Well that’s not exactly what he said, but it would have been fitting for him to say in my opinion.
Grassley sends second salvo to televangelists
Washington, D.C. – Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said today he has sent a new round of letters to televangelists asking questions about spending in their tax-exempt ministries.
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He said that two televangelists that have cooperated with his probe, Benny Hinn and Joyce Meyer, were not sent letters.
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Some of the ministers strongly objected to Congress asking questions, so Grassley said in the letters he has tried to re-emphasize the authority of Congress to oversee the Internal Revenue Service and review tax laws bearing on non-profits.
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The investigation is the latest in a series of looks at nonprofits conducted by Grassley. He said the letters sent Tuesday were signed by both him and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.
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Most practice what is known as the “prosperity gospel,” promoting the idea that God will grant financial success to those who follow them.
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So the pimps that are still non-compliant are as follows:
- Kenneth and Gloria Copeland
- Creflo and Taffi Dollar
- Eddie Long
- Randy and Paula White
And did you notice that now even the Democratic Charmian of the Committee is putting his name on this effort? That means, this might continue NO MATTER WHO WINS IN NOVEMBER! Now both sides of the political aisle are bearing down on the uncooperative pimps.
Romans 13:1-2 (New American Standard Bible)
1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
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Now I know these pimps feel God is speaking right in their ears, but if they don’t learn quickly, that they have not been listening to God. They are going to get a distributing lesson from the government, that they won’t soon forget. Perhaps they want pictures of the government obtaining the information from their offices by force and maybe they want to try and use that in their efforts to beg for money? Whatever the reason for their reluctance, it has a root in nothing godly at all.
In conversing with defenders of these reprobates, it seems only words such as “rights”, “constitution”, “legal” and “separation” are all they can muster. They can’t condone pimps being non-compliant with scripture, so they seek cover in the laws of man. Well Congress makes the laws and will use other methods to get what they want if these pimps keep holding out.
Most of the letters demand records be turned in by the end of this month. The link below has copies of all 4 letters.
Baucus joins Grassley in follow-up letter to ministries
Sen Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Commitee, has joined ranking member Sen. Charles Grassley in writing four ministries, urging them to comply with Grassley’s earlier request for financial information. This would suggest that Grassley’s probe of the finances of the ministries, including the one run by Kenneth Copeland of the Fort Worth area, isn’t going away and enjoys at least some support by Baucus.
Here’s a press release from the Finance Committee. After that come letters from the senators to four non-complying ministries, including Copeland’s.
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To you who follow one of the 4 pimps that are still holding out. You have no more excuse for any claims you make in continuing to follow them. They are CLEARLY outside of the will of God and reluctant to report what they are doing with the money they collect from you. Their claims and even those of Benny Hinn and Joyce Meyer, of you getting big money are nothing but them placing their sinful greed for money onto you. Run from them.
Luke 16:13-15 (New American Standard Bible)
13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth.”
14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him.
15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.
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Be content with what you have an be thankful for it, Hebrews 13:5 [click to expand link].
Hebrews 13:5 (New American Standard Bible)
5 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,”
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March 13th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Things are really starting to warm up here in the ATL - first “punk” Weeks (as Melvin calls him) pleads guilty to beating his wife, then Creflo and Eddie dig their heels in even more and prompt the govt. to get ready to come after them.
As I said yesterday - it’s hard out here for a pimp.
Sadly, their followers justify their lifestyles by comparing the “man of God” to a thug entertainer (”why can’t the bishop drive a Bentley when Jay Z drives one, and nobody is going after him”).
Of course, the absurdity is that the alleged “people of God” go to the world for justification of an ungodly lifestyle. Even worse, these pimps will chase after the government for their coveted 501-3(c) status and to cozey up to whatever politician that can benefit their “ministry”, but they cry foul when that same government turns it’s attention to their doings.
You can’t serve two gods. Elijah said it best: “If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him. But the people answered him not a word” (1 Kings 18:21 NKJV)
That’s where we are in the Body today - too many of us are following Baal, and not saying a word when we see (and even subscribe to) false doctrine.
If we don’t stop subscribing to the false theory that God moves according to our whims and that we can satisfy our material lust by rubbing our bibles, then this foolishness will continue. But if we stop rubbing the bible and start reading it, we’ll get the strength to walk away - and not look back.
