Where's all that money going?
“Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter” (Isaiah 56:11).
“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” (2nd Peter 2:3)
Christianity began as a
new birth in Jesus Christ. When it
went to Athens, it became a philosophy. When it went to Rome, it became an
organization. When it spread throughout Europe, it became a culture. When it
came to America, it became a business.
In view of
billions of lost souls who have never heard
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, imagine how many souls might be saved with
the money wasted on antiques, jets, jewelry, fancy cars, mansions, wardrobes and watches.
Did you know that 2,500,000,000 people in this world live on less than $2 a
day? It's true! Do you want to help Benny Hinn buy another Rolex, or
help a missionary get a megaphone, some Bibles, a bicycle, a warm coat or
even a pair of shoes, all of which are desperately needed. Oh
how foolish are people today with money. Just as Simon learned
in Acts 8:18-19, you can't buy God's blessing and power. It's
not for sale. Don't be deceived by these wolves in sheep's clothing!
The TBN Salaries
In 1998, the Crouches showed a
combined income of nearly $600,000... (OC Weekly) The Crouches occupy two of
three seats on the TBN board of directors and earning six-figure incomes. He
is paid $159,500 a year as president, while she gets $165,100 as vice
president, IRS records show.
“Crouch’s earnings went from
$159,500 in 1997 to $262,915 the following year. Jan, the organization’s
vice president, also received a big raise. Her earnings more than
doubled, going from $159,500 to $321,375 during the same time period”.
(Mike Oppenheimer. Let Us Reason Ministries).
According to 2001 IRS income tax
statements, (990 forms)
“Paul Crouch, president of
California-based Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, received
$403,700. His wife, Janice Crouch, earned $347,500 as the vice president
for the organization, which broadcasts sermons nationally on the Trinity
Broadcasting Network”. (www.rickross.com)
But it gets worse.. information
reported on the organization's most recent Form 990 has Paul Crouch’s
compensation package at $419,000. The compensation package includes salary,
cash bonuses, and unusually large expense accounts and other allowances. (www.charitynavigator.org).
The TBN Building
“Trinity Christian City
International is a dazzling 65,000-square-foot building that houses a new
studio, bookstore and theater, and a richly appointed suite of offices for
TBN founder Paul Crouch. It is an office building, but its TV studios are
designed to look like the inside of a Gothic cathedral, complete with
stained-glass windows and padded pews for the audience.
The building was designed and
decorated at the direction of the Crouches, from the main lobby's baroque
marble staircase and 15-foot-high, molded polymer statue of Michael the
Archangel, to the velvet settees in the executive suite.
When TBN purchased the building
for $6 million, it was a drab, brown stucco-and-glass box, the former home
of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International, and the Crouches
planned only minor changes. A new $1 million face was put on the building
using an "exterior foam insulation system," Hubble (whose Fort Worth, Texas,
construction company put a new facade on the building) said. Balustrades,
columns and other architectural features were made from styrofoam, then
covered with fiberglass mesh, coated with plaster and painted.
The main fountain in front of the
building is used for full-immersion baptisms and is patterned after one in
New York's Central Park. It is fed by a small aqueduct the Crouches call
"the River of Life." Hubble said it cost about $1 million, and landscaping
the property tacked on about $400,000.
Much of the interior features
gleaming marble floors and intricately detailed ceilings. The lobby ceiling
is covered with 217 hand-painted cherubs, many depicting the faces of TBN
employees' children. The cherubs on the lobby ceiling were done by portrait
artist Jane Garrison, who spent 10 months on it. She worked atop a scissors
lift, a week at a time, eight to 10 hours a day, and then went home to
Arkansas to rest before resuming. "By the end of the week, I kept thinking,
'If I have to climb this ladder and do one more cherub ...,' " she said.
"But then I'd get down and think, 'Yes, I'd like to do another.' " Garrison,
who charges $3,000 apiece for full-length portraits at her Fayetteville
studio, would not say how much she was paid for her work at TBN.
The exterior features elaborate
Corinthian columns, colonial balustrades, French wrought iron and Greek
colonnades with dental molding and egg-and-dart detailing. The faux brass
ceilings in the bookstore and bathrooms are polished to a mirror finish.
Austrian-style drapes plunge three stories from ceiling to floor. Everywhere
are hand-painted gold moldings, beveled glass and portraits of cherubs.
The building also features the
"Via Dolorosa," where visitors can stroll a movie set-like replica of the
Jerusalem street over which Christ carried his cross to Calvary, complete
with thunder and lightning effects.
A trio of water-spewing lion heads near the
main entrance are fashioned after those at William K. Vanderbilt's Marble
House in Newport, R.I. Frank McGervey, a Trabuco Canyon painting contractor
who worked on other TBN projects, said the new headquarters was one "to die
for." He noted that a laborious technique was used to apply several coats of
paint to interior walls, giving them a richness much like fine furniture.
(Kim Christensen and Carol McGraw. The Orange County Register. June 2,
1998).
TBN’s
Private Suites
Visitors may stroll the manicured
grounds, browse the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh Gift Shop and relax in a
state-of-the-art Virtual Reality Theater to watch high-definition videos of
the life of Christ. But what most won't see at Trinity Broadcasting
Network's new world headquarters is founder Paul Crouch's 8,000-square-foot
executive suite, which occupies half of the top floor of the three-story
building and is strictly off-limits to the public.
Behind doors kept locked
throughout construction are a wet bar and sauna, a personal gym,
meticulously handcrafted black walnut woodwork and ornate velvet furniture.
The third-floor quarters will
serve as Crouch's executive suite. He broadcasts his "Praise the Lord"
program from the second floor of the building, dubbed Trinity Christian City
International. TBN officials described the quarters as "standard executive
offices" and declined The Orange County Register's request to view them.
Crouch does not grant interviews and would not comment.
But others who have been
inside or helped build the suite say it is more befitting a mansion than
an office building. "This makes Hearst Castle look like a doghouse,"
said Steve Oliver, a master journeyman carpenter.
While scores of hired hands worked
on the exterior and other public areas of the building, Oliver and others in
a crew of highly skilled carpenters spent several months last year on
Crouch's private third-floor quarters. The finished product is "really rich
looking," said Willa Bouwens-Killeen, a Costa Mesa senior planner.
"The wood is the very best
quality, and they used the best craftsmen," she said. "It looks like
something you'd expect in a mansion type of house rather than offices."
Work on the third floor was kept
"under lock and key," said Oliver, whose account was verified by others
involved in the project. He said as many as 40 carpenters worked on the
project at any one time, while Richard Hubble, who owns a Fort Worth
construction company that put a new facade on the building, put the number
at about two dozen.
In either scenario, it required a
lengthy and expensive process to install and finish top-quality black walnut
columns and Corinthian columns, mantels, egg-and-dart moldings, lion's head
inlays and other accouterments.
"There were probably 25
carpenters on that floor for six months," Hubble said. "When you figure
25 carpenters for six months at the California rate of 30 bucks or so an
hour, it costs a bunch."
Adding substantially to the cost
of Crouch's quarters were a variety of expensive, handcrafted woodwork
items, including $825-apiece lions that flank the massive fireplace, and an
array of columns priced at $1,500 each and up. All of the items were crafted
from black walnut, said Stephen Enkeboll, president of Raymond Enkeboll
Designs Architectural Woodcarvings in Carson, which caters to upscale
clients.
"It is what is called veneer
quality, the highest type of wood," he said, declining to disclose how
much TBN spent on his company's products. Money seemed of little
concern, Oliver and others said.
Doors were custom-made at a
carpentry shop set up at the site. Walls were straight-lined with
sophisticated laser equipment, and woodwork was installed in a painstaking
fashion that eliminated visible joints or nail holes. A separate crew of
furniture finishers spent about two months staining and polishing the
woodwork, Hubble said.
