How Far is Your Dollar Going these Days to Buy a Piece of Heaven?
Timothy 6:7 & 10
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Matthew 16:26
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
Where did all of your Hard Earned Dollars go? Here's a short list.
Oral Roberts - Evangelist Oral Roberts told his followers on two TV segments in early February, 1987 that unless he received $4.5 million dollars immediately for medical missionary scholarships that God was going to take his life on March 31, 1987. Some stations either refused to air or edited out his manipulative plea for help. He passed away on Dec. 15th 2009.
Richard Roberts (son of the late televangelist Oral Roberts, was president of Oral Roberts University until his forced resignation on November 23, 2007. Roberts was named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging improper use of university funds for political and personal purposes and improper use of university resources
Jim Bakker of the PTL Club. Following a 16-month Federal grand jury probe, Bakker was indicted in 1988 on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. In 1989, after a five-week trial which began on August 28 in Charlotte, the jury found him guilty on all 24 counts, and Judge Robert Potter sentenced him to 45 years in federal prison.The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Bakker is still in debt to the IRS for about $6 million
Evangelist Tony Alamo. On September 20, 2008, FBI agents raided Tony Alamo Christian Ministries headquarters as part of a child pornography investigation.This investigation involved allegations of physical abuse, sexual abuse and allegations of polygamy and underage marriage. According to Terry Purvis, mayor of Fouke Arkansas, his office has received complaints from former ministry members about allegations of child abuse, sexual abuse and polygamy since the ministry established itself in the area, and in turn, Purvis turned over information about the allegations to the FBI investigation. Investigators at the scene plan to conduct a search of ministry headquarters and the home of Alamo and interview children present on the compound. In late July 2009, Alamo (who had a previous conviction for tax evasion in the 1990s) was convicted on ten counts of transporting minors across state lines for sexual purposes, sexual assault and other crimes. On November 13, 2009, he was sentenced to the maximum punishment of 175 years in prison
Benny Hinn's reputation as an advocate of prosperity gospel has attracted millions of followers but has also drawn criticism from lawmakers and watchdog groups.He is one of six televangelists who have been targeted by federal lawmakers investigating compliance with IRS rules for nonprofits.
Johannesburg - 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 $1 000 in offerings to televangelist Benny Hinn.Hinn's co-pastors apparently had credit-card machines ready with which they could take donations.
John Hagee “Since Hagee and his wife, Diana Hagee, founded GETV 25 years ago, the organization has gone from a back-room operation broadcasting Sunday sermons to San Antonio area viewers to a 50,000-square-foot multimedia studio broadcasting to 127 television stations and 82 radio stations nationwide...
.... According to the 990 forms for GETV, the organization in 2001 netted $12.3 million from donations, $4.8 million in profit from the sales of books and tapes, and an additional $1.1 million from various other sources, including rental income.
As the nonprofit organization's president, Hagee drew $540,000 in compensation, as well as an additional $302,005 in compensation for his position as president of Cornerstone Church, according to GETV's tax statements.
He also received $411,561 in benefits from GETV, including contributions to a retirement package for highly paid executives the IRS calls a "rabbi trust," so named because the first beneficiary of such an irrevocable trust was a rabbi.
The John Hagee Rabbi Trust includes a $2.1 million 7,969-acre ranch outside Brackettville, with five lodges, including a "main lodge" and a gun locker. It also includes a manager's house, a smokehouse, a skeet range and three barns.
Taken together, his payment package, $842,005 in compensation and $414,485 in benefits, was one of the highest, if not the highest, pay package for a nonprofit director in the San Antonio area in 2001.”
”.. Hagee's compensation was among the highest pay packages for television evangelists in 2001, according to IRS 990 filings”
In Addition Hagee’s wife “Diana Hagee received compensation of $67,907 as vice president of GETV and $58,813 as the special events director for Cornerstone Church”. (www.rickross.comJoyce Meyer..
Ministry Headquarters
The ministry's headquarters is a three-story jewel of red brick and emerald-color glass that, from the outside, has the look and feel of a luxury resort hotel. Built two years ago for $20 million, the building and grounds are postcard perfect, from manicured flower beds and walkways to a five-story lighted cross.
The driveway to the office complex is lined on both sides with the flags of dozens of nations reached by the ministry. A large bronze sculpture of the Earth sits atop an open Bible near the parking lot. Just outside the main entrance, a sculpture of an American eagle landing on a tree branch stands near a man-made waterfall. A message in gold letters greets employees and visitors over the front entryway: "Look what the Lord Has Done."
