More than $1.7 million in financial surpluses have mysteriously disappeared from two religious non-profits led by prophetess Juanita Bynum.

Annual financial surpluses generated by the organizations were not reported as assets. This failure to report total assets should serve as a red flag to potential donors.

The following screenshot from Juanita Bynum International Inc.’s 2021 Form 990 shows a surplus of $592,324 in 2021 and $336,926 in 2020 on line 19. None of these funds were listed in Total Assets on line 20.

The following spreadsheet reveals $1,764,427 in surpluses (net income) not reported as assets from 2016 to 2021. Juanita Bynum International Inc. converted from a for-profit company to a non-profit entity in 2020, which explains why the organization did not file a 990 prior to 2020.  In other words, when an organization takes in over half a million dollars in one year and spends less than $40,000 WHERE DID THE MONEY GO if there are no assets.

Continue reading “$1.7 Million Missing: Is This Embezzlement of Funds or Terrible Accounting?”

 

Church accountants sometimes scare pastors with stories of IRS audits. The church accounting firm Chitwood & Chitwood warns, “There have been many small Churches that have encountered the wrath of the IRS. Don’t be one of them.”

However, that claim is false. Very few churches, large or small, are audited or criminally investigated by the IRS.

How frequent are church audits? The Wagenmaker & Oberly law firm reports that 2-years between October 1, 2020, to September 30, 2022, the IRS launched 14 church tax examinations. Compare with over 400,000 churches in the U.S. and we here at Trinity Foundation frequently receive calls from informants and victims complaining about fraud and embezzlement in their churches.

In fact, no churches lost their tax-exempt status in 2023 due to IRS disciplinary actions resulting from church audits.

Continue reading “Churches Have Little to Fear from the IRS: Scare Tactics Don’t Match the Reality:  List of 2023 Disciplinary Actions”

“Faith Healer” David Taylor posing with props—crutches of people supposedly healed.

(photo—screen capture from Taylor’s website)

David Taylor is not an ex-con, and he is still very much alive as opposed to a few other ex-con preachers and one other deceased televangelist who are televised on what may be the United States sleaziest “Christian” television network—Kevin Adell’s ‘Word Network’.  But this is about David Taylor.  How in the world can this snake-oil salesman be allowed to continue soliciting donations, often from the poorest, least educated people in the country?

Tax-exempt status ends

David Taylor’s Joshua Media Ministries lost its tax-exempt status on May 15^th, 2021, for failing to file the informative IRS form 990 for three consecutive years—the organization stopped reporting after its 2017 filing.  Despite losing his tax-exempt status, he presses on with gimmicks and projects pleading for donations from unsuspecting donors who probably have no idea that their donations to that organization are no longer tax-deductible.

However, Taylor’s sister organization, “The Kingdom of God Global Church” (KOGC) can operate with impunity since it’s a church and the likelihood of that organization losing its church status is practically non-existent, due to the reluctance of the IRS to audit churches.

For those who aren’t familiar with Mr. Taylor, you’re not alone.  He’s a small-time televangelist in a large pool of television preachers who dresses lavishly as a copy-cat clownish caricature of the more well-known televangelist Benny Hinn and occasionally utters nonsense from a garish golden throne-ish chair in his broadcast studio.

Continue reading “Self-Glorified David E. Taylor Loses Tax-Exempt Status: “Prophet”, “Apostle”, “Healer” Continues to be Blight on Christianity”

In 2015, Trinity Foundation expanded its mission to investigate religious fraud worldwide. Since then, the problem of dark money in the church worldwide has only gotten worse.

In 2015, Trinity Foundation expanded its mission to investigate religious fraud worldwide. Trinity Foundation’s lead investigator Pete Evans soon traveled to and investigated religious organizations in the Dominican Republic and Guatemala.

Since then, the problem of dark money in the church worldwide has only gotten worse.