Throughout the project, Oliver
said, if anything was deemed to be less than perfect, it was ripped out and
discarded. After he spent three weeks meticulously straight-lining the walls
of a the executive suite dining room, Oliver said, TBN officials walked in
one day and told him to start over.
"They came in, changed their
minds and moved everything over a half an inch," he said. "They threw
all that work away. There's probably 10 grand in that, and they threw it
all away." The Crouches personally inspected the work, Oliver and others
said. Jan, in particular, was quick to change or discard anything she
didn't like, Oliver said.
"She came through once and was
terrorizing everybody," he said. " 'Throw this out, throw that out.' You
could see the smoke coming out of her." TBN officials defended the
renovation project and disputed Oliver's contention that it is a monument to
excess. "I wouldn't say they are lavish," art director Doug Marsh said. TBN
Vice President Terrence Hickey agreed. "We have stayed to the vision God has
given us," Hickey said. "We are careful with every penny."
He said the woodwork and other
appointments are in keeping with the building's overall design theme.
Inexpensive, ultramodern furnishings would be out of place, he said. "You
don't go to IKEA and throw it in there," he said. (By Kim Christensen and
Carol McGraw. The Orange County Register. June 2, 1998.
The Crouch’s Homes
Televangelists Jan and Paul Crouch
of the Costa Mesa-based Trinity Broadcasting Network have purchased a
Newport Beach house for close to $5 million, Orange County Realtors say. The
home was described as "a palatial estate with ocean and city views." The
Crouches had been living in a smaller house in the same neighborhood. The
house they bought has six bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a billiard room, a
climate-controlled wine cellar, a sweeping staircase and a crystal
chandelier. The three-story, nearly 9,500-square-foot house, which has an
elevator, also has a six-car garage, a tennis court and a pool with a
fountain. The house is on slightly more than an acre. Jan Crouch had been
wanting a bigger yard for her dogs, sources said. (Los Angeles Times, Nov 4th.
2001).
One of the Crouch estates is TBN's
ranch in Colleyville, TX, just minutes away from the Dallas/Fort Worth
International Airport. The 80-plus acre ranch is located between the city
limits of Colleyville and Southlake – two of the wealthiest cities in Texas.
The ranch, which contains eight houses and horse stables, is estimated to be
worth about $10 million.
"Hellooooo Woorld!" yells Paul,
who has seen much of it in the past 25 years. He gets around nowadays in a
Canadair Challenger 600 executive jet worth about $13 million. (Orange
County Register, 1998)
Joel Osteen’s
Lakewood Church
“30,000 people endure punishing
traffic on the narrow roads leading to Lakewood Church every weekend to hear
Pastor Joel Osteen deliver upbeat messages of hope. A youthful-looking
42-year-old with a ready smile, he reassures the thousands who show up at
each of his five weekend services that "God has a great future in store for
you." ... Osteen's best-seller, Your Best Life Now, has sold 2.5
million copies since its publication last fall.... In his book, Osteen talks
about how his wife, Victoria, a striking blonde who dresses fashionably,
wanted to buy a fancy house some years ago, before the money rolled in. He
thought it wasn't possible. "But Victoria had more faith," he wrote. "She
convinced me we could live in an elegant home...and several years later, it
did come to pass." ... Osteen's flourishing Lakewood enterprise brought in
$55 million in contributions last year, four times the 1999 amount, church
officials say”. (Earthly Empires, Businessweek.com)
Early in 2001, when the city of
Houston decided to build a new sports/entertainment complex the powers that
be placed the Compaq Center (home to the Houston Rockets) on the market. It
is extremely unlikely that they dreamed it would be leased by Lakewood
church, much less that the church would make a one-time, lump-sum payment of
$12 million to the city for the first 30-year lease period (with an option
to renew). Which, as it turns out, is only the beginning. After all one has
to make the transition from basketball to god, from run of the mill
entertainment complex to a place “unlike any other place in the nation”.. a
$70 million project.
So what kind of place is this one
of a kind worship center going to be. According to INJOY Stewardship
Services, whom Joel Osteen hired as consultants.. “The new complex, which is
to be called Lakewood Church Central, will transform the Compaq Center from
a sports venue to a 21st century worship center. The main floor, which is
now flat (to accommodate basketball and hockey), will be sloped to allow for
direct viewing of the platform. Below the main floor, the current locker
rooms and administrative offices will become the new Children's Ministry
Center-an 85,000-square foot area now being designed by former Disney
artists. The exterior of the building will be enhanced with architectural
elements that carry the interior design features to the outside. As part of
that renovation, new columns will be added to the south and west ends of the
building.
The Lakewood Church Central
arena will seat over 16,000 people yet achieve a sense of intimacy through
state-of-the-art sound, lighting and video. The stage area will allow for
the Pastor's mobility while providing complete 360-degree visibility to
ensure that every seat has a direct view of the pulpit. The stage will be
surrounded by three high-definition screens which provide live image support
for every service. The new choir loft embraces the worship platform in two
curving arcs, with seating for over 250 members.
The Lobby and Food Court, with
its dynamic lighting and decorative features, will create a warm atmosphere
in which the congregation can gather before and after each service. This new
facility will include a bookstore, numerous resource centers, meeting rooms,
and information centers conveniently located throughout the lobby area.
Describing his vision for the
church's new home, Osteen explains: "We intend to share this great resource
and make Lakewood Church Central a gathering point for the entire city of
Houston. The ice rink and basketball facilities will remain open for
families and city leagues. There will be concerts, sporting events, family
conferences, conventions, business workshops, personal growth seminars and
much more -and all of these opportunities will bring in people from all
walks of life. We're going to touch untold thousands of lives in this
place." After it opens in July, he predicts weekend attendance will rocket
to 100,000. Says Osteen: "Other churches have not kept up, and they
lose people by not changing with the times." (Emphasis Ours)
The East Building, a
yet-to-be-built four-story complex, will house the International Broadcast
and Production Center, the Youth Complex, the main Lakewood Bookstore and
the new Grand Entrance. The new broadcast facility will produce Lakewood's
weekly television program, the nation's top-rated devotional program as
determined by Nielsen Media Research. The Grand Entrance and Lobby will be a
spectacular multi-story foyer accessed through towering glass doors.
Cascading water features will surround the main stairway and three new
escalators leading up to the Worship Center Lobby. An array of new
elevators, conveniently located throughout the facility, will aid access to
both the Worship Center and the East Building”.
Incidentally Injoy’s founder John
Maxwell was once pastor of a small church in Hillham, Indiana. Studying the
“correlation between leadership effectiveness and effective ministry” John
founded one business which ultimately led to ‘INJOY Stewardship Services’.
He resigned his pastorate in 1995 to devote full attention to ISS, seeing
“greater potential in the thousands of lives that could be reached through
INJOY…”, He speaks frequently for several high-profile organizations such as
Promise Keepers,
Focus on the Family, Sam's Club, Chick-fil-A, Mary Kay, and various Fortune
500 companies.
“On June 20, 2005, Osteen sat
for an interview with Larry King on CNN’s The Larry King Show.
King introduced Osteen as “evangelism’s hottest rising star, pastor for
the biggest congregation in the United States.” And what does he preach?
Osteen said he doesn’t get into controversial subjects like sin and
judgment. False religions such as Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism don’t
concern him. He doesn’t really know who’s going to hell and who isn’t” (See
Details)
Lakewood celebrates "the king", Elvis Presley
From Ingrid Schlueter of
sliceoflaodicea.com who
“...personally talked with one
Elvis impersonator in Houston who has performed numerous times at Joel
Osteen's Lakewood Church. ... It is somehow a fitting metaphor for
these churches that the false god of their choice is a bloated,
drug-infested rock star who died a lonely, needless and tragic death on
the floor of his own bathroom.”