The building is decorated with religious paintings and sculptures, and quality furniture. Much of it, Meyer says, she selected herself.
A Jefferson County assessor's list offers a glimpse into the value of many of the items: a $19,000 pair of Dresden vases, six French crystal vases bought for $18,500, an $8,000 Dresden porcelain depicting the Nativity, two $5,800 curio cabinets, a $5,700 porcelain of the Crucifixion, a pair of German porcelain vases bought for $5,200.
The
decor includes a $30,000 malachite round table, a $23,000 marble-topped
antique commode, a $14,000 custom office bookcase, a $7,000 Stations of
the Cross in Dresden porcelain, a $6,300 eagle sculpture on a pedestal,
another eagle made of silver bought for $5,000, and numerous paintings
purchased for $1,000 to $4,000 each.
InPlainSite Note: The Commode referred to above probably does not refer to a toilet. Commode
used to refer to a cabinet, with one or more doors, that served as a
washstand with a washbasin and water pitcher, and that also offered an
enclosed area below for storing a chamber pot, but in contemporary
English usually refers to a low chest of drawers on stubby legs.
Inside Meyer's private office suite sit a conference table and 18 chairs bought for $49,000. The woodwork in the offices of Meyer and her husband cost the ministry $44,000.
In all, assessor's records of the ministry's personal property show that nearly $5.7 million worth of furniture, artwork, glassware, and the latest equipment and machinery fill the 158,000-square-foot building.
As
of this summer, the ministry also owned a fleet of vehicles with an
estimated value of $440,000. The Jefferson County assessor has been
trying to get the complex and its contents added to the tax rolls but has failed.
Stylish Sports Cars and a Plane
Meyer
drives the ministry's 2002 Lexus SC sports car with a retractable top,
valued at $53,000. Her son Dan, 25, drives the ministry's 2001 Lexus
sedan, with a value of $46,000. Meyer's husband drives his Mercedes-Benz
S55 AMG sedan. "My husband just likes cars," Meyer said.
The Meyers keep the ministry's Canadair CL-600 Challenger jet, which Joyce Meyer says is worth $10 million, at Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield. The ministry employs two full-time pilots to fly the Meyers to conferences around the world.
Meyer calls the plane a "lifesaver" for her and her family. "It enabled us, at our age, to travel literally all over the world and preach the gospel" with better security than that offered on commercial flights, she said.
Security is important to Meyer, who says she has received death threats. She has a division of the ministry dedicated to her safety. Her officers wear pistols; they guard the headquarters' front gate, keeping out anyone but employees and invited guests. The ministry bought a $145,000 house where the security chief lives rent-free to keep him close to the ministry's headquarters.
The Family Compound
The ministry has also bought homes for other key employees.
Since 1999, the ministry has spent at least $4 million on five homes for Meyer and her four children near Interstate 270 and Gravois Road, St. Louis County records show.
Meyer's house, the largest of the five, is a 10,000-square-foot Cape Cod style estate home with a guest house and a garage that can be independently heated and cooled and can hold up to eight cars. The three-acre property has a large fountain, a gazebo, a private putting green, a pool and a poolhouse where the ministry recently added a $10,000 bathroom.
The ministry pays for utilities, maintenance and landscaping costs at all five homes. It also pays for renovations. The Meyers ordered major rehab work at the ministry's expense right after the ministry bought three of the homes. For example, the ministry bought one home, leveled it and then built a new home on the site to the specifications of Meyer's daughter Sandra and her husband, county records show. Even the property taxes, $15, 629 this year, are paid by the ministry.
Meyer called the homes a "good investment" for the ministry and said the ministry bears the cost of upkeep and maintenance because the family is too busy to take care of such tasks. "It's just too hard to keep up with something like that when you travel as much as we do," Meyer said.
She said that federal tax law allows ministries to buy parsonages for their employees, so the arrangement does not violate any prohibitions against personal benefit. Meyer also said the decision to cluster the families together was a way to build a buffer to better ensure privacy and security.
"We put good people all around us," she said. "Obviously, if I was trying to hide anything or thought I was doing anything wrong, I wouldn't live on the corner of Gravois and 270."