After reading a report in the International Bulletin of Mission Research (IBMR) which estimated that ecclesiastical crimes (embezzlement of church and ministry funds) would reach $100 billion annually by 2025, Trinity Foundation’s founder Ole Anthony wrote the press release “Time to Stop the Bleeding.”

Anthony called for coordinated action from churches and denomination leaders, but the call fell on deaf ears. He passed away in 2021.

IBMR has continued to publish revised global ecclesiastical crime statistics in its annual January issue, statistics which get relatively little media attention.

In the January 2023 issue researchers estimated that $62 billion would be embezzled by Christian religious leaders this year while only $55 billion would be spent on global missions.

Continue reading “Time to Stop the Bleeding, Revisited”

…with apologies to our friend Joseph Michael Bennett, who wrote a book we recommend, “Two Masters and Two Gospels” (2019).

Last week, multiple news sources reported a Lifeway Research study of 1,002 Protestant Christians strongly indicating that the “Prosperity Gospel” is rapidly rising in America.  These two beliefs go hand in hand to spread this heresy: 1) God wants Christians to prosper, attaining wealth and health and 2) God requires a gift from us humans before he will answer our prayers.

According to the well-crafted study, “Those who say their church teaches that God will bless them if they give more increased from 38% in 2017 to 52% in 2022.”—a huge increase over a short amount of time—and “76% believe that God wants them to prosper financially”, up from 69% in 2017—another rapid increase.

Lifeway Research’s methodology was an “online survey of 1,002 American Protestant churchgoers was conducted September 19-29, 2022, using a national pre-recruited panel.”  Comparisons were made to a 2017 online survey of 1,010 Protestants who attended religious services at least once a month.  They estimate that the “sample provides 95% confidence that the sampling error from the panel does not exceed +3.3%”

Prosperity Gospel Parallels the American Dream

If you believe in and think you deserve a share in the American Dream, then your beliefs are probably shared with a large segment of the U.S. public.  If you believe in the prosperity gospel—that God will multiply blessings upon those who richly bless Him with money, it appears you share that belief with a large majority of American Protestant Christians.

“The American dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society in which upward mobility is possible for everyone. …(It’s) believed to be achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, rather than by chance.”—Investopedia

“God helps those who help themselves” is a phrase that’s often mistaken as a scriptural quote.  More on Wikipedia

In some ways, the two beliefs have merged.

The only problem is that neither the Prosperity Gospel nor the American Dream “work”, especially for poor and disadvantaged people.  Both those lies wreak havoc with desperate people who are grasping at something, anything that might alleviate their suffering, even lottery tickets.  Some will be blessed by God materially, but most won’t be.

The “prosperity gospel” message panders to the sensual desire for riches but is the opposite of the message of the cross.  It’s a pious, pleasing message that avoids repentance from self-seeking.  Regarding piety… “The curse of a godless man can sound more pleasant in God’s ear than the Hallelujah of the pious”—Martin Luther (repeated by Dietrich Bonhoffer)

Consider Joel Osteen’s book, “Your Best Life Now” and other similar religious self-help books that ignore or cheapen the grace of Christ.

Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall save it.”

The cross of Christ means the death of self.  For those of us who call ourselves believers, we prayerfully abandon control of our lives to God.

Signs that your church has embraced the lie of the prosperity gospel, sometimes ever so subtly:  the preacher’s mansions, luxury cars, private jets, and expensive clothing; the lack of transparency (read our article here) regarding the finances of the church; the lack of accountability (he or she answers to no one), i.e., nobody can hire or fire the pastor (read here).

The sin of greed thrives in a climate of secrecy. Therefore, we believe that churches should be required to make their finances available publicly—read about “dark money” in the church here.

Today is National Whistleblower Day.

