Senator Chuck Grassley wants some information. Lots of it. He has begun an investigation of six mega-ministries that have been covered in media reports recently. As the press release explains, Grassley wants organizations that are tax-exempt to be accountable to their donors. He is concerned that the boards are not acting independently but rather, the release implies, are acting like crony enablers of the luxury habits of the founders of the various ministries.
His letters requesting information are a revelation in themselves. See
- Without Walls International Church
- World Healing Center Church
- Joyce Meyer Ministries
- New Birth Missionary Baptist Church
- World Changers Church International
- Kenneth Copeland Ministries
The Kenneth Copeland Ministries letter requests a laundry list of information about finances, names and addresses of auxiliary units, board members and compensation committee members, assets, jets, vehicles, domestic and foreign accounts, compensation to the founding family (salary, housing, and other forms of compensation, and any loans), expenses to maintain residences, credit cards, expense accounts, personal use of ministry assets, and on and on.
In particular, the letter asks for information about property transferred to the ministry from the estate of Paul Pewitt. Is the Copeland cattle ranch on that property, and if so, how did that come to be? Is that property to be used for the purportedly planned "revival capital of the world" for which money has been raised and if so, how? What about the for-profit corporation Security Petrol, Inc. formed with the church's mineral lease? Where did the cash come from and who has interests in the corporation? What about a series of other for-profit corporations and their relationship to the founding family?
A number of critics of these mega-minstries are at watchdog groups, according to Michelle Bearden, Without Walls Finances Face Senator's Scrutiny, Tampa Tribune, Nov. 6, 2007. Ole Anthony, of Dallas-based Trinity Foundation, noted that "some are committing outright fraud, and it's getting worse, not better, as time goes on." Rodney Pinzer, of Ministrywatch.com, noted the problem that these "prosperity gospel" ministries are "intended to make their leaders wealthy."
The Tampa Tribune was one of the papers that broke stories about problems at the Without Walls ministry, which is one of the largest nondenominational ministries in the nation. The church took in about $40 million in 2006. It provided financial statements after the Tribune's original story, but those statements don't provide much accountability in terms of details of spending or information on compensation paid to top officials. The Tribune story had told about an elderly widown from whom the ministry "borrowed" $170,000 without providing care or repayment until after the story broke and another person who had "won" a significant award and been used in the ministry's publicity but had not received any such award until after the Tribune story broke. Without Walls Finances Face Senator's Scrutiny.
There's a considerable amount of smoke here to make one wonder if Grassley isn't likely to turn up a fire.
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