Worshiping the almighty dollar

[Jack]

It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as God's will when you yourself have warm clothes and plenty of food and medical care and a roof over your head and no worry about the rent. But if you want them to believe you - try to share some of their poverty and see if you can accept it as God's will yourself!

Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, chapter 14, p. 107 (1949).

On the website for their ministry based in Newark, Texas, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland commit to "teach Christians worldwide who they are in Christ Jesus and how to live a victorious life." And they appear to be victorious in theirs, with books in 22 languages, a global crusade schedule and a TV show reaching millions. No less a luminary than presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is advertised to appear on the show for six days straight to discuss "character in the Bible." Huckabee might want to opt out. On Nov. 6 the Copelands got a saw-toothed, 42 point questionnaire inquiring into their own character from Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance. Grassley wanted to know how Kenneth Copeland--who as a church leader pays no taxes but is expected to plow revenue back into the public welfare--got a private plane and whether flights to Hawaii and Fiji qualified as business trips. Grassley sought credit card receipts and the numbers of the church's offshore bank accounts. Copeland wasn't Grassley's only pen pal. He also wrote to the Revs. Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer and Paula White, in total six televangelists who are part of an evangelical subculture known loosely as Prosperity gospel. "Recent news reports regarding the possible misuse of donations made to religious organizations" prompted the probe, Grassley wrote. The ministers' responses are technically voluntary, but the Senator has asked for them in a month and has mused that the replies could lead to testimony under oath. If so, Grassley could end up wiping out what some consider a kleptocracy but what is certainly the public face of a popular theology. Prosperity adherents believe the right thoughts and speech, along with giving to the church, will prompt divine repayment in this life, with a return as high as $100 on each dollar handed up. On a small scale, Prosperity's positive thinking has sometimes energized the march of the poor into the middle class, but many Christians find it theologically and ethically perverse. Prosperity dominates American religious TV, and millions of adherents send millions of dollars to preachers they have never met. For Grassley, this might be fine if the ministers put all the money back into their mission work. But his now famous question about Meyer's $23,000 commode suggests he questions the destination of her estimated $124 million annual take. He has asked for her real estate records, reminding her fellow Missourians of an extended duel she had with Jefferson County officials that resulted in her agreeing in 2005 to pay taxes on half of her $20 million headquarters. Among Grassley's questions to Dollar was one about a gift of $500,000 to Copeland. Dollar told TIME that he made a gift but said the sum was not that high. He and the Copelands claim to be tax-compliant. Hinn and Long did not respond by press time. White's ministry says to the best of its knowledge it complies with all tax codes. Meyer posted a 2007 IRS letter confirming tax-exempt status. The larger conservative Christian community has not been supportive. "Grassley has a shotgun, and lead is spraying all over the place, but I'm looking at the good that can be done," says Marvin Olasky, editor of the evangelical weekly World. J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine, where some of the six advertise, hopes all can prove their innocence, but he adds, "If God wants to use a Senator to help the American church clean up its act, then I say bring on the Reformation." But should Grassley play the role of Martin Luther? Some see Grassley's acts as a religious vendetta, launched by a white-bread Evangelical who doesn't get the group's view of rich pastors as a sign of divine grace. Grassley has hinted that his purpose may be to revamp tax laws to keep up with rapacious preachers. Remarks Charles Haynes, senior scholar with the First Amendment Center: "I'm worried that [the six] might be used to push for stringent transparency regulations that would affect all religious groups. They are extreme, and extreme cases can lead to bad law." Grassley rejects the criticism. "We're not looking at doctrine. I don't know much about the words Prosperity gospel," he says. But he acknowledges that religious-freedom concerns may make an investigation a "little more difficult to defend." Fellow Senators--"I won't give their names"--have asked what they should tell the preachers. Says Grassley: "My answer was, 'Tell them to do what all the other nonprofits do--answer my letter.'" And hope for a different kind of grace. The original version of this article referred mistakenly to a 2006 letter from the IRS confirming the Joyce Meyer Ministry's tax-exempt status. While the IRS reviewed the ministry's activities from 2004 to 2006, it sent its letter of confirmation in October 2007.

Going After the Money Ministries - TIME

[HelioPrime]

What a rotten apple.

[phoenix_fire]

While I dread what it will do to the already poor image of the Church in america, I welcome action against these false prophets. They disgust me. If I were to rewrite Dante, my vision of the Inferno would be populated with shades such as these.

[HelioPrime]

Interesting idea. The Inferno already includes just this sort of scum from florence society of that time.

