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Lifestyles of The Tele-Evangelist...
Fleecing The Flock.
Carol Brooks
Capitalizing on Christianity has proved to be far more lucrative than starting a new religion.
"The church began as a movement in Jerusalem. It became a philosophy in Greece, an institution in Rome, a culture in Europe and, when it came to America, it became a business... a highly profitable business. But God is coming back for a movement.
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. But as the Bible tells us.. evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. [2 Timothy 3:13]
Introduction
Most of the people on this page made their millions by preaching the Prosperity doctrine, which is the Word-Faith/Positive Confession movement applied to finances. It is centered around the idea that although Christians should keep one eye on Heaven, the good news is that God doesn't want His people to wait until then to inherit His blessings.
It is deeply alarming that most Christians seem to be blissfully unaware of the fact that the principles of the Word-Faith movement being trumpeted from pulpits across the land, stem from the same occult sources as the spiritual movement known as New Thought.
The non-believing world claims that there are spiritual “laws” which people can learn to use on their behalf. These laws, which will work for anyone regardless of their religious beliefs (or even lack of) are referred to in different terms, but both sides use exactly the same techniques. Make absolutely NO mistake.. the secular world, by learning and applying certain principles, can and does match, or even exceed, the gain that "Christian" ministers promise. And we are to believe that this is from God?
However, since they claim to be Christians, the Word Faith group have to somehow “Christianize” the concepts, by adding God into the mixture. This in spite of the fact that a) there are no clear examples of Positive Confession in the Scriptures, b) The texts quoted over and over again by the Word of Faith teachers are usually taken way out of context and therefore do not prove their point, c) The Scriptures refute the general principles behind the beliefs and teachings of the Prosperity Doctrine camp and d) The teaching that believers are to confess rather than to pray for things which God has promised is contradicted by the Bible.
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 million dollar homes, 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.
Paul and Jan Crouch and TBN' Earthly Empire
Founded in 1973, by Paul and Jan Crouch, TBN is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, but also has studio facilities located in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New York City.
TBN is said to be the third largest over-the-air Station Group in the United States, with CBS, FOX, and NBC holding the 4th, 5th and 6th place, according to TV News Check's annual listing of the Top 30 Station Groups. network. They certainly are ...
- "... the world's largest Christian television. Across America and around the world TBN is carried by TV stations and cable systems to millions of homes. As a matter of fact, TBN is featured on over 5,000 television stations, 33 satellites, the Internet and thousands of cable systems around the world. And the number continues to grow!
- Europe and the Middle East are being reached through Eutelsat Hotbird 6 and Intelsat 906; Eutelsat W4 covers Central Africa with direct-to-home service; the Express 6A satellite is providing Russian language programming to the Russian continent; Spain and Portugal are being reached by Hispasat; Intelsat 701broadcasts to Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific islands and Southeast Asia; Intelsat 702 covers Taiwan; Palapa C-2 reaches India, Indonesia and Southeast Asia; TBN broadcasts Portuguese language programs to Brazil on Brazilsat B-2; and PanAmSat 9 blankets all of Latin America and Spain.
TBN's Annual IncomeOn August 6th, 2008 the Orange County register reported that according to Trinity's actual tax returns published onguidestar.org, an organization that gathers and publicizes information about nonprofit organizations, In 2006, the most recent year reported, TBN
- "took in $200.7 million,
spent $141.1 million,
and socked away the extra $59.6 million".
And where does a large part of that income go?
Salaries
1998: In 1998, the Crouches showed a combined income of nearly $600,000... He was paid $159,500 a year as president, while she got $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".
- Paul F. Crouch Sr. as President and Director makes $419,500 a year.
Janice W. Crouch, as Vice President and Director makes $361,000 a year.
Paul F. Crouch Jr., as Vice President and Director makes $214,137 a year.
John Casoria, son of Dorothy Bethany Casoria, Trinity’s station manager and Jan Crouch's sister is spokesperson for TBN. His law office, at $164,200 a year, is one of TBN's highest-paid independent contractors. According to Casoria...
- "TBN stands out and is different from other non profits in that we're a broadcasting entity,” .... “Though we consider ourselves a church, we're a 501 c-3 and have been so for the last 35 years. Clearly we work in a different arena than most other charitable organizations.
"TBN is the 8th largest owner-operator of TV stations in the world,” he continued. "The salaries of these three individuals pales in comparison with people in the secular world doing similar work. This has not been not a job for them, but a life endeavor, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"So when you compare us to other non profits out there feeding children and doing disaster relief, it's basically apples and oranges. It's still fruit, it's still a nonprofit, but it's a completely different charitable model.”
The Crouch’s Homes
Televangelists Jan and Paul Crouch of the Costa Mesa-based Trinity Broadcasting Network have purchaseda Newport Beach house, in a gated community overlooking the Pacific,for close to $5 million, Orange County Realtors say. The home was described as [Emphasis Added]
- "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.
- During one telethon, Paul said his personal $50,000 donation to TBN had wiped out the family checking account. He often says that he and his wife live in the same Newport Beach tract house they bought 33 years ago for $38,500.
- nowadays, neither of the Crouches uses that home much. Whether in Southern California or on the road, they live in a variety of other TBN-owned homes. In all, the network owns 30 residences in California, Texas, Tennessee and Ohio — all paid for in cash, property records show.
- In Costa Mesa, the ministry owns 11 homes in a gated development adjacent to Trinity Christian City International.
In Sky Forest, a resort community in the San Bernardino National Forest, the network owns a four-bedroom, five-bath home.
TBN officials say the real estate purchases were consistent with the network's charitable mission, because the homes serve as venues for broadcasts and provide lodging for the Crouches and fellow televangelists as they travel across the country. The properties have also been good investments, they said.
In Colleyville, Texas, near the network's International Production Center, TBN owns nine homes on 66 acres along a country road, a spread called Shiloh Ranch. Six horses graze in a pasture; TBN officials say they were gifts from admirers.
- Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana – the nonprofit that runs Trinity Broadcasting Network – owns about $54 million of property in Orange County – and some $44 million of it is exempt from property taxes, according to public documents..
"The most expensive single-family home Trinity owns is on San Sebastian in Newport Beach - 10 rooms, 4.5 bathrooms, pool, 4,583 square feet, valued at $2.5 million on county property records.
The TBN Building
A June 2, 1998 article by Kim Christensen and Carol McGraw in The Orange County Register was entitled
TBN’s headquarters built on grand scale. It said in part... [All Emphasis Added]
- “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 onabout $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.' "
She also has been commissioned to do other work at the new building, including seven original paintings. Three are “food-related biblical paintings” for the dining room in the private executive suite, and a Garrison original dominates the center ceiling of the main lobby.
- “Jan wanted cherubs and ribbons, and flowers. But Paul wanted more,” she said. “So we agreed on the Second Coming of Christ. He’s on a white horse. And three warrior angels are with him in the middle.”
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.
TBN’s Private Suites.
A second article (Kim Christensen and Carol McGraw) in The Orange County Register was entitled Private suite Is A Sight To Behold, Carpenters Say... [All Emphasis Added]
- 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."
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."
- "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.
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.
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.
Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church
Osteen, the "senior pastor" of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas was born on the 5th of March, 1963, son of John Osteen, original founder of Lakewood Church. After attending Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Joel returned to Houston in 1982, and produced John Osteen's televised sermons for 17 years, declining any invitation to preach, until January 1999 when his father suddenly passed away from a heart attack. After his father's death, Osteen preached his first sermon on January 17th of 1999. Two weeks later, he was installed as the new senior pastor of Lakewood Church.
According to his web site, his television ministry reaches 200 million homes and, each week, over than one million people download Lakewood’s audio and video podcast, making their podcast consistently one of the top five in the world.
Named as one of Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People of 2006", and selected as the "Most Influential Christian in 2006" by the readers of Church Report Magazine [11], Osteen's first book Your Best Life Now, was released by Time Warner in 2004. It debuted at the top of the New York Times Bestsellers List, quickly rising to #1. It remained on the New York Times Bestseller for more than 2 years selling more than 4 million copies.
On July 16, 2005, Lakewood Church relocated from its old building in northeast Houston into its new home, a 16,800 seat facility southwest of downtown Houston along U.S. Highway 59, which had twice the capacity of its former sanctuary. The arena was home to the Houston Rockets when they won two league titles in the 1990s and the Houston Comets of the WNBA when they won four.
What is mind-boggling is that not only was the church required to pay $11.8 million in rent in advance for the first 30 years of the lease, but renovated the new campus at an estimated cost of $95 million. As said in a 2005 article in USA Today [Emphasis Added]
- The facility, which took 15 months and about $75 million to complete, features two waterfalls, three gargantuan television screens and a lighting system that rivals those found at rock concerts. Two choir lofts with 12 rows of rich purple pews sit between the waterfalls, accented by live foliage.
Absent, however, is a cross, an image of God or Jesus Christ or any other traditional religious symbols. Osteen said his father never displayed such symbols and he simply continued the tradition. Instead, the new location will feature a larger version of the church's trademark globe, rotating slowly behind Osteen as he preaches.
A few years later, in March 31, 2010, the Houston City Council, faced with $100 million shortfall in it’s budget, voted 13-2 to sell the former arena for the Houston Rockets to Lakewood church for $7.5 million.
And how can Osteen and Lakewood church afford all this?
- "Buckets of money -- over $43 million a year gets collected in the church, another $30 million or so comes in the mail. It's a cash cow and a family business. Osteen's brother, sister and mother are ministers in the church. But the real money for Osteen comes from his book sales, which are re-packaged versions of his sermons. Your Best Life Now reportedly got a $13 million advance"
Osteen's 10.5 million Dollar Home
In hib book, Your Best Life Now, Osteen talks about how his wife, Victoria, a striking, fashionably dressed blonde, wanted to buy a fancy house some years before the money started rolling 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”.
According to an article in the Houston Press, public records show Joel and Victoria Osteen's home in Tanglewood is worth more than $1 million dollars.
However that was in 2002. While still holding on to the house in Tanglewood, which has since been "valued at $2.9 million", the Osteens have upgraded. A July 2010 article in Houston's Daily Digital Magazine, CultureMap, says Joel and Victoria Osteen
- "...and their children moved to a 17,000-square-foot stone mansion in the Tall Timbers subdivision in River Oaks. The Osteens' new home is situated on 1.86 acres and surrounded by an ornamental fence. The 411: It has six bedrooms, six bathrooms, three elevators and five wood-burning fireplaces, with a one-bedroom guest house and pool house. The Harris County Appraisal District valued it at $10.5 million.
The Tanglewood house is owned by Joel and Victoria Osteen according to Harris County Appraisal District records. The River Oaks home is technically owned by the Covenant Trust, which means the Osteens do not qualify for a homestead exemption on it. They will pay around $260,000 in property taxes on the new home this year.
Culture map adds that Osteen hasn't drawn a salary from the church since 2005. His "income comes from best-selling books and related products, such as calendars, daybooks and inspirational pamphlets".
Cotton Candy or Occult Concepts
The Rev. Michael Horton, professor of theology at Westminster Seminary in Escondido, California, calls Osteen's gospel a "cotton candy gospel", adding that Osteen's "core message is God is nice, you're nice, be nice". He goes on to say that "Osteen tells only half the story of the Bible, focusing on the good news without talking about sin, suffering and redemption" and says it is heresy "to say that God is our resource for getting our best life now".
And this is certainly true.
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". Scroll down to Joel Osteen’s interview with Larry King, where he admits he doesn’t talk about sin! Is it any wonder he has 40,000 + members in his church?
Unfortunately Osteen's message is FAR more dangerous than "cotton candy" and the heresy of making religion about us instead of about God. The fact is Osteen got very rich peddling concepts from the occult world. Osteen's first book, Your Best Life Now, was released in October 2004, just two or three short years after he read Positive Imaging:The Powerful Way to Change Your Life by Norman Vincent Peale. In it, Osteen uses exactly the same words used by Norman Vincent Peale, who in turn got the expression from Napoleon Hill, who got the expression from his “imaginary” (read demonic) council of seven men.
Note that the taxes on Osteen's "mansion" for one year is about the total cost of most people's homes (depending on the area of the country). But he will come out with one more idiotic, dangerous, Biblically unsound book which will be bought by hundreds of thousands... which ought to take care of those taxes.
Osteen and Hurricane Katrina
By the way... much is made of the fact that Joel Osteen's church gave a million dollars to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and one can certainly appreciate him doing so. However with an average weekly attendance of some 43,500 people, his church's annual budget is $70 million.
The Investigation:
In November 2007 Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa [Senate Finance Committee] launched an investigation into the financial dealings of six TV evangelists. In his words...
- “I’m following up on complaints from the public and news coverage regarding certain practices at six ministries,” Grassley said in a statement. “The allegations involve governing boards that aren’t independent and allow generous salaries and housing allowances and amenities such as private jets and Rolls-Royces.
“I don’t want to conclude that there’s a problem, but I have an obligation to donors and the taxpayers to find out more. People who donated should have their money spent as intended and in adherence with the tax code.” [22]
- The Rev. Creflo A. Dollar Jr. and his wife, Taffi, of World Changers Church International, based in College Park, Ga
Paula and Randy White. Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries in Tampa, Fla., [Mr. Grassley wants them to document clothing expenses and any cosmetic surgery from 2004 to the present].
Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church, based in Grapevine, Tex. Mr. Hinn is being asked how he handles cash collected on his overseas crusades and how much he spent on hotels and food for himself and his staff members during layovers on his trips from 2001 to the present.
Joyce Meyer, who with her husband, David, runs Joyce Meyer Ministries from Fenton, Mo., and who is popular especially with women for her no-nonsense brand of self-help.
Bishop Eddie L. Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., a megachurch in the Atlanta suburbs.
Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries of Newark, Tex.
http://finance.senate.gov/newsroom/ranking/release/?id=5fa343ed-87eb-49b0-82b9-28a9502910f7.
Kenneth Copeland
born December 6, 1936 was once a recording artist on the Imperial Records label [25], a pilot for Oral Roberts, later enrolled in Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma in spring of 1967... "he was made part of the flight crew attending all the tent meetings and crusades. It was during this time that he was learning exponentially through on-the-job training". [26] [I have also heard that he was also a member of the Oral Roberts University Board of Regents, but can not confirm this one way, or another]..
