Kathy Lohr: Senator Probes Megachurches' Finances

Senator Probes Megachurches' Finances
by Kathy Lohr
NPR

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, expects responses this week from half a dozen of the country's largest churches to questions about their finances.

Grassley has taken on megachurches, where millions of dollars are raised with little oversight. In letters that Grassley sent to the churches last month, he wonders whether the lavish lifestyles of the ministers violate the churches' tax-exempt status.

The churches are huge, with congregations in the tens of thousands. The buildings are like magnificent stadiums, and the pastors are larger than life.

Rev. Creflo Dollar preaches the prosperity gospel, the belief that wealth is a blessing from God. He runs World Changers International Church just south of Atlanta. In a DVD called Does God Want You to be Poor?, Dollar says that Jesus was not poor and his disciples were not poor. He says faith can transform poverty into an abundant life.

"When we are prosperous people, we are responsible for going in, going back and impacting somebody else's life that's down. That's our job: to pick people up," Dollar says on the DVD. "But listen, how you gonna pick somebody up when you're down yourself?"

Rev. Dollar did not respond to requests for an interview. At a recent Bible study at his church, he encouraged members to open a savings account. But it's the extravagant pattern of spending at megachurches that led Grassley to send letters to the six ministries — including Dollar's — with inquiries about their financial records.

The others include Bishop Eddie Long Ministries in Georgia; Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn Ministries in Texas; Joyce Meyer Ministries in Missouri; and Paula White Ministries in Florida.

Grassley's Inquiry

Grassley said there have been complaints about the pastors' extravagant lifestyles and questions about whether the churches' tax-exempt status is being abused. That includes the personal use of Rolls Royce cars, private jets and multimillion-dollar homes. Grassley is also looking into exorbitant salaries, so called "love offerings" or cash payments to ministers; a justification for layovers in Hawaii and the Fiji Islands; and in one case, the purchase of a $23,000 commode with a marble top.

"There's enough questions being raised that we felt it should be further investigated," Grassley told NPR.

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