IndependentConservative reply on March 13th, 2008 at 4:36 pm :
Brother you knocked it out the park in this comment.
speakingtruth reply on March 13th, 2008 at 4:58 pm :
To God be the glory.
I was sinking in this mess, submitting to my pimp thinking God was pleased - and satisfying my flesh knowing that I was “moving on up” the ministry line, until God intervened.
I thank God every day (and I mean that literally) that He loved me enough to keep appealing to my heart - and showed me that foul Jezebel spirit so that I can truly see what the church is doing in His name. I can’t truly relish in my freedom because there are so many who willingly submit to this apostasy every day.
I just blog to release the stress
IndependentConservative reply on March 13th, 2008 at 5:14 pm :
Blog to help the sheep brother
.
We were in a sad state and the Lord saved us. We can’t leave others to burn without trying to snatch them from the fire, Jude 1:22-23.
We desired to have our ears tickled and ran with myths that we called gospel, but were false, 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
speakingtruth reply on March 14th, 2008 at 4:10 pm :
You’re right IC - I DO blog to help the sheep. The stress release is just “gravy”…
March 13th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
The pimps are making legitimate Christians look bad. Things are not “easy” for Christians, anyway, just by virtue of the fact that real Christianity is diametrically opposed to the world’s system. Then, you add to the fact that people like the Bynum Weeks Corp., Randy and Paula White etc come (to quote an old song) “Dealin’ in dirt and stealin’ in the name of the Lord” and you have a certified powder keg. This further underscores why holy living is so important because real Christians do not want to be part of that group that brings shame on the Lord’s name.
Thankfully, God is exposing these characters for who and what they are. Prayerfully, more people will wake up to the truth, before it is too late.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
The nutty thing with ALL of these cases is that, far too often, the congregants in most financial need in these churches are almost always turned down on benevolence requests. I remember seeing a posting from a former member of World Changers that became disillusioned after bring turned doewn for financial assistance despite that she was a consistent tither. It makes you wonder, within all of the budgeting for opulent facilities, technology, appearances, media-gorging and the overall spotlight, is there some dedication to benevolence? my guess is no.
Against the backdrop of this latest Senate tagging, this epitomizes arrongance in the worst possible way.
IndependentConservative reply on March 13th, 2008 at 3:05 pm :
Well he’s not making it easy to answer that question, is he? But he claims if we saw his numbers that we’d all agree he’s doing so much good. Well, lets see the numbers given government has already made a request for them, 2 Corinthians 8:21.
speakingtruth reply on March 13th, 2008 at 3:13 pm :
@ ncatina -
I worked in benevolence while at Andre Landers church here, and I know for a fact that we adopted Eddie Long’s benevolence policy: if you got anything at all, it was $300, and you had to be a tither (on record) and a member of NB, you had to enroll in a money counseling class, AND YOU COULDN’T COME BACK FOR HELP FOR 1 YEAR. Granted there are people that wanted “help” because they wouldn’t deal with the creditor and work out a payment plan, but a lot of the people needed legitimate help.
I would literally be arrested if I went back to the plantation to demand an accounting of their records (even though they’re a charitable organization that is supposed to file public financial records).
And another thing, I know for a fact that Landers WOULD NOT buy bibles for chldrens church because it was taking money away from the new building fund. So much for transparency and accountability - and the Kingdom…
IndependentConservative reply on March 13th, 2008 at 4:32 pm :
I can’t remember his name, but I recall once a minister a club New Birth speaking about how he was head of church benevolence for a time. He said they admonished him for giving away too much money too quickly. He was happy to have been admonished and adopted their ungodly tight fisted policy regarding people in need.
He was exposing the terrible policy while trying to endorse it. I sure wish I had a video camera that day! That was one of those
moments for me, that helped me see the scam that was taking place. I mean I had heard all the rumors and stories, but hearing someone talk about it right from the pulpit while Fast Eddie was away, really left me with no doubt about the policies Eddie Long promotes. And speaking with people who were part of Creflo’s club they had similar stories.
$300 can’t even pay someone’s rent for a month! Not even in an efficiency apartment! $300 can’t even pay the natural gas bill during a single winter month for some of us. And the Lord be with those who use oil for home heating.
