News 8 reporting featured in 'Last Week Tonight' segment

If you're a "Last Week Tonight" viewer, you may have heard a familiar voice in the middle of John Oliver's takedown of televangelists.

In a 20-minute segment, Oliver used footage from a 2007 report from News 8's own Brett Shipp about televangelists Gloria and Kenneth Copeland. That year, Shipp reported on the church and pastor's finances, including the apparent personal use of the $20 million ministry jet.

In 2007, we reported Gloria and Kenneth Copeland's Believers' Voice of Victory ministry was preaching not only the gospel of prosperity, but the promise of healing through faith.

It was the prospect of wellness that for years lured Bonnie Parker of Winnsboro, La. to the Copelands' broadcast every Sunday morning, said Parker's family.

Bonnie Parker donated "at least" tens of thousands of dollars to the ministry, her family said, because she believed the Copelands could stop the cancer ravaging her body.

News 8 Investigates also obtained the flight records for the Copelands' $20 million jet, which included trips to Hawaii, Fiji, and an airport near Steamboat Springs Ski Resort in Colorado, among others.

Meanwhile, Parker's husband said Bonnie died believing she hadn't given enough money to Kenneth and Gloria Copeland.

Here is Brett's full story from Feb. 28, 2007:

And here is a follow-up story from November of that year that includes interviews with three former employees of the Copelands' ministry:

At the time, the Copeland ministry declined requests for an interview, and pointed to an accounting firm's declaration that all jet travel complies with federal tax laws.

In his segment, Oliver notes that Copeland's ministry says Kenneth Copeland pays back the church for personal trips, but, in Oliver's words, "that means he has private-jet reimbursement money. And yet, despite that personal wealth, people still send Kenneth Copeland [...] lots and lots of money, and that's partially because they preach something known as the prosperity gospel, which argues that wealth is a sign of God's favor and donations will result in wealth coming back to you."

Oliver goes on to explain that concept in full, shares his staff's experience in seven months of being involved with televangelist Robert Tilton's church, and eventually decides to form a church made up of he and his audience: Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption.

You can hear Oliver's take on WFAA's reporting at about 3:15 in the video below, but the entire segment is worth a watch if you've got 20 minutes and want to be equally entertained by Oliver and disgusted by humanity.

"Last Week Tonight" airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on HBO.