Also
“It seems Elvis impersonators
are in big demand there as he is performing on the 22nd of October, this
Saturday, for a nurses get together at the church. He said that it
doesn't matter what kind of church he does Elvis at, it all "glorifies
the Lord". He has 20 different outfits, one of which has 1,000 pieces of
cut Austrian crystal and made by the same guy who made Elvis's suit of
the same type. He said he wears a special suit for "Heartbreak Hotel" in
honor of Elvis' first gold record. I haven't quite recovered from the
conversation. Ralph stressed that he doesn't impersonate Elvis, because
nobody can. "I pay tribute to him," he said. "The kids really eat it
up," he added.” (Source)
John Hagee
“Since Hagee and his wife, Diana
Hagee, founded GETV 25 years ago, the organization has gone from a back-room
operation broadcasting Sunday sermons to San Antonio area viewers to a
50,000-square-foot multimedia studio broadcasting to 127 television stations
and 82 radio stations nationwide...
.... According to the 990 forms
for GETV, the organization in 2001 netted $12.3 million from donations, $4.8
million in profit from the sales of books and tapes, and an additional $1.1
million from various other sources, including rental income.
As the nonprofit organization's president,
Hagee drew $540,000 in compensation, as well as an additional $302,005 in
compensation for his position as president of Cornerstone Church, according
to GETV's tax statements.
He also received $411,561 in benefits from GETV,
including contributions to a retirement package for highly paid executives
the IRS calls a "rabbi trust," so named because the first beneficiary of
such an irrevocable trust was a rabbi.
The John Hagee Rabbi Trust includes a $2.1
million 7,969-acre ranch outside Brackettville, with five lodges, including
a "main lodge" and a gun locker. It also includes a manager's house, a
smokehouse, a skeet range and three barns.
Taken together, his payment package, $842,005
in compensation and $414,485 in benefits, was one of the highest, if not the
highest, pay package for a nonprofit director in the San Antonio area in
2001.”
”Hagee's compensation was among the highest pay packages for television evangelists in 2001, according to IRS 990 filings”
In Addition Hagee’s wife “Diana Hagee received
compensation of $67,907 as vice president of GETV and $58,813 as the special
events director for Cornerstone Church.” (www.rickross.com)
Joyce
Meyer... Ministry Headquarters
The
ministry's headquarters is a three-story jewel of red brick and
emerald-color glass that, from the outside, has the look and feel of a
luxury resort hotel. Built two years ago for $20 million, the building and
grounds are postcard perfect, from manicured flower beds and walkways to a
five-story lighted cross.
The driveway to the office complex
is lined on both sides with the flags of dozens of nations reached by the
ministry. A large bronze sculpture of the Earth sits atop an open Bible near
the parking lot. Just outside the main entrance, a sculpture of an American
eagle landing on a tree branch stands near a man-made waterfall. A message
in gold letters greets employees and visitors over the front entryway: "Look
what the Lord Has Done."
The building is decorated with
religious paintings and sculptures, and quality furniture. Much of it, Meyer
says, she selected herself.
A Jefferson County assessor's list
offers a glimpse into the value of many of the items: a $19,000 pair of
Dresden vases, six French crystal vases bought for $18,500, an $8,000
Dresden porcelain depicting the Nativity, two $5,800 curio cabinets, a
$5,700 porcelain of the Crucifixion, a pair of German porcelain vases bought
for $5,200.
The decor includes a $30,000
malachite round table, a $23,000 marble-topped antique commode, a $14,000
custom office bookcase, a $7,000 Stations of the Cross in Dresden porcelain,
a $6,300 eagle sculpture on a pedestal, another eagle made of silver bought
for $5,000, and numerous paintings purchased for $1,000 to $4,000 each.
Inside Meyer's private office
suite sit a conference table and 18 chairs bought for $49,000. The woodwork
in the offices of Meyer and her husband cost the ministry $44,000.
In all, assessor's records of the
ministry's personal property show that nearly $5.7 million worth of
furniture, artwork, glassware, and the latest equipment and machinery fill
the 158,000-square-foot building.
As of this summer, the ministry
also owned a fleet of vehicles with an estimated value of $440,000. The
Jefferson County assessor has been trying to get the complex and its
contents added to the tax rolls but has failed.
Stylish sports cars and a plane
Meyer drives the ministry's 2002
Lexus SC sports car with a retractable top, valued at $53,000. Her son Dan,
25, drives the ministry's 2001 Lexus sedan, with a value of $46,000. Meyer's
husband drives his Mercedes-Benz S55 AMG sedan. "My husband just likes
cars," Meyer said.
The Meyers keep the ministry's
Canadair CL-600 Challenger jet, which Joyce Meyer says is worth $10 million,
at Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield. The ministry employs two
full-time pilots to fly the Meyers to conferences around the world.
Meyer calls the plane a
"lifesaver" for her and her family. "It enabled us, at our age, to travel
literally all over the world and preach the gospel" with better security
than that offered on commercial flights, she said.
Security is important to Meyer,
who says she has received death threats. She has a division of the ministry
dedicated to her safety. Her officers wear pistols; they guard the
headquarters' front gate, keeping out anyone but employees and invited
guests. The ministry bought a $145,000 house where the security chief lives
rent-free to keep him close to the ministry's headquarters.
The family compound
The ministry has also bought homes
for other key employees.
Since 1999, the ministry has spent
at least $4 million on five homes for Meyer and her four children near
Interstate 270 and Gravois Road, St. Louis County records show.
Meyer's house, the largest of the
five, is a 10,000-square-foot Cape Cod style estate home with a guest house
and a garage that can be independently heated and cooled and can hold up to
eight cars. The three-acre property has a large fountain, a gazebo, a
private putting green, a pool and a poolhouse where the ministry recently
added a $10,000 bathroom.
The ministry pays for utilities,
maintenance and landscaping costs at all five homes. It also pays for
renovations. The Meyers ordered major rehab work at the ministry's expense
right after the ministry bought three of the homes. For example, the
ministry bought one home, leveled it and then built a new home on the site
to the specifications of Meyer's daughter Sandra and her husband, county
records show.
Even the property taxes, $15, 629
this year, are paid by the ministry.
Meyer called the homes a "good
investment" for the ministry and said the ministry bears the cost of upkeep
and maintenance because the family is too busy to take care of such tasks.
"It's just too hard to keep up with something like that when you travel as
much as we do," Meyer said.
She said that federal tax law
allows ministries to buy parsonages for their employees, so the arrangement
does not violate any prohibitions against personal benefit. Meyer also said
the decision to cluster the families together was a way to build a buffer to
better ensure privacy and security.
"We put good people all around us," she said. "Obviously, if I was trying to hide anything or thought I was doing anything wrong, I wouldn't live on the corner of Gravois and 270."
The irrevocable trust
Meyer says she expects the best,
from where she lives to how she looks. Much of her clothing is
custom-tailored at an upscale West County dress shop. At her conferences,
she usually wears flashy jewelry. She sports an impressive diamond ring that
she said she got from one of her followers. Meyer has a private hairdresser.
And, a few years ago, Meyer told her employees she was getting a face-lift.
Not everything is paid directly by
the ministry.
Last year, the Meyers bought a
$500,000 atrium ranch lakefront home in Porto Cima, a private-quarters club
at Lake of the Ozarks. A few weeks later, they bought two watercrafts
similar to Jet Skis and a $105,000 Crownline boat painted red, white and
blue that they named the Patriot.
In 2000, the Meyers also bought
her parents a $130,000 home just a few minutes from where the Meyers live.
The Meyers have put the Mercedes,
the lake house, the boat and her parents' home into an irrevocable trust, an
arrangement that tax experts say would help protect them from any financial
problems at the minisry.