The Irrevocable Trust
Meyer
says she expects the best, from where she lives to how she looks. Much
of her clothing is custom-tailored at an upscale West County dress shop.
At her conferences, she usually wears flashy jewelry. She sports an
impressive diamond ring that she said she got from one of her followers.
Meyer has a private hairdresser. And, a few years ago, Meyer told her
employees she was getting a face-lift.
Not everything is paid directly by the ministry.
Last year, the Meyers bought a $500,000 atrium ranch lakefront home in Porto Cima, a private-quarters club at Lake of the Ozarks. A few weeks later, they bought two watercrafts similar to Jet Skis and a $105,000 Crownline boat painted red, white and blue that they named the Patriot.
In 2000, the Meyers also bought her parents a $130,000 home just a few minutes from where the Meyers live.
The Meyers have put the Mercedes, the lake house, the boat and her parents' home into an irrevocable trust, an arrangement that tax experts say would help protect them from any financial problems at the minisry.
Meyer says she should not have to defend how she spends the ministry's money. "We teach and preach and believe biblically that God wants to bless people who serve Him," Meyer said. "So there's no need for us to apologize for being blessed."
Meyer's "Trusted" Board
For
the most part, Meyer can spend the ministry's money any way she sees
fit because her board of directors is handpicked. It consists of Meyer,
her husband and all four of her children — all paid workers — as well as
six of Meyer's closest friends. (Ministry officials said that daughter
Laura Holtzmann has now resigned; state records still list her on the
board.) "Our family is a huge help to us," Meyer said. "We couldn't do
this if we didn't have somebody we trusted."
Board members Roxane and Paul Schermann are such close friends that for more than a decade they lived in the Meyers' home. The ministry employed both of them as high-level managers and in 2001 bought them a $334,000 home. Roxane Schermann no longer works at the ministry; her husband continues as a paid division manager. The Schermanns bought the house at the same price from the ministry in January. Delanie Trusty, the ministry's certified public accountant, also serves as the ministry board's secretary.
The board decides how the ministry's money is spent. The salaries of Meyer and her family are set by those board members who are not family members and are not employed by the ministry, Meyer's lawyer said. The arrangement meets IRS regulations, the lawyer said.
"We certainly wouldn't have enemies and people we don't know" on the board, Meyer said. "That wouldn't make any sense. Anybody who has a board is going to have people in favor of you."
Meyer and her ministry refuse to tell how much the ministry pays Meyer, her husband, her children and her children's spouses. "I don't make any more than I'm worth," Meyer said. "We're definitely within IRS guidelines."
Such an overlap between top administrators and board members concerns the IRS because "the opportunity to manipulate and control the organization is easier to accomplish," said Bruce Philipson of St. Paul, Minn., the IRS group manager of tax-exempt organizations for this region. (Carolyn Tuft and Bill Smith St. Louis Post-Dispatch 11/15/2003)Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church
“30,000 people endure punishing traffic on the narrow roads leading to Lakewood Church every weekend to hear Pastor Joel Osteen deliver upbeat messages of hope. A youthful-looking 42-year-old with a ready smile, he reassures the thousands who show up at each of his five weekend services that "God has a great future in store for you." ... Osteen's best-seller, Your Best Life Now, has sold 2.5 million copies since its publication last fall.... In his book, Osteen talks about how his wife, Victoria, a striking blonde who dresses fashionably, wanted to buy a fancy house some years ago, before the money rolled in. He thought it wasn't possible. "But Victoria had more faith," he wrote. "She convinced me we could live in an elegant home...and several years later, it did come to pass." ... Osteen's flourishing Lakewood enterprise brought in $55 million in contributions last year, four times the 1999 amount, church officials say”. (Earthly Empires Businessweek.com)
Early in 2001, when the city of Houston decided to build a new sports/entertainment complex the powers that be placed the Compaq Center (home to the Houston Rockets) on the market. It is extremely unlikely that they dreamed it would be leased by Lakewood church, much less that the church would make a one-time, lump-sum payment of $12 million to the city for the first 30-year lease period (with an option to renew). Which, as it turns out, is only the beginning. After all one has to make the transition from basketball to god, from run of the mill entertainment complex to a place “unlike any other place in the nation”.. a $70 million project.
