Joyce Meyer Ministries is a target of GOP senator's probe

St. Louis Post Disgrace ^ | 11/6/2007 | Diedre Sheesgreen

[Clintons Are White Trash]

WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the financial dealings of six TV evangelists, including Joyce Meyer, the popular preacher who has built a $124-million-a-year empire headquartered in Fenton.

On Monday, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Meyer to provide his staff with documents detailing the finances of the Joyce Meyer Ministries, including the religious group's compensation to Meyer, her husband and other family members, as well as an accounting of their housing allowances, gifts and credit card statements for the last several years.

[AppyPappy]

I like Joel Osteen.

I dislike his weak Gospel. It's full of Cheap Grace.

[a real Sheila]

amen

[lupie]

Yes, it isn’t easy to get the camel through the needle’s eye, and with a marble toilet in tow; You have to wonder if one is even really trying :)

hahahaha. There went the last of my morning coffee all over my monitor. I finally gave up and bought a black monitor because they don't come in coffee brown!

[a real Sheila]

I wonder what Jan Crouch spends per week on that pink cotton-candy swirl atop her head.
She is HIDEOUS!

[Preachin']

I am a Christian minister, but think that ministries should be above board.

It infuriates me that ministers travel abroad and teach everyhting but the blood of Christ, sin and holy living.

If you want to know the truth, I think that the Lord uses people outside the church to help straighten it out.

1 Peter 4:17

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

---

If a minister teaches bad things, we ought to hold their feet to the fire, but being rude about it is not the correct approach. The bottom line is that the church ought to hold its teachers accountable, but rather, we heap up teachers for ourselves:

2 Tim 4:3

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

Even David did not lay a hand on Saul after he (David) was anointed to take his place. We need to let the Lord deal with things, and not take joy in other people’s iniquity.

I say these things as someone who believes in healing and prosperity. It’s just that we need a balance that centers on Jesus, who was crucified for our sins, and was raised from the dead.

The church has become hardly anything but a bunch of men-pleasers who think God owes them something.

[Quix]

And if her book sales more than cover all such???

[Condor51]

Uh senator, how about taking a look at the Revruuuuund Jackson's Rainbow-Push Coalition books??? Jesse ain't buying his suits off the rack at Burlington Coat Factory, nor was he able to afford sending all his kids to private skools and colleges by winning the IL Lottery.

Then there's the matter of his one son 'magically' getting that Budweiser Distributorship immediately after Daddy JJ called off his boycott of Bud. Even in Chicago we still call that extortion.

And when you're done with JJ, there's Rev Al 'I-Don't-Own-Anything' Sharpton's books.

Just a thought senator. I know you're really, really, REALLY, busy.

[Matchett-PI]

“...She has been tempted by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life.” ~ GOPPachyderm

“...Not only that she isn’t even Biblical.” ~ surelyclintonsbaddream

Exactly. bttt

According to her, generational spirits supposedly torment families for generations with specific sins, and claims that a demon of lust torments her family.

She teaches that Christ’s death on the cross was not sufficient to atone for our sins, and that .. When Jesus cried, “It is finished!” He was not speaking of the plan of redemption.

http://www.equip.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2634591/k.BA24/DM472.htm

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

what with, you know, that millstone around her neck...

[lupie]

Thanks for the ping. I, for one, am glad to see this happen. I know several people who are under her spell, my mother included, or at least she used to be. I pray this will open some eyes. Some things from the article caught my eye.

...$124-million-a-year empire...

SInce 18% of 124 million is still 22 million and it appears that she pays her employees minimum wage or so, I guess then she has to use up that 22 million in things like $23,000 marble-topped commode, a $30,000 conference table and an $11,219 French clock.

He said JMM has undergone a voluntary independent financial audit each year. In 2006, he said, 82 percent of JMM's expenses were used for outreach and program services "directed toward reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

I think she has also invested in some pretty high powered attorneys and tax attorneys who have counseled her to volunteer an audit so that it might deflect suspicion. We know how books can be altered easily.

Funny how just yesterday we looked at this passage in Luke 16:
"One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Too bad the senator didn't choose to investigate people like Osteen and Warren.

Remember to vote today - vote early and vote often. ;)

[reagan_fanatic]

I wonder what Jan Crouch spends per week on that pink cotton-candy swirl atop her head. She is HIDEOUS!

And that makeup - looks like she ran face-first into an inkpad!

[Alex Murphy]

Ping to read later

[AppyPappy]

” 82 percent of JMM’s expenses were used for outreach and program services “

I wonder if that outreach includes a Lear Jet.

[Steve_Seattle]

Can a Constitution expert tell me how the Senate obtained police powers to investigate possible criminal actions of private citizens? (This is NOT a defense of Meyer et al, just wondering where this is coming from.)

[OB1kNOb]

“Meyer is a con artist, plain and simple.” Yup. This is a new scam. The problem is that they hide behind laws designed to protect churches. “We aren’t selling God’s blessings. We make money because people buy our books and stuff. It’s a business” “Let’s see your financials” “No way, we are a church”.

Those in it to make merchandise of Jesus, won't escape His judgement.

2Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves.

2:2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

2:3 In their greed (a.k.a. "love of money") these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

[Phantom Lord]

Huh? Since when is it the business of the government how a ministry operates???

The second they apply for tax exempt status it is the governments business.

[Steve_Seattle]

I thought the IRS, not Senate committees, investigated tax fraud.

[Steve_Seattle]

I’m surprised Mike Murdock isn’t on the list. He’s one of the “sow a seed” guys who pressures people to give more than they can afford, with the promise that God will reward them tenfold. The only two TV preachers that don’t seem to be in it for the money are Charles Stanley and James Robison.