Posted on 11/06/2007 7:04:14 AM PST by Grig
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.
A spokesperson for Joyce Meyer Ministries provided CBS News with an IRS letter to the ministry dated October 10, 2007, that stated: "We determined that you continue to qualify as an organization exempt from Federal income tax." The letter could not be independently verified in time for this story. The ministry also pointed to audited financial statements for the last three years that are posted on the organization's website.
In a statement, Benny Hinn's spokesperson, Ronn Torossian, said the ministry was in the process of determining the best course of action in response to the Senate investigation. "World Healing Center Church complies with the laws that govern church and non-profit organizations and will continue to do so," Torossian wrote.
In a statement to CBS News, Creflo Dollar called his ministry an "open book" and said he would comply with any "valid request" from Grassley. But he noted that the inquiry raised questions that could "affect the privacy of every community church in America."
The other three ministries did not respond to requests for comment from CBS News on Monday.
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.
The letters sent Monday were the culmination of a long investigation fueled in part by complaints from Ole Anthony, a crusader against religious fraud who operates the Dallas-based Trinity Foundation, which describes itself as a watchdog monitoring religious media, fraud and abuse. "We've been working with them for two years," Anthony told CBS News. "We have furnished them with enough information to fill a small Volkswagen."
Anthony said after twenty years of working with media organizations to expose televangelists, he saw little reform. He says that's why he turned to another tactic, going straight to Grassley. He is confident that Grassley's inquiry will be different, "What we hope is that this will lead to reform in religious nonprofits."
The structure of many televangelist organizations - in which the leadership is often concentrated in one person or one family - has itself been the target of criticism. "Churches like these are ruled as a dictatorship," says Rod Pitzer, who directs research at Ministry Watch in North Carolina, which provides advice for donors to Christian organizations.
Pitzer welcomes the Senate committee investigation. Ministries lacking accountability, he says, "give a black eye to churches and Christians who are trying to do things in the right manner."
Shades of things to come if Hillary is elected. The Good Reverend James Dobson better get his financial books in order.
Don’t ever complain I didn’t warn you folks.
What about the Reverends Sharpton and Jackson? They claim to be preachers simply to avoid taxes.
Maybe so, but odd that I find no “probes” of what goes on in mosques. Maybe other agencies are investigating, but no show trial circuses in Washington DC.
BELIEVE IN THE HAIR!
Good. These rip-off artists take advantage of people and give Christians a very bad name. As a Christian, I am very glad to see this.
Perhaps Jesse Jackson’s and Al Sharpton’s organizations should be added to the list. They seem to have no problem jetting around the country on preacher’s salaries.
“Ole Anthony, a crusader against religious fraud who operates the Dallas-based Trinity Foundation”
Good Ol’ Anthony. Keep up the good work.
I find the timing of this very suspicious.
Dobson's not a Reverend, but thanks for playing.
Good. Several of these guys have zero transparency. Watchdog groups have called them on it and they ignore it. So, if they are clean they will be fine. If not, then, a bunch of folks will need ministering to.
Paula White
Hear, hear! I've always wondered how those professional racial-grievance profiteers manage to evade IRS scrutiny. The gaping double standard is impossible to miss.
He may not be a reverend, but you get the point.
Do you actually believe the Stalinist in democrat party will go after their own???
I don’t know where the truth lies, but one thing is clear and that is that the secular media hate Christians and see them as a threat to Orwellian progressive liberals whose goal includes stamping out a belief in a god higher than government. Eliminating televangelists that often reach millions is the most effective way to reach their goal.
Why not investigate the theft of US tax dollars by Air America?
this is the same a-hole who got one of the best new antibiotics taken off of the market because 4 people out of 26 million perscriptions died from liver failure. What they didn’t bother to look at was that those 4 were alchol/drug users who had bad livers to begin with.
Trinity has primarily investigated televangelists such as Robert Tilton, W.V. Grant, Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, and the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Much of its information comes from disgruntled former employees, moles working for ministries who secretly (and under constant threat of termination and lawsuit) provide information to Trinity, and dumpster diving for information. (Under American law, items placed in the trash are considered to be abandoned and thus can be legally obtained by anyone.)
The Trinity Foundation has an extensive video library of televangelists. They routinely take notes of the televangelists broadcasts. The notes go back at least ten years for most shows that air on religious networks. This information is used to aid reporters who are investigating televangelists. The head investigator at The Trinity Foundation is Pete Evans, who is a private investigator.
Regarding Hinn, Trinity claims to have evidence showing that Hinn’s ministry does not qualify as a church under Internal Revenue Service guidelines, as reported by The Dallas Morning News in July 2005. Specifically, Trinity claims that Hinn’s ministry does not hold regular public worship services at its facility, as access is strictly limited to employees with access badges.
