PayPal Resolution Center
March 27, 2017
Dear PayPal Compliance Dept. Staff:
We are a church in Springfield, MO. Every August we hold a conference that offers religious education. This year’s conference, August 11-13, is entitled “Who is a Refugee? Islam and the current crisis in Syria.” Our keynote speaker is a Syrian refugee who is a legal resident of the USA and a professor of Arabic languages and literature in New York. I, Dr. Roger Ray, am the pastor of the church and I will be the other primary speaker. I am a natural born citizen of the United States and a professor of World Religions. I was born in Kentucky and despite the high crime rate, heavy drug use, and corrupt government associated with Kentucky, I assure you that I offer no substantive threat that should concern Homeland Security. Just because Kentucky is rife with crime and corruption does not mean that I am personally guilty of such offenses (one might logically apply the same reasoning to refugees from Syria).
You ask us to list the products and services we offer for payments into our PayPal account. The only product we offer are sermons and classes and even though these sermons and classes include such things as information, use of books, and references to current events, I believe that there is a standard defense in legal circles that assures us that telling the truth is not subject to criminal or civil charges.
You also ask for us to give a complete list of the activities that we engage in during the normal course of our business. We 1) hold religious services, 2) feed the hungry, 3) visit the imprisoned, 4) provide shoes for children, 5) care for the sick, 6) give hope to the hopeless, 7) and we offer a prophetic voice advocating for care of the planet and justice for the oppressed. When we have time we also conduct weddings and funerals and an occasional baptism.
And you ask if we conduct business in Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea, or the region of Crimea. I have not visited or personally spoken in any of those countries. We do put progressive religious messages on the internet and so we may have listeners in any of those places though all of our content is in English so that cuts down on the total number of viewers we have in those parts of the world. Sadly, to my knowledge, we have received no financial support from any of those nations but if you have contacts you can suggest to us we would be happy to follow up on those leads.
You ask for an explanation of transaction 9G26921169376253E in the amount of $50. Everyone who attends our conference this year has been asked to donate $50 to cover our expenses. Some of them will donate, others will not, and some will give more or less than the suggested $50. Religious people are very difficult to predict or manage. The person who made this donation is one of our favorite people because he is registering months in advance and is donating the suggested amount. We have more seats available if you would personally like to follow Jerry’s example by donating $50 at www.spfccc.org.
Thank you for apologizing for the inconvenience this threatened freeze on our account has caused us. What we would really like is an apology from Homeland Security for creating a world in which the use of the words “Syria,” “refugee” and “Islam” in a sentence can make you a subject of official concern. To quote our 45th president, “sad.”
Sincerely,
Rev. Dr. Roger L. Ray, pastor