The man who allegedly fed the recent information to Senator Grassley on the six media ministries that are currently under investigation was Ole Anthony. That's not difficult to believe since his small but vocal organization did the key research that Diane Sawyer used in 1991 to bring down Robert Tilton, Larry Lea, and W. V. Grant. His "mission" is to be a "TV evangelist cop" and his people supposedly keep tabs on a wide range of media ministries through various techniques, from taping their TV and radio programs to climbing through their trash. But this article from ... read more

It doesn't take much channel surfing - especially in the morning - to see that outside the normal full time religious television channels, some TV evangelists seem to be ganged up in blocks. Further, a closer examination seems to reveal that those "ministries" (which some would call "fringe") who spend the whole program talking about and asking for money seem to be all gathered around the early morning block on BET. So here's the guys who are most aggressive about asking for major financial donations (my favorite is the "$1,000 seed") who seem to be aimed directly at inner city viewers. Does that mean these hard core prosperity ministries are targeting lower income, minority viewers? Interesting question. ... read more

One of the things that the financial crisis at Oral Roberts University pointed out recently was the apparent internal direction of funding. The Oral Roberts Ministry was founded first, and during the evangelistic ministry of the founder Oral Roberts, the ministry organization was used to help fund the university. In essence, the ministry spawned the university, and for many years used it's national television program and direct mail outreach to raise significant funding for the university.

But apparently, ... read more

Here's the link to the CBS News report on Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Is it a balanced report or inaccurate? Is KCM missing something when it comes to their perception by the general public? Is CBS off base? ... read more

Here's Christianity Today magazine's perspective on the investigation of media ministries by Senator Charles Grassley. ... read more

Today was the deadline for a selected group of TV ministries to turn over financial information as demanded by Senator Charles Grassley. As we could have predicted, so far:

Kenneth Copeland and Joyce Meyer turned in everything before it was due. Paula White responded, but then went silent, no one has a clue what she is up to. Benny Hinn stalled. And Eddie Long and Creflo Dollar have stonewalled. ... read more

There have been some interesting conversations on this blog lately about criticism of different people and organizations, and the actual purpose of the blog. I've written before about our purpose, and I have to admit, the posts dealing with scandal and problems among ministries and non-profits seem to be the most popular. People do respond to criticism, and for whatever reason, seem to gravitate to those posts. My blogs about Randy and Paula White's divorce, Bishops that sell anointed soap, or Juanita Bynum getting in a fist fight with her husband in a hotel parking lot always seem to get people worked up. ... read more

A number of people have been asking me for my personal take on Senator Charles Grassley's "investigation" into the finances of six major Christian ministry organizations. The ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee says donors deserve to have their "money spent as intended and in adherence with the tax code." Certainly, as an American consumer and donor myself, I want more and more transparency among all non-profits and religious organizations. It's not just a matter of IRS regulations, it's also a matter of ethics and common sense. If you want trust among your supporters, then let them know where their money is going.

On the other hand, ... read more