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(CNN)Jan Crouch, a co-founder of Trinity Broadcasting Network and popular televangelist, has died following a stroke, her son announced Tuesday via a posting on his and his wife's website. She was 78.

Current and former leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention were reportedly in attendance for a two-day meeting in Texas to galvanize the Religious Right behind Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the 2016 presidential election.A Southern Baptist Convention official gave positive reviews to a private gathering of roughly 300 pastors and faith leaders aimed at consolidating religious conservatives to support Sen. Ted Cruz in the upcoming Republican presidential primaries. Paige Patterson Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, described remarks by Cruz to the two-day gathering at the Cisco, Texas, ranch of fracking billionaire Farris Wilks...

...The crowd was so large that when Cruz spoke the Wilkses had to open the pool patio doors to accommodate about 100 guests who stood in 28 degree weather to listen to the senator.Cruz allies said the two-day gathering, capping off with a rally where Cruz delivered his standard stump speech, followed by a performance from the Christian rock band The Newsboys, was an overwhelming success. By the end of the six-hour meeting Monday, dozens of the visitors lined up outside a closed room to tape video endorsements of the Cruz presidential bid. Some attended Super PAC and campaign fundraisers...

Anti-Marxist Conscience of the Brazilian Evangelical By Julio Severo A people with no memory is not able to build a good future. So it is fundamental to remember those who played a vital role in the formation of the anti-Marxist conscience of Brazilian evangelicals. Even though many American missionaries had a significant influence in this formation, the most important impact came from American televangelists, who had a vastly higher reach of audiences, both evangelical and non-evangelical. Pat Robertson in 1978 In 1978, Brazilian TV Tupi broadcast, from Monday to Friday, “The 700 Club,” hosted by charismatic televangelist Rev. Pat...

Pat Robertson has advice for bereaved mothers: your dead baby could have been Hitler ...a viewer asked host pat Robertson what she should say to a coworker who asked her "Why did God allow my baby to die?" ... "As far as God's concerned, He knows the end from the beginning and He sees a little baby could grow up to be Adolf Hitler, he could grow up to be Joseph Stalin, he could grow up to be some serial killer, or he could grow up to die of a hideous disease," Robertson said. ...

Right-wing televangelist thinks the Tea Party senator from Texas needs to tone it down. It’s come to this: even uber-conservative televangelist Pat Robertson is fed up with Ted Cruz’s rabble-rousing. Over the weekend, the Tea Party hero teamed up with fellow Sen. Mike Lee of Utah to hold up a spending bill funding most of the government through the fiscal year, protesting that the measure did not defund President Obama’s executive action on immigration. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the outgoing majority leader, took advantage of Cruz and Lee’s delaying tactics to push through confirmation votes on several Obama administration...

Televangelist Joel Osteen says homosexuality is a sin but he doesn't "preach" about it and isn't against "anybody" who is gay. "I believe that scripture says that it's a sin but I always follow up by saying you know what, we're not against anybody," he added. "There's a lot of things, Larry, and I don't understand — so I just don't want to preach on it, preach about it," Osteen replied.

Televangelist Benny Hinn has asked supporters of his ministry for $2.5 million in donations, which he says an anonymous donor will match dollar by dollar to help him get out of debt. "God wants your ministry to be completely out of debt, and I want to plant an anointed seed that will help you take a giant step toward becoming totally debt-free!" says the anonymous man, whom Hinn calls a "long-time and beloved" friend. "God has laid it on my heart to plant a seed of $2.5 million into your ministry, but God only wants me to make this gift...

Family Feud Reveals Luxuries At Largest Christian TV Network Granddaughter attacks founders, who accuse her of embezzlement The Trinity Broadcasting Network, which also runs the Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando, Fla., is at the center of a family battle. By Erik Eckholm NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — For 39 years, the Trinity Broadcasting Network has urged viewers to give generously and reap the Lord’s bounty in return. The prosperity gospel preached by Paul and Janice Crouch, who built a single station into the world’s largest Christian television network, has worked out well for them. Mr. and Mrs. Crouch have...

Known since the 1950s the "televangelists" American Christians these preachers capable of attracting millions of followers with their fiery sermons, made ​​for television. The Economist this week recounts the rise of their Muslim counterparts, especially in Egypt and Indonesia. An example: Moez Masoud, a young and beautiful Egyptian preacher with a shaved head, which brought together recently in Cairo "hordes of teenage girls," the British magazine, one enthused, "shortness of breath, 'I can see, I can see 'through the gate of her niqab. " Like all his colleagues, Moez Masoud did not receive a traditional religious training, which disturbs the...

A senator's high-profile investigation of spending by televangelists wrapped up after more than three years Thursday with no penalties for the pastors who refused to cooperate and no definitive findings of wrongdoing.

To the Editor: Every church depends by faith on God to supply its needs through the collection of tithes and offerings from its members for its operation. However, churches and ministries should be careful to not abuse that supply or to bring dishonor to God. In this current economic turn-down almost every church and ministry has suffered some loss of income due to the suffering of its members. Yet, it seems that some churches and ministries are deemed to be too big to fail. (Where have we heard that before?) One large church has spent $900,000 more than it took...

(Reuters) John McCain described Rod Parsley, a televangelist who urged a Christian war on Islam, as his spiritual guide Hannah Strange John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has been called upon to renounce a church leader he considers his spiritual guide for urging a Christian war to destroy the “false religion” of Islam. A number of prominent US weblogs demanded he reject the support of Reverend Rod Parsley, of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, an influential televangelist and political figure who campaigned alongside him in the run up to the Ohio primary. On February 26, a week before...

The ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee says the televangelist ministries that he's investigating for alleged financial misconduct may be ignorant about the seriousness of his probe, but they're "not going to get away with their stonewalling." Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) says he is sending out a second letter to well-known "prosperity gospel" ministries, asking them to address allegations they are using their tax-exempt status to pay for lavish lifestyles. Grassley reports he has received the cooperation of only two of the six televangelists under investigation -- Joyce Meyer and Benny Hinn. The ministries of Paula White, Eddie Long,...

The four biggest names in American Televangelism have united for an evangelistic outreach that is truly out of this world. Paul Crouch, Benny Hinn, Pat Robertson and Kenneth Copeland announced earlier today that they have purchased the Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope from the University of Manchester in Great Britain for a reported $130 million. The University had been looking to unload the Radio Telescope after funding for ongoing scientific research had dried up from the British Government. Faith healer Benny Hinn shared a vision that Jesus gave him several months ago, on a recent Praise The Lord broadcast: "I was...

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...

It hasn’t generated a lot of headlines, but in the world of religion and politics, it’s a pretty big deal. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, recently asked six high-profile, hyper-wealthy Pentecostal televangelists for their financial records, under the suspicion that they’re using their ministries for personal gain. (Imagine that.) Not surprisingly, most of the televangelists’ ministries have been loath to cooperate with the inquiry. One in particular is pledging a holy war. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has gone after more than a few iconic nonprofits during his tenure atop the Finance Committee, including...

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...

One believer is bitter that the money she donated to several prominent ministries didn't bring about the material blessings the preachers had assured would come. "I wanted to believe that God wanted to do something great with me like he was doing with them," said Cindy Fleenor, a 53-year-old accountant from Tampa, Fla., according to The Associated Press. "I'm angry and bitter about it. Right now, I don't watch anyone on TV hardly." Fleenor wrote checks to Benny Hinn and Paula White - two popular televangelists - and pledged $500 a year to Joyce Meyer, another prominent evangelist. But Fleenor...