|
If you happen to be among those who think Christian leaders are entitled to obscene amounts of money, visit the GFA (Gospel For Asia) page, read the article then order their free book Revolution In World Missions (No ‘love gift’ asked for). Then, in view of millions who have never heard of Jesus, imagine how many souls an organization like GFA could save with money wasted on antiques, jets, jewelry, fancy cars, wardrobes and watches. Finally decide whether 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. Contrast this with Marilyn Hickey Ministries that asks if you would “Love to mix travel with ministry?” Then list four points under the heading “Are YOU ready to”. Point 1 says “Enjoy 5-star hotels in Jakarta and Bali”. Point 4 says “Distribute tracts, food, and clothing to the needy in the slums of Jakarta?” Huh?
INDEX
TBN Salaries
The TBN Building
TBNs Private Suites
The Crouchs Homes
Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church
Lakewood celebrated the King.. Elvis Presley
Joyce Meyers Headquarters
Joyce Meyers Sports Cars and Plane
Joyce Meyers Family Compound
Aerial View of The Family Compound
Joyce Meyers Irrevocable Trust
Joyce Meyer's "Trusted" Board
The Investigation
John Hagee
Pat Robertson
Creflo Dollar
Juanita Bynum
The Crystal Cathedral:
Rodney Howard-Browne
T.D. Jakes
Benny Hinn
Paula And Randy White
Fred Price
James MacDonald
Oral Roberts
Jim and Tammy Bakker
Mike Murdock
Rev. James Eugene Ewing
Robert Tilton
Leaving On a Jet Plane
Other CEO Salaries
Conclusion
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 and Janice Crouch’s at $361,000, which makes a whopping total of $ 780,000. 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). [INDEX]
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. [INDEX]
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) [INDEX]
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. (Also See The Market Driven Church)
“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) [INDEX]
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.” (Slice of Laodicea)
[INDEX]
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) [INDEX]
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.
InPlainSite Note: The Commode referred to above probably does not refer to a toilet. Commode used to refer to a cabinet, with one or more doors, that served as a washstand with a washbasin and water pitcher, and that also offered an enclosed area below for storing a chamber pot, but in contemporary English usually refers to a low chest of drawers on stubby legs.
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. [INDEX]
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. [INDEX]
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. See Aerial View of All Five Houses
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." [INDEX]
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." [INDEX]
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)
The Investigation: In November 2007 Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa [Senate Finance Committee] launched a an investigation into the financial dealings of six TV evangelists, including Joyce Meyer. His staff has asked Meyer to provide documents detailing the finances of the Joyce Meyer Ministries, including the religious group's compensation to Meyer, her husband and other family members, as well as an accounting of their housing allowances, gifts and credit card statements for the last several years. Five other ministries are also being investigated [Below]
[INDEX]
Pat Robertson:
Pat Robertson is a wealthy man... An extremely wealthy man. Some estimates put his net worth at 140 million. 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? (Details)
[INDEX]
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. He 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." [INDEX]
InPlainSite.org Note.. The word Anointing has become arguably the most overused, overworked, misunderstood, misinterpreted term in the Pentecostal and Charismatic arenas. See Details
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.
In 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} [INDEX]
Update [August 2007]
In 1997 Juanita Bynum said she was waiting for the Holy Ghost to send her a good man. Apparently the Holy Ghost hasn’t done so yet..
Her million dollar marriage to Bishop Thomas W. Weeks came apart at the seams when they met at the Renaissance [August 2007] to talk about reconciliation after having been separated for several months. [He was evicted from their home in Duluth] The meeting erupted into Weeks physically assaulting Bynum in the parking lot of the hotel. After turning himself in, he spent six hours in the Fulton County Jail before being released on $40,000 bond Friday. He is charged with aggravated assault for allegedly choking, kicking and hitting Bynum on Tuesday
Week’s excuse? “The devil made me do it”.
[Also See May Christians Divorce & Re-Marry?]
Update [October 2007]
However a couple of months following this very public dispute, Ware County Tax Commissioner Steve Barnard says that the sprawling $4.5 million estate of the Pentecostal preacher is on the verge of being auctioned off, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Barnard says that he filed a lien against her 24-acre property in early June because Bynum failed to pay $32,007.56 in 2006 property taxes, plus
a $3,200 penalty and $2,240 in interest.
Included on the property, near Waycross, Ga., are a 7,487-square-foot house, a 6,748-square-foot house and a 1,366-square-foot house. She lives in one of the homes, Barnard said. Apparently The 30-acre South Georgia compound with a lake view was purchased to house the headquarters of Juanita Bynum Ministries and the Mt. Olive Country Spa for women seeking pampering, prayer and spiritual guidance.