As founder of Kenneth Copeland Ministries he, in effect took over from Kenneth Hagin as "father" of the Word-Faith Movement, a 'Christianized' version of the occult practice of creative visualization. He is one of the movements leading spokespersons, responsible for spreading most of the Faith movement's unbiblical teachings, via his innumerable books, crusades, and international outreach centers.
Kenneth Copeland's "18-thousand square foot home valued at $6.3 million" and his "private jets" are just some of the reasons that Kenneth Copeland Ministries (KCM) was included in Senator Grassley’s investigation.
However, it soon became very clear that Copeland's Eagle Mountain International Church (EMIC), and three of the other organizations under investigation, did not intend to cooperate in any way with the Committee. On July 7, 2008 Times Online reported that
- “Televangelist Kenneth Copeland refuses to render unto taxman”
“It is not yours, it is God's, and you are not going to get it.” So saith Kenneth Copeland, the television evangelist, when asked to submit his ministry's private financial records to Washington”
- Several former employees of EMIC/KCM indicated that EMIC/KCM used intimidation in an attempt to keep informants from speaking to the Committee. Former employees were sincerely afraid to provide statements for fear of being sued since they signed confidentiality agreements. Employees were contacted by EMIC/KCM attorneys after the initiation of the Committee investigation and reminded that they signed a confidentiality agreement agreeing not to disclose any information concerning EMIC/KCM.
Speaking of the four organizations that did not cooperate, providing either incomplete responses or none at all, an internal memo says the investigators
- "...obtained information about these churches from public sources and third party informants. Informants were either current or former officers, directors, and key employees, current or former members, or watch dog groups. Overviews of each of the four are attached.
From The Report
Salaries
An insider states that Kenneth Copeland no longer receives a salary from EMIC budget, but it is not known if one is received from KCM. Apparently, despite being the same legal entity, EMIC and KCM have separate operating budgets.
Gloria Copeland's last known salary was $400,000 and that was in the early 2000s. Kenneth and Gloria both receive “honorariums” when they go to speak at churches, conventions and crusades that are not sponsored by KCM. The normal amount received by each is $10,000 and they, at times, will also receive a percentage of the offering collected by the sponsoring church or ministry. Kenneth and Gloria also received royalties from their music and books. The figures noted are prior to 2005.
"Parsonage"
In its response to the Committee, the Church acknowledged that it provides a parsonage to Kenneth and Gloria and a housing allowance to John but did not provide any further detail. However, insiders and the Trinity Foundation state that Kenneth and Gloria reside in a house in Tarrant County, Texas.
A review of the Tarrant County Appraisal District records indicates the following. An 18,280 square foot residence owned by EMIC was built in 1999. The house is situated on a lake on approximately 25 acres and receives tax-exempt status. As of tax year 2008, the property was valued at $6,249,000.
According to a third party informant, the "parsonage" has a sweeping spiral staircase and a bridge that spans across the living room and connects the two sides of the house. It also has crystal chandeliers and, according to Gloria Copeland, doors that came from a castle. The parsonage has numerous rooms including a work room where cleaning ladies did laundry, ironed and performed other miscellaneous chores.
The Copeland's bedroom has a huge drop-down ceiling projector and screen. There are three car garages at each end of the house where the Copelands stored motorcycles, cars and a golf cart. The property also has a boat dock that has three slips. All three slips are generally filled with boats so the Copelands keep their ski-boat in one of the airplane hangars.
Insiders indicated that all the expenses related to the upkeep of the parsonage are paid for by the Church, including the household staff. EMIC/KCM employees are used to maintain the property and perform miscellaneous duties such as arranging the Copelands exercise equipment, moving furniture and setting up the Christmas tree.
Private Airport
in the “Use of Ministry Assets” section of this summary. Kenneth Copeland Airport - This is a private airport owned by Kenneth Copeland Ministries. As of December 6, 2010, there were nine aircraft based at the airport: four single engine, three multi-engine and two jet airplanes.
According to the Church response, “the Church owns five aircraft that it uses in connection with its tax-exempt religious purposes, including worldwide ministry conventions,..” The fleet consisted of a) a 1962 Beech H-18 twin, b) a 1973 Cessna 421B Golden Eagle, c) a 1975 Cessna 500 Citation, d) a 1998 Cessna 550 Citation Bravo and e) a 2005 Cessna 750 Citation C. The Church also states that any personal use is added to the Copeland's Form W-2.
Travel and Shopping
A former ministry employee stated Gloria Copeland used a jet to fly to Naples, Florida, to go shopping. She would purchase clothing, sculptures and home furnishings. John Copeland and ministry employees, Craig Atnip, Steve
Poteet and some others used a jet to take hunting trips. Kenneth Copeland used to travel back and forth to Arkansas to see a chiropractor and to visit his cabin there. The Copeland family also flew to Colorado to their home in Steamboat Springs from time to time.
In October of 2007, Brett Shipp with Dallas-based television station WFAA conducted an investigative report regarding the Copeland?s personal use of the ministry jet. Based on Shipp's report, the Copelands traveled often to Steamboat Springs, CO, and took hunting trips to southern Texas. The report also showed the Copelands taking extended stays in Hawaii while traveling across the Pacific.
Copeland originally told donors that then 20 million dollar jet would only be used for EMIC/KCM business. However, in the response to the Committee, the church acknowledged that there was some personal use of the ministry jet but the Church did not provide any details.
An Associated Press article dated July 26, 2008 says
- Newark, Texas - Here in the gentle hills of north Texas, televangelist Kenneth Copeland has built a religious empire teaching that God wants his followers to prosper.
Over the years, a circle of Copeland's relatives and friends have done just that, The Associated Press has found. They include the brother-in-law with a lucrative deal to broker Copeland's television time, the son who acquired church-owned land for his ranching business and saw it more than quadruple in value, and board members who together have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for speaking at church events.
While Copeland insists that his ministry complies with the law, independent tax experts who reviewed information obtained by the AP through interviews, church documents and public records have their doubts. The web of companies and non-profits tied to the televangelist calls the ministry's integrity into question, they say.
"There are far too many relatives here," said Frances Hill, a University of Miami law professor who specializes in nonprofit tax law. "There's too much money sloshing around and too much of it sloshing around with people with overlapping affiliations and allegiances by either blood or friendship or just ties over the years. There are red flags all over these relationships."
Kenneth Copeland Ministries is organized under the tax code as a church, so it gets a layer of privacy not afforded large secular and religious nonprofit groups that must disclose budgets and salaries.
- The ministry also owns an airport capable of accepting jet landings, leases land for Mr Copeland's cattle and horses, and also leases land to the family so that it can operate oil and gas wells.”
Creflo (Augustus) Dollar:
is founder and senior pastor of World Changers Church International (WCCI) in College Park, Georgia, which serves nearly 30,000 members; World Changers Church-New York, which hosts over 6,000 worshippers each week; and a host of satellite churches, in several locations around the country.
Dollar has no degree in theology, but bases much of his prosperity message on the teachings of friend and spiritual mentor Kenneth Copeland... In 1998, Dollar was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Oral Roberts University, which is hardly surprising. He is just one more in a long line of Christian scavengers who relentlessly attack the idea that Christians should limit material possessions, and who teach congregants to say, "I want my stuff."