So what kind of place is this one of a kind worship center going to be. According to INJOY Stewardship Services, whom Joel Osteen hired as consultants.. “The new complex, which is to be called Lakewood Church Central, will transform the Compaq Center from a sports venue to a 21st century worship center. The main floor, which is now flat (to accommodate basketball and hockey), will be sloped to allow for direct viewing of the platform. Below the main floor, the current locker rooms and administrative offices will become the new Children's Ministry Center-an 85,000-square foot area now being designed by former Disney artists. The exterior of the building will be enhanced with architectural elements that carry the interior design features to the outside. As part of that renovation, new columns will be added to the south and west ends of the building.
The Lakewood Church Central arena will seat over 16,000 people yet achieve a sense of intimacy through state-of-the-art sound, lighting and video. The stage area will allow for the Pastor's mobility while providing complete 360-degree visibility to ensure that every seat has a direct view of the pulpit. The stage will be surrounded by three high-definition screens which provide live image support for every service. The new choir loft embraces the worship platform in two curving arcs, with seating for over 250 members.
The Lobby and Food Court, with its dynamic lighting and decorative features, will create a warm atmosphere in which the congregation can gather before and after each service. This new facility will include a bookstore, numerous resource centers, meeting rooms, and information centers conveniently located throughout the lobby area.
Describing his vision for the church's new home, Osteen explains: "We intend to share this great resource and make Lakewood Church Central a gathering point for the entire city of Houston. The ice rink and basketball facilities will remain open for families and city leagues. There will be concerts, sporting events, family conferences, conventions, business workshops, personal growth seminars and much more -and all of these opportunities will bring in people from all walks of life. We're going to touch untold thousands of lives in this place." After it opens in July, he predicts weekend attendance will rocket to 100,000. Says Osteen: "Other churches have not kept up, and they lose people by not changing with the times." (Emphasis Ours)
The East Building, a yet-to-be-built four-story complex, will house the International Broadcast and Production Center, the Youth Complex, the main Lakewood Bookstore and the new Grand Entrance. The new broadcast facility will produce Lakewood's weekly television program, the nation's top-rated devotional program as determined by Nielsen Media Research. The Grand Entrance and Lobby will be a spectacular multi-story foyer accessed through towering glass doors. Cascading water features will surround the main stairway and three new escalators leading up to the Worship Center Lobby. An array of new elevators, conveniently located throughout the facility, will aid access to both the Worship Center and the East Building”.
Incidentally Injoy’s founder John Maxwell was once pastor of a small church in Hillham, Indiana. Studying the “correlation between leadership effectiveness and effective ministry” John founded one business which ultimately led to ‘INJOY Stewardship Services’. He resigned his pastorate in 1995 to devote full attention to ISS, seeing “greater potential in the thousands of lives that could be reached through INJOY…”, He speaks frequently for several high-profile organizations such as Promise Keepers, Focus on the Family, Sam's Club, Chick-fil-A, Mary Kay, and various Fortune 500 companies.
“On June 20, 2005, Osteen sat for an interview with Larry King on CNN’s The Larry King Show. King introduced Osteen as “evangelism’s hottest rising star, pastor for the biggest congregation in the United States.” And what does he preach? Osteen said he doesn’t get into controversial subjects like sin and judgment. False religions such as Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism don’t concern him. He doesn’t really know who’s going to hell and who isn’t”
Lakewood Celebrates "the king", Elvis Presley:
From Ingrid Schlueter of sliceoflaodicea.com who
“personally talked with one Elvis impersonator in Houston who has performed numerous times at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church. .... It is somehow a fitting metaphor for these churches that the false god of their choice is a bloated, drug-infested rock star who died a lonely, needless and tragic death on the floor of his own bathroom.”
Also
“It seems Elvis impersonators are in big demand there as he is performing on the 22nd of October, this Saturday, for a nurses get together at the church. He said that it doesn't matter what kind of church he does Elvis at, it all "glorifies the Lord". He has 20 different outfits, one of which has 1,000 pieces of cut Austrian crystal and made by the same guy who made Elvis's suit of the same type. He said he wears a special suit for "Heartbreak Hotel" in honor of Elvis' first gold record. I haven't quite recovered from the conversation. Ralph stressed that he doesn't impersonate Elvis, because nobody can. "I pay tribute to him," he said. "The kids really eat it up," he added.” (Slice of Laodicea)
Kenneth Copeland
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”
With a sizeable share for the Copelands… [Emphasis Added]
Mr Copeland certainly practices what he preaches. According to a report into the pentecostal charismatics, commissioned by the Senate, the ministry built Mr Copeland and his wife Gloria a mansion “the size of an hotel” .. and enabled him to acquire a $20 million (£10 million) Cessna Citation to help him to spread the word of God across the US.