Update [October 2007]
Evangelist Juanita Bynum said Friday she has paid the delinquent property tax and that the debt was an oversight. She is seeking a tax exemption on the property and hopes to recoup the tax payment in the future. Meanwhile, plans are moving forward for the spa at the compound, which currently includes four buildings. Another building will be added for the spa and prayer room. Bynum said she also will release a makeup line called Ethne’ and a group of bath products under the Mt. Olive brand name. Both have been under development for about a year, she said. [www.religionnewsblog.com/19691/juanita-bynum-32]
IPS Note: As far as I know the Tax Exempt status is only given to a Church, but a little detail like this is not going to deter this fake from requesting it.
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.) (Rapidnet.com)
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) [INDEX]}
InPlainSite.org Note.. Schuller's gospel is the replacement of negative self-concepts with positive ones. To Schuller, sin is merely the lack of self esteem. Details
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) [INDEX]
T.D. Jakes
The man who, in 2006, received a brand new convertible Bentley from friend Paula White justifies his lifestyle ...
Why else would Roman soldiers have gambled for his cloak as Jesus lay dying on the cross, if the cloak hadn't been unusually valuable?
"The myth of the poor Jesus needs to be destroyed, because it's holding people back," [http://www.dallasobserver.com/1996-06-20/news/bishop-jakes-is-ready-are-you/full].
An MSNBC Report tells us that
“Jakes works as hard as any CEO and makes no apologies for living like one too. He ".. has a movie and tv production company, a music recording studio, and his own record label. He has distribution deals with the likes of Sony, EMI, Time Warner, Clear Channel and Trinity Broadcasting".
And says
"Living well in America is not wrong, it's how you go about getting the money that's an issue. It gives me a great deal of credibility, whether I am working with ex-inmates, to say that it is possible to have the American dream without selling drugs. I cannot say that it if I haven't done it myself". [MSNBC Report. TD Jakes and Joel Osteen Enrich Themselves in Jesus' Name. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGmLFSPkyhs]
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) [INDEX]
Benny Hinn
William Lobdell, a Times staff writer, 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..
“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) [http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8B5M18O0.html]
“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 target="_blank" onClick='alert("ON-site link will open in a new window. To return here, simply close the new browser window.")'Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn. had revenues of $96.6 million in 2001, the last year available.
According to MinistryWatch.com
“Hinn’s salary is somewhere between half a million and a million dollars per year. He also gets royalties from the sales of his books; Personal perks for Hinn, family and his entourage include a $10 million seaside mansion; a private jet with annual operating costs of about $1.5 million; a Mercedes SUV and convertible, each valued at about $80,000;
What the church termed “layovers” between crusades included hotel bills ranging from $900 per night to royal suites that cost almost $3,000 for one night’s stay. Layover locations included Hawaii, Cancun, London, Milan and other exotic locations.
Beverly Hills shopping sprees;
Receipts showing Hinn’s daughter receiving $1,300 in petty cash; her boyfriend getting $2,550 for babysitting; $23,000 in cash dispersed to Hinn and his wife; and, $25,000 in cash for expenses for a crusade – 30 minutes away from Hinn’s home” [http://www.ministrywatch.com/mw2.1/pdf/MWDA_053105_BennyHinn.pdf]
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” (Extract from the Los Angeles Times July 27, 2003). [See Comprehensive List of Articles on B. Hinn]
[INDEX]
Paula And Randy White
Excerpts from a May 20, 2007 Tampa Tribune article, Of Faith, Fame & Fortune, by Michelle Bearden And Baird Helgeson
The Whites' church, founded in 1991, became Without Walls International, a church that claims 23,500 members on two campuses and is ranked one of the largest and fastest-growing independent churches in the country, according to Church Growth Today, a consulting company. Without Walls, including its Lakeland campus and Paula’s broadcast ministry, took in $35 million in tithes and offerings last year, according to a recent audit by Lewis, Birch & Ricardo CPAs. [The audit was posted online last week - the first public accounting in the church’s history - after The Tampa Tribune requested a copy]. How much of the revenue goes to the Whites, the couple won’t say. The audit lists more than $5.5 million in salaries for 2006. The church declined to say how many employees were on the payroll.
Most of the couple’s personal income comes from private businesses, including a real estate company, sales of nutritional supplements and speaking engagements, he said. Since 2005, two of their businesses have sold $871,000 in books, DVDs, CDs and clothing to the church, according to the recent audit. Paula is , a sought-after speaker at Christian programs, women's retreats and success seminars. She just launched a health and fitness program, "10 Commandments of Health and Wellness," and in July, she'll launch her "Life by Design" workshops across the street from Madison Square Garden. Her companion book, "You're All That: Discovering God's Design on Your Life," comes out in October.