As said in a 2006 New York Times piece.. [Emphasis Added]
- Mr. Dollar, whose Rolls-Royces, private jets, million-dollar Atlanta home and $2.5 million Manhattan apartment, furnish proof to his followers of the validity of his teachings, is a leading apostle of what is known as the "prosperity gospel."
- "... 4695 Hamden Forest Trail in Atlanta and 1811 Sandy Creek in Fayetteville. According to Fulton county real estate records, the property at 4695 Hamden Forest Trail, Atlanta, Georgia was conveyed to the Dollars from WCCI in 2000. Committee staff was unable to determine if any consideration was paid by the Dollars to WCCI at the time this conveyance. Based on Fulton County real property records, from the date of this conveyance in July of 2000 until October of 2003, there were no mortgages on this property.
According to Fayette County real estate records, the second property located at 1811 Sandy Creek, Fayetteville, Georgia, was conveyed to the Dollars from WCCI in 2004. On the date of this conveyance, the Dollars executed a note to pay WCCI $2,065,000.
- A few weeks ago, the couple, who have two young children, had no money to buy groceries. But they believe what their pastor, the Rev. Creflo A. Dollar Jr., said on this recent Saturday night about the offering time: "It's opportunity for prosperity." So when the offering buckets at World Changers Church come around "Troy and Cheryal Anderson are eager to give the Lord his due. They wave their blue offering envelope overhead, as all around them worshipers whoop and holler their praises to God. Inside the envelope is 10 percent of the weekly pay Mr. Anderson takes home as an electrician's apprentice - he earns about $30,000 a year - and a little more for the church's building fund.
Just how much money do Creflo and Taffi Dollar have?
- 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.
- 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...
- 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".
- Dollar’s wife, Taffi, introduces her husband as one who talks “face to face with God, like Moses.” She warns that “every tongue that rises up against” her husband will “be struck down.”
Black Celebrity Gossip (MWZA) carries yet another photograph of the interior of Creflo Dollar's house.
Paula And Randy White
Paula and Randy White married in 1989, and moved to Tampa, Florida, where they started South Tampa Christian Center in 1991. (renamed Without Walls International Church in 1997.) Apparently her popularity sky rocketed (particularly among black women) when she met Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of the Dallas mega church called “Potter's House”, who invited her to speak at his Woman Thou Art Loosed Conference in 2000. (More about T.D. Jakes further down). White launched her television ministry a year later.
Excerpts from a May 20, 2007 Tampa Tribune article [All Emphasis Added],
- The Whites' church, founded in 1991, became Without Walls International. Its motto: "the perfect church for people who are not." It is ranked one of the largest and fastest-growing independent churches in the country, according to Church Growth Today, a consulting company.
As it grew - at one time offering more than 200 outreach missions, programs for poor, urban children and single moms in need of job training - so did the Whites' perks. They travel in a $1.9 million business jet. They own a home they purchased for $2.1 million on Bayshore Boulevard and a $3.5 million Trump Tower condo in New York. Randy rents a waterfront villa in Malibu, California.
- 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.
While her husband commutes to California, Paula is also on the go, 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.
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.
In January, the couple arrived for a service in their blue Mercedes sedan. They entered the sanctuary, a former warehouse at 2511 N. Grady Ave., watched over by a security contingent of solemn, beefy men wearing sunglasses and communication devices. Surveillance cameras kept watch from all corners.
- Parsonage/Housing Allowance
According to Hillsborough County property records, from 2002 until their divorce in August of 2007, the Whites owned 4301 Bayshore Boulevard, Tampa, FL, an 8,072 sq. ft. home located in the very prestigious area of Bayshore. The residence has a waterfront view of Tampa Bay (see pictures below). According to Hillsborough County records, the 2008 market value of the home is $2,681,211. The Whites purchased the property in 2002 and borrowed $2 million dollars from Suntrust Bank. An insider told Committee staff that an accounting firm hired by WWIC told the Whites to purchase the largest house they could find. In spring of 2003 the Whites hired a pool contractor to put a new in ground concrete pool and spa at this residence.
A recent aerial view of the residence indicates the pool was completed. As of December 2008, the registered owner of the Bayshore Boulevard home is Randy White. [Hillsborough County Property Appraiser]
According to an insider, Randy and Paula White also purchased a $3.5 million condo in Trump Tower in New York City. The total cost of the condo was $3.5 million, however, only $2,625,000 was financed so it appears the down payment was $925,000. [NYC Department of Finance, Office of The City Register]
WWIC did not provide any information related to possible housing allowances being paid for the residence on Bayshore Drive and the Trump Tower condo. However, an insider familiar with WWIC finances stated that housing allowances for both residences were paid from WWIC/PWM funds.
Appearance:
- 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.... The Part?
- Randy seems to relish the role of funky, flawed and edgy preacher. He admits that he doesn't pray before meals, bears several tattoos and enjoys wine. He 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"), and his gun collection includes an AK-47 automatic weapon.
"Guns are a good investment," he said.
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.
- 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.
- Since 2000, court records show five business deals that soured after the Whites refused to pay.
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.
Interior designer Charles Cox, also in Tampa, is still fuming.
County Court Judge Paul Huey ordered the church to pay Cox-Feivelson Antiques and Design Gallery $10,217 for unpaid bills in November.
"They made no attempt to resolve the problem to avoid legal action, not even a phone call," he said. "I expect more of high-end clients, especially Christian ones."
Paula sent her "spiritual father" T.D. Jakes a black convertible Bentley for his 50th birthday in June 2007
- ... for his 50th birthday in June, White sent Jakes a black convertible Bentley. It was intended to be quiet gift, White said, but an overzealous member of Jakes' ministry shouted out the news at the retail show.
"Some people thought 'Why would you do that?' " White later explained, saying that Jakes is her spiritual father. "I thought, 'Well, why wouldn't I? That's not even an option."
On October 4, 2006, Paula White was a guest on the Tyra Banks show in an episode concerning promiscuity. I have to wonder why Tyra refers to Paula White as "A woman that I look up to, and my dear friend and personal life coach" [Emphasis Added].
October 16, 2006 broadcast of her daily television program Paula Today, she introduced her two guests with the words...
- "If you want to change the way you live, change your thinking. I want them to bring their wisdom to you today, give people tools to really transform their lives." And then the camera panned over to two men, co-authors of the book, "Why We Want You to be Rich": Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump.
Trump is also the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts, which operates numerous casinos and hotels across the world. Trump's extravagant lifestyle and outspoken manner have made him a celebrity for years". [Wikipedia] He is also host and executive producer of an obnoxious reality show..The Apprentice. Besides which the name Trump, has in the last few years become an internationally recognized symbol of New York City as mecca for the world's super rich.
And here he was, on a so called Christian television program, to share his worldly wisdom with all of us. To teach us how to become rich.
Financial Turmoil
On November 6, 2008, the Tampa Bay Online published an article entitled Financial Walls Closing In On Church. It said in part...
- For months, there have been signs of financial struggles at Without Walls. In August, the church's controller resigned citing serious concerns, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by The Tampa Tribune. Church accountant Camillo Gargano wrote in the Aug. 28 letter that the ministry was in "turmoil."
