Trinity Foundation

Is Benny Hinn a gangster? Some of his critics may think so.

In 2017, the televangelist’s nephew Costi Hinn wrote an autobiographical article for Christianity Today with scathing criticism of his uncle’s ministry:

“Growing up in the Hinn family empire was like belonging to some hybrid of the royal family and the mafia. Our lifestyle was lavish, our loyalty was enforced, and our version of the gospel was big business.”

Six years earlier, former Benny Hinn Ministries employee Cheryl Brown leveled similar complaints in her autobiographical book Mafia Ministry: A Crying Shame.

Brown described a time when Hinn approached while she was working as a maid cleaning the church parsonage. Hinn “pointed his finger at me and said, ‘I am watching you’ and walked off. His tone was that of a gangster. I thought, wow, he sounded just like the Godfather!”

By working in the Hinn home, Brown observed the relationship of the televangelist and his wife Suzanne. “When I would see him, before he left out of the door to travel out of the country or go out of town, you would see him standing there as if he was waiting on a hug or a blessing from his wife. I never have seen her give him that.”

The initial excitement of working for Benny faded away as Brown became disillusioned by the working conditions. In her book Brown reports, “All of a sudden, about 50 of us from Benny Hinn Ministries were laid off without any explanation.” Is that how a church should treat its employees?

Brown would be re-hired personally by Hinn rather than the church to clean the parsonage. After Hinn failed to pay Brown for a month, she drove to the parsonage, asked to be paid and was fired.

The ministry security team gave Brown a warning on the day she was fired. “‘I better not ever go against Benny Hinn Ministries or that my family and I will be cursed.’ They told me that people who had left from BHM go on and do great things for the Lord, but that there are also ones that have died once they have gone against BHM.”

A black Suburban belonging to the ministry began following Brown whenever she drove. A friend encouraged Brown to call the police to report the stalking, but Brown refused.

Eventually, Brown moved away from California to escape.

Continue reading “Book Review: Comparing Benny Hinn to Mafia”

Filipino televangelist Apollo Quiboloy, another TV preacher masquerading as an angel of light, was finally arrested this week. But first some background.

He called himself the son of God. Unfortunately, thousands and perhaps millions of his followers believed him, even after he managed to get on the FBI’s most wanted list by accusations of having his own sex slaves and carting off loads of undeclared money out of the U.S. on his private jet.

After a two-week standoff, hiding in an underground bunker under the protection of his followers, he was arrested in the Philippines where he has hidden out for the past three years, avoiding extradition to the US under the presumed protection of the Filipino government.  He is currently being held in a heavily guarded detention center at the national police headquarters of the Philippines and the status of his extradition to the U.S. remains unclear.

Of course, these are allegations until proven in a court of law. Here’s some of what we do know. His jet was detained in Honolulu in February 2018 after U.S. customs officials discovered $350,000 of undeclared U.S. cash hidden on his jet destined for the Philippines.  One of Quiboloy’s loyal followers took the fall by telling officials it was her own money.

Also, we know of an “immigration fraud scheme where (top) church officials allegedly coerced some members into sham marriages (82 of them between 1999 and 2019) to keep them in the United States to raise money for the church’s expensive projects and to fund the “lavish lifestyle” of its leader.”  These officials were arrested in Los Angeles in January 2020.

Moreover, almost simultaneously, U.S. “federal authorities raided several churches and homes in Hawaii and on the mainland Wednesday connected to controversial Filipino evangelist Apollo Quiboloy as part of a massive human trafficking and immigration fraud investigation” (Hawaii News Now, January 30, 2020).

The Filipino news media outlet Rappler chronicled Quiboloy related events starting with temporary detainment in Honolulu in 2018, continuing with disturbing and chilling testimony about him to the Filipino Senate, and ending with his arrest this week.

This past March, Rappler began publication “of its investigative series on the multi-million properties linked to Quiboloy and the KOJC in the United States and Canada. Four of the currently owned properties have a total estimated value of US $9.07 million (P503 million.) If the property sold in 2018 is included, the total value would go up to $10.83 million (P601 million).”

Unfortunately, Quiboloy is not alone by a longshot.  Quiboloy’s masquerade is common among televangelists.  By creating a false persona as this son-of-God, his edicts go unchallenged by his followers.

Photo: Apollo Quiboloy screen capture by Medium, an online analysis of Quiboloy’s claim to be the son of God

Name your televangelist!  Some other televangelists we investigate that are masquerading as men of God that deserve to be placed in a hall of shame for various other reasons are Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Gene Ewing, Jesse Duplantis, and a plethora of other religious leaders.

