Trinity Foundation

(Screenshot: Shannon Hurley giving a video tour of his church building under construction in Uganda.)

In recent years, millions of dollars have been donated to Sufficiency of Scripture Ministries, an American non-profit filing questionable Form 990s with the IRS and building a church in Uganda with a prison cell.

In July 2024, Sufficiency of Scripture Ministries President Shannon Hurley produced a video tour highlighting construction at Community Bible Church of Kubamitwe.

Hurley explained to his viewers, “As you enter our property, this is the front gate. This is actually where security will be. Security will be on the bottom. We actually, through that little window there, we have a little jail cell. So if somebody is drunk, they can sit there. Or if we capture somebody that’s doing something wrong, they can stay there till police come.”

A church jail cell sounds incompatible with the Bible.

When Jesus entered the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, Jesus read a biblical prophecy which he would fulfill: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” – Luke 4:18-19 NIV and Isaiah 61:1-2

According to the Ugandan Constitution, “A person arrested, restricted or detained shall be kept in a place authorised by law.”

Continue reading “Who Would Jesus Imprison? Ministry Builds Ugandan Church with Jail Cell. Money Raised for Ministry Goes into Black Hole.”

(Screenshot: YouTube channel TruthBacker)

Recently, Living Word Christian Church in LaCrosse WI, gifted Pastor Mark Barclay a gold-plated AR-15 engraved with President Donald Trump’s words, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

The gun given to Barclay may have cost between $1,330 to $1,700, according to the Black Rain Ordnance gun manufacturer website.

When American churches present gifts to pastors for their birthdays, during Pastor Appreciation Month (October) and when they retire, sometimes they are required to report these gifts as compensation.

(Screenshot: U.S. Code Title 26 Section 102)

Small gifts such as snacks and a T-shirt provided occasionally at work are considered de minimis, and not subject to taxation.

Meanwhile, gifts to non-employees are handled differently.

Some of the gifts to televangelists are very extravagant:

• Paula White gave T.D. Jakes a Bentley convertible.
• Oral Roberts gave fundraising consultant James Eugene Ewing an aircraft.
• Creflo Dollar attempted to raise $2 million for Kenneth Copeland to celebrate Copeland’s 40^th ministry anniversary.
• Daystar Television Network’s only independent board member Tom Calendar gifted the network president Joni Lamb $100,000 for honeymoon, which she claims to have reimbursed.

The Danger of Tax Evasion

In 2011, the Senate Finance Committee published a 61-page report identifying financial loopholes exploited by religious organizations. One of the loopholes was pastors receiving “love offerings” rather than a salary so that their compensation was not taxed.

There also appears to be widespread confusion in the church world regarding speaking honorariums. They are often treated as gifts when they are compensation, and the recipient should be given a Form 1099 for tax purposes.

Televangelist Todd Coontz and Gregory L. Clarke, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, both served jail time for tax evasion as a result of treating speaking honorariums as gifts rather than taxable income.

However, the courts are not always consistent. An indictment of the late televangelist Morris Cerullo was dismissed because a prosecutor failed to give the grand jury complete information.

Tax Notes reported, “During the prosecutor’s presentation, the grand jury asked at least three times about how to differentiate between earned income and gifts. Each time the prosecutor answered without mentioning the most critical factor: the donor’s intent.”

Reporting Requirements

For 2025, the gift tax exclusion is $19,000. With a couple exceptions, gifts exceeding this amount are taxable and require the donor to complete the IRS Form 709 and pay the gift tax.

Not subject to taxation are gifts to spouses and gifts to pay for school tuition or medical expenses.

While churches, synagogues and mosques are not required to report gift expenses to the Internal Revenue Service on a Form 990, other religious non-profits such as Christian colleges do include them in the 990 Statement of Expenses Page.

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, Liberty University provided $341 million in grants and scholarships to its American students.

The IRS website features a Frequently Asked Questions page for gift taxes and the IRS Publication 559 provides more in-depth information about gift taxes for accountants and bookkeepers.

* This article features a correction. It originally incorrectly reported that Living Word Church in Midland, Michigan, gifted Pastor Mark Barclay a gold-plated AR-15. Instead, Living Word Christian Church in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, was responsible for the gun gift.

This is an odd request. Trinity Foundation investigators are looking for tips.

Often religious leaders are accused of immoral actions which are not necessarily illegal. It is not a crime to waste millions of dollars on ministry-owned jets or massive parsonages.

However, we are also interested in documenting criminal actions, especially financial fraud and extortion. If a pastor or televangelist convinced you to give based on a false promise of financial blessings which you never received, let us know about it.

If you are aware of a pastor or ministry leader using threats/intimidation to obtain donations, contact us. For example, has a pastor told you that God would punish you if you didn’t give him a donation?

If you know about a megachurch taking over other churches through loan sharking techniques (charging large amounts of interest which could no longer be repaid), blackmail or bribery, please report it.

Whistleblower Form  Email: trinity@trinityfi.org Phone: (214)827-2625)

Photo—Facebook: On May 26^th 2024 Ed Young (right) announces his son,

Ben Young as the next senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas 

On Monday, April 15^th, 2025, Jeremiah Counsel Corporation (also “Jeremiah” in this article), a non profit formed by a group of concerned members and past members of Second Baptist Church, filed an unusual court petition in Judge Latosha Lewis Paynes’s District Court 55 against the current leadership of Second Baptist Church Houston requesting church governance reforms and restoration of members’ voting rights taken away in secret.