I’m sure people who were faithful participants in the 10% scam figured if they had saved some of what they were given to club New Birth, they could had kept themselves from much of the financial difficulty they were facing. If they had given that money to poor saints, they could have said they gave it to honestly help somebody else as Christ commands and HONESTLY gave it to God, Matthew 25:31-46. Those “tithers” could get with the people seeking benevolence and really do the Lord’s work. And they’d actually be able to give as they purpose in their heart rather than some fixed percentage out of fear and compulsion.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
“And another thing, I know for a fact that Landers WOULD NOT buy bibles for chldrens church because it was taking money away from the new building fund. So much for transparency and accountability - and the Kingdom…”
Oh, that is just SICK!!!
speakingtruth reply on March 13th, 2008 at 3:54 pm :
It’s simply a peak into the dark heart of a pulpit pimp. I remember Landers “preaching” (i.e. publicly going off on Grassley) about this investigation last November - as I was planning my “escape”. He essentially said “no one can judge us” and “they’re going to try and silence the Gospel by intimidating us”.
IC has already debunked the “judge not” knee-jerk reply in earlier posts, and you can see how he links this “persecution” to an attempt to silence the Gospel. As usual, he butchered 1 Peter 4:12-14, and lumped himself in with the pimps by saying “us”.
Again, these pimps should stop running to the government for tax relief to cover for their sinful lifestyles if they don’t like it when the government wants to know what it is they’re sanctioning.
March 13th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
300 bucks, ONE time a year IF you’re a tither……….let’s take a look at this from a fiscally responsible perspective.
Let’s say the person in need is low income (naturally, or they wouldn’t NEED help). So, what’s 10% of minimum wage for a week?? $5.15 per hour x 40 hours = $206.00 - taxes = about $175.00 per week.
So, roughly an additional twenty dollars a week comes out of their check, now leaving them with $155.00 per week.
That’s $80 per month x 12 months = $960.00 per year for a net loss yearly $660.00 when they agree to give you $300.
If they were JUST STINGY instead of outright CROOKS, they would give you back the $960.00 YOU PAID IN!!! But NOOOOOOOOOOOO………they make $660.00 off you, then act like they’re doing YOU a favor by giving you $300.00 back!!
In the BIBLE (the one they ignore) the tithes were for GIVING to the poor, not for GETTING FROM the poor. The poor were EXEMPT from the tithe, and actually were SUPPOSED to be the RECIPIENTS of that money.
Hireling pimps……….I despise them.
ncatina reply on March 13th, 2008 at 8:11 pm :
GaryV, that is a very good assessment. For what I paid in tithes for the 4.5 years I was with my last church, I could have had a decent-sized down payment for the house that I am in now, instead of wasting $90/month on PMI and having to pay a higher interest rate, b/c I went w/full financing……fixed rate, of course.
speakingtruth reply on March 13th, 2008 at 10:44 pm :
Gary V - you’ve got to stop holding back. Just say whats on your heart
You’re making the mistake of looking at this from a logical perspective. The problem is that when many of us enter the church building, we leave our logic in the parking lot and adopt the mind of the pimp - as opposed to the mind of Christ. That way, he (the pimp) can shovel whatever he wants down our throats and we gladly eat it. We even defend his right to abuse us!
If this whole Congressional investigation does nothing else than make God’s people truly evaluate how they give - and who they give to, then I believe that we’ll adjust our focus and return to our First Love. And He’ll be pleased.
SteelGator reply on March 14th, 2008 at 2:59 pm :
Gary V - nice post. Looking over your numbers, you were a little conservative. They actually tithe $100+ more. Look at this.
$5.15 per hour X 40 hours a week = $206.00 X 52 weeks in a year = $10,712 gross annual income X 10% (pimp tithe)= $1071.20 tithe over the year. $1071.20 - $300 (pimp guilt ridden gift) = $771.20 in tithe after gift. So you invest $1071.20 to get $300. Thus, they are getting a -72% return on their contribution. If stocks, bonds and/or mutual funds had this type of annual return, you better believe the SEC, FTC, and the rest of the Federal government would shut this investment vehicle and investment company down.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Hi N’Catina!! It’s just such a shame. I hurt for these folks, I really do.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Creflo Dollar gave a sermon I believe this week or last on how if you love God, you must obey His commandments. You cannot love God with your emotions, but demonstrate it. How as a so called minister say you love God and then rob your neighbor and to make it worse, not cooperate with the govenment.
March 14th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Much better assessment Gator (are you a Steeler fan BTW??). I did the short form LOL!!