These are guys that are more interested in what God can do for them and by extension, what YOU can do for them with your donor money, rather than living their lives for God and others.

Their self-seeking reveals the plan of God by showing what it’s not. The plan or mystery of God is about self-giving, not self-serving.

Marriage counselor and sex therapist Dr. Doug Weiss has become a host of Daystar Television Network’s TV show MinistryNow after marrying Daystar co-founder Joni Lamb, following the death of her late husband Marcus Lamb.

Weiss founded Healing Time Ministries and the American Association for Sex Addiction Therapy.  Both entities operate in a questionable manner.

An investigation by journalist Jene Nelson revealed that Healing Time Ministries appears to have filed a fraudulent postcard 990 with the IRS.

In 2022, the Carl H and Edyth B Lindner Foundation gave a $400,000 grant to Healing Time Ministries. However, Weiss’ non-profit organization reported to the IRS that its total revenue for 2022 was $50,000 or less.

Where did this money go? It would be appropriate for the IRS Exempt Organizations Division to audit the non-profit organization to find out.

Continue reading “Daystar Television Co-Host Doug Weiss Filed Questionable 990, Runs Association for Sex Therapists as a Personal Business”

ECFA Bamboozled the Senate Finance Committee, Now Leads Non-Accountability/Non-Transparency:

Seventeen years ago, Senators Chuck Grassley (Rep.) and Max Baucus (Dem.) of the Senate Finance Committee had been interested in issuing subpoenas to six different ministries who appeared to be abusing the tax code and using their ministries as their personal piggy banks. The Senators were also interested in closing apparent loopholes in our religious non-profit laws.

Along came the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) to the rescue, or so it seemed…

 Fourteen years ago, Senator Grassley, decided against issuing subpoenas to these ministry’s leaders and informants following complaints of harassment.  Ex-employees received letters threatening litigation if they testified.  Instead, Grassley called upon the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) to form a task force to try and address the glaring problems without any new legislation.  ECFA was created by Billy Graham along with some other folks decades ago to give ministries a platform to willingly (or not) share portions of their financial information without any government interference.

Unbeknownst to Senator Grassley, ECFA’s task force included some lawyers and CPAs working for the very ministries they had investigated and not surprisingly, ECFA recommended only new legislation which would have loosened the tax code, not strengthened it, and thus blew any chance of reigning in the wild abuses we see daily.

ECFA, Supposedly Assisting Transparency, Stopped Being Transparent … The Hidden 990

 Form 990, while far from perfect, tells the public who are the highest paid employees and where the money goes in general.  ECFA has not filed any new forms 990 with the IRS since their 2020 form 990. They still post the 990 only on their own website;   the 990s no longer show  up on websites of the IRS, ProPublica or Guidestar.  What is offensive is that they stopped being transparent with the government and are not setting an example.  At a time when it’s critical for churches to be more transparent, they are doing the opposite.

In 2019, ECFA began to claim it was an association of churches and churches do not have to file form 990s.  There is no evidence on the IRS website that ECFA applied for this reclassification.  They simply declared themselves an association of churches.

Here’s a screenshot of the ECFA’s previous status as a public non-profit organization (see the check mark) prior to 2019:

ECFA, a Toothless “Lion”, more Like a Toothless Old Stray Alley Cat

Oral Roberts, at one time the most prominent televangelist, did not see self-policing by a voluntary accreditation agency like the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) as an adequate substitute to filing (990) reports with the IRS. Asked whether his ministry was a member of ECFA, the Rev. Roberts responded:

“We were invited to be a member of that … but we believed there was no teeth in it; and I think that has been proved by the PTL thing. Ours was so much stronger; our auditing procedures and our filing of the [Form] 990 every year…. We have a corps of auditors…. Anybody in the United States can get a copy of our [Form] 990 report at any time, by writing the IRS; it is available to the media, to everybody in America…. Why wouldn‘t all file a [Form] 990 – why?” (Note that Oral Roberts University became an ECFA member in 2009).

In 1987, then-Congressman Dorgan posed the following question: ―What kind of accountability is now required; what kind of information is required, is information sufficient now, is it available to allow those to whom the appeal for funds is directed to make reasonable decisions about the advisability of contributions? (Federal Tax Rules Applicable to Tax-Exempt Organizations Involving Television Ministries: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Oversight of the House Comm. on Ways and Means, 100th Cong. 8, 1987)