Speaking to his assembled congregation on the runway by his new aeroplane, Mr Copeland said: “The Lord spoke to me and said ‘you're gonna believe for a Citation 10, right now'.” He also promised that the jet, one of four owned by the Church, “will never ever be used as for anything other than what is becoming of you Lord Jesus”.
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.” [Times Online. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4281949.ece]
An Associated Press article dated July 26, 2008 says
Copeland’s 1,500-acre campus outside Fort Worth is “testament to his success”. It includes a church, private airstrip, a hangar for the ministry's aircraft and a $6 million, church-owned mansion.
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. Pastors' pay must be "reasonable" under the federal tax code.
Reasonable according to the Copelands is what most of us would consider a very hefty amount, more suitable to the hugely overpaid leeches on Wall Street. But then again what’s the difference? Leeches on Wall Street.. Leeches in the Church.
“Copeland's current salary is not made public by his ministry. However, the church disclosed in a property-tax exemption application that his wages were $364,577 in 1995; Copeland's wife, Gloria, earned $292,593.” [http://www.rickross.com/reference/kcm/kcm8.html]
They're Leavin' On a Jet Plane
by Pete Evans & Todd Bates (www.wittenburgdoor.com)
ENTRY-LEVEL, STARTER JETS
Up-and-coming
Tilton impersonator Paula White owns a Hawker-Siddeley "Jet Dragon" –
aptly named for the trail of smoke it would leave IF it could fly or IF
she could get parts for this 1965-vintage relic. Truly a vanity
purchase, it's been grounded since she bought it, just so she can SAY
she has a jet.
THE CESSNA CITATION CLUB
·
Copeland proteges Jesse Duplantis and Jerry Savelle, plus Florida
upstart Mark Bishop, each fly their own Cessna Citation 500. They cruise
at 400 mph with a range of 1,400 miles and carry a price tag of about
$1.25 million each.
THE GRUMMAN GULFSTREAM GUYS
·
Fred Price, Creflo Dollar and Brother Benny Hinn all have their own
Grumman Gulfstream II's. With a two-man crew and 19 passengers, these
babies cruise at 581 mph with a range of 4,275 miles. Used, they're
worth about $4.5 million each.
THE BIG-BUCK BOYS, THE CHALLENGER 600s
·
Paul Crouch owns the current Queen of the Flying-Televangelist Fleet – a
Bombardier Challenger 604. Carrying a crew of two plus 19 passengers,
she cruises at 529 mph with a range of 3,860 miles. She's valued at
$16.5 million, not including Paul's "special interior remodeling."
· The late Ken Hagin's Challenger 601, about 10 years older than Paul's, is "only" worth about $9.6 million.· Recently exposed uberspender Joyce Meyer has her own Challenger 600. A full 18 years older than Paul's, this one's only worth a paltry $4.5 million. Let's hear it for Joyce's frugal stewardship!
KENNY COPELAND – UNDISPUTED KING OF THE FLYING COWBOYS
·
His Cessna Citation 550 Bravo (valued at $3.4 million), PLUS his
Grumman Gulfstream II (worth $4.5 million) AND his Cessna Golden Eagle
AND his Beech E-55 AND his assorted lesser aircraft AND his own airport
all add up to untold millions of poor folks' dollars. But Kenny's
masterstroke is the fact that he's now telling the faithful that God
wants him and wife Gloria to EACH have their own Cessna Citation Ten
super-jets. Flying just below the speed of sound, these state-of-the-art
flying palaces carry a base sticker price of $20 million! That means
when "God" has his way, the widows and orphans will have "invested" just
about $50-60 million in Kenny's Heavenly Air Force.