Defendents named in the 123 page petition are Ben Young, Homer Edwin Young, Lee Maxcy, Dennis Brewer Jr., and the Second Baptist Church Corporation, collectively called the “Young Group” throughout the filing.

Yesterday, Jeremiah Counsel Corporation issued a press release and an open letter to Second Baptist’s “90,000 +” members at large from its new website.

What Happened?  A Radical Change in church governance…

At a sparsely attended May 31, 2023 church business meeting, members in attendance either “unknowingly or unwittingly” rubber-stamped the church’s new regulations (its bylaws) without having the opportunity to inspect or read what they were being asked to approve, according to two letters signed by dozens of concerned members and sent directly to Pastor Ben Young months before the filing of this petition.

Section (H) of Jeremiah’s lawsuit gives examples of the “deliberately inconspicuous, legally insufficient, and intentionally vague” purported notices advising recipients of the May 31 membership meeting.  According to the petition, “These statements were part of an intentional plan to alert as few members as possible to the other purpose for this church meeting and to mislead those who did see the notices.”

Section (M) of the petition states, “only about 200 of Second Baptist’s 94,000 members attended on May 31” and that those at the meeting represented less than “one quarter of one percent” of Second Baptist’s members.

What does Plaintiff Jeremiah Counsel Corporation want?

 Typical lawsuits request pecuniary relief, often in the millions.  However, apart from legal fees, Jeremiah’s petition doesn’t ask for monetary damages to its members but rather requests a return to the Church’s 2005 bylaws and does request money damages for Second Baptist Church from the Young Group and injunctive relief to cease and desist all conduct or actions stemming from the May 31 bylaws “updates”.

Section (I) of the lawsuit details how Second Baptist trustees, who had met for church business only a few weeks prior to the meeting, were completely unaware of the severity of the bylaw’s changes, before, during, and even after the scantly attended May 31 meeting—changes that eliminated and replaced their own positions.

According to the lawsuit, the Young Group permanently abolished: “(1) church members’ rights to vote and elect, e.g., Second Baptists Pastor and officers, to the governing body of the church, (2) church members’ rights to inspect Second Baptist’s books, financial records, and governing documents, and to provide input on its financial direction and obligations, and (3) church members’ rights to provide input on church policies.” (wording bolded in the lawsuit, p. 15)

Continue reading “A Story of Power, Deceit, and Betrayal at Second Baptist Church: Members File Court Petition, Try to Save Church’s Legacy”

In addition to producing its own original programs such as Joni Table Talk and Ministry Now and broadcasting Christian movies on Saturdays, Daystar Television Network relies on 69 programming partners to fill its weekly broadcast schedule.

We were curious: How many of Daystar’s programming partners provide financial information to donors?

The following spreadsheet reveals which programming partners file an IRS Form 990 which discloses total revenue, total expenses, and compensation of officers. Unlike other non-profits, churches, synagogues and mosques are exempt from the requirement to file a Form 990.

One-third (23) of Daystar’s programming partners provide a Form 990, which was more than we expected.

Continue reading “Exploring Daystar Programming Partners: Guess Who Owns Six Square Miles of Land?”

Most Christians don’t give it much thought and trust their leaders.  We tend to look to a pastor, priest, or whomever is in charge as the expert(s).  But members and donors have a responsibility to make sure their tithes and gifts are doing more than simply enriching the person or persons at the top.

Givers should, at a bare minimum, seek answers to: 1) Who governs the organization or church—a single individual with little or no accountability or an independent group of individuals such as a board of directors? 2) Where does the money go? Do they file a public form 990 or publish an audited financial statement?

Trinity Foundation has encountered all types of organizational and church governance (read our Governance Project) and while there is probably no “best” form, there are certain things members should look for and others to be wary of.  We’ve seen terrible examples over and over and can best describe the better leadership forms by what they are not.

Decades ago, we discovered televangelists and pastors had begun eliminating church member oversight and personal accountability.  We found that all decision-making power in a board of directors often consists of hand-picked family, friends, or employees.  We discovered that more and more pastors are consolidating power in their organizations and eliminating church member oversight.

The “smell factor”

If a certain pastor or ministry leader is living lavishly (any one of the following—a corporate jet, a mansion, multiple houses, a luxury car, etc.) this lifestyle begs the question—is this person more concerned about themselves or the gospel of Christ and others? Are they a lover of money?   When the smell is “off”, so to speak, donors need to start asking questions.

The pattern set forth in the gospels is one of servanthood and humility, not of “lording it over” congregations or members.  If it begins to smell foul, both the person and the organization deserve a closer look and some good-old-fashioned research.

Questions Donors Should Ask:

Does the leader regularly preach, teach, or advocate the life and teachings of Christ, including the cross?  The Apostle Paul said, “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

Does the pastor or leader constantly refer to themselves, other than confession?

Is the church or ministry transparent?

How are your donations being used?  We can’t emphasize enough that churches and organizations should publish or make available financial documents illustrating how donor money is spent.  They should file the IRS form 990 or publish an audited financial statement on their website.

Do excess church funds simply accumulate to make the church wealthier, or do they help the poor, needy, distressed, and disadvantaged in the community?

Does the pastor or ministry leader’s family control how and where the money is spent?

Is there a group of people that hold the leader responsible, such as an independent board of elders, deacons, or board members?

Leadership Standards

Does the leader have integrity as defined by the Apostle Paul? (1^st Timothy, chapter 2) A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt at teaching; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; one who rules well his own house, having his children in subjection with all dignity.