals. The valuable properties and money that are usually used in situations like this leave many families with little or without money and therefore causing poverty (Noonan & Gaffney, 2001). The community should be informed of religious fraud cases so that they cannot be defrauded easily by religious defrauders.