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Senate Panel Probes 6 Top Televangelists

Enlighten

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Senate Panel Probes 6 Top Televangelists
Sen. Charles Grassley Asks Ministries To Turn Over Financial Records Within One Month
Nov. 6, 2007

CBS News has learned Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is investigating six prominent televangelist ministries for possible financial misconduct.

Letters were sent Monday to the ministries demanding that financial statements and records be turned over to the committee by December 6th.

According to Grassley's office, the Iowa Republican is trying to determine whether or not these ministries are improperly using their tax-exempt status as churches to shield lavish lifestyles.

The six ministries identified as being under investigation by the committee are led by: Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn. Three of the six - Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar - also sit on the Board of Regents for the Oral Roberts University.
...
Because they have tax status as churches, the ministries do not have to file IRS 990 forms like other non-profit organizations - leaving much financial information largely behind closed doors.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/06/cbsnews_investigates/main3456977.shtml
 
You know, if the churches were just required to play by the same rules as everyone else (including non-profit organizations) there wouldn't be this problem.
 
Ministrywatch itself has an agenda that is far less than stellar. From their own site:
While identifying the best ministries is challenging given the selfless work that so many do for the cause of Christ, MinistryWatch.com believes that the following alphabetical list of 30 excellent ministries will be helpful to many. Each of the ministries mentioned has the following important features in common:

• MinistryWatch.com researchers knows of no significant issues that would be of concern to donors.
• Have shown a willingness to treat donors fairly via a Transparency Grade of “A”.
• Are unashamed of being identified as an evangelical Christian ministry.
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Ah well. They go on to list 30 or so sites like 'Answers in Genesis'.

And the rub is, why not support separation of religion and state in these instances? They don't want government involved in religion except in cases of fraud? But they are not willing to to submit to the same regulations designed to protect donors and avoid fraud.

This investigation seems like a waste of tax dollars. People should wake up and stop donating. And as for Ministrywatch, there is nothing in their criteria that would prevent them from recommending investment in tomorrow's frauds.
 
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I think it's well past due.

Hinn has bilked millions from people that can little afford it. Meyer and most the rest listed, if I'm not mistaken, teach their "Prosperity" religion. Telling the gullible to send in their "seed" money so they will get what they desire. Of course they don't point out that the only ones getting the Prosperity are the preachers. Most of which live in multi-million dollar estates paid for with tax free dollars, while flying around the world in their jet bought with those same dollars, all in the name of the lord (praise god and pass the potatoes).

I just hope this "probe" is long and thick, with a sharp point and barbs :D
 
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Joyce Meyer isn't all that bad in her teachings. I'm familiar with her books, and they tend to fall into the category of pop-psychology mixed with a bit of godspeak. It isn't harmful, but it shouldn't be tax exempt, either. From what I know of her, she is nowhere near as heartless and evil as Benny Hinn. I don't know much about any of the others, except for Ken Copeland, whose name gets tossed around christian circles a good bit. I can't say that this story upsets me in any way.
 
This Guy said:
I just hope this "probe" is long and think, with a sharp point and barbs :D
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Well, i rather prefere it to be kind of smooth and gentle from the beginning, so as to probe deeper and not cause unnessesary hurt feelings and resistance from the probees. Of course, at its climax and delivery of the outcome it will expand and intensify, and at that stage som pain and screams might occur.

But as i tend to put it in such situations, "its all for the good of the country".
 
m_huber said:
Joyce Meyer isn't all that bad in her teachings. I'm familiar with her books, and they tend to fall into the category of pop-psychology mixed with a bit of godspeak. It isn't harmful, but it shouldn't be tax exempt, either. From what I know of her, she is nowhere near as heartless and evil as Benny Hinn. I don't know much about any of the others, except for Ken Copeland, whose name gets tossed around christian circles a good bit. I can't say that this story upsets me in any way.
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I'll grant that she may not be as flagrant about the seed money as many of them are. I have listened to a few of her broadcasts, and much of what she preaches is basic good advice, and largely biblical (if your into that). The fact remains that she refused, for a long time, to disclose the finances of her ministry. Basically saying it was no one's business, and talking about how hypocritical it was to condemn her for doing well, while it was OK for the big business men to be wealthy. She, to my knowledge, never mentioned the fact that the big business men didn't flood the airwaves with request for donations, they EARNED their money. Meanwhile, she listed her family as executives of the ministry, with salaries I'd love to have, had a multi-million dollar mansion (or two) and would not show where the money she took from others went. It was only after Ministry Watch black listed her (more or less) that she relented, and also made "adjustments" to her and her families incomes from the ministry. I'm sorry, but IMHO she's no better than the rest of the scum that take from others in the name of god. Living high on the hog while many (most?) of their followers go without so they can help support her ministry. Yes, those "faithful" deserve some of the blame, but I'm not one to prey on the weak, and I don't believe anyone else should.
 