UPDATE: “Over the past several years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been believing God for a Cessna Citation X jet—a plane they would be able to use in fulfilling their God-appointed assignment and the calling on Kenneth Copeland Ministries to take the Word of God to the world—from the top to the bottom and all the way around. At 2 p.m. on Friday, July 22, 2005, we made the initial deposit and signed the order for Citation X #240. We will take delivery on the plane the first week of March 2006”! [http://elitecxteam.org/update.php] [INDEX]
On July 7, 2008 Times Online reported that “Televangelist Kenneth Copeland refuses to render unto taxman”
“According to a report, Copeland’s faithful have unknowingly financed a mansion ’the size of a hotel’… 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.” [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4281949.ece]
Conclusion
“There
are bound to be some people who will read this article and say to
themselves, "So the leadership live in nice houses or nice areas, so
what? This is God's way of blessing them. They deserve this for leading
God's people." I wonder if these people ever really stop to think about
what they are saying? Do they really believe that God would bless those
in leadership with lifestyles that totally contradict everything that
Jesus taught. He and the men who led the first century church led by
example. They were servant leaders. Ask yourself if any of the apostles
would've chosen pricey homes or affluent areas for themselves. More to
the point, would Jesus have done so? Ask yourself if the apostles would
have used the contributions and tithes of the people in order to have
done so? More to the point, would Jesus have done so?” (Leadership Lifestyles of the International Churches of Christ. Timothy Greeson)
Robert Tilton:
“At
his peak he purchased 5,000 hours of air time per month and appeared in
all 235 U.S. television markets. His daily Success-N-Life show reached
nearly every television set in North America. Tilton's mass-market
ministry pulled in an estimated $80 million per year, and his church
drew as many as 5,000 worshippers to Sunday service.
Tilton gleaned the donations by pitching a narrow, well-oiled version of the Pentecostal "prosperity gospel." In exchange for $1,000 "vows" from followers, Tilton promised to lobby God for miraculous improvements in their health and finances. According to one survey, he spent 68 percent of his air time asking for money. "If Jesus Christ were alive today and walking around, he wouldn't want his people driving Volkswagens and living in apartments," explained Tilton, who favored a Jaguar or Mercedes-Benz and lived a lavish private life in mansions in San Diego and Dallas.
Then came November 21, 1991. On that evening, ABC's PrimeTime Live aired the findings of a six-month investigation into the ministries of Tilton and two other local TV preachers, W.V. Grant and Larry Lea.
The segment on Tilton was by far the most damning. At its heart was the accusation that Tilton never saw the vast majority of prayer requests and personal correspondence sent to him by faithful viewers. On the air, Tilton promised to pray over each miracle-request. But on the ground, ABC said it found thousands of those requests and viewers' letters dumped in garbage bins in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Checks, money orders, and in some cases cash, food stamps, and even wedding rings sent by followers had been removed for deposit at a nearby bank.
Lawsuits from outraged followers quickly followed, along with further media exposes concerning dumped prayer requests. (Tilton claimed the trashed prayer requests were part of a plot against the church.) State Attorney General Dan Morales launched a fraud investigation of Tilton's ministry, and the FBI and U.S. Postal Service subpoenaed the church's records the day after the ABC broadcast” ….
“The problem is that mailing lists grow stale when the TV screen stays dark too long. Now, though, it's bright once more. Tilton's toll-free prayer line is up and running, and his Tulsa, Oklahoma, post office box awaits a hoped-for onslaught from the faithful. Every weekday between 11 a.m. and noon Eastern Standard Time, a fiberoptic telephone line carries the voice and image of Robert Tilton out of a small TV studio in Miami Beach. The signal runs under city streets and across Biscayne Bay until it reaches WPBT-Channel 2, a public television station in North Miami. A for-profit affiliate of the station called Comtel beams Tilton's brand-new Success-N-Life show up through the heavens to a satellite transponder.
What hasn't changed is Tilton's repetitious message. He quotes a bit of Scripture and speaks in tongues, but mostly he pushes emotional buttons: Cancer. Emphysema. Alcoholism. Credit card addiction. Job layoffs. These ailments can be cured through faith. But faith requires proof, a "vow." To make a vow, preferably $1,000, call the 800 number on the screen. (When a reporter called the hotline to seek solace regarding credit card addiction, a telemarketer took less than a minute recording his name, phone number, address, date of birth, and type of ailment, promising to pass on the information to Pastor Bob.)
Corporate records show that Tilton registered his nonprofit Word of Faith World Outreach Center Church Inc. in Florida more than a decade ago, but the registration is inactive. There are a few titillating hints in the Broward County court files: a trio of traffic tickets handed out over the years (one for doing 93 in a 55 m.p.h. zone on Christmas Eve, another for "failure to use due care," and a third this April for driving without registration documents.) Computer research reveals 12 addresses used by Tilton in the last decade, three of them in Fort Lauderdale. But two of those are commercial mail drops, and the last, a $500,000 waterfront vacation home in the Rio Vista, Florida, neighborhood, was sold last year as part of Tilton's divorce settlement with his first wife; ditto for his 38-foot fishing boat.