Trinity has also investigated the St. Matthew’s Churches, a “seed-faith ministry” which targets the poorest zip codes in America with religious mailings.
Since 1996, Trinity has published The Wittenburg Door, a Christian satire and humor magazine.
A former member, Wendy J. Duncan, has written a book, I Can’t Hear God Anymore: Life in a Dallas Cult claiming that Trinity Foundation is a cult.
All animals are equal. Some are more equal than others. - Animal Farm by George Orwell, former socialist and leading critic of Stalinists.
Dr. Dobson has recently been fully exonerated by the IRS.
Of course not. And that's the outrage.
The Lib-Rats' selective sense of justice and unequal application of law are as glaring as sunlight on an eastbound morning commute.
I wouldn't hold your breath on that one. Keep in mind that this is one of the many spineless Republicans that now fill a Party that has become as hollow as the Democratic Party. It is my guess that in 2008 conservatives will continue to send members of their Party into retirement.
“I don’t know where the truth lies, but one thing is clear and that is that the secular media hate Christians”
Some people express their hatred of Christ by posing as his minister to fleece those who really do believe.
Check this out: http://youtube.com/watch?v=qxqRN5vjDHQ
Imagine that.
Our tax $$ at rest / at waste ...
Just leave Pastor Melissa Scott alone.Please, just leave her alone!
And here you have one on Benny Hinn
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/media/miracles.wmv
You guys are getting horndogged over some woman televangelist? Weird.
Rules...
Paula White
Only the beginning. Coming soon to a church near you.
That's really not a lot of information from among all six of the named ministries.
I'd bet that 900 illegally-obtained raw FBI files would require a larger storage area than a small Volkswagen.
Wow. I didn’t know he was audited.
bttt
The Senate Finance Committee investigating others?!!!???
This is laughable. They really need to investigate themselves first and let the good people of these ministries take care of their own affairs. How about investigating how the terrorist funding Saudis are buying up land and buildings to create jihadi mosques under assumed names all over the US???
Yes, Americans for Separation of Church and state together with (I believe) the ACLU filed a large complaint alleging that FOTF had violated election laws.
They received a clean bill of health.
Yes, I have been disheartened by the many good conservatives who have abandon politics in the last few years, like Dick Armey, Phil Gramm, Tom DeLay, Zell Miller (D), and others but we must remember that conservative and Republican are not synonymous.
The Democrat Party has been taken over by the left and, as things now exist, it is almost impossible to start a third party and build all the necessary infrastructure to make it successful. Therefore, the best hope for conservatives is to build within the Republican Party.
To abandon them for not being perfect is the best solution for the left. Don’t like Rudy, Mitt, Duncan, Fred, or John?? Then a no vote or symbolic vote of protest is a vote for Hillary and the final destruction of our country as we know it.
IMO, many of those supposed strong conservatives who claim they will not vote for so-and-so, no matter what, are really leftist moles trying to divide us. I would like to think that true conservatives are smarter than that.
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.
The Christian Church should have culled out these serpents a long time ago, but the corporate churches are ineffective and powerless to do anything. That leaves it to the government to investigate frauds, and this is a great bunch with which to start.
Is the Senate probe investigating whether they have violated the Church Dictatorship law? Wouldn't the Catholic Church be subject to this law?
I am very familiar with the Trinity foundation. I have ordered books and dvd’s from their website. To call them a cult is lame. Their magazine has interviwed everyone from R.C. Sproul to Rob Bell. Wittenberg door is a well known satire magazine thats has even been posted from on this site.
This is just nonsense... whatever you think of the folks being investigated, what they do with THEIR personal salaries is their business. If their churches/ministries have allowed the salaries to be abundant, it’s their problem not the federal governments or yours or mine.
They have boards of directors to regulate that.
I’m not big on ANY of them, but have listened to quite a few for long enough to understand that when it comes to finances, they do preach that personal responsibility will bring financial success which is true. Republicans joining in on this witch hunt are acting out the class envy that the libs do with this one.
No doubt there are crooks in every profession. I have sent a few $25 checks to James Kennedy by choice, but I am forced at virtual gunpoint to send some $30,000 annually to the mostly secular feds and I ask you, which has the greater number of frauds?
If we could get Congress and these mega ministries under control we could clear our deficits. The Church is its own worst enemy and their is good reason to tax it.They are almost as unbridled as Congress.
Grassley is a RINO.
Also, Sharpton and Rev. JJ should be on the top of the list.
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