GRASSLEY SIX TELEVANGELISTS PROBED AS AN INDIRECT RESULT OF CULT LEADER, OLE ANTHONY

Well Senator Grassley admitted he has received enough information about popular televangelists and mega church pastors to fill up a car. Who is this televangelist watchdog and how did he get his information? After perusing the layout of Wendy J. Duncan’s book, I Can’t Hear God Anymore:  Life In A Dallas Cult, a first-hand account of her involvement with the alleged cult, Trinity Foundation, it is appalling to think that Senator Grassley would give Ole Anthony the time of day.

I Can’t Hear God Anymore tells the story of how the author and her husband in their quest for God mistakenly ended up in a cult when they became a part of the Trinity Foundation.  Ole Anthony is still the occult personality leader who used unethical tactics and twisted Bible doctrines to manipulate a following that would be a labor force enacting his current crusade.  Not a Bible crusade.  Not even a crusade to promote the advent of peanut butter  over coke and fries for a better lunch crusade.  Nope, Ole Anthony’s crusade is to expose false teachers and gospel pimps.    The expression, “It takes one to know one” indicates that Ole Anthony is a pimp himself.  Throughout Wendy’s account and testimony, the reader finds that Ole Anthony wanted to control who she married, amongst other areas of her, and other cult members’ lives.  This book is truly a testimony of freedom, healing and the liberty that anyone who is bound by occultism can experience.  

Ole Anthony is still making his rounds in the major media.  Here’s an excerpt from a 2006 press release:

“I CAN’T HEAR GOD ANYMORE also contains a detailed portrait of Anthony’s psychology and background, which Duncan spent months researching. Anthony is a well-known figure in media and religious circles, first gaining notoriety in 1991 when he assisted Dianne Sawyer in her exposé of three Dallas-based televangelists for the ABC news magazine PrimeTime Live. Since that time, Anthony has been involved in investigations of numerous religious figures, working with programs such as NBC Dateline and 60 Minutes. He and his group have been lauded in US News & World Report, The LA Times Magazine, and most recently, The New Yorker. He has been a near-ubiquitous commentator on all things religious for both local and national media outlets, but there is more here than meets the eye. Though Anthony can be charming and persuasive, Duncan’s book raises questions about his willingness to be accountable for his own practices. In short, who is watching the watchdog?”

   

Ole Anthony may want to make some rounds into his own backyard and quote scriptures to himself before he is the recipient of a crusade.  We do know that the Grassley Six were IRS compliant up to the time of senate finance committee inquiry.  Ole Anthony should be given the opportunity to prove the same.  After all, we do reap what we sow.

To order the book and for more on Wendy J. Duncan’s current work visit:

www.dallascult.com

 

TELEVANGELISTS WATCHDOG GROUP NEEDS WATCHING ITSELF

Creflo Dollar refuses to cow-tow to ole massa and hand over the requested documents to Senator Grassley and the Senate Finance Committee. 

Yet, ole Anthony is available to answer what would Jesus do and say concerning the televangelists that he has spent decades surveilling. 

But while he has been on the prowl, who has been watching him?  Please click the links below to see some questionable concerns about the Trinity Foundation.  Since Senator Grassley is concerned about not-for-profits and charitable donations, he would do well to pay his friend Ole Anthony a visit–and this time with a letter analagous to the ones sent to the Grassley Six.

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2007-11-22/news/turning-the-tables/2

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2006-08-03/news/the-cult-of-ole/

Juanita Bynum on Divorce Court

In case you were wondering what her appearance was all about, check out the clips.

I have never seen divorce court spend so much air-time highlighting any special guests and their own lifestyles or issues.  So, this appearance is probably aimed at increasing the show’s ratings.

Whether or not Bynum’s appearance served ministerial purpose is really a question that only those who she spent time with can answer.  Nonetheless, I’m sure this won’t stop the philosophizers from philosphizing and waking up again tomorrow, having not demonstrated notable service outside of their own needs or interests to anyone else who has been substantially impacted by their lives.  Meanwhile, again Bynum has used her personal life experience to provide insight for someone else.

After being stomped by an unrepentant husband who still denies any real wrongdoing, it is easy for Bynum to identify with and tell another woman to love oneself enough to stop the domestic abuse before it cannot be curtailed.

 

CREFLO GIVES IT UP-Sells Controversial Rolls Royce

Creflo Dollar sold one of his Rolls Royce’s valued at $280,000  gifted to him by the World Changer’s church, according to a BET.com blog.  He gave the proceeds to the children’s ministry.   

WISE MOVE.  Not because Creflo should cater to the pressures from criticism, but simply because goodwill dictates that he forego an open display of material possessions.   Christians are admonished to give up what may be perfectly permissable when our entitlements severely hinder the weak.    The Kingdom of God really requires Creflo to give up the “meat” or the Rolls, so that the brethren who have stumbled won’t be discouraged by all of the goods he has amassed through gifts or otherwise.  Paul became as much like those who he wanted to “reach” as he possibly could, without sinning, in order to “win” them for the Kingdom of God.  For the sake of peace, Creflo is not sinning in giving up one of his Rolls Royce automobiles, the possession of which is sinful in the minds of some Christians.   The gospel of the Kingdom is what is quintessential and should be the primary focus.

This unsolicited time Creflo and the Grassley 6 have in the “does God want us to be rich” limelight is also an opportunity  to disclose some unknown philanthropic pursuits.  Creflo is careful to note that he has purchased over 100 cars for other people.  It will be interesting to see how wealthy ministers will curtail their public images as a result of the Senate inquiry. Ultimately, the world is an open classroom for these chosen teachers–the Grassley 6– to impart truth about Godly prosperity, the bedrock of which is Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross.  Material wealth and prosperity is simply an excresence that comes from our inheritance as sons and daughters in the Kingdom of God.