scratchy said:
Well, i rather prefere it to be kind of smooth and gentle from the beginning, so as to probe deeper and not cause unnessesary hurt feelings and resistance from the probees. Of course, at its climax and delivery of the outcome it will expand and intensify, and at that stage som pain and screams might occur.

But as i tend to put it in such situations, "its all for the good of the country".
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As long as it's for the good of the country, I'm all for it ;)
 
This Guy said:
I'll grant that she may not be as flagrant about the seed money as many of them are. I have listened to a few of her broadcasts, and much of what she preaches is basic good advice, and largely biblical (if your into that). The fact remains that she refused, for a long time, to disclose the finances of her ministry. Basically saying it was no one's business, and talking about how hypocritical it was to condemn her for doing well, while it was OK for the big business men to be wealthy. She, to my knowledge, never mentioned the fact that the big business men didn't flood the airwaves with request for donations, they EARNED their money. Meanwhile, she listed her family as executives of the ministry, with salaries I'd love to have, had a multi-million dollar mansion (or two) and would not show where the money she took from others went. It was only after Ministry Watch black listed her (more or less) that she relented, and also made "adjustments" to her and her families incomes from the ministry. I'm sorry, but IMHO she's no better than the rest of the scum that take from others in the name of god. Living high on the hog while many (most?) of their followers go without so they can help support her ministry. Yes, those "faithful" deserve some of the blame, but I'm not one to prey on the weak, and I don't believe anyone else should.
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Point taken.
 
Senate Panel Probes 6 Top Televangelists
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...or, "The Hypocritical Investigate the Insincere,"

or, "The Self-Important Investigate the Arrogant,"

or, "The Greedy Investigate the Grasping,"

or, as has so often been quoted here, "Pot, meet Kettle."
 
as a christian myself,I say it is about time

I am sick of these guys and the Phelps cult idiots making christians look bad and I wish more of my fellow christian brethren would stand up these hucksters like Benny Hinn and Paula White


everytime I see these frauds on tv,I think of 2 Timothy 4:3-4 which talks IMO about folks like the TBN crowd

2 Timothy 4:3-4

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

MATTHEW 24:24

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.


2 PETER 2:1

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
 
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http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/Creflo_Dollar

Why Creflo Dollar Needs His Dollars
By John Bloom
11/08/2007

Every time we write about Creflo Dollar we have to point out that this is not one of those fake news articles we've sometimes managed to foist onto the public, and that the name Creflo Dollar was not used by Charles Dickens to describe a wheezing barrister in a pub, nor was it invented by a heavy-handed satirist attempting to lampoon a greedy Ukrainian.

No, Creflo Dollar is a real person, one of the six televangelists who got letters from the Senate Finance Committee on Monday, asking them to send in detailed accounting statements proving that they're not converting church money to their personal use.

More specifically, Creflo Dollar is the pastor of World Changers Church International of College Park, Georgia. Presumably he chose that name himself, completely free of fear that it would be soon be better known as Money Changers Church International

by the 30,000 members who weekly enrich its coffers and make it possible for Creflo to maintain the two jets—

one Gulfstream 3 and one Lear—that he uses to shuttle back and forth between Madison Square Garden

(where he does a Saturday night service for an audience of 6,000) and Atlanta (where he does a Sunday morning service), not to mention occasional visits to his offices in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia and Nigeria.

Creflo's wife Taffi Dollar—and here we remind you once again that we are not lapsing into fiction at any point during the creation of this article—

Taffi Dollar is responsible for the household budget at the $3 million Dollar mansion in Atlanta, and the more modest $2.44 million Dollar condo overlooking Central Park in Manhattan.

