The Church Is a Business — Nathan Apffel Exposes the $1 Trillion Religion Racket | Ep 261 HTBITY

This week on Hate To Break It To Ya I sat down with Nathan Apffel — Emmy-nominated filmmaker, Christ follower, and the creator of the docuseries The Religion Business — and what started as a conversation about his documentary turned into one of the most wide-open, genuinely surprising talks I've had on this show. Nathan drove down from San Diego to be here, and I'm glad he did, because this one went places I didn't expect. Nathan's whole thing is the money. Not whether churches should exist — he's a believer, he's clear about that — but the legal architecture that lets a pastor collect $500,000 a week from a congregation, pay himself a tax-free housing allowance on an $18 million real estate portfolio, fold an investment fund and a TV network under the church's umbrella, and never show a dollar of it to anyone. Not the government, not the congregation, not the IRS. We got into how you can literally start a church today with nothing more than a state filing and an EIN number, how the LDS Church has $300 billion in investments and is the second-largest private landowner in the United States, and how Kenneth Copeland built a $750 million empire by mailing letters to elderly women. Nathan also told me about the time he showed up at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, with a sign asking the pastor one simple question about his housing allowance — and got surrounded by 15 security guards with expired licenses, had his phone grabbed out of his hand, and ended up in handcuffs. It's all in the show. We also went deep on the stuff I didn't plan for — the Big Bang versus creation, the Nephilim, 666 translating to Nero Caesar in the Hebrew numerical alphabet, why the King James Bible got rewritten, soaking, the celestial kingdom, entropy as a spiritual concept, and whether Jesus came to make bad people good or dead people alive. Nathan's a surfer from Burbank who got into editing after a traumatic brain injury at 16, directed one of the worst-reviewed films in IMDB history, and spent 15 years researching a documentary that Tucker Carlson and Sean Ryan both called essential viewing. He's the real deal, and this conversation earned every minute of its runtime. ⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ About Nathan Apffel: Nathan Apffel is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and entrepreneur based in Utah, best known as the director and creator of The Religion Business, a multi-part investigative docuseries exposing financial fraud, abuse, and lack of accountability inside American religious institutions. He began his career editing action sports content for brands like Oakley after a traumatic brain injury ended his surfing and skating at age 16, later directing travel TV for Fuel TV and operating on shows including Temptation Island. The Religion Business — co-produced with decorated combat veteran and entrepreneur Chris Ayoub — is available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and YouTube Movies, with Season 2 currently in production. Nathan has appeared on Tucker Carlson's show and the Shawn Ryan Show to discuss the series, and his Instagram platform @religionbusiness grew to over 100,000 followers within five months of launch. Follow Nathan Apffel Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathan_apffel/ X: https://x.com/devouringmarrow The Religion Business Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/religionbusiness/ The Religion Business website: https://www.thereligionbusiness.com ⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ Timestamps: 00:00:00 – Welcome to Burbank: Nathan's Origin Story 00:01:49 – Traumatic Brain Injury, Final Cut One & Editing His Way In 00:03:24 – Chicks Dig Gay Guys: The Worst Directorial Debut Ever 00:07:06 – The Apffel Coffee Empire & LA History 00:10:54 – What Is The Religion Business? 00:16:01 – The $1 Trillion Unregulated Industry 00:26:39 – How to Start a Tax-Free Church in One Afternoon 00:30:01 – The LDS Church: $300 Billion, Defense Stocks & Soaking 00:43:45 – Kenneth Copeland, Prosperity Gospel & Mailing Lists 00:57:37 – Nathan Gets Arrested at Fellowship Church in Texas 01:10:57 – Joel Osteen, TBN & Buying Airtime With Donations 01:21:37 – Is Jesus Real? Creation vs. Chance 01:41:42 – The Nephilim, 666 & the Hebrew Numerical Alphabet 01:44:50 – King James, the Geneva Bible & Rewriting Scripture 01:56:52 – The Trinity, Interstellar & God Outside of Time 02:09:30 – Satanism, Epstein & the Architecture of Darkness 02:19:22 – Christ Came to Make Dead People Alive 02:29:00 – Season 2 & What Happens If Christians Actually Live Like Jesus 02:33:51 – Where to Watch The Religion Business ⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ Support the Pod: 💥 Patreon: patreon.com/thejamiekennedy 🎟️ Tour Dates: jamiekennedy.com 👕 Merch: jamiekennedy.com/merch 📺 Subscribe: youtube.com/@jamiekennedycomedy ⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ Nathan Apffel, The Religion Business, Jamie Kennedy podcast, megachurch corruption exposed, church tax exemption scandal, Kenneth Copeland prosperity gospel, LDS Church investments, organized religion money, Hate To Break It To Ya, religion documentary 2025, church financial abuse, Nathan Apffel interview 2026 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices