Investigate TV holy rollers: Grassley
p2pnet news | TV:- Could it be some TV preachers aren’t devoting all their incoming millions to doing God’s work?
US senator Chuck Grassley believes that may be the case and accordingly, he wants some of the America’s best-known TV holy rollers, or televangelists, as they’re better known, investigated.
They including faith healer Benny Hinn (right) and best-selling Christian book author Joyce Meyer, says the Washington Post.
It says after receiving reports of lavish spending at the ministries, Grassley wants detailed documentation of the finances of the organizations.
“All of the ministries have been the target of complaints for years by watchdog organizations alleging that the groups’ charismatic leaders dip deeply into donations to fund extravagant lifestyles.”
MinistryWatch.com, quoted in the story, has already recommended would-be donors put Benny Hinn Ministries and the Trinity Broadcasting Network on their forget lists.
It also says claims by one Leroy Jenkins, “Do Not Hold Up Under Scrutiny, cites “fraudulent solicitation for Victory Orphan Center International” and wonders, “Where lies the Christianity of Christian Children’s Fund?”
Hinn spent a lot of time in Canada before travelling traveled by bus from Toronto to Pittsburgh, “to attend a ‘miracle service’ conducted by evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman, says the Wikipedia.
He was, “born in Jaffa, Israel to Palestinian Arab parents,” it says, continuing, “He was raised within the Greek Orthodox Church, and attended Georges Vanier Secondary School in Toronto, Canada, where he was known as Teufik Hinn. He states that his father was the mayor of Jaffa; and that as a child, he was socially isolated and handicapped by a severe stammer, but was nonetheless a first-class student. These claims, however, have been disputed by some of his critics.”
For Hinn, doing the work of the Lord has been good, very good, not to mention highly remunerative, says MinistryWatch.
His salary is, “somewhere between half a million and a million dollars per year”and he also gets royalties from the sales of his books, says the site, going on:
- Personal perks for Hinn, family and his entourage include a $10 million seaside mansion; a private jet with annual operating costs of about
- $1.5 million; a Mercedes SUV and convertible, each valued at about $80,000;
- What the church termed ‘layovers’ between crusades included hotel bills ranging from $900 per night to royal suites that cost almost $3,000 for one night’s stay. Layover locations included Hawaii, Cancun, London, Milan and other exotic locations.
- Beverly Hills shopping sprees;
- Receipts showing Hinn’s daughter receiving $1,300 in petty cash; her boyfriend getting $2,550 for babysitting; $23,000 in cash dispersed to
- Hinn and his wife; and, $25,000 in cash for expenses for a crusade – 30 minutes away from Hinn’s home;
- Hinn continues to espouse the theologically-suspect self-serving Word-of-Faith or ‘prosperity’ gospel. Jesus and his followers never amassed personal wealth through their ministry and instead lived a clearly sacrificial life. Hinn would be wise to follow this example and encourage his followers to do likewise as this would lead to much greater spiritual prosperity, the value of which far exceeds anything material
“Television producer Nathan Daniel, a former BHM employee who was hired to improve the public image, instead reported to NBC, ‘There was never one complete record that would suit the criteria for documented miracle healing’.”
Also being investigated, says the New York Times, are:
- The Rev. Creflo A. Dollar Jr. and his wife, Taffi, of World Changers Church International, based in College Park, Georgia
- Paula and Randy White, “a dynamic young couple” who started Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries in Tampa, Florida.
- Joyce Meyer who, with her husband, David, runs Joyce Meyer Ministries from Fenton, Missouri
- Bishop Eddie L. Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia
- Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries of Newark, Texas.
“The ministries, although far larger and more diversified than the average church, are classified by the Internal Revenue Service as churches and do not have to file the I.R.S. 990 forms required for other nonprofit organizations,” notes the NYT.
Reports on Grassley’s interest don’t say if he’s also planning on investigating the so-called 419 Nigerian scams which, says MinistryWatch.com, target Christians as easy marks.
Also See:
Washington Post – Senator targets finances of biggest televangelists, November 7, 2007
New York Times – Senator Questioning Ministries on Spending, November 7, 2007
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for the download, and here for details. Click here or here to learn how to by-pass censorship in your area.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:18 am
God is the voice in peoples minds.
You know, the voice that tells them to do bad things and sometimes good things.
Other, non-sociopaths, call it a conscience.
Is Gods to-do list written down somewhere?
And could I have a price list please, RRP preferable.
Oh, that’s just dandy, he’s an incorporeal being and cannot hold a pen so I’ll just take your word for it. Ha.
Why should anyone trust anyone who wants money to ’save your soul’?
Sounds like the devil is doing big business over there
“The richer the clergy, the thicker the flock”
What do they sell anyway? Goodwill?
With Tax exemptions and an intangible product, the ultimate pyramid scheme for the lazy, the liars and the cheats perhaps?