Meyer says she should not have to
defend how she spends the ministry's money. "We teach and preach and believe
biblically that God wants to bless people who serve Him," Meyer said. "So
there's no need for us to apologize for being blessed."
Meyer's "trusted" board
For the most part, Meyer can spend
the ministry's money any way she sees fit because her board of directors is
handpicked. It consists of Meyer, her husband and all four of her children —
all paid workers — as well as six of Meyer's closest friends. (Ministry
officials said that daughter Laura Holtzmann has now resigned; state records
still list her on the board.) "Our family is a huge help to us," Meyer said.
"We couldn't do this if we didn't have somebody we trusted."
Board members Roxane and Paul
Schermann are such close friends that for more than a decade they lived in
the Meyers' home. The ministry employed both of them as high-level managers
and in 2001 bought them a $334,000 home. Roxane Schermann no longer works at
the ministry; her husband continues as a paid division manager. The
Schermanns bought the house at the same price from the ministry in January.
Delanie Trusty, the ministry's certified public accountant, also serves as
the ministry board's secretary.
The board decides how the
ministry's money is spent. The salaries of Meyer and her family are set by
those board members who are not family members and are not employed by the
ministry, Meyer's lawyer said. The arrangement meets IRS regulations, the
lawyer said.
"We certainly wouldn't have enemies and people we don't know" on the board, Meyer said. "That wouldn't make any sense. Anybody who has a board is going to have people in favor of you."
Meyer and her ministry refuse to
tell how much the ministry pays Meyer, her husband, her children and her
children's spouses. "I don't make any more than I'm worth," Meyer said.
"We're definitely within IRS guidelines."
Such an overlap between top
administrators and board members concerns the IRS because "the opportunity
to manipulate and control the organization is easier to accomplish," said
Bruce Philipson of St. Paul, Minn., the IRS group manager of tax-exempt
organizations for this region. (Carolyn Tuft and Bill Smith St. Louis
Post-Dispatch 11/15/2003)
Pat Robertson
Pat Robertson is a wealthy man...
An extremely wealthy man. Some estimates put his net worth at 1 billion.
He lives on the top of a Virginia mountain, in a huge mansion with a private
airstrip. He owns the Ice Capades, a small hotel, diamond mines, and until
recently, International Family Entertainment, parent company of the
Family
Channel. How does a televangelist, who is supposedly involved in non-profit
work, manage to create such a fortune for himself? (See
More Details. Off-site link will
open in a new window. CLOSE WINDOW to return here)
The
ministry's income is unavailable, but newspaper accounts say the ministry
paid $18 million in cash for his new 8,000-seat World Changers Church
International on the southern edge of Atlanta. Creflo Dollar flies to speaking engagements across the nation
and Europe in a $5 million private jet and drives a black Rolls-Royce. and
travels in a $5 million private jet. Dollar's ministry became a focus of a
court case involving boxer Evander Holyfield in 1999. The lawyer for
Holyfield's ex-wife estimated that the fighter gave Dollar's ministry $7
million. Dollar refused to testify in the case. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
STLtoday.com 11/18/2003)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Mar. 5, 2000 says this:
The Rev. Creflo Dollar Jr. has unabashedly embraced his name by building a religious empire on the message that his brand of piety leads to prosperity. He drives a black Rolls-Royce, flies to speaking engagements across the nation and Europe in a $5 million private jet and lives in a $1 million home behind iron gates in an upscale Atlanta neighborhood... The World Changers campus sits on a slight hill... Inside the church is a lobby befitting a five-star hotel. Chairs are scattered about on baby blue carpet thick enough to muffle the sound of the stadium-size crowd arriving for a Sunday service... There are no visible traditional Christian symbols - no cross, no image of Jesus, no stained-glass windows...Dollar lives in a $1 million home owned by the church in the Guilford Forest subdivision in southwest Atlanta. World Changers purchased another $1 million home on 27 acres in Fayette County in December. The church has amassed a fortune in real estate, mostly in College Park... As World Changers grew, so did Dollar's emphasis on prosperity. Dollar has no degree in theology. Much of his prosperity message, according to church and his family members, is based on the teachings of friend and spiritual mentor Kenneth Copeland... And a frequent criticism - that the church refuses to help nontithers - isn't true either, Lett said. Tithers simply "have priority," she said. People are not allowed to touch Dollar during services, she said, simply because "the anointing is flowing at that point." She said the church purchased a Rolls-Royce for Dollar's use because "he deserves the best."
The word Anointing has become arguably the most overused, overworked,
misunderstood, misinterpreted term in the Pentecostal and Charismatic
arenas.
Juanita Bynum
The "million-dollar" wedding of
Dr. Juanita Bynum, well-known evangelist and author of the best-selling
Matters of the Heart, to Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III featured a wedding party
of 80, all friends and family, 1,000 guests, a 12-piece orchestra, and a
7.76-carat diamond ring. The black-tie wedding cost "more than a million,"
the bride said, and included flowers flown in from around the world. "My
dress," she says, "took nine months to make. All of the crystals (Swarovski)
on the gown were hand-sewn. The headpiece was sterling silver,
hand-designed. (www.marriage-planner.com).
On that chilly, overcast spring
day, about 900 guests--including relatives, close friends and a quorum of
Christian celebrities--shuffled through the revolving doors of the hotel's
grand ballroom. What awaited them on the other side resembled Paris in
April: gurgling fountains, a 10-piece orchestra, lots of soft candlelight,
and the aroma of roses, calla lilies and cymbidium.
n the midst of this fantasyland,
the bride appeared--wearing a platinum-colored satin gown designed by Tony
Coralle and Peter Abony. The bodice, which was covered in Swarovski
crystals, blossomed into a full skirt with floral embroidery trimmed in even
more crystals. The 50-foot train, which reversed to a deeper shade of
platinum, nearly covered the 200-foot aisle that Bynum walked down
arm-in-arm with her father, Thomas Bynum.
As a young girl, I dreamed of
having a beautiful wedding," Bynum told Charisma. She got her wish.
"Prophetess Bynum looked like a
21st century princess prepared for a royal coronation," said Joyce Rodgers,
an evangelist with the Church of God in Christ, who traveled from Texas to
attend the wedding. Other guests included Texas televangelist John Hagee,
who assisted with the ceremony, and an eight-member camera crew from the
Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).
The wedding party was huge, with
more than 80 men, women and children participating. Bynum's bridesmaids lit
up the processional wearing shimmering pink dusters with rhinestone buttons.
Bynum and her dressmakers created the two-piece ensembles especially for the
occasion.
"Juanita's wedding was fit for a
queen," one guest from Chicago said. (She Tells It Like It Is By
Vanessa Lowe Robinson. Charisma Magazine)
Robert
Schuller: The Crystal
Cathedral
“In September of 1959,
ground-breaking ceremonies were held at the location of the present church
property in Garden Grove, California. The Crystal Cathedral was completed in
1980, from which Schuller now tapes his weekly service and later broadcasts
on his weekly "Hour of Power" television show (begun in 1970). This
cathedral is a vast golden edifice with 10,000 windows, huge video screens,
and a 10-foot tall angel hovering from the roof on a rope of gold. He has
built up a congregation of over 9,500 members in a church that cost over $20
million.
The "Tower of Power" television
ministry makes more than $50 million a year and is beamed to about 20
million viewers in more than 180 countries. Schuller claims to receive
between thirty and forty thousand letters a week and has a mailing list of
over one million people. He has authored more than 25 books, several of them
national best sellers”. (Source: "A Profile of Robert Schuller," by J.P.
Gudel, Forward, Spring 1985.)
