Evangelists and money


Congressional hearings may not have much to do with investigating abuses
Remember about a week or so ago when Congress made all that noise about televangelists? Well, there is more to the story.

Ole Anthony and his cohort at the Trinity Foundation are behind Senator Charles Grassley's current investigation of six prominent televangelists. As a ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley has sent letters to Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Bishop Eddie Long and Creflo Dollar demanding answers to detailed questions about their expenditures, financial practices, credit card statements and other personal information going back years. Anthony told reporters the Trinity Foundation gave Grassley enough material "to fill a Volkswagen."

Former Ole-ites contacted the Dallas Observer to point out that, in fairness, Grassley should ask Anthony the same questions. The media watchdog demands transparency of other ministries, but the foundation, they say, has had its own serious financial problems. ( See "The Cult of Ole," August 3, 2006)

"What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," says Doug Duncan, once Anthony's right-hand man. Wendy Duncan, his wife and also a former member, is the author of I Can't Hear God Anymore, a book that describes the Trinity Foundation as a cult.

I don't believe Congress should be able to demand financial information from anyone. But this goes back to those infernal tradeoffs I have talked about before. In exchange for granting tax exempt status, Congress gets control over what should be a private institution. And sure enough, someone wants to expand special privilege so the law is enforced against their rivals but not them.

That's why I don't believe there should be exemptions or exceptions to the law. I believe that one part of justice is that the law should be uniform and evenly applied.

So not only do we have a Senator demanding private information from selected ministries, but he is shielding another ministry from the same sort of investigation. This is abuse of power.

Just out of curiosity, why do you suppose that no one is investigating the Senator?

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - November 26, 2007 at 12:17 PM  Tag


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