Evangelist Group Stands Alone In Turning Over Records to Senator

December 06, 2007

Evangelist Group Stands Alone In Turning Over Records to Senator

Only one of the six Christian ministry groups under examination by Sen. Charles E. Grassley has turned over financial records as part of an informal investigation into their spending and compensation practices.

Iowa’s Mr. Grassley said his office has received financial statements from Joyce Meyer Ministries, in Fenton, Mo., and that his staff will review the materials.

The organization, in a statement, said it planned to submit the information even through it was not “under obligation by law.”

The six groups have been given until today to comply with Mr. Grassley’s request, which comes in response to news coverage and complaints from the public about the ministries’ spending habits.

Mr. Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement that he is holding out hope that the other five groups will submit information to his office by the end of today.

At least one of the organizations, World Changers Church International in College Park, Ga., has said publicly that it does not plan to comply.

The organization said in a letter to Mr. Grassley that inquiries should be made through the Internal Revenue Service rather than through a Senate office, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Citing the “possible misuse of donations made to religious organizations,” Mr. Grassley’s office in November sent letters to the Meyer Ministries and World Changers as well as to Kenneth Copeland Ministries, in Newark, Tex.; New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, in Lithonia, Ga.; and Without Walls International Church (and affiliated Paula White Ministries), in Tampa, Fla.

Mr. Grassley said the investigation is an effort to determine “whether groups are using their tax-exempt status in compliance with the spirit and letter of the law.”

Classified as religious organizations, none of those groups are required to submit to the Internal Revenue Service a Form 990 detailing financial activities. The ministries are also under no legal obligation to provide information to the senator, as the letters are not formal subpoenas.

— Peter Panepento

Comments

The real attention here needs to be focused on Charles Grassley’s avowed vendetta against people (and organizations) that he blames for some of his personal failings. It is easy for noisemakers like him to gain attention for unusual “investigations” from the sensational oriented news networks, but he has a personal agenda here that is much bigger than the sum of his “interest” in the evngelical ministries that are the targets of his probe.
Check the condition of his falling financial campaign support in Iowa and then correlate the trends in campaign contributions against the timing of his inquiry -and press conferences – about this matter.
In my opinion, Mr. Grassley is a resident of a glass house and he shouldn’t be throwing stones.

— Tony Sheffler Dec 7, 05:52 AM #
Has the good senator inquired into financial spending within the Roman Catholic Church as a non profit in this country stemming from the Vatican?

— Rachel Dec 7, 05:54 AM #
I worry when politicians feel the need to investigate the church. I worry because I know there things going on in the church that need investigating. The health and wealth ministries have a lot to answer for. They have led many people astray with their distorted view of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My main concern is that when the believers of this nonsense have troubles, as Jesus said we would, then they are blamed by their leaders for not having faith and not praying enough or having some sin in their lives. Let’s face it, we all have sin in our lives, we all have troubles, and I know I will have to answer before God for my sins. I just pray one of them is not leading others astray! Study your Bible, and not just the verses these “blab it and grab it” preachers misuse. When you put these verses in context, and pray for guidance, God will lead you to the proper meaning.

— Gary Thomsen Dec 8, 08:48 AM #

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