- "Handling of finances by upper management is contrary with my fiduciary responsibility," it states. Management didn't seem bothered by the financial problems, and used "bullying, excessive force and verbal abuse as a management style," Gargano wrote. "Not only is it unconscionable for me to work in such a hostile environment, but it is also physically and mentally debilitating to work under such stressful circumstances," he wrote.
He resigned after Randy White ordered him to pay White's $24,000 American Express bill, even though it would mean the ministry couldn't make payroll for the week, Gargano said in a September interview. Part of the credit card bill was a $13,000 payment for mirrors installed in the church. The rest included personal expenses that White told Gargano he would pay back to the ministry, the controller said.
White sent text messages to Gargano insisting he pay the credit card bill. Gargano saved the messages.
Gargano, who attended church elsewhere, said during his 17 months employed there he constantly scrambled to find money to pay salaries and bills, and that little or no money went for ministerial work. The church owed vendors $400,000 by late August, he said. Several vendors reached by the Tribune declined comment.
In September, the church released a statement saying it disputed Gargano's version of events, but did not elaborate. The controller resigned his position the same month the church defaulted on the loan.
Divorce:
On Thursday, August 23, 2007, Randy and Paula White announced to their congregation that they would divorce.
According to The Christian Post, Paula White says the divorce was amicable, and her husband, Randy White, agreed to take the responsibility [46]
However according to blackchristiannews.com "Without Walls sputtered without her"
The church shrunk drastically and found itself having faced foreclosure, with their bank demanding immediate repayment of a $12 million loanon the property last November. [48]
- The Whites' divorce shattered the image of a power couple, unified by faith and a shared sense of purpose, and the church struggled to fill its 4,000-seat sanctuary. At their peak, the Whites preached a "prosperity gospel" and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, expensive homes and cars - even a private jet - but the church's finances bottomed out after its founders split. Then a congressional investigation into several ministries cross the country challenged the church's nonprofit status, amid questions about how the Whites were spending the millions of dollars Without Walls was collecting.
Benny Hinn (Toufik Benedictus Hinn)
About: Hinn was born in Jaffa, in 1952, in the then newly established state of Israel. His family emigrated to Canada soon after the 1967 Arab-Israeli 'The Six-Day War'. In later life, heavily influenced by evangelists Kathryn Kuhlman and Aimee Semple Mcpherson, he began claiming that God was using him as a conduit for healings, and began holding healing services in the Orlando Christian Center, which he founded in 1963. Not long after that his so called "miracle crusades" began to be held at large stadiums and auditoriums across the country.
During the early 1990s he launched a television show called This Is Your Day, a large part of which is devoted to his crusades.. Hinn hosts the show, which is broadcast several times a week in the United States by TBN (Paul Crouch, is one of Hinn's most outspoken defenders and allies), Daystar, Revelation TV, Grace TV, The God Channel, etc to an estimated four million followers. According to Hinn's web site, This Is Your Day is "seen across the United States and around the world in more than 190 nations"
In 1999, he stepped down as pastor of the Orlando Christian Center, moving his ministry's administrative headquarters to Grapevine, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth, while hosting This Is Your Day from a television studio in Orange County, California. He lives in Dana Point, a wealthy coastal community in southern Orange County even after Suzanne Hinn, his wife of 30 years filed divorce papers in February 2010, which, by the way listed three recent Southern California addresses for the family
"A Preacher's Life".
Hinn is founder, chairman, president and CEO of Benny Hinn Ministries (BHM) and lives with his wife and three children in a multimillion-dollar oceanfront mansion near the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point. He travels the globe in his ministry's plane, named Dove One. And how can he afford to do all this?
The audited financial statements of Benny Hinn Ministries for 2006, which were provided to the Finance Committee, but are not posted on the Ministries‘ web site, show total revenue and support of $97.93 million. However, in March 2005, Ministry Watch, issued a Donor Alert against the ministry, urging donors to prayerfully consider withholding contributions to Benny Hinn Ministries/World Outreach Church (BHM). [51]
On March 6, 2005, NBC Dateline aired a segment, entitled A Preacher's Life, on Benny Hinn. The segment was years in the making and included the use of hidden cameras, hidden identities, and visits to numerous “healing” crusades. Apart from the not surprising findings that Hinn manipulates individuals, and preaches a self-serving prosperity theology message at the so called "miracle crusades", the program also include the following revelations... [All Emphasis Added
- 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;
- ...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.
When the NBC Dateline team checked in Mexico, more than a year-and-a-half later, they
- 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”.
- December that revealed allegations of financial impropriety by one of Hinn's former associates, dubious claims of healings and details of the pastor's luxurious lifestyle. Hinn tried to limit the damage by rebutting the charges in front of faithful viewers on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, or TBN.
Looking into the camera, Hinn said the attacks were orchestrated by Satan and that he has prayed to the Lord repeatedly that before "I injure Your name, take me out. Before I harm Your kingdom, kill me." The spin didn't work. Donations dipped by 12% for the first quarter of this year, say ministry officials, a result of bad publicity and the weak economy that has hurt other non-profits.
- rebutting the charges in front of faithful viewers on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, or TBN. Looking into the camera, Hinn said the attacks were orchestrated by Satan and that he has prayed to the Lord repeatedly that before "I injure Your name, take me out. Before I harm Your kingdom, kill me." The spin didn't work. Donations dipped by 12% for the first quarter of this year, say ministry officials, a result of bad publicity and the weak economy that has hurt other non-profits.
- 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... 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.
Benn Hinn’s 2 Min Blessing
A July 2008 article by reporter Marthinus van Vuuren in news24.com, a South African News Web site, entitled 'God bless your credit card', said
- One of Hinn's American guest speakers, Pastor Todd Koontz, Koontz delivered a message about "you reap what you sow", then said the service would yield millionaires and billionaires within 24 hours.
“God's blessing would last only two minutes and it would create 500 churchgoing millionaires or even billionaires - all they had to do was use their credit cards to pay $1000 in offerings to televangelist Benny Hinn”.
- " an exceptional blessing rested on $1 000."
“God would bless the people's credit cards and they would be able to rule over South Africa with their money” and that 500 audience members would receive "an exceptional blessing".
Koontz apparently really had the congregation scrambling when he said, "This blessing will be poured out for only two minutes."
- Pastor Tommie Ferreira of the AGS Church in Johannesburg was so upset about the "blessing" that, after a week, he wanted to know who of the donors actually had become millionaires.
Ferreira told Rapport he did not mean to bring about Hinn's downfall. He merely wanted to know if any of the hundreds of churchgoers who donated amounts of up to $1, 000 (about R7,500) to Hinn's Miracle Crusade last week Saturday had now become millionaires... He said he could not live with his conscience if he did not speak to others about this possible trickery...
"I'm not attacking them (Hinn and Koontz). It just really gets my goat when people make unfounded claims and then they're off with these people's money.""
Reforms?
Benny Hinn has promised some reforms in a letter responding to the probe by Senator Charles Grassley, including
- The church will no longer provide vehicles to Hinn and his family, also Hinn and his family will no longer use church credit cards.