Please read the following scriptures for understanding: 1 Corinthians 9:19-25; Romans 14:15-20; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13.

For more info click below:

http://www.bet.com/News/NewsArticleCrefloDollarRollsRoyce.htm

Nagging WatchDog Groups Lead to Senate Finance Committee Probe of Six Televangelist Ministries

The United States Senate Committee on Finance, led by Ranking Member Senator Chuck Grassley, is conducting a probe on six televangelist ministries.  And the nagged are: Randy and Paula White of Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries; Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church Inc. and Benny Hinn Ministries; David and Joyce Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries; Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries; Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and Bishop Eddie Long Ministries; and Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International and Creflo Dollar Ministries.  Yes, I said “nagged”.  Kudos to Creflo and Long for requiring the Senate Committee to issue subpoenas or give it a rest. Kudos to the twentieth exponential power for Joyce Meyer telling them to click the on-line button because her ministry’s financial reports for the past few years is already public information.

Most of these ministries have already stated that as far as they know, they have complied with IRS Not-for-Profit requirements.  Because we can give our opinions in these types of forums here it is: if the governor of my state came to my front door asking me about why I didn’t report or purchased something I felt I had every right to according to IRS and corporate guidelines, I’d ask him why did he want to get into my business.  Just because some watchdog groups are drunk with fighting a fight that the sovereign God is perfectly capable of checking HIMSELF,  and have plagued the senator’s office with information to silence preachers who have been labeled “prosperity gospel preachers”, does not mean the ministries have to buck and comply. If there is a discrepancy, IRS rules, codes, audits and policing mechanisms need to change.  If these ministries are grossly out of compliance and into thievery, then these leaders won’t have to take the jet or be chauffeured in a Bentley or a Yugo to get to minister to prisoners.  They’ll either roll out of bed in their jumpsuits or write hefty penalty checks that better be holy and filled in the sanctified bank. 

Now, I don’t advocate anything that I know nothing about. I am still not clear what the tenets and doctrines of the prosperity gospel are about.  As a Bible teacher, prosperity is certainly part of the plan of God for all of His creation from Genesis to Revelation.  (This is another couple of blogs.) Urging the Senate to override procedural safeguards through fully empowered agencies because of substantive disagreement with what these ministries teach is not a precedent any religious institution should employ. The concern can’t really just be suspect money handling when Long and Paula White were already harrowed in their local areas and had to be IRS proof.  I submit for consideration that suspect money handling in the church is not a mainstay of the mega-church. These are the ministries with compliance officers and functions.

The real treat in all of this is according to letters issued to the ministries and the press release from Senator Grassley’s office, this  inquiry addresses concerns of abusing tax-exempt status, misappropriating funds given by donors,  whether these family or “back pocket” board members are merely figurative, and reporting of lavish gifts personally and to the ministries.                                              http://grassley.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=CapitolGains.Detail&CapitolGain_id=a21ffd20-d8d5-fbb3-21e5-793073fe92b5.  Yet, the judge and jury is already out with folks referring to this as an embarrassment to the church.  Hold your horses, Tonto!  We haven’t even gotten underway with the “knitty gritty” yet. The same folks who buy tennis shoes at a gazillion percent mark-up because their whining children must have the brand name cannot be griping. The ones who pull up to their humble church where their pastors and leaders are on salary and live off of ten to sixty-five percent of church revenue can’t be the ones either.  None of these probed ministries exhausts revenue for personal sustenance but do have works all over the world. Many communities in Africa have consummable drinking water because Joyce Meyer, and not her critics who have not come into the land and dropped any wells, has appropriated funds from donors and other streams of income to make a difference in the world. Not the type of difference that people who complain, but do nothing to help solve problems, make. I’m talking about a notable difference that meets the needs of people. So do I care that she or her ritzy guests to the ministry headquarters hoists herself on a $23,000.00 commode to engage in excretory bliss?  Absolutely not.  Order pizza while you’re on it Joyce, if you are bringing in 124 million dollars annually and some local pastors live off of six times more of their annual revenues, not profits, than you do and don’t even pay the church bills on time.  I don’t turn up my nose at the high-end commodes at fine restaurants either.  The ambiance of the executive suite of a mid-sized US corporation does not change because Christians run it. I personally wouldn’t suggest a $4.99 early bird plastic lid special at the ministry offices to appease people, most of whom can’t match the works of those they obsessively criticize.  And, finally,  God didn’t ask for the plastic or moderate commode level in anything He designed and asked His people to build for Him.  Everything in the temple was the $23,000.00 commode level, the finest materials.  When Solomon was rewarded by God for asking God for wisdom to rule God’s people, God gave him riches.  The lavish favored King didn’t grieve God and neither does any other steward that is meeting the needs of those who need Jesus.

 The real people who see the poor giving their last and spend it without accountability are the churches with Goofey accounting systems in play-play land, and every person who has a role in finances or is anointed to preach has the same last name which coincidentally matches the Pastor.  I don’t believe that the same Jesus that permitted the costly oil to anoint his feet (that his disciples thought should be sold and the proceeds used for the poor)  would mind that people who have put in over 25 years in ministry world-wide enjoy life at the level of their productivity. So this is one person that will be waiting to see what the end of this is before rushing to judgment.

To see the letter to each ministry, click here: http://grassley.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=15b0ac11-1321-0e36-ba95-dfc2c00db9c2&Month=11&Year=2007