Made almost entirely of glass (and
a spiderweb framework of white steel), the star-shaped "cathedral" is
something to behold: over 400 feet long and 200 feet across, rising some 12
stories above the ground, with an angular, mirror-like exterior, its
transparent, sun-lit interior features a giant television screen, and an
altar of rich marble (bearing a natural image that some think resembles
Christ on the cross). The cathedral's pipe organ (with 16,000 pipes, it's
among the five largest pipe organs in the world), the 100-plus voices of the
Hour of Power Choir, or the electric fountain/stream that runs down the
middle of the central aisle. The church seats almost 3,000 worshipers for
Sunday services. But giant, sliding glass doors on the side of the church
allow even more worshipers to watch the services from their cars in the
parking lot.
Boasting over 12,000 panes of
glass, and a sparkling, contemporary bell tower, the "cathedral " is an
Orange County landmark visible for miles around. The new glass tower was
added in 1990, and is a stunning edifice in its own right; at the tower's
base you will find a tiny, dome-shaped chapel housing an uncommon,
cross-shaped crystal. Instead the usual wooden church pews, the “cathedral.”
offers soft, theatre-style, individual seats (each bearing a small plaque
with the name of a donor). During Sunday services, the church offers a
nursery and childcare services. (www.seeing-stars.com)
Schuller's
gospel is the replacement of negative self-concepts with positive ones. To
Schuller, sin is merely the lack of self esteem.
Rodney
Howard-Browne
He and his wife, Adonica, oversee
his $16 million church, which they founded in 1996. The couple live in a
six-bedroom, four-bath lakefront home on Cory Lake in northwest Tampa. The
home includes a dock, spa, pool and gazebo. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
STLtoday.com 11/18/2003)
T.D.
Jakes
“Jakes,
who drives a Mercedes, has moved with his wife and their five children to a
luxurious seven-bedroom home with swimming pool in the White Rock Lake area
of Dallas.
“Flanked by a row of elegant
cedars and surrounded by a tall iron gate, the $2.6 million pink brick
house with fluted cream columns and a four-car garage is imposing even
in this affluent neighborhood. Next door is the former mansion of oil
tycoon H.L. Hunt, once known as the richest man in the world. The Hunt
house has been undergoing repairs, and its lawn has withered to beige.
These days it almost pales in comparison with its neighbor”. (www.trinityfi.org/press/tdjakes01.html)
The Dallas Observer
magazine reports:
“His conferences draw tens of
thousands. His television show, broadcast on both the Trinity
Broadcasting Network and Black Entertainment Television, reaches
hundreds of thousands. He has spawned his own industry, T.D. Jakes
Ministries, which sells his books — 10 in all, with five best-sellers —
and videotapes, the income from which allowed him to spend nearly $1
million last year on a residence in his hometown of Charleston, West
Virginia.”11
The Dallas Observer goes on
to report:
“He says he is not embarrassed
by this, even though his extravagant lifestyle has caused controversy in
his hometown that will likely follow him to Dallas. His suits are
tailored. He drives a brand new Mercedes. Both he and his wife Serita
are routinely decked out in stunning jewelry. His West Virginia
residence — two homes side by side — includes an indoor swimming pool
and a bowling alley. These homes particularly caused the ire of the
local folks. One paper wrote at length about the purchase and made much
of their unusual features. A columnist dubbed Jakes ‘a huckster.’” (Kaylois
Henry, “Bishop Jakes Is Ready. Are You?,” The Dallas Observer
magazine, June 20-26, 1996, pg. 19 and 22)
Benny
Hinn
William
Lobdell, a Times staff, wrote about target-rich environment: the unregulated
industry of televangelism is estimated to generate at least $1 billion
through its roughly 2,000 electronic preachers, including 80 nationally
syndicated television pastors. He told of the founder of the Dallas-based
Trinity Foundation, Ole E Anthony, whose operatives struck dumpster pay dirt
five years ago in south Florida when they found a travel itinerary for Benny
Hinn, the Trinity Broadcasting Network's superstar faith healer who has
filled sports arenas with ailing believers seeking miracles cures. Hinn's
itinerary included first-class tickets on the Concorde from New York to
London ($8,850 each) and reservations for presidential suites at pricey
European hotels ($2,200 a night). A news story, including footage of Hinn
and his associates boarding the jet, ran on CNN's "Impact." In addition,
property records and videos supplied by Trinity investigators led to CNN and
Dallas Morning News coverage of another Hinn controversy: fund-raising for a
$30-million healing center in Dallas that has yet to be built.
According to a June article in The
Dallas Morning News, shortly after Hinn announced his move to Texas, he said
God had told him to build a "World Healing Center," and Hinn appealed for
money. As much as $30 million was collected, but the center was never built.
In April 2000, he told Trinity Broadcasting Network's Paul Crouch, "I'm
putting all the money we have in the ministry to get out there and preach.
The day (to build the healing center) will come. I'm in no hurry; neither is
God."
Also about April 2000, Hinn's
ministry began building a 58,000 square-foot office building in Irving. A
few months after that, in August 2000, a holding company that is a
subsidiary of Hinn's ministry began building a "parsonage" -- a $3 million,
7,200-square foot oceanfront home -- in Dana Point, Calif.
“Nor has Hinn publicly acknowledged his salary, though he told CNN in 1997 that his yearly income including book royalties was somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million. A spokesman has said Hinn generates about $60 million a year in donations”. (The Sun Herald. Posted on Fri, May. 17, 2002).
However in a report dated
07/06/2005 the Denton Record Chronicle says this..
(http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8B5M18O0.html)
(http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8B5M18O0.html)
“According to documents
provided to the newspaper by a watchdog group, the inquiry into the
ministry began a year ago and the IRS has asked for dozens of detailed
answers. The Trinity Foundation has investigated Hinn for more than a
decade. Hinn ministry responses to IRS questions and a purported salary
list for ministry officials are among documents that Trinity members
said they salvaged from trash bins outside Hinn-related offices. The
salary document lists Hinn as CEO and his annual earnings as $1.325
million.” (Emphasis Added)
“Since February of 2001, the Hinn
Web site has been soliciting donations for a new orphanage to be built in
this little town outside Mexico City saying it would be finished “soon.” But
when we checked in Mexico, more than a year-and-a-half later, we could find
no sign of any construction. But the Hinn web site kept promising that
construction would be finished in, “a few short months.” That was news to
the local official in charge of construction in the town, who told us the
Hinn ministry hadn’t even been issued a building permit yet. What we did
find, however, was this sign — curiously not in Spanish, but English —
attached to a house the ministry called it’s ‘temporary orphanage,’ which
appeared to be empty. The Hinn Web site continued to solicit donations”.
(NBC News, Dec. 27, 2002).
“He lives with his wife and three
children in a multimillion-dollar oceanfront mansion near the Ritz-Carlton
hotel in Dana Point…. In an attempt to clear up his image, Hinn suggests
meeting a Times reporter at the Four Seasons hotel in Newport Beach.
Accompanied by bodyguards, Hinn arrives in his new Mercedes-Benz G500, an
SUV that retails for about $80,000. He is dressed casually in black, from
designer sunglasses to leather jacket to shoes… Hinn fiddles with his cell
phone, which sports a Mercedes logo….(Hinn drives an $80,000 Mercedes-Benz
G500.). First, Hinn declines to divulge his salary. (He told CNN in 1997
that he earns between $500,000 and $1 million annually, including book
royalties.) "Look, any amount I make, somebody's going to be mad," he says….
Hinn does reveal that the $89 million taken in by his church in 2002 is a
record for his Grapevine, Texas-based ministry, which has experienced
double-digit growth during the past three years through direct-mail
requests, viewer donations and offerings taken at the Miracle Crusades. By
comparison, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn. had revenues of $96.6
million in 2001, the last year available.