Acknowledging that Meeting of the Board of Directors "were held in leisure-centric locations and convened to satisfy minimum board duties and requirements", the "now-existent Directors have determined that such meetings and related expenses were not sufficiently justified".
"The Church had for years acquired aircraft by purchase or lease without entertaining a study regarding what method, and what craft, best suited the Church's needs," "After a review of that process, the Directors determined that a third-party review of the Church's aircraft needs, and whether it should own or lease such craft, was prudent"
In the final analysis, as said by the Orange County Register [All Emphasis Added]
- And for all this transparency, we note that the financials Hinn provided Grassley were from 2006; there were apparently no updates; and current finances are not disclosed anywhere on Hinn’s web site that we could find. There is a page titled “church finances” [58] which includes a pretty pie chart of where money is going (59 percent media ministry, 29 percent international missions and crusades, etc.), but no actual dollar figures, and certainly no detail on who is being paid what.
What is he pulling in today, and what he’s doing with it? Only Hinn knows for sure.
Although information about Benny Hinn, including his sham healings, and false prophecy could fill several books, we will close with the fact that...
Benny Hinn is Being Sued by His Publisher
And in more recent news, The Orlando Sentinel carried an article By Rene Stutzman on February 17, 2011, by Rene Stutzman entitled Faith healer violated our morality clause. It said, in part
- A Lake Mary book publisher is suing tele-evangelist and faith healer Benny Hinn, saying he violated a morality clause in their contract when he began an "inappropriate relationship" with another evangelist, and thus, must pay $250,000.
In August, Hinn admitted to a friendship with evangelist Paula White after The National Enquirer published photos of them in Rome, holding hands. Hinn was married at the time. His wife, Suzanne, had filed for divorce a few months earlier.
Three years earlier, Hinn had signed a three-book deal with Strang Communications Co. of Lake Mary. He was paid a $300,000 advance on the first one, Blood in the Sand, according to the suit. Hinn acknowledged to his publisher "his inappropriate relationship" with White in August, according to the suit, and agreed that the publisher should get back its money, but he has yet to pay up.
Joyce Meyer
About: Charismatic Christian author and speaker who, according to her web site, teaches on hundreds of subjects through Joyce Meyer Ministries, headquartered in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri. Joyce has authored over 80 books, in over 80 different languages. More than 12 million of her books have been distributed around the world, and in 2007 more than 3.2 million copies were sold.
It has been reported that Joyce Meyer took more than a 50 percent reduction in her annual salary, which brought her earnings down to about $250,000, However the royalties from her many books are estimated to be worth anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year.
She too, like many of the Health-Wealth preachers has an honorary doctorate in divinity from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
While there can be little doubt that her ministry does a lot of good, reportedly providing more than 11.5 million meals to people around the world in 2006, and over the years has built more than 190 wells to provide clean drinking water. Additionally "The ministry funds more than 40 orphanages across Asia, and locally it works with Ronald McDonald House and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, among other organizations". [63] there is little question that a great deal of money is spent on lavish living, which Joyce Meyer calls being "blessed"...
The Investigation:
In the course of the investigation into the financial dealings of six TV evangelists, Sen. Grassley's staff has asked Joyce 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. In his five-page letter, Grassley also asked Meyer for:
- A "detailed accounting" of all her and her husband's expense-account items, including clothing and cosmetic surgery.
— Information about any overseas bank accounts and deposits made outside the U.S. after international evangelical crusades.
— The tax-exempt purpose of items purchased for her ministry's headquarters, such as a $23,000 marble-topped commode, a $30,000 conference table and an $11,219 French clock.
— A detailed accounting of total monthly expenses for upkeep on the Meyers' personal residence, and any vacation homes, from 2004 to the present.
— An explanation of any personal use of the ministries' tax-exempt assets, including "jets, employees, facilities," from 2004 to the present.
— An explanation for how personal gifts from donors, such as money or jewelry, are handled and reported to the IRS.
- Among the services provided in 2006, according to the report: 11.5 million meals served, 41 orphanages "fully supported" and 174,538 gift bags delivered to prisoners.
Ministry Headquarters
An Article entitled From Fenton to fortune in the name of God on November 15, 2003 in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch gave it's readers a great deal of insight into Joyce Meyer's lifestyle.
- 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. [TOP OF PAGE]
- 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.
- 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. (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."
- Note: It has since been reported that two of the homes, occupied by two of Meyer's four adult children and their families, are up for sale.
Personal Spending
"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 ministry.
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."
The Meyer Family Compound.
Photo by Robert Cohen, St Louis Post Dispatch
1) 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.
3) 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
5) 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
2) 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.
4) 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.
Eddie Lee Long
(born May 12, 1953) is the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a megachurch of more than 25,000 members near Lithonia, Georgia.
Described on his web site as "a bold revolutionary spiritual leader, best-selling author, life coach and motivational speaker, recognized as a gifted charismatic orator and rising voice of the global faith-based community", Long has written a number of best-selling books while his Emmy-Award-winning broadcast, Taking Authority, airs on TBN thereby reaching 172 countries, and more than 270 million people. He produces national conferences each year including FOCUS, Spirit and Truth, Heart to Heart and youth conference, is executive producer of a television program called Musical Theater of Hope and, in 2009, released a CD entitled Bishop Long and Friends: The Kingdom Volume One.
According to the New York Times...
- His message that God wants people to prosper has attracted celebrities, professional athletes and socialites, swelling the membership to 25,000. Bishop Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church includes a multimillion-dollar network of charities and businesses, a private school and the Samson’s Health and Fitness Center, where he holds court and pumps iron with young people.
Eddie Long and Ludacris
In a write up about Bishop Long and Friends, the site NuthinButGospel.com informs it's readers that Bishop Long was "No stranger to the music industry". He
- "... was featured on rapper Ludacris' album "Release Therapy." He appeared on the final track "Freedom of Preach" where he delivered a speech about God and faith.
Now that's a scary thought, considering that Ludacris, who some consider more vile than Eminem, (is that even possible?) was a featured representative of Pepsi until, on August 27, 2002, Bill O'Reilly called for all Americans to boycott Pepsi products, saying that Ludacris' lyrics glamorize a "life of guns, violence, drugs and disrespect of women". O'Reilly wasn't exactly joking as the lyrics of Ludacris' 2001 "Move Bitch" show.. (And believe me, the small portion of the lyrics I have quoted are tame, compared to what follows)
- I'm doin' a hundred on the highway, So if you do the speed limit, get the F... outta my way
I'm D.U.I., hardly ever caught sober, and you about to get ran the F... over
What is really mind-boggling are the following two lines on this tract, both by Ludacris
- I know some folks may not agree or even like this song, But I'm just speakin MY truth, cause I heard it sets you free
“He resides, in me (yeah)”.
Hear Song... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikcfn5z3_GY
Finances.
On August 28, 2005 the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that during the period between 1997 to 2000, Long received more than $3.07 million worth of compensation and benefits from his non-profit charity, Bishop Eddie Long Ministries Inc. [All Emphasis Added]
- In 1995, Bishop Eddie Long established a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity to help the needy and spread the gospel. But it was Long, leader of the largest church congregation in Georgia, who became the charity's biggest beneficiary.