Asked about the Dollar dollars by CBS News yesterday, Dollar said it was untrue that he had two Rolls-Royces (we'd actually heard it was two Rolls-Royces and one Humvee, but who's keeping track?)

that he only had one Rolls and it was given to him by his congregation as a surprise.

He also said he did not give $500,000 of church funds to fellow "prosperity gospel" evangelist

Kenneth Copeland on the occasion of Copeland's 40th wedding anniversary—although he did not say how much he did give—so we want to be very careful when we say that the annual budget for Dollar's operation, his overhead dollars, is about $80 million. (Note to Creflo: Get back to us if we're a little off on that number.)

The interesting aspect of this story, however, is that so many of these prosperity-gospel guys do funnel money back to Copeland in so many ways that it almost looks like a pyramid scheme.

Actually that's too harsh—what it really resembles is the marketing structure of Mary Kay Cosmetics, set up so that every time a salesperson recruits another salesperson, he or she gets a cut of the commission.

And the reason that all roads lead to Copeland—see our summary of Copeland's organization in the investigative cartooning feature "Lifestyles of the Rich and Religious"—is that he's the granddaddy of what goes by many names—like "positive confession"—but is most commonly called "Word Faith."

If you look for the theological origins of "Word Faith," you end up in Tulsa, of course, and specifically at RHEMA Bible College in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma,

which was founded by Kenneth E. "Papa" Hagin (1917-2003),

the man who pretty much created the American-style health-and-wealth preaching so familiar from late-night television.

Copeland was a student there, as well as at Oral Roberts University, which veers close to RHEMA in its theology but is not always on the same page.

(Truth be told, every prosperity preacher is his own theology school, since part of the basis for the teaching is direct special revelation from God, which makes all these guys the heirs of the original gnostics.) But if RHEMA had a creed, it would go something like this:

God's covenant with Abraham means that God has to deliver on his part of the deal, so anything you ask for in the name of Jesus, God is required to give you. (Should we quote some Janis Joplin lyrics here?)

Man is equal to God in every respect. Or, in the words of Copeland, "You don't have a God in you! You are one!" (Tom Cruise would like this one.)

Jesus was not the son of God, he was a man empowered by God to be just like God,


and everyone who knows this can do the same thing. (We're not sure we have this one exactly right,


but it's basically "Be Jesus, go ahead, He won't mind, you're soulmates.")
Jesus went down into hell where he took on Satan's nature, until he was born again, and re-emerged to start the church.



(Presumably they preach this one on Halloween.)


Anything you speak and believe, with understanding, will come true just as you want it. (Yes, this seems like it's the same as number one, but that one is about what God has to do, and this one is about what you have to do. It's the "positive confession" part, the idea that your thought processes can command God to act.)


God promises in Isaiah 53 to heal every physical illness of anyone who has faith.

(As our mentor Ole Anthony once said, "Then why aren't there thousands of 200-year-old billionaires in Tulsa?")

Any Christian who believes in poverty is outside God's will. (Well, take that, you cloistered loser in the hairshirt.)

There are more, but these are the biggies. I would imagine that at this point you're starting to see why taking away Creflo Dollar's dollars could amount to more than just a little lifestyle adjustment.

It pretty much goes to the heart of the whole Kahuna.



http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/Creflo_Dollar

2 peter 2;1

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
 
Yeah. We need to brainstorm on this one to help out the Christians.
Some meeting discussion ideas:

Let's stop teaching people to be naive and credulous.

Teach critical thinking to everyone, not just a few.

Teach televangelists that trust should be earned rather than demanded.

Consider resisting the notion that they prosper because God LIKES them.

Don't think about 'what right does the government have to interfere with God's will?'

Consider deeply the differences between a real angel of light and a demon only posing as an angel of light.

'Prophet' and 'profit' sound alike and share other characteristics.
 
as a christian, I like your suggestions kopji

and you are right

'Prophet' and 'profit' sound alike.

According to folks like Creflo Dollar and Paula White they are in their minds the same word
 
Joyce Meyer was asked by Senator Chuck Grassley to explain the tax exempt purpose of her $23,000 “commode with marble top.” According to the press release, she has several high prices items listed with county tax assessors office.

What could she be doing with a $23,000 commode?
 
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