Many of Hinn's financial practices
go against those set forth by the Evangelical Council for Financial
Accountability, an organization that gained popularity after the
televangelist scandals of the 1980s as Christian groups sought legitimacy in
the eyes of donors. The council's standards include maintaining an
independent board of directors with at least five members and allowing the
public to view its finances” (Extracted from the Los Angeles Times July
27, 2003)
Paula
And Randy White
The Tampa Tribune in an article by
Michelle Bearden titled Expensive Walls recently reported: TAMPA - When
preachers Randy and Paula White bought the $2.1 million red-brick house on
Bayshore Boulevard last month, they were already thinking ahead to November.
“We always do a `Table in the Wilderness' Thanksgiving dinner for the
homeless,'' says Randy White, senior pastor at Without Walls International
Church. “Now that we have the space to do it in our own yard, we'd like to
find a way to bus them here for the party.''
The Whites, who came to Tampa 13
years ago, say they sometimes worried they wouldn't have rent money after
they started their church in 1991.
Last year, they claimed a combined
income of $600,000. Of that, $179,000 is Randy White's annual salary from
Without Walls, a church that claims 15,000 members and brings in $10 million
yearly in revenues. Co-pastor Paula White, who is gaining international
acclaim as a televangelist and speaker, is paid $120,000. They also receive
an $80,000 housing allowance from the church. Their ministry owns a jet
airplane, a Cadillac Escalade and a Mercedes-Benz sedan.
The Whites did not reveal whether
they had borrowed funds from their ministry to purchase their home .
(Comparing Financial Accountability Among Evangelists. Cephas Ministries)
James MacDonald
“The former U.S. senator Peter
Fitzgerald has sold his house in Inverness, severing his lifelong ties with
that northwest suburb.... Fitzgerald says that when he and his wife decided
to sell the house last year, they did not state an asking price. Instead,
their agent, Sheila Morgan of ReMax Unlimited Northwest, showed the
property to five prospective buyers. James MacDonald, who is the senior
pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadows and who also delivers a
weekly sermon on a Christian radio broadcast, offered $1.9 million—“My
minimum,” says Fitzgerald—and the deal closed this past October. “It’s a
very exciting house,” says the Rev. MacDonald, “and it’s even better in the
backyard.”” (Emphasis Added). (www.chicagomag.com
- February 2006)
Oral
Roberts
"Roberts'
two California homes, partly for security reasons, were not much discussed
by the ministry. Oral also remained sensitive about press criticism of his
lifestyle. His house in Palm Springs, purchased for $285,000 and financed by
a Tulsa bank, was his only privately owned home. In 1982 ORU endowment funds
were used to purchase a $2,400,000 house in a high-security development in
Beverly Hills. Considered a potentially profitable investment, the house
served as Oral's West Coast office and residence." (p. 355)
"Oral's homes in California
inevitably kept alive the old questions about his personal wealth and
lifestyle. While probably not as probing as the press had been fifteen years
earlier, reporters still took a keen interest in Oral's financial affairs.
In 1981, the Associated Press published Roberts' personal income figures
for the preceding five years--ranging from $70,000 in 1976 to $178,000 in
1978.
"Here is a portrait of the
real Oral Roberts, the man not too many of his admirers know. He dresses
in Brioni suits that cost $500 to $1000; walks in $100 shoes; lives in a
$250,000 house in Tulsa and has a million dollar home in Palm Springs;
wears diamond rings and solid gold bracelets employees `airbrush' out of
his publicity photos; drives $25,000 automobiles which are replaced
every 6 months; flies around the country in a $2 million fanjet falcon;
has membership, as does his son Richard, in `the most prestigious and
elite country club in Tulsa,' the Southern Hills (the membership fee
alone was $18,000 for each, with $130 monthly dues) and in `the
ultra-posh Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California' (both
father and son joined when memberships were $20,000 each--they are now
$25,000); and plays games of financial hanky-panky that have made him
and his family members independently wealthy (millionaires) for life.
(When his daughter and son-in-law were killed, they left a $10 million
estate!)" (Evangelist R.L. Sumner's review of Give Me that Prime- time
Religion by Jerry Sholes)
"In addition to his healthy
income, derived mostly from book royalties, Oral continued to enjoy generous
expense accounts: `The Robertses wear expensive clothes and jewelry and
travel in a company-owned eight-passenger fanjet.' Oral Roberts: An
American Life", by David Edwin Harrell, Jr., Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana
University Press 47405.
Jim
and Tammy Bakker
The Bakkers bought mansions and
luxury cars and the doghouse was air-conditioned. (The New Straits Times,
6th October 1989 The New Paper,6th October 1989). “Jim Bakker, who was
convicted of wire fraud and served five years in prison, said he plans to
start another TV ministry, this time in Branson, Mo”. (Knight Ridder
Newspapers, Sep. 19, 2002)
Mike
Murdock
President
and director of the Mike Murdock Evangelistic
Association, has had several luxury vehicles at his disposal. Some belong to
him, and some are owned by the ministry. The BMW, work at least $69,000, was
a gift, Murdock says, while the ministry bought the Jaguar. He says he got
an idea that allowed him to buy the Cessna Citation 500, worth $300,000 to
$500,000. Federal Aviation Administration documents show that the jet
belongs to the ministry.
Murdock likes to describe himself
as a "Wal-Mart guy." But a $25,000 Rolex adorns his wrist. And he can shoot
hoops on the "NBA-style" basketball court at his estate or take notes with a
$4,500 fountain pen.
Details of Murdock's lifestyle
were pieced together from documents obtained by the Trinity Foundation, a
televangelist watchdog group in Dallas; Denton County property-appraisal
records; a report of a burglary at his home; interviews; and excerpts from
his broadcasts and books. They show a man living a Hollywood lifestyle.
Murdock says he drives a BMW 745,
which typically sells for $69,000 to $75,000. He used to prefer driving a
Porsche to the ministry. He has had at his disposal a ministry Corvette,
Jaguar and Mercedes, Lincoln Continentals and, since August, a corporate jet
valued at $300,000 to $500,000.
Murdock lives in a Spanish-style,
3,177-square-foot adobe house that he calls Hacienda de Paz – or "House
of Peace." He, not the ministry, owns it. Also on the grounds is a
1,660-square-foot building whose use is unclear. The 6.8-acre estate, east
of Argyle, was valued at $482,027 by the Denton Central Appraisal District
in 2002, documents show.
Few get a good view of the estate.
It is protected by a black wrought-iron fence. The gates are monogrammed
with two M's – his initials. On the well-kept grounds, a path winds near a
tennis court and two of at least four gazebos on the property. At various
times, Murdock has had a camel, an antelope, a donkey, ducks, geese, a lion
and dogs. Near one edge of his property, he once kept llamas in a paddock.
He has also had koi and catfish at the estate. He had 24 speakers wired in
trees so he could hear gospel music everywhere on the grounds, he said
during a 1998 broadcast.
Inside his home, Murdock has had
several fish tanks, including a large saltwater aquarium. In the gym,
Murdock can work out with his personal trainer. He can relax in front of his
home theater or in a Jacuzzi. And he can enjoy the fountains in his pool and
living room.
Murdock once kept coin and jewelry
collections valued at $125,000. He reported the information to the Denton
County Sheriff's Department after a theft. Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Patton
said investigators dropped the case because Murdock would not list what had
been stolen.
Murdock has a second Rolex watch,
besides the $25,000 one he often wears, he said during an appearance Oct. 19
in Grapevine. He didn't state its value.
Murdock has said he was given the
watches, expensive suits, several Chevrolet Corvettes, the BMW and a rare
Vetta Ventura sports car – one of 19 made.
From 1993 to 2000, IRS records
show his compensation package averaged $241,685 a year, or about 9 percent
of the $21,040,299 the ministry took in during that period.