Notice, they have for profit businesses, that profit from the church. Once these pimps make a big building, they make up businesses to offer various goods and services and milk the church coffers for more bucks. That’s what you really call getting paid coming and going! Notice there is no full total for all the money they make from all their private businesses. So how much of the money coming in is going out to help the needy? [quote by Randy and Paula White are Vipers! by Independent Conservative].
It paid more than $3.1 million for “missions, outreach and benevolence” last year, according to the audit. [less than the $5.5 million payroll and less than 10% of the $35 million collected last year]. Yes, they do good works, said former staff member Larry DeLaRosa. But given the millions in revenue, Without Walls should be doing more, he said... "They've built an empire and used it to gain their own financial wealth," he said. "If I had one-tenth of what they have, I could do twice as many ministries as they say they're supporting now."
"Since 2000, court records show five business deals that soured after the Whites refused to pay”, including
“Jacqueline Knight, who runs a Tampa public relations and marketing company, said, "We've moved on and we're friends again" after she placed a lien on the church for $16,782 in unpaid bills in April 2002. She was paid an undisclosed sum before it got to court...."
Former airplane broker Todd Bates and Randy repeatedly discussed features and costs. of a a small business jet. Randy asked that the landing gear be overhauled before the sale, and, as the aircraft sat jacked up in the middle of the maintenance, Bates said Randy stopped returning his calls. Learning that Randy had bought a plane from someone else Todd Bates “sued the church in Oakland County Court in Michigan, seeking $100,000 in damages, the commission he would have received on the deal. The church ended up settling for even more: $125,000”.
"County Court Judge Paul Huey ordered the church to pay Cox-Feivelson Antiques and Design Gallery $10,217 for unpaid bills in November."
"The trappings are physical as well. Both the Whites have undergone cosmetic surgery, seeming to grow younger over the past five years. “We’re on television, and you’ve got to look the part,” Randy said".
“Randy who "admits that he doesn’t pray before meals, bears several tattoos and enjoys wine" said strip club owner Joe Redner should have been elected to the Tampa City Council in November (”He would have been good for this city”)"”... “Redner attended a Sunday service and spoke to the congregation in July 2006”.
"In January 2005, he was featured on the cover of Makes and Models Magazine, a glossy publication devoted to exotic cars, motorcycles and scantily clad female models. Associate editor Rodney Burrell, then a church member, wrote a glowing story about Randy called “Riding for Souls.” Although putting Randy on the cover - he stood posed next to his wife’s Mercedes SL55, valued at more than $100,000 - was Burrell’s idea, the church had to buy $7,500 worth of magazines for the privilege".
“Donald Trump appeared on Paula’s TV show, “Paula White Today” in October 2006”:
Randy White is also far from an honest man.
"In his autobiography, “Without Walls,” and on a 2002 Web profile, Randy said he enrolled at the former Lee College in Cleveland, Tenn., and earned a bachelor’s degree in ministerial studies and a master’s in divinity. He said he was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Virginia State University in Petersburg, Va. Representatives from both schools said he did not receive degrees there, though Lee confirmed he took two classes. According to documents Randy gave the Tribune in April, he received a doctorate of humane letters from Commonwealth Assistance Foundation Institute of International Studies in Alexandria, Va., in May 1993. An in-depth Internet search found no mention of the school. There is no telephone listing for it. Randy does have a bachelor’s degree in theology from the International Bible Institute and Seminary, a correspondence school in Orlando. . [INDEX]
Footnote [August 2007]
An article entitled Divorce shakes White's evangelical empire on myfoxtampabay.com on 24 Aug 2007 says..
At Thursday night's service at Without Walls International Church, the Whites announced plans to divorce. The couple shares a $2 million dollar home on Bayshore Boulevard, along with a private jet. Some say the pastors have been spending more time apart as they buy property and pursue ministries elsewhere. Paula White owns a Trump Towers condo in New York City and a home in San Antonio. Randy White is reportedly leasing property in Malibu. [Also See May Christians Divorce & Re-Marry?]
In 2006, Paula purchased a brand new convertible Bentley for friend, T.D. Jakes, She owns a $3.5 million townhouse in New York City and a $2.1 million mansion in Tampa Bay
Fred Price
After the 20/20’s March 2007 fiasco in which they treated an old Fred Price sermon as being a real life situation ABC has been sued by Fred Price who accused them of breaching "fundamental journalist guidelines. They thought Price was talking about himself in a sermon when he said "I live in a 25-room mansion, I have my own $6-million yacht, I have my own private jet and I have my own helicopter and I have seven luxury automobiles." [The network has run more than one retraction, one on "Good Morning America" and the other on "20/20." ABC also posted a retraction on its website].
| 
Index To 