The charity, Bishop Eddie Long Ministries Inc., provided him with at least $3.07 million in salary, benefits and the use of property between 1997 and 2000 -- nearly as much as it gave to all other recipients combined during those years, tax records show.
It is one of at least 20 nonprofit and for-profit corporations that Long founded after becoming pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in 1987. Long's businesses include a music publishing company and a transportation service.
The charity's compensation to Long over that four-year period included:
> A $1.4 million six-bedroom, nine-bath home on 20 acres in Lithonia.
> Use of a $350,000 luxury Bentley automobile.
> More than $1 million in salary, including $494,000 in 2000.
A 2010 New York Times piece says..
- Bishop Long cuts a flashy figure in Lithonia, the Atlanta suburb where he lives and has built his church. He is often seen in a Bentleyattended by bodyguards. He tends to wear clothes that show off his muscular physique. He favors Gucci sunglasses, gold necklaces, diamond bracelets and Rolex watches. He lives in a 5,000-square-foot house with five bedrooms, which he bought for $1.1 million in 2005.
His lavish display of wealth is in keeping with his theology. In his sermons, he often tells his congregation that God wants them to be wealthy and asserts that Jesus was not a poor man. By all accounts, he has been well compensated for his leadership in building New Birth from a church with a few hundred members into the largest congregation in Georgia. His televised sermons reach 170 countries.
In 2005, for instance, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published tax records showing that from 1997 to 2000 Bishop Long had accepted $3 million in salary, housing, a car and other perks from a charity he controlled.
- "We're not just a church, we're an international corporation, " Long said. "We're not just a bumbling bunch of preachers who can't talk and all we're doing is baptizing babies. I deal with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around this world. I pastor a multimillion-dollar congregation.
"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."
The Sex Scandal
Since this is an article on "lifestyles" of the Tele-evangelists, I guess the following summary from Wikipedia is not out of place.
- On September 21 and 22, 2010, Maurice Robinson, Anthony Flagg, and Jamal Parris filed separate lawsuits in DeKalb County Superior Court alleging that Long used his pastoral influence to coerce them into a sexual relationship with him. Flagg's suit says that Long presided over a spiritual "covenant" ceremony between the two of them.
"It was essentially a marriage ceremony, with candles, exchange of jewelry, and biblical quotes," Bernstein said Tuesday. "The bishop [told] him I will always have your back and you will always have mine."
Robinson's suit alleges that "Defendant Long would use Holy Scripture to discuss and justify the intimate relationship between himself and Plaintiff Robinson."
The third suit was filed in DeKalb County Superior Court, said a spokeswoman for attorney B.J. Bernstein.
“Bishop” Elijah Bernard Jordan
This one may take the proverbial cake, considering that the ceiling of one room in his multi million dollar mansion in an exclusive gated community, features a painting of Jordan on a throne – as God – with his three sons hovering around him as angels.
T.D. (Thomas Dexter) Jakes
is the chief pastor of The Potter's House, a non-denominational American megachurch, with 30,000 members, located in Dallas, Texas.
According to TDJ Enterprises, he is a prolific author of more than 30 books, two of which reached No. 3 on The New York Times Best Sellers list. Jakes’ music label Dexterity Sounds, has produced many music projects, including the Grammy Award-winning A Wing and a Prayer. He has appeared as a guest on Dr. Phil, The Doctors, Oprah, CNN, and MSNBC, and "has garnered profiles in such notable publications as Forbes, The Washington Post, Essence, TIME, Ebony and D Magazine".
T.D. Jakes' church services and evangelistic sermons are broadcast on The Potter's Touch, which airs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Black Entertainment Television, the Daystar Television Network, The Word Network and The Miracle Channel in Canada. Other aspects of Jakes' ministry include an annual revival called "MegaFest" (which draws more than 100,000 people during that period of time), an annual women's conference called "Woman Thou Art Loosed", and gospel music recordings.
Jakes was also named by Time Magazine as “America’s Best Preacher”... to which I only have one question. What exactly does a secular, liberal magazine, know about preaching? The answer.. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
But I digress
The man who, in 2006, received a brand new convertible Bentley from friend Paula White, justifies his lifestyle by using Jesus as an example of a rich Christian, insinuating that
- "Jesus "employed" 12 people to help spread his message, Jakes says, as though the apostles were on salary".
- 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 bac,".
- “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".
- "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".
- “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”.
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.”
- “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.’”
John Hagee
According to his own web site, John Hagee is the founder and Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, a non-denominational evangelical church with more than 19,000 active members [82]. He is also President of John Hagee Ministries, which telecasts his national radio and television teachings throughout America and in 235 nations worldwide, and founder and National Chairman of Christians United for Israel, a Christian Zionist advocacy organization that promotes the idea that Christians have a biblical obligation to defend Israel. Television broadcasts of Hagee's religious services, promoted by his Global Evangelism Television (GETV) corporation, reach several million viewers.
He promotes the doctrine of positive confession which maintains that Christians can speak (i.e., positively confess) physical realities into existence as long as the believer exercises enough faith to accompany his or her verbal confession.
In his DVD, 7 Secrets of Financial Freedom, Hagee says "Prosperity is a Choice, Not a Chance" and that God's will for every believer is freedom from "debt and the bondage of creditors" and that they "have more than enough financial means to meet every need". [83] .
He is certainly doing his best not to disappoint God...
- “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”.
Pat Robertson:
Estimates of Pat Robertson’s net worth vary between 140 million and a billion dollars. While the exact figure is not known, there is little doubt that he is a wealthy man... An extremely wealthy man, with a “mammoth media, educational, and legal empire”.
- “Robertson lives on the top of a Virginia mountain, in a huge mansion with a private airstrip. He owns the Ice Capades [Pat Robertson's International Family Entertainment Inc bought Ice Capades In February 1995 from Dorothy Hamill for $10 million], a small hotel, diamond mines (in Zaire), a vitamin company (Kalo Vita) involved in a multi-level marketing scheme along the lines of Amway, and until recently, International Family Entertainment, parent company of the Family Channel … all estimated to be worth between $150-200 million”.
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."
However Fred Price has made a career of preaching the prosperity gospel stating that he can quote Scripture after Scripture that show it is God's will for us to materially prosper, and they are always going to have opponents as Satan is going to fight them tooth and nail.
And prosper he has.. Although Price's home in the pricey Palos Verdes Estates doesn't boast 25 rooms, and he definitely doesn't own a helicopter, he does own not one, but two Bentleys. His nearly 8,000-square-foot house is valued at $3.5 million, and he commutes by private jet between his two churches, the Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles, and another in New York's Manhattan area.
- "The ministry operates an Aviation Partners Blended Winglets-equipped Gulfstream IISP based at LGB (Long Beach CA) and crewed by 2 full-time pilots and a flight attendant. .. Welcome to the world of mega-churches and celebrity preachers. "Make no mistake about it-this is a business,” says Price. "We have the same needs for corporate jets and productivity tools as any other business.”... "Other aircraft types might have done the job for us,” Price says, "but we got stuck in the Cadillac showroom and we didn't get any further.””
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. Site no longer exists].
A few more details come from Charisma Magazine
- 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 fantasy land, 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).
"Juanita's wedding was fit for a queen," one guest from Chicago said.
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".
