Grassley to televangelists: Pardon the cliché, but show me the money

If televangelist Benny Hinn wants to say that Adam traveled to the moon, the law can’t touch him. Hinn has every right to teach wild stuff.

The same goes for Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar. If they can find a way to twist an obscure verse in Psalms to justify a fleet of Rolls Royces, there’s no earthly law to stop them.

And if Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is launching a doctrinal witch hunt from the Senate, then I would stand with unorthodox televangelists, a copy of the First Amendment in one hand and a bottle of Pepto Bismol in the other, to defend their right to be wrong.

But if preachers are using the First Amendment to hide fraud or evade taxes, then somebody should hold them accountable. If churches or donors won’t do it, then maybe it’s up to the government.

Last November, Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, wrote to six ministries, asking dozens of questions about their expenses, treatment of donations, business practices, oversight and compensation for leaders.

The ministries under the microscope include Benny Hinn Ministries, based in Grapevine, Texas; Joyce Meyer Ministries, Fenton, Mo.; Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Newark, Texas; New Birth Missionary Baptist Church/Eddie L. Long Ministries, Lithonia, Ga.; Without Walls International Church/Paula White Ministries, Tampa, Fla.; and World Changers Church International/Creflo Dollar Ministries, College Park, Ga.

Why these ministries? Grassley (pictured here) said he received information from watchdog groups and local news investigations that made him wonder if the organizations were hiding something, and so he began an inquiry. He gave the ministries a March 31 deadline to respond.

Predictably, some ministry leaders and supporters cried foul, saying the committee breached the First Amendment’s separation of church and state. But Meyer’s ministry answered the questions almost immediately, and three others later indicated a willingness to comply.

By Monday’s deadline, only Copeland and Dollar still refused to cooperate. They claim the committee singled out so-called Word of Faith ministries, which teach that faithful living – and giving – will yield financial riches now, not just spiritual riches in the hereafter.

Grassley, a Baptist, has been called a hypocrite, a persecutor of the church, a Judas. He said he’s just doing his job.

“I have an obligation to protect the integrity of U.S. tax laws,” he stated last fall. “If tax-exempt organizations, including media-based ministries, thumb their noses at the laws governing their preferential tax treatment, the American public, their contributors and the Internal Revenue Service have a right to know.”

What makes Grassley’s actions unusual is that it involves churches, according to Kenneth Behr, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a voluntary accreditation agency for Christian nonprofit organizations. But he doesn’t believe any First Amendment issues are currently at stake.

“At the heart of the questions are IRS tax issues,” he explained. “It’s not so much how much is paid, but if they’re accountable to anyone else.”

He has encouraged the ministries to cooperate with Grassley’s inquiry. (None of them is among the 2,000 ECFA members.)

“Accountability and financial disclosure are key ingredients to integrity,” Behr said, “and as a pragmatic issue, we should ask what’s the best course, with the least amount of damage. It’s easier to comply and then worry about legislation coming out of it, than to tempt fate by frustrating the process.”

With the deadline passed, Behr thinks the Finance Committee will now increase the pressure on Copeland and Dollar, launching a formal investigation. That’s “a whole new ball game,” Behr said, which could lead from subpoenas to new laws governing nonprofit ministries.

He would rather see churches and ministries regulate themselves. But, he points out, accountability among American religious groups is difficult. Compared to other nations, more American churches operate under local leadership, which is both a source of vitality and of potential problems.

“The U.S. has a tremendous number of congregational churches, which function with a democratic process, with members who give money and elect leaders for oversight,” Behr said. “At the same time, we have many personality-driven churches, many of them megachurches today. There’s Mr. and Mrs. Pastor who start a ministry because of their personality and charisma, their calling.”

While most such ministries work fine, many succumb to the dark side of independence and operate without any accountability.

“Every church in the U.S., regardless of ecclesiastical structure, should understand they need to be accountable,” Behr said. “It’s very biblical.”

First published in the Johnson City (Tenn.) Press. 5 April 2008.