Christianity
began as a personal relationship with
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)
Please
read the 700 Club EXPOSED!
Also,
the 700
Club refuses to disclose it's finances
to the BBB.
Creflo
Dollar
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)
‘I do
think we need some Christians who are in
first class as well as coach,’ Jakes
said.” (Jim Jones, “Rising-star
evangelist ministers to interracial
congregation,” The Fort Worth Star
Telegram, Aug.)
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)
“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)
For
a Comprehensive List of Articles
exposing false prophet Benny Hinn, GO
HERE
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.
SOURCE:
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/1997-11-06/feature2.html/page1.html
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..."
SOURCE:
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/1997-11-06/feature2.html/page1.html
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.
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.
They're
Leavin' On a Jet Plane
by
Pete Evans & Todd Bates ( www.wittenburgdoor.com)
ENTRY-LEVEL,
STARTER JETS
Up-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 Compound
Photo
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.
-
Residence
of: Joyce and Dave Meyer
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.
-
Residence
of: Daughter, Sandra McCollom
and her husband Steve
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.
-
Residence
of: Son, David Meyer and his
wife Joy Meyer.
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
-
Residence
of: Daughter, Laura Holtzmann
and her husband Doug
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.
-
Residence
of: Son, Dan Meyer and his
wife Charity
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.