Wake up sinners, don’t go to church and switch off the TV!
God told me so
“To the lions with them!”
November 7th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Some are corrupt but some of those costs are in principle reasonable. e.g If you go some where to preach staying in a hotel (in a regular room) and a hotel bill for laundry is a must. Having a comfortable car for long journeys or plain tickets is also a must. House and pension plan are also very reasonable if there value is not say 2x the national average. Other than this most of the money made should go towards gods work.
We don’t expect them to live as bums but within reason.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I have spent the last 6 month working on the road. I too appreciate a good hotel and a comfortable car. But what is listed in this article goes well above and beyond that.
November 8th, 2007 at 10:02 am
A cute little saying. if God didnot want them sheared. he would not have made them sheep.
November 8th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
i’m not sure how much we should draw a comparison between today’s ministers and jesus and his disciples. jesus’ work was to prepare the world for the church to set up shop till he comes back… you know die on the cross and rise from the dead. that is not the calling of the church today. it is to go into all the world. the poor world and the rich world. you don’t reach the world on a beggars salary. how would you live if you had say 10 best selling books published. how do you live today? do you spend most of your salary say making $50,000. well if you made say $500,000 you would still live to the max of your salary. and by the way the only job specific disciple mentioned was the treasurer of jesus.
December 20th, 2007 at 10:13 am
A person should be free to think whatever he wishes. That’s what religion is. But, when a person or group of people buy a plot of land and erect a building, that imposes a burden on the local fire and police departments and those who wish that building to be protected should pay for that protection. That’s only fair. Also, whatever money a minister, priest, or rabbi receives should be taxed as ordinary income. Contributions to churches should not be tax-deductible. If people who give to churches receive something of value, then they should pay whatever the local prevailing sales-tax is on their “contributions.”
If, as the Bible says, God created the heavens and the earth and the oceans and the forbears of every living thing in six days, why is it that He cannot pay for the buildings where people kiss his a** and the salaries and wages of those who are involved in the promotion of all such nonsense? See Exodus 26 where it says, essentially, “And the Lord spake unto Moses . . . tell the Israelite people that I want gifts . . . and the acceptable gifts are: gold and silver and gems and tanned dolphin skins and red and purple linen and fine oil . . .” while, at the foot of the mountain there were two and a half million thirsty, hungry refugees waiting to hear from Moses what relief the Lord was going to supply . . .
Those who are familiar with the history of the Ancient Near East know that Canaan was under continuous control by Egypt from around 1550 BCE, when the Egyptians drove the Hyksos out of Avaris and conquered them at Sharuhen, a few miles south of Gaza, until 1141 BCE when Rameses VI withdrew Egyptian troops from Canaan and Midian to put down a civil war at home. Thus there could have been no violent conquest of Canaan as reported in the various biblical accounts. Without the conquest by Hebrew/Israelite refugees, the biblical Moses becomes a fictional or allegorical character.
In Canaan the peasants staged a relatively peaceful revolt which ended circa 1025 BCE when they elected Saul as the first king of Israel. In Midian, the copper miners at Timna tore down the stone temple where they had had to worship the Egyptian goddess, Hathor, gouged a dozen shallow holes in the stone floor where Hathor’s temple had stood, inserted wooden poles to support a roof of red and yellow cloth made of wool and flax, and began the worship of a hitherto unheard of invisible desert warrior god, Yahweh . . . the rest–though not all of it–is history.
April 14th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I’m tired of reading about people hating on these ministries.and about the so called scandals.
God will judge them if they are wrong. Our job is to pray for them not judge them.
If you won’t to talk about corruption look in to the government’s dealing with the native American.
A war that is still going on. They took this land in the name of God with the act’s of the devil. Killing,
Plundering,and stealing. Did he(God) not say in his word “Thou shell not”. If there is corruption in these ministries then let God deal with them. Work out you own salvation with fear and trembling.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Here is another perspective on this that you may want to consider. It’s a blog post called “Kenneth Copeland’s Jet”
http://dougwead.wordpress.com/2008/04/12/kenneth-copelands-jet/
December 4th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
i pray everyone on planet earth and outer space get saved
in Christ allways fat bill page illusionist magician in fun
same bat time same bat channel
December 4th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
david copperfield.com
go in manycool search engines
type in webpages and in groups
type in
dc secrets in a nutshell
type in
how to gain illusion secrets
type in
trickbusters copperfield
type in
alt.magic.secrets
type in
youtube.com
type in
trickbusters copperfield
type in
new masked maician 2008
have a cool safe happy Christmas EVERYONE and i pray that Jesus HAS A COOL birthday
goodnewsbaptist.org
pray-give-go.com
wilds.org
andrekole.org
themaskedmagician.com
groups.google.com/group/alt.magic.secrets/topics