$1.99 a Minute to Video Chat With Jesus. A Man Ran The Same Scam in 1888

In 2026, an app called Just Like Me is charging $1.99 per minute to video chat with an AI version of Jesus Christ. The avatar glows in warm light, has shoulder-length hair, and offers prayers and encouragement trained on the King James Bible. An hour with Digital Jesus costs $119.40. Mental health professionals are already raising concerns about people forming emotional attachments to chatbots posing as spiritual figures.

But this is not new. In 1888, a Scottish-born preacher named John Alexander Dowie moved to America and launched a healing ministry that would make him one of the richest religious figures in the country. By 1899, he declared himself God's Messenger. By 1901, he declared himself the prophet Elijah returned to Earth. He built an entire city in Illinois called Zion where he personally owned every home, every business, and the only bank in town. His followers were required to deposit all of their money into his bank and tithe 10 percent of their income directly to him. He staged fake healings at the 1893 World's Fair using planted audience members. His annual income from tithes alone was $250,000 and his total fortune exceeded $10 million. A scholar called him a religious robber baron. When investigators finally looked at his books, between $2.5 and $3.4 million was unaccounted for. He died in 1907, broke, paralyzed, and abandoned by his own wife and son.

The technology changed. The grift did not. Whether it is a man in priest robes telling you he speaks for God or an app charging you by the minute to talk to a glowing avatar, the target is always the same: people who are lonely, grieving, or desperate for a spiritual connection. Tonight I am testing the AI Jesus app live on stream so you can see exactly what $1.99 a minute buys you. After the history lesson and the app test, we are playing Pred Bingo!