Free Republic

"God knows where the money is, and he knows how to get the money to you." That was the message of Gloria Copeland as she was speaking at the Southwest Believers' Convention recently held in Fort Worth, Texas. The event drew the attention of The New York Times and reporter Laurie Goodstein contributed a compelling report about the meeting and its message. The Southwest Believers' Convention drew a crowd of more than 9,000 to hear an "all-star lineup" of preachers deliver the message of the prosperity gospel. One by one, the preachers and the speakers enticed the gathered thousands by...

Whenever I grab a book to read and sit on the couch, I can always count on my dog to come over and jump up and settle next to me. Just about the time I kick back to relax she lays her head on my lap and gives me that look. Oh how good she is at letting me know what she wants. It is something that will inevitably lull her into a calm relaxed state of mind until I think she has fallen asleep, that is, until I stop pampering her and pick my book to start reading....

A Kenneth Copeland Ministry jet worth $3.6 million has been denied tax-exempt status by the Tarrant Appraisal District, setting the stage for a battle that could require the minister to reveal his salary if he wants the jet to be tax-free. Jeffery D. Law, Tarrant chief appraiser, said the jet was denied tax exemption because the ministry failed to disclose salaries of directors as an application requires. Law said the ministry, based in Newark, northwest of Fort Worth, will protest the denial at a hearing Monday morning. "The application requires that they submit to us a list of salaries," Law...

Al Copeland, a hard-charging, high-living entrepreneur who built an empire on spicy fried chicken and fluffy white biscuits, died Sunday in Munich, Germany, of complications from cancer treatment. He was 64. He had gone to Munich for treatment of his illness, which had been diagnosed in November, said Kit Wohl, his spokeswoman. Born in poverty, Mr. Copeland burst onto the scene in 1972, when he opened his first Popeyes fried-chicken stand, in Arabi. It was the start of a franchise that, under his leadership, had 700 outlets, not only in the United States but also in Puerto Rico, Panama and...

GOP Hopeful Has Close Bond With Televangelist Targeted By Senate Investigation NEW YORK (CBS News) ― Last fall, Mike Huckabee taped an appearance on Kenneth Copeland's popular television show. The theme: "Integrity of Character." "Treat people like you'd want to be treated," Huckabee said. Now some are raising issue with Huckabee's character, principally his judgment, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports. They are focusing on his association with the televangelist, who has refused to cooperate with a Senate investigation into his ministry's finances. At issue, as reported by CBS News last week: whether millions of dollars in...

Gov. Mike Huckabee, vastly outspent so far in his bid for the presidency, has turned for funding to a controversial televangelist who is under active Senate investigation. Late last month, Gov. Huckabee held a fundraiser at the Texas estate of millionaire televangelist Kenneth Copeland, his spokesman tells NBC News. The U.S. Senate currently is investigating Copeland, and five other televangelists, amid allegations that they are improperly using millions in charitable donations for their personal benefit, and, in the process, fleecing their flock. Copeland and the other televangelists have strongly denied those allegations. “The Huckabee Event was not hosted by Ken...

A Christian nonprofit group says a Texas televangelist turned a national ministers gathering into a fundraising chance for GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette today reports the Trinity Foundation, a charity that monitors televangelists, viewed a live Internet broadcast of the event. The foundation reports the fundraiser took in $111,000 and generated pledges nearing one million dollars.

Via the folks at the Trinity Foundation/Wittenburg Door, there is a report that GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee reached out to televangelist Kenneth Copeland for some fundraising help. Copeland is one of several televangelists under investigation by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and a proponent of the so-called "prosperity gospel." Trinity cites a blog post by former George H.W. Bush staffer Doug Wead to the effect that Huckabee called Copeland during a ministers' conference last week that Copeland was hosting. Wead reports: "Copeland, carefully observing all the laws governing non profits, as a private citizen, re-convened a private meeting, turned...

The drummer for The Police has apologised to the Chilean president after apparently implying that he found her less attractive that her Argentinian counterpart. Stewart Copeland's coarse remark risked overshadowing the Santiago leg of the band's comeback tour of South America, after his comments were picked up by the local press. In an interview given to a Chilean magazine he reportedly said: "Look, the future President of Argentina would be good for one beer; yours (would be good) for four."

Huckabee Undeterred by Senate Probe of Copeland Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is standing by televangelist Kenneth Copeland as the U.S. Senate investigates the ministry’s potential financial misconduct. Fri, Nov. 23, 2007 Posted: 19:23:03 PM EST Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is standing by televangelist Kenneth Copeland as the U.S. Senate investigates the ministry’s potential financial misconduct. Copeland has given his support to Huckabee and appears in ads with the Republican candidate in the religious magazine Charisma to promote the ministry’s upcoming TV special. Despite the potential negative effect, former Baptist preacher Huckabee has expressed his trust in the Copelands and will...

Two of the most prominent faces in American televangelism, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Fort Worth, preach the gospel of financial prosperity. But News Eight learned some former business associates are wondering why that gospel didn't apply to everyone in the flock. The people who ran Affordable Homes Limited said it was just about to take off when the Copelands suddenly backed out and left tens of thousands of dollars of debt. While limited partners like the Copelands have no financial obligation to pay the company's debts, the question being asked by creditors is how do the Copelands later pay...

On this date March 22,1978 The Police sign to A&M Records (on the strength of their recorded single Roxanne).

TURIN, Italy -- Before we have the privilege of chatting with presidential daughter Barbara Bush -- or, before we attempt to chat with her while she gives us a withering, Medusa-like stare -- we have the privilege of standing in the cold outside a place called Club Bud, where we have the privilege of shouting questions at a woman who is apparently well-known in Italy for being a showgirl. SNIP And then, as if out of a dream, sitting by themselves on a long expanse of red couch, are first daughter Barbara Bush and an Unidentified Female Companion. Barbara accompanied...

On eve of fraud trial, Christian investors say they were betrayed When Gregory Setser's import empire came crashing down two years ago, little was left to pay back hundreds of investors and church groups who funded his International Product Investment Corp. with at least $160 million. Big-name evangelists and everyday churchgoers are among those who were invited to invest in a plan to import cheap, foreign-made goods for pre-arranged sales to retailers like Garden Ridge, Kmart, Michaels and Pier 1. But what remained after the Securities and Exchange Commission shut the company down serves as testament to the lavish California...

MOVIE SUPERSTAR AND REPUBLICAN activist Arnold Schwarzenegger is quietly examining his prospects as a write-in candidate for governor in the November election. Pollsters working for Schwarzenegger's after-school programs initiative, Proposition 49, interviewed likely California voters last week about a possible Schwarzenegger write-in candidacy. When the Weekly asked his advisers, who include some of the most senior members of former Governor Pete Wilson's political team, to elaborate on the poll and the actor's goals, they did not have an immediate answer. Eight hours later, Sean Walsh, an adviser to Schwarzenegger's initiative, got back with an answer steeped in campaign jargon. "They...

<p>A spitting Druid who wants to govern the state has lost his Libertarian endorsement in the latest twist of the strongest third-party campaigning in years.</p> <p>None of the four minor-party candidates expects to win the election, but together, they're determined to trip up the increasingly unpopular Gov. Davis and Bill Simon.</p>