Rev.
James Eugene Ewing
The Rev. James Eugene Ewing built
a direct-mail empire from his mansion in Los Angeles that brings millions of
dollars flowing into a Tulsa post office box. The approach reaped Ewing and
his organization more than $100 million since 1993, including $26 million in
1999, the last year Saint Matthew's made its tax records public.
Ewing's computerized mailing
operation, Saint Matthew's Churches, mails more than 1 million letters per
month, many to poor, uneducated people, while Ewing lives in a mansion and
drives luxury cars.
The letters contain an alluring
promise of "seed faith": send Saint Matthew's your money and God will reward
you with cash, a cure to your illness, a new home and other blessings. They
often contain items such as prayer cloths, a "Jesus eyes handkerchief,"
golden coins, communion wafers and "sackcloth billfolds." Recipients are
often warned to open the letters in private and not discuss them with
others.
The approach reaped Ewing and his
organization a gross income of more than $100 million since 1993, including
$26 million in 1999, the last year Saint Matthew's made its tax records
public. And while much of the money is spent on postage and salaries,
Ewing's company receives nonprofit status and pays no federal taxes.
Though Ewing claims it is a
church, Saint Matthew's Churches, once called St. Matthew Publishing Inc.,
has no address other than a Tulsa post office box. It has two listed phone
numbers in Tulsa and both are answered by a recorded religious message.
"He capitalizes on the isolation
of the loneliest and poorest members of our society, promising them magical
answers to their fears and needs if only they will demonstrate their faith
by sending him money," Anthony said. (Ole Anthony, founder of the Trinity
Foundation. a nonprofit religious watchdog group)
"He is, quite literally, the
father of the modern-day 'seed-faith' concept that fuels the
multibillion-dollar Christian industry known as the 'health-and-wealth
gospel.' "The only ones becoming rich are the men like Ewing." (Ole Anthony,
founder of the Trinity Foundation. a nonprofit religious watchdog group).
Ewing's flair for effective, dramatic direct-mail appeals won him jobs
writing for evangelists including Tilton, Rex Humbard and "Rev. Ike." In
many cases, the letters are identical but contain different signatures.
The Trinity Foundation,
which obtained copies of the identical letters, has dubbed Ewing "God's
Ghostwriter."
"We had nine different
televangelists essentially sending out the same letter," Anthony said. "He
(Ewing) makes most of his money by selling these packages to
televangelists." Anthony said one Ewing letter, written for Humbard, brought
in $64 for each copy mailed. Another mailing by Humbard contains a
"sackcloth billfold" and asks recipients to mail a "seed offering" of $19 to
a Boca Raton, Fla., post office box.
A similar letter from Tilton also
contained a "sackcloth billfold" but encouraged recipients to return a "seed
of faith" of at least $709.00. Joyce said Ewing has written for many other
evangelists.
1997: St. Matthew
Publishing Inc., incorporated at Joyce's Tulsa law office, files documents
with the Internal Revenue Service reporting $15.6 million in revenue. Ewing
reports receiving $307,187 in salary and benefits while McElrath reports
$277,000 in salary and benefits.
1999: St. Matthew
Publishing Inc. reports $26.8 million in revenue. Of that, the organization
spent $4 million on salaries, $989,140 on legal fees, $817,000 for housing
and rent and $649,000 on travel. (From the Tulsa World . 4/27/2003).
One of Ewing's letters, written
for evangelist Rex Humbard, reportedly brought in as much as $64 per
mailing. In 1968, Ewing, an eighth-grade dropout, doubled Oral Roberts' cash
flow almost overnight with another mail campaign, sources say. Roberts
rewarded him with an airplane, according to former Roberts aide Wayne
Robinson.
Robert
Tilton
“At
his peak he purchased 5,000 hours of air time per month and appeared in all
235 U.S. television markets. His daily Success-N-Life show reached nearly
every television set in North America. Tilton's
mass-market ministry pulled in an estimated $80 million per year, and
his church drew as many as 5,000 worshippers to Sunday service.
Tilton gleaned the donations by
pitching a narrow, well-oiled version of the Pentecostal "prosperity
gospel." In exchange for $1,000 "vows" from followers, Tilton promised to
lobby God for miraculous improvements in their health and finances.
According to one survey, he spent 68 percent of his air time asking for
money. "If Jesus Christ were alive today and walking around, he wouldn't
want his people driving Volkswagens and living in apartments," explained
Tilton, who favored a Jaguar or Mercedes-Benz and lived a lavish private
life in mansions in San Diego and Dallas.
Then came November 21, 1991. On
that evening, ABC's PrimeTime Live aired the findings of a six-month
investigation into the ministries of Tilton and two other local TV
preachers, W.V. Grant and Larry Lea.
The segment on Tilton was by far
the most damning. At its heart was the accusation that Tilton never saw the
vast majority of prayer requests and personal correspondence sent to him by
faithful viewers. On the air, Tilton promised to pray over each
miracle-request. But on the ground, ABC said it found thousands of those
requests and viewers' letters dumped in garbage bins in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Checks, money orders, and in some cases cash, food stamps, and even wedding
rings sent by followers had been removed for deposit at a nearby bank.
Lawsuits from outraged followers
quickly followed, along with further media exposes concerning dumped prayer
requests. (Tilton claimed the trashed prayer requests were part of a plot
against the church.) State Attorney General Dan Morales launched a fraud
investigation of Tilton's ministry, and the FBI and U.S. Postal Service
subpoenaed the church's records the day after the ABC broadcast” ….
“The problem is that mailing lists
grow stale when the TV screen stays dark too long. Now, though, it's bright
once more. Tilton's toll-free prayer line is up and running, and his Tulsa,
Oklahoma, post office box awaits a hoped-for onslaught from the faithful.
Every weekday between 11 a.m. and noon Eastern Standard Time, a fiberoptic
telephone line carries the voice and image of Robert Tilton out of a small
TV studio in Miami Beach. The signal runs under city streets and across
Biscayne Bay until it reaches WPBT-Channel 2, a public television station in
North Miami. A for-profit affiliate of the station called Comtel beams
Tilton's brand-new Success-N-Life show up through the heavens to a satellite
transponder.
What hasn't changed is Tilton's
repetitious message. He quotes a bit of Scripture and speaks in tongues, but
mostly he pushes emotional buttons: Cancer. Emphysema. Alcoholism. Credit
card addiction. Job layoffs. These ailments can be cured through faith. But
faith requires proof, a "vow." To make a vow, preferably $1,000, call the
800 number on the screen. (When a reporter called the hotline to seek solace
regarding credit card addiction, a telemarketer took less than a minute
recording his name, phone number, address, date of birth, and type of
ailment, promising to pass on the information to Pastor Bob.)
Corporate records show that Tilton
registered his nonprofit Word of Faith World Outreach Center Church Inc. in
Florida more than a decade ago, but the registration is inactive. There are
a few titillating hints in the Broward County court files: a trio of traffic
tickets handed out over the years (one for doing 93 in a 55 m.p.h. zone on
Christmas Eve, another for "failure to use due care," and a third this April
for driving without registration documents.) Computer research reveals 12
addresses used by Tilton in the last decade, three of them in Fort
Lauderdale. But two of those are commercial mail drops, and the last, a
$500,000 waterfront vacation home in the Rio Vista, Florida, neighborhood,
was sold last year as part of Tilton's divorce settlement with his first
wife; ditto for his 38-foot fishing boat.
