Megachurches under scrutiny

“Well, you need to hear about money, because you ain’t gonna have no love and joy and peace until you get some money.”
— Rev. Creflo Dollar (July 20, 1999)

Charles E. Grassley, the conservative Republican senator from Iowa, has put six cable television megachurches on notice that they may be subject to increased scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service. On Nov. 6, 2007, Grassley announced that he was asking the megachurches to disclose all receipts and expenditures, including the salaries of church employees and directors. The senator wants to know if the television ministries are being used for excessive personal enrichment of church officials, contrary to IRS regulations.

The six television ministries targeted by Grassley are among more than a dozen that regularly broadcast on cable television channels, raising millions of dollars annually in the process. They include:

Joyce Meyer Ministries in Fenton, Mo. Her program appears in Prince William County at 8 a.m., Monday through Friday, on the Discovery Channel. Among other things, Grassley wants to know if
Joyce and her husband have paid taxes on “gifts” of cash and jewelry from donors. He also wants to know about lavish homes that were paid for by the ministry for various members of the Meyer family.
Two of many items questioned by Grassley include an $11,000 French clock and a $19,000 pair of vases for the ministry headquarters.

New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. According to Grassley, Bishop Eddie Long, who pastors the church, gets an annual salary of $1 million plus a $350,000 Bentley and a nine-bathroom mansion situated on 20 acres. Reacting to the Grassley inquiry, Long told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “You’ve got to put me on a different scale than the little black preacher sitting over there that’s supposed to be just getting by because the people are suffering.” Long is himself African-American.

Benny Hinn, a TV preacher who runs the World Healing Center Church in Grapevine, Texas. Hinn travels the world in a ministry-owned Gulfstream jet, preaching and performing faith healing. Commonly, dozens of “ailing” parishioners appear on the stage with Hinn, who utters a prayer and pushes each person on the forehead. The parishioner immediately collapses, but thereafter claims to have been healed. Hinn lives in a seven-bathroom, eight-bedroom “parsonage” that overlooks the Pacific Ocean and which is valued at $10 million.

Rev. Creflo Dollar runs the World Changers Church International in College Park, GA. Dollar drives a Rolls Royce and has large homes in Georgia and New York, all paid for by his church. Dollar was the only minister to openly defy Grassley, stating that the senator would have to issue a subpoena to obtain financial records; however, he told the Journal-Constitution that the church brought in $69 million in 2006. Creflo Dollar appears on WDCA (channel 20) in Prince William County.

Ken Copeland Ministries (KCM) in Newark, Texas. Grassley wants to know how cash donations and “offerings” raised overseas are accounted for. He also wants to know about side-trips Copeland and his entourage made to Maui, Fiji and Honolulu in a $20 million Cessna jet owned by the ministry.

Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla., run by Randy and Paula White, formerly of Washington, D. C. According to NBC news, these “pastors” have two multimillion dollar mansions, drive a
Bentley automobile and receive annual salaries of $1 million each. Paula is the lead preacher, but her Web page does not show any training in divinity or certification as a pastor.

The ministries being investigated by Sen. Grassley are only the tip of the iceberg. Others that may soon come under similar scrutiny are those run by John Hagee, T. D. Jakes, Robert Tilton, G. E.
Patterson, Les Feldick, Mike Murdock, Eugene Reeves, Beth Moore, Don Stewart and Joel Osteen.

Update: On March 12, NBC Nightly News reported that many churches still have not complied with Sen. Grassley’s request for information.

Gary Jacobsen lives in Woodbridge.