(Photo: Melly95/Pixabay | “But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.” – Ephesians 5:13)

Note: This article will take about 20 to 25 minutes to read.

In recent years, church and ministry whistleblowers have tried a variety of different approaches to expose corruption. They’ve challenged religious leaders in private meetings, worked with investigative reporters, filed complaints with government agencies, sued churches, appeared on podcasts and created whistleblower websites.

This article lists ten ways whistleblowers can engage in fighting fraud.

First, a Warning

Before going public with accusations, carefully evaluate the evidence. Is the evidence conclusive? If there is not enough evidence to convince most people, it might be best to wait on publicly voicing your concerns. If you make false allegations, even by accident and with good intentions, it will harm your credibility and could result in a defamation lawsuit.

Seek advice from experts: Attorneys can research government statutes and explain how laws apply to your circumstances.

If allegations are of a financial nature, consult with a certified public accountant. There are loopholes in the tax code that allow religious non-profits and churches to operate in a manner that would be illegal for other non-profits. Churches are not required by law to provide financial information to their donors.

Continue reading “Whistleblowers, Know Your Options: Exploring Ways to Expose Corruption in Churches and Ministries”

(Screenshot: Pastor Ed Young Jr. uses a glass mug of beer as a prop during a March sermon at Fellowship Church.)

Edwin Barry Young (a/k/a “Ed Young Jr.”) has a Midas Touch with his own personal property but apparently the opposite ‘tainted touch’ when it comes to church mergers.

A recent Houston lawsuit  filed by the Jeremiah Counsel Corporation against Second Baptist Houston’s current leadership, acknowledges the church operates like a family business by describing the leadership as the ‘Young Group’ and expresses serious concerns about a drastic change in church government.  It also describes a worrisome relationship between Young Group family members and the oldest brother of Pastor Ben Young—Ed Young, Jr.

Jeremiah Counsel consists of members and past members of Second Baptist Houston and if history is any indication, these members have good reason to be worried about the fate of their church.

Ed Young Jr.’s long series of mansions and lavish, or “Midas’ touch” lifestyle is well documented.  Perhaps it is Ed Young Jr.’s flamboyant style that eventually turns people off; but whatever the reason, at least five churches that were merged with Fellowship Church have collapsed and no longer exist.

Continue reading “Ed Young’s Toxic Church Business Practices and Mergers Infect Second Baptist Houston and Other Churches”

 

To address misinformation allegedly spreading on social media, televangelist Perry Stone created a YouTube video claiming he receives no book royalties for books produced and sold through his ministry and disclosed some of his ministries’ expenses.

“There are millions of people who assume that somehow Perry Stone gets a commission, or he gets a payment, or he gets a royalty from those sales. That is absolutely, totally 100% incorrect … if it takes me six months or a year to write a book and I spend hours, hour after hour after hour and we offer it and print it through the ministry, I get absolutely zero, nothing from those sales.”

While Stone may not receive book royalties, as part of a compensation package, he could be paid a flat rate to write books for his ministry.

Stone’s ministry has operated in a financially secretive manner for more than a decade. Because Stone does not reveal his salary, donors are unable to know if the ministry is providing excessive compensation, which is defined by the IRS as exceeding a million dollars annually.

The non-profit organization Voice of Evangelism Outreach Ministries, also known as Perry Stone Ministries, is based in Cleveland, Tennessee, where the Church of God has its headquarters and operates Lee University.

Continue reading “Perry Stone Claims to Receive no Book Royalties, Shares Limited Ministry Financial Information in YouTube Video”

Images courtesy of Pixabay

As Trinity Foundation’s president, I addressed a group of journalists and concerned activists at Transparency International’s annual conference in Washington D.C. on December 15, 2022, about “Dark Money in the Church—Waiting for Christianity’s Wake Up Call.”

But the visible church, unfortunately, is sound asleep.  Here’s a little from that presentation: “There is a veil of financial secrecy that shrouds and protects religious organizations.”

“Churches, Synagogues, Mosques, and other religious entities in America do not have to report any financial information either to the IRS, the public, or their own congregations.  This is known as “church status” and their financial disclosure is only voluntary.”

“We’ve seen this veil of secrecy lead to massive waste and extravagance, money laundering, bulk-cash smuggling, a tremendous indifference to the poor and downtrodden, and even rape, pedophilia, or sex-trafficking by televangelists, pastors, priests, and other church leaders—all in the name of God.”

Recently, our Pastor Planes project tracked a televangelist jet flying to Jamaica.

Continue reading “Transparency Vs. Corruption”

American tax laws require advertising revenue exceeding $1,000 to be reported by non-profit ministries and churches. However, some organizations fail to report unrelated business income because of either not knowing the law or purposefully restructuring themselves to avoid disclosure.

In recent years some religious TV broadcasters have begun to distance themselves from the high pressure beg-a-thon fundraisers of the past and are adopting the new business model of Free Ad Supported Television (often identified by the acronym FAST.)