[LadiesMan217]

They are the modern day Pharisees.

[Jack]

I'd like to see their fancy mansions turned into homeless shelters.

[HelioPrime]

So to ask the question:

Does the action of this man stain all ministry's as a whole?

[Jack]

Not in my mind. This kind of financial abuse can only be practiced by a few wealthy religious leaders. It speaks to their corruption, their greed and their lack of character. It does make me wonder about those who support people like this. What's their motivation? Are they so incredibly gullible that they would believe these ministers need to live like the pope?

Of course if we don't concern ourselves with their immorality or the religion they're supposed to be representing, then they really are nothing more than successful business people. I would put them on a par with successful spammers or other wealthy con men/women.

[phoenix_fire]

Well, a lot of the crowd that goes for their kind of message are the upper middle class to upper class cultural Christians. These kind of people pick a church like they pick most other things: by popularity and trendiness. And these kind of people love to hear the Prosperity Gospel because it tells them not only is it ok for them to have obscene amounts of money while others struggle even to eat, but that their financial success is a sign that they are also a holy elite. Money = holiness. A lot of the Prosperity Gospel is like The Secret for cultural Christians. If you're happy and you believe strong enough and plant your seed offering (of course) then [God/the Universe/karma/etc.] will reward you with fabulous cash prizes. It's unspeakably deplorable.

[Winter wind]

This isn't Christianity, its just a scam.

I'm predicting all phrases similar "all Christianity is a con" people could say and finding them all not funny.

Grassley himself is a Baptist. But this corruption in the worst degree.

[Winter wind]

Not in my mind. This kind of financial abuse can only be practiced by a few wealthy religious leaders. It speaks to their corruption, their greed and their lack of character. It does make me wonder about those who support people like this. What's their motivation? Are they so incredibly gullible that they would believe these ministers need to live like the pope? Of course if we don't concern ourselves with their immorality or the religion they're supposed to be representing, then they really are nothing more than successful business people. I would put them on a par with successful spammers or other wealthy con men/women.

All corruption is done by specific groups. Asking for money for a science project that doesn't exist can only be pulled of by fake scientists. The Producers is a funnier example.

[Athena]

The religious leaders who seem to be taking advantage of capitalism may be the modern pharasees, but Protestantism gave us capitalism and we might be very thankful for that.

Faith & Freedom Chapter Nine: The Protestant Spirit of Capitalism The abject poverty of the average medieval sert, though, had nothing to do with lack of native intelligence or ability, but with the social and economic system with which he had to contend. The medieval ethos was decidedly hostile to commercial activity. The merchant was seen as a scurrilous character in feudal Europe. To most, he seemed to provide nothing of obvious value, serving as middleman who skimmed his profit off the labor of others, buying cheaply and selling to someone else for more than it was worth. His contracts were not enforced in the medieval court system. In an effort to protect the unsuspecting peasant from being scalped by shady middlemen, charging interest on money was prohibited by the Catholic Church, as was the selling of insurance. But such laws made it very difficult for a merchant to hedge his bets against possible future calamity. In addition, there were rigid economic controls imposed on the population. Among the most pernicious regulations involved the ‘just wage" and ‘just price" theories, promulgated mainly through the Roman Church. It seemed, on the surface, a sensible doctrine given the impoverished and desperate condition of the vast majority of the people. Hence, except for a small minority, ‘just wage" and ‘just price" regulations were uniformly accepted and enforced. The idea that a price could be settled through negotiation between buyer and seller was an alien notion in medieval society. Wages and prices were set by custom. Every service and every product had a fixed price, even if external circumstances made the prices unworkable. A drought, for example, might make it necessary for the farmer to raise his crop prices in order to turn a profit. But this notion was completely antithetical to the medieval understanding of a just social order. The result was economic havoc, food shortages, and regular famines

[LOGAN]

Mr. Copeland is simply practicing what he is preaching, he tickles the ears of those that want to hear only "chosen" and selected doctrine from the words of the scriptures, often taken out of the context of the whole (the message that was intended to be relayed). He has found that if he only makes focus on these "specifically selected" passages, he can then say......"GOD LOVES YOU, AND WANTS YOU TO ENGAGE IN THE PRACTICE OF SEEDING YOUR WEALTH.......BUT SEND YOUR MONEY TO MY ADDRESS and as shown, many gullible people do, the same category as Jim Baker, Jimmy Swagart Jimmy Swaggart - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ......if he is a 'true" representative of the Gospel, I am the Pope. Logan