Federal records show that Tilton bought a 50-foot Carver motor yacht last year in Fort Lauderdale for $500,000. In July 1996, he told a judge in Dallas that he was living aboard and making $4,000 monthly payments on the boat, which he named the Liberty Leigh. (He is presently building a two-story home on a $1.39 million oceanfront lot on an island in Biscayne Bay off Miami Beach, and his ministry owns a 50-foot yacht. His ministry takes in about $24 million a year)
Cross examination of Leigh Valentine, September 4, 1996, court testimony:
"Bob's mail ministry is a lie and a total deception. He does not write those letters. He did not even proofread them during our marriage. He makes it sound like [he's] writing to you right now, this is what God spoke to me for your life, Jesus will appear to you tonight; if you sleep with this little red cord under your pillow, you will prosper. He doesn't even know what's going out to those people, and he doesn't care, as long as they send their money in. One time he said in one of the letters that was sent, I will be taking these to the East Coast to pray for you by the ocean where Jesus prayed for his people. So we flew to Fort Lauderdale and we checked into a four- or five-star hotel on the beach and got a nice penthouse view... That is stealing from people. Most of those people are on welfare. They're little Hispanics and blacks. And he even said, what I do is I look at a map and we go after the ghettoes, we go after those on welfare, we go after those that don't read, those that are lower socioeconomic backgrounds. That's who we send our letters to..."
(http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/1997-11-06/feature2.html/page1.html) [INDEX]
Other CEO Salaries
“Charity
Navigator, America's premier independent charity evaluator, works to
advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by
evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities”. The
compensation Package of the following CEO’s is based on information
reported on various organization's most recent Form 990. The
compensation package includes salary, cash bonuses, and unusually large
expense accounts and other allowances. (www.charitynavigator.org).
Paul Crouch’s compensation package stands at $419,000 and Janice Crouch’s at $361,000, which makes a whopping total of $780,000
As near as we can tell Paul C 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.
Fred Price
After
the 20/20’s March 2007 fiasco in which they treated an old Fred Price
sermon as being a real life situation ABC has been sued by Fred Price
who accused them of breaching "fundamental journalist guidelines. They
thought Price was talking about himself in a sermon when he said "I
live in a 25-room mansion, I have my own $6-million yacht, I have my own
private jet and I have my own helicopter and I have seven luxury
automobiles." [The network has run more than one retraction, one on
"Good Morning America" and the other on "20/20." ABC also posted a
retraction on its website].
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.
“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.”” [Matching mission and machine - Pro Pilot Magazine, November 2005, by Grant McLarenPaula And Randy White
Excerpts from a May 20, 2007 Tampa Tribune article, Of Faith, Fame & Fortune, by Michelle Bearden And Baird Helgeson
The Whites' church, founded in 1991, became Without Walls International, a church that claims 23,500 members on two campuses and is ranked one of the largest and fastest-growing independent churches in the country, according to Church Growth Today, a consulting company. Without Walls, including its Lakeland campus and Paula’s broadcast ministry, took in $35 million in tithes and offerings last year, according to a recent audit by Lewis, Birch & Ricardo CPAs. [The audit was posted online last week - the first public accounting in the church’s history - after The Tampa Tribune requested a copy]. How much of the revenue goes to the Whites, the couple won’t say. The audit lists more than $5.5 million in salaries for 2006. The church declined to say how many employees were on the payroll.
Most of the couple’s personal income comes from private businesses, including a real estate company, sales of nutritional supplements and speaking engagements, he said. Since 2005, two of their businesses have sold $871,000 in books, DVDs, CDs and clothing to the church, according to the recent audit. Paula is , a sought-after speaker at Christian programs, women's retreats and success seminars. She just launched a health and fitness program, "10 Commandments of Health and Wellness," and in July, she'll launch her "Life by Design" workshops across the street from Madison Square Garden. Her companion book, "You're All That: Discovering God's Design on Your Life," comes out in October.
Notice, they have for profit businesses, that profit from the church. Once these pimps make a big building, they make up businesses to offer various goods and services and milk the church coffers for more bucks. That’s what you really call getting paid coming and going! Notice there is no full total for all the money they make from all their private businesses. So how much of the money coming in is going out to help the needy? [quote by Randy and Paula White are Vipers! by Independent Conservative].
It paid more than $3.1 million for “missions, outreach and benevolence” last year, according to the audit. [less than the $5.5 million payroll and less than 10% of the $35 million collected last year]. Yes, they do good works, said former staff member Larry DeLaRosa. But given the millions in revenue, Without Walls should be doing more, he said... "They've built an empire and used it to gain their own financial wealth," he said. "If I had one-tenth of what they have, I could do twice as many ministries as they say they're supporting now."
"Since 2000, court records show five business deals that soured after the Whites refused to pay”, including
“Jacqueline Knight, who runs a Tampa public relations and marketing company, said, "We've moved on and we're friends again" after she placed a lien on the church for $16,782 in unpaid bills in April 2002. She was paid an undisclosed sum before it got to court...."
Former airplane broker Todd Bates and Randy repeatedly discussed features and costs. of a a small business jet. Randy asked that the landing gear be overhauled before the sale, and, as the aircraft sat jacked up in the middle of the maintenance, Bates said Randy stopped returning his calls. Learning that Randy had bought a plane from someone else Todd Bates “sued the church in Oakland County Court in Michigan, seeking $100,000 in damages, the commission he would have received on the deal. The church ended up settling for even more: $125,000”.
"County Court Judge Paul Huey ordered the church to pay Cox-Feivelson Antiques and Design Gallery $10,217 for unpaid bills in November."
"The trappings are physical as well. Both the Whites have undergone cosmetic surgery, seeming to grow younger over the past five years. “We’re on television, and you’ve got to look the part,” Randy said".
“Randy who "admits that he doesn’t pray before meals, bears several tattoos and enjoys wine" said strip club owner Joe Redner should have been elected to the Tampa City Council in November (”He would have been good for this city”)"”... “Redner attended a Sunday service and spoke to the congregation in July 2006”.
"In January 2005, he was featured on the cover of Makes and Models Magazine, a glossy publication devoted to exotic cars, motorcycles and scantily clad female models. Associate editor Rodney Burrell, then a church member, wrote a glowing story about Randy called “Riding for Souls.” Although putting Randy on the cover - he stood posed next to his wife’s Mercedes SL55, valued at more than $100,000 - was Burrell’s idea, the church had to buy $7,500 worth of magazines for the privilege".
“Donald Trump appeared on Paula’s TV show, “Paula White Today” in October 2006”:
Randy White is also far from an honest man.
"In his autobiography, “Without Walls,” and on a 2002 Web profile, Randy said he enrolled at the former Lee College in Cleveland, Tenn., and earned a bachelor’s degree in ministerial studies and a master’s in divinity. He said he was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Virginia State University in Petersburg, Va. Representatives from both schools said he did not receive degrees there, though Lee confirmed he took two classes. According to documents Randy gave the Tribune in April, he received a doctorate of humane letters from Commonwealth Assistance Foundation Institute of International Studies in Alexandria, Va., in May 1993. An in-depth Internet search found no mention of the school. There is no telephone listing for it. Randy does have a bachelor’s degree in theology from the International Bible Institute and Seminary, a correspondence school in Orlando. .
Footnote [August 2007]
An article entitled Divorce shakes White's evangelical empire on myfoxtampabay.com on 24 Aug 2007 says..
At Thursday night's service at Without Walls International Church, the Whites announced plans to divorce. The couple shares a $2 million dollar home on Bayshore Boulevard, along with a private jet. Some say the pastors have been spending more time apart as they buy property and pursue ministries elsewhere. Paula White owns a Trump Towers condo in New York City and a home in San Antonio. Randy White is reportedly leasing property in MalibuRev. Daniel S. Mundell has preached miracles and prosperity to mostly poor worshipers.
Mundell tells followers God will free them of debt, even make them millionaires. Former believers say the only one who seemed to attain wealth was the preacher, who drove luxury cars and in 2005 bought a $1.8 million estate on Florida's west coast.
For 10 years, Mundell preached in the Fort Lauderdale area at the Solid Rock Family Worship Center. He raised money for a new church and then closed the congregation without building it.
Mundell traveled the country on crusades, soliciting donations for overseas mission trips he never took and making predictions to followers that they said never happened. He is now preaching in Hallandale Beach and rebuilding his ministry after filing for bankruptcy protection last June.