The Inspirational Network, a non-profit organization operating the INSP cable network, is the leader in this transformation, having generated hundreds of millions of dollars or more in advertising revenue that has been unreported since 2014 on its Form 990s.

The Inspirational Network was the recent subject of a Trinity Foundation investigation into unreported advertising revenue and excessive compensation.

Which raises the question, how do other religious non-profits report  advertising?

In 2021, Christianity Today International reported almost $2.9 million in advertising revenue of which $637,199 was unrelated business revenue.

(Screenshot: Christianity Today International 2021 Form 990, page 9.)

Meanwhile, God’s World Publications (the publisher of World Magazine) reported all its advertising revenue ($1,543,326 for fiscal year ending June 30, 2021) as unrelated business income.

Continue reading “How Religious TV Networks and Magazine Publishers Report Taxable Advertising Revenue”

A loathsome, terrible lack of Congressional and IRS oversight of televangelists and religious organizations exposes the huge need for new laws to prevent abuses of the public trust.

“No church property is taxed and so the infidel and the atheist and the man without religion are taxed to make up the deficit.” Mark Twain

Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, died on April 21, 1910, and yet his comment is even more appropriate now.

Huge amounts of church property here in the U.S. are not taxed. Aside from places of worship, churches, synagogues, and mosques also often provide property-tax exempt homes for their pastors, rabbis, and imams. In December 2021, the Houston Chronicle published an article we helped with exposing many church parsonages worth over a million dollars (our own article here).

In addition to extravagant church parsonages, religious non-profit laws allow for unhindered money laundering of church funds, obscenely huge tax-exempt housing allowances, loosely regulated bulk-cash smuggling out of the U.S., multi-million-dollar yearly salaries, and ministry-owned private jets used for personal vacations. And the list goes on. Read our “Dark Money” article for numerous examples.

Church, synagogue, and mosque income is generally tax-free. Though churches are supposed to report unrelated business income, there are many exclusions and deductions allowed. For example, Trinity Church in New York City owns more than six billion dollars worth of real-estate but does not disclose rental income by filing a form 990T. This is legal, believe it or not.

Continue reading “The Conspicuous Lack of Congressional and IRS Oversight”

 

With the arrival of the year 2023 in two months, that means many church elders and board members will soon be voting to approve church budgets.

Bob Santy, Executive Pastor of Operations at Sunridge Community Church in Temecula, California, recommends that churches finalize a budget two months before the church fiscal year.

Budgets reveal church priorities. Here are several critical questions that can guide a church leader on voting to approve a church budget. The same questions can also help concerned donors evaluate their financial support for a church:

Discipleship: When Jesus gave the Great Commission to His followers, Jesus told them to make disciples. This is the purpose of the church. Is the church effectively making disciples? If the church is declining, does the church need new leadership or to change its financial priorities by investing more in discipleship programs?

Program Services: How much does the church spend on its stated mission? By subtracting administrative and fundraising expenses, a concerned donor can determine how much is spent on program services.

Salaries: According to executive search firm Vanderbloemen, “The average church uses 52% of the church budget on compensation.” Often the highest paid church employee is the senior pastor. Is the pastor paid too much? Does the pastor receive an outrageous housing allowance? If the senior pastor were paid less, would the church be able to hire another employee? Are the church salaries reasonable?

The IRS website asks an important question: “How do we know whether the compensation we’re paying to our officers and key employees is reasonable?” The answer: “Reasonable compensation is the value that would ordinarily be paid for like services by like enterprises under like circumstances.”

Transparency: Is the church refusing to disclose big ticket expenses? If a  church refuses to disclose pastor salaries, there might be excessive compensation.  If the church has been sued, is the church disclosing attorneys’ fees?

Donor responsibility: In response to the infamous Jim Bakker/PTL scandal, Congress held a hearing in 1987. Pastor D. James Kennedy testified, “I would think that if a person is going to give money to something, that they have … a responsibility to learn where it is going.”

Donor responsibility should serve as a check to prevent the church from straying from its mission to evangelize the world, make disciples, help the poor, the fatherless, the stranger and the widows. If the church primarily operates as a social club for its members, then donors should take their money elsewhere.

In our May 2022 newsletter (article here) we suggested a simple way to curb religious fraud and excess.  It would hold moderate and large religious organizations more accountable and provide donors with more transparency allowing them to make more informed decisions.

Month after month, we show our (small) mailing list and website visitors, how much religious fraud is going on and how much donor money is being wasted on extravagant, luxurious lifestyles.

Nothing will change until the U.S. public is fed up with the disparity between religious non-profit organizations and all other non-profit organizations.  Non-profits such as the Red Cross and World Vision show the world how much and where their money goes.  Religious non-profits… well, most don’t.

It’s too easy to claim marvelous, wonderful charitable works publicly on