Update [October 2007]
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]
An update from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says [All Emphasis Added]
- 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. The 30-acre compound with a lake view in South Georgia was purchased to house the headquarters of Juanita Bynum Ministries and the Mt. Olive Country Spa for women seeking pampering, prayer and spiritual guidance.
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. [89]
The Crystal Cathedral:
seeing-stars.com, which bills itself as the Ultimate Guide to Celebrities and Hollywood, has this to say about the Crystal Cathedral.... "If ever there was a "Hollywood" church, in the true sense of the word, it is the Community Church in Garden Grove, better known as The Crystal Cathedral". They aren't kidding.
- "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”.
- 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.
- The church's "Hour of Power" television show attracted 1 million viewers nationwide and millions more around the world. The "Glory of Christmas" and "Glory of Easter" pageants, featuring elaborate sets, live animals and flying angels, drew thousands each year to the cathedral. At its peak, the church had 10,000 congregants in Orange County and millions nationwide and around the world. It was sought after by such celebrities as John Wayne, Andy Griffith, pianist Roger Williams, and Evel Knievel. [92]
- ...On Monday, the Cathedral filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In addition to its financial travails, the church is faced with a crisis spurred by a rift between its founder and his son, who was meant to succeed his illustrious father. Robert A. Schuller's departure prompted some in the congregation to leave, causing a further drop in donations and revenue. The Cathedral is also struggling to find an inspirational leader to replace its aging leader in the pulpit and make itself attractive to younger church-goers.
However, the church will first have to dig itself out of a considerable financial mess. The Cathedral has a $36 million mortgage to pay off and a total debt of $48 million. About $7.5 million of that debt is to unsecured creditors – a majority of them vendors and laborers whose bills have gone unpaid. [92]
InPlainSite.org Note.. Robert Schuller is the epitome of the wolf that Paul spoke about in Acts 20:29-30. Called an extraordinary minister by New Age leader Neale Donald Walsch, what Schuller believes about the Bible is actually a redefined, twisted view of it. His repentance is not Bible repentance; his new birth is not Bible regeneration; his Jesus and his salvation find no place in the Bible. Robert Schuller has, by promoting New Agers and their doctrines, done his part to lead the church further and further away from Biblical doctrine down some very dark paths.
Rodney Howard-Browne
who has called himself the "bartender of holy laughter", along with with his wife Adonica, oversees 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.
James MacDonald
According to a February 2006 article in chicagomag.com (Emphasis Added)
- “The former U.S. senator Peter Fitzgerald has sold his house in Inverness, severing his lifelong ties with that northwest suburb....
Fitzgerald and his wife paid $452,500 for the place in 1994, when he was a state senator. It has a designer kitchen commissioned by the Fitzgeralds, a two-story family room, and five bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. The backyard has a pool and a multilevel series of decks overlooking a private lake...
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.”” .
Mike Murdock:
(born April 18, 1946 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, is a televangelist and pastor of the Wisdom Center ministry based in Fort Worth, Texas.
"Murdock has slipped in and out of the public's attention. He made a splash in the early 1980s on The PTL Club television program with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Murdock, untouched by PTL's collapse in scandal, developed his own television ministry. Today, he still frequents the programs of more-successful televangelists, such as faith healer Benny Hinn".
As of 04/11/2011, two of Murdock's books Wisdom for Crisis Times and 7 Laws You Must Honor to Have Uncommon Success (Discover the biblical keys for unlocking the supernatural favor of God in your life. Get ready to become an uncommon achiever!), were available on Benny Hinn's web site [95]
The following is an excerpt from a 2003 article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram By Darren Barbee. The article has been reprinted in it's entirety on the Trinity Foundation web site. [All Emphasis Added]
- 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. [96]
- From 1997 to 1999, he drew from a $138,000 annual expense account, although records show that the ministry directly paid some of his expenses, including some travel.
By comparison, in 2000, the combined expense accounts for the chief executive officers or directors of the five largest Christian nonprofit organizations – who oversaw a collective $1.5 billion in revenue – was $25,671.
In 2000, Millard Fuller, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity, oversaw an organization with $165 million in revenue and was paid $79,800 – $76,000 in salary and $3,800 in contributions to a benefit plan.
If he had taken home the same percentage of revenue that Murdock did that year, Fuller would have earned an extra $10 million.
Rev. James Eugene Ewing
Once a traveling tent-revival preacher, 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.
The Hucksters From Yesteryear
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.'
Jim and Tammy Bakker
The Bakkers bought mansions and luxury cars and the doghouse was air-conditioned. “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”.
Robert Tilton
Robert Tilton (born June 7, 1946 in Dallas, Texas) is an American televangelist who achieved notoriety in the 1980s and early 1990s through his infomercial-styled religious television program Success-N-Life, which at its peak in 1991 aired in all 235 American TV markets (daily in the majority of them), brought in nearly $80 million per year, and was described as "the fastest growing television ministry in America." However, within two years after ABC's Primetime Live aired an expose into Tilton's fundraising practices, which started a series of investigations into the ministry, Tilton's program was no longer being broadcast.
Tilton later returned to television via his new version of Success-N-Life airing on BET and The Word Network. In 2008, Tilton stopped broadcasting his program on television and is now utilising internet media alone for his broadcasting.
Excerpts from a 1997 piece in the Dallas Observer
- 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.
....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)
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).
As near as we can tell Paul Crouch is only out salaried by
Peter Popoff (President of Peter Popoff Ministries)… $628,732, His wife makes $203,029 as Executive Business Administrator. Do the math and remember that not to many years ago Peter Popoff’s claim to receive ‘messages from God’, turned out to be messages from a concealed transmitter. How do frauds make this much money? And, of course, John Hagee [$842,005 in compensation and $414,485] in benefits. (Above)
Other salaries include
Billy Graham [Director and Chairman of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA)] … $406,830.
William Franklin Graham III [as President and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA)] ... $94,998.
William Franklin Graham III [as President and CEO of Samaritan's Purse] …$304,308
Total Package… $399,306.
Richard E. Stearns [President of World Vision] … $366,892 in 2004.
Jack Van Impe, President of Jack Van Impe Ministries International … $153,143
His wife Rexella Van Impe [secretary] .. $85,971.
Total Package … $239,114
Hank Hanegraaff [President of The Christian Research Institute (CRI)] … $210,192,
His wife Kathy Hanegraaff [Director of Planning The Christian Research Institute (CRI)] … $127,431
Total Package … $337,623.
Ravi Zacharias, President of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries... $191,498.
Ned Graham [president of East Gates International] … $104,337
His wife Christina K. Graham [Director of Operations of East Gates International] … $46,453
Total package … $150,790.
Bob Larson, President of Bob Larson Ministries... 133,430
Charles F. Stanley, President and Chairman of InTouch Ministries was paid $123,222.
While Both CRI and Hank Hanegraaf (The Bible Answer Man Show) provide invaluable contributions to Christian Apologetics, sadly much controversy has swirled around Hank’s finances.
They're Leavin' On a Jet Plane
An article on the 2004 wittenburgdoor.com site talks about the Entry-Level, Starter Jets
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”!
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?” (Timothy Greeson. Leadership Lifestyles of the International Churches of Christ.)