Federal records show that Tilton
bought a 50-foot Carver motor yacht last year in Fort Lauderdale for
$500,000. In July 1996, he told a judge in Dallas that he was living aboard
and making $4,000 monthly payments on the boat, which he named the Liberty
Leigh. (He is presently building a two-story home on a $1.39 million
oceanfront lot on an island in Biscayne Bay off Miami Beach, and his
ministry owns a 50-foot yacht. His ministry takes in about $24 million a
year)
Cross examination of Leigh
Valentine, September 4, 1996, court testimony:
"Bob's mail ministry is a lie
and a total deception. He does not write those letters. He did not even
proofread them during our marriage. He makes it sound like [he's]
writing to you right now, this is what God spoke to me for your life,
Jesus will appear to you tonight; if you sleep with this little red cord
under your pillow, you will prosper. He doesn't even know what's going
out to those people, and he doesn't care, as long as they send their
money in. One time he said in one of the letters that was sent, I will
be taking these to the East Coast to pray for you by the ocean where
Jesus prayed for his people. So we flew to Fort Lauderdale and we
checked into a four- or five-star hotel on the beach and got a nice
penthouse view... That is stealing from people. Most of those people are
on welfare. They're little Hispanics and blacks. And he even said, what
I do is I look at a map and we go after the ghettoes, we go after those
on welfare, we go after those that don't read, those that are lower
socioeconomic backgrounds. That's who we send our letters to..."
Other
CEO Salaries
“Charity Navigator, America's
premier independent charity evaluator, works to advance a more efficient and
responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of
America's largest charities”. The compensation Package of the following
CEO’s is based on information reported on various organization's most recent
Form 990. The compensation package includes salary, cash bonuses, and
unusually large expense accounts and other allowances. (www.charitynavigator.org).
Paul Crouch’s compensation
package stands at $419,000.
As near as we can tell he is only
out salaried by
Peter Popoff, president of
Peter Popoff Ministries... $550,096
And of course John Hagee (Above)
Other salaries include:
Bob Larson, President of Bob
Larson Ministries... $142,242
Jack Van Impe, President of
Jack Van Impe Ministries International.. $150,012
Ravi Zacharias, President of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries... $179,918.
Ravi Zacharias, President of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries... $179,918.
Hank Hanegraaff, President of
the Christian Research Institute ... $233,759.
While Both CRI and Hank Hanegraaff
(The Bible Answer Man Show) provide invaluable contributions to
Christian Apologetics, sadly much controversy has swirled around Hank’s
finances. See
Greed: Case Study in Bad: CRI
by Bernie Dehler, Executive Director of FreeGoodNews.com.
ENTRY-LEVEL, STARTER JETSUp-and-coming Tilton impersonator Paula White owns a Hawker-Siddeley
"Jet Dragon" – aptly named for the trail of smoke it would leave IF it could
fly or IF she could get parts for this 1965-vintage relic. Truly a vanity
purchase, it's been grounded since she bought it, just so she can SAY she
has a jet. THE CESSNA CITATION CLUB
· Copeland proteges Jesse Duplantis and Jerry Savelle, plus Florida upstart Mark Bishop, each fly their own Cessna Citation 500. They cruise at 400 mph with a range of 1,400 miles and carry a price tag of about $1.25 million each.
THE GRUMMAN GULFSTREAM GUYS
· Fred Price, Creflo Dollar and Brother Benny Hinn all have their own Grumman Gulfstream II's. With a two-man crew and 19 passengers, these babies cruise at 581 mph with a range of 4,275 miles. Used, they're worth about $4.5 million each.
THE BIG-BUCK BOYS, THE CHALLENGER 600s
· Paul Crouch owns the current Queen of the Flying-Televangelist Fleet – a Bombardier Challenger 604. Carrying a crew of two plus 19 passengers, she cruises at 529 mph with a range of 3,860 miles. She's valued at $16.5 million, not including Paul's "special interior remodeling."
· The late Ken Hagin's Challenger 601, about 10 years older than Paul's, is "only" worth about $9.6 million.· Recently exposed uberspender Joyce Meyer has her own Challenger 600. A full 18 years older than Paul's, this one's only worth a paltry $4.5 million. Let's hear it for Joyce's frugal stewardship!
KENNY COPELAND – UNDISPUTED KING OF THE FLYING COWBOYS
· His Cessna Citation 550 Bravo (valued at $3.4 million), PLUS his Grumman Gulfstream II (worth $4.5 million) AND his Cessna Golden Eagle AND his Beech E-55 AND his assorted lesser aircraft AND his own airport all add up to untold millions of poor folks' dollars. But Kenny's masterstroke is the fact that he's now telling the faithful that God wants him and wife Gloria to EACH have their own Cessna Citation Ten super-jets. Flying just below the speed of sound, these state-of-the-art flying palaces carry a base sticker price of $20 million! That means when "God" has his way, the widows and orphans will have "invested" just about $50-60 million in Kenny's Heavenly Air Force.
- UPDATE: “Over the past several years
Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been believing God for a Cessna
Citation X jet—a plane they would be able to use in fulfilling their
God-appointed assignment and the calling on Kenneth Copeland Ministries
to take the Word of God to the world—from the top to the bottom and all
the way around. At 2 p.m. on Friday, July 22, 2005, we made the initial
deposit and signed the order for Citation X #240. We will take delivery
on the plane the first week of March 2006”! (http://elitecxteam.org/update.php)
Conclusion
“There are bound to be some people
who will read this article and say to themselves, "So the leadership live in
nice houses or nice areas, so what? This is God's way of blessing them. They
deserve this for leading God's people." I wonder if these people ever really
stop to think about what they are saying? Do they really believe that God
would bless those in leadership with lifestyles that totally contradict
everything that Jesus taught. He and the men who led the first century
church led by example. They were servant leaders. Ask yourself if any of the
apostles would've chosen pricey homes or affluent areas for themselves. More
to the point, would Jesus have done so? Ask yourself if the apostles would
have used the contributions and tithes of the people in order to have done
so? More to the point, would Jesus have done so?” (Leadership Lifestyles
of the International Churches of Christ. Timothy Greeson)
(Apparently the International Churches of Christ
also has problems with extravagant
lifestyles of some of the leadership.
READ ARTICLE)
The Meyer Family
CompoundPhoto by Robert Cohen, St Louis Post Dispatch
Joyce Meyer Ministries bought these 5 homes for Meyer and her family. The Ministry pays all expenses, including landscaping and lawn care, property taxes and rehab work. Meyer, her husband and each of their four married children live in the homes, free of charge.
Bought: April 27th, 1999
Purchase Price: About $795,000
Square Footage: 10,000
Cost of Improvements: $1.1 Million
Features: 6 Bedrooms, 5 Bathrooms, Gold Putting Green, Swimming pool, 8 Car Heated and Cooled Garage, Guest House with 2 more bedrooms, Gazebo.
Bought: February 12, 2002
Purchase Price: $400,000
Square Footage: About 5,000
Cost of Improvements: About $250,000
Features: 4 Bedrooms, 3 full and 2 half Bathrooms, All-Seasons room, Prayer Room, Media Center and a Home Office.
Bought: June 18, 2001
Purchase Price: $725,000
Square Footage: 4,000
Cost of Improvements: Unknown
Features: 2 Story Colonial, 4 Bedrooms, 2 1/2 Bathrooms, 2 Garages and a Utility Shed
Bought: March 7, 2001
Purchase Price: $350,000
Square Footage: 2,358
Cost of Improvements: $3,000
Features: 3 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms with a Fireplace.
Bought: Mar 13, 2000
Purchase Price: About 200,000
Square Footage: About 2,000
Cost of Improvements: $33,000
Features: Brick Ranch With Full Finished Basement
L. Ron Hubbard (Founder of Scientology) once said "Writing for a penny a
word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the
best way would be to start his own religion."
While our modern day evangelists have not started their own religion,
they have unquestionably improved on Hubbard’s idea. Capitalizing on
Christianity has proved to be far more lucrative than starting a new
religion.
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