Whistleblowers perform a valuable, but poorly understood, service for humanity by exposing crimes and misconduct in multiple ways:

1. Privately and publicly confronting business, religious and political leaders who’ve abused their power.
2. Filing criminal charges.
3. Providing tips to law enforcement.
4. Providing tips or interviews to journalists.
5. Suing the perpetrators.
6. Writing first-hand accounts in blog posts and books telling the story of their experiences of abuse and eye-witness accounts of fraud.
7. Telling their stories in podcasts and documentaries.
8. Helping other victims recover from similar experiences.

The whistleblowers’ actions expose sin, demand justice and educate the public.

Ephesians 5:11 provides a biblical mandate for whistleblowing and investigative reporting: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”

On this National Whistleblower Day, Trinity Foundation would like to thank every public whistleblower and anonymous informant that has contacted us. Your tips help us investigate church and ministry corruption.

According to Stephen Martin Kohn, founder of the National Whistleblower Center, and author of The New Whistleblower’s Handbook, tipsters uncover more fraud than professional auditors and law enforcement combined.

We would also like to thank our donors for your support. You’ve equipped us to serve the public for more than three decades as a religious watchdog and third-party whistleblower.

We are currently working on several big investigations and look forward to sharing them with you when the time is right.

Three ex-con televangelists, including one now deceased, all have compared themselves to the Apostle Paul of the early church… you be the judge.

Tony Alamo AP Photo, Evan Lewis, November 13, 2009

Tony Alamo is dead

Tony Alamo’s boring half hour program currently is broadcast three times weekly on the Word Network: Tuesday’s at 7:30 pm and Thursdays at 3:30 am and 11:30 pm.

Alamo once lived in a lavish, 13,064-square foot mansion with a heart-shaped swimming pool; his ministry once had thousands of followers; and he operated many for-profit businesses.  One of his businesses sold custom-made sequined jackets to celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Mr. T., but that was before he was convicted of income tax evasion and “marrying” underage girls.

He was sentenced to prison twice—175 years the second time in November 2009.

Mr. Alamo was accused of taking young girls across state lines for sex and arrested in October 2008. Five women ranging from age 17 to 33 told jurors that Alamo “married” them in private ceremonies while they were minors, sometimes giving them wedding rings. Each described trips beyond Arkansas’ borders for Alamo’s sexual gratification.[1]

Alamo believed that young girls were fit for marriage. “Consent is puberty,” he told The Associated Press in 2008.[2]  A CNN news clip of his arrest includes audio of Alamo stating that women as young as twelve are ready for marriage as soon as they start their period.[3]

“I’m just another one of the prophets that went to jail for the Gospel,” Alamo called out to reporters afterward as he was escorted to a waiting U.S. marshal’s vehicle.[4]

A jury convicted Alamo in July 2009 of 10 counts spanning 11 years and on November 13, 2009, federal Judge Harry F. Barnes sentenced him to the maximum on each count, for a total of 175 years in prison.[5]

He died in a federal prison hospital in North Carolina in May 2017.

More of Alamo’s Legal Encounters

The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that “Alamo was arrested on a felony child abuse charge in 1989, but it was dismissed six years later. The case involved an 11-year-old boy who was given 140 blows at Alamo’s directions for minor academic infractions. His family later filed suit and won a $1.4 million judgment against Alamo and his ministry.”[6]

Federal agents raided his properties in 1991 when he owed $7.9 million in taxes.  He was convicted in 1994 of income tax evasion, served four years in prison, was released in 1998, and went back to his Arkansas-based ministry.

In addition to the criminal convictions, Alamo was found liable in a federal civil trial and ordered to pay $30 million to two men who were raised in the controversial Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. A jury found that those two men were beaten, starved, and denied education and found Alamo liable for conspiracy, outrage and battery.[7]

Another civil judgement was even more telling.  Seven women who were victims of physical and sexual abuse brought civil suits, resulting in a $525 million judgment, the largest in Arkansas history.[8]

Continue reading “Word Network Airs Dead Convicted Statutory Rapist Tony Alamo and Other Ex-Cons, Jim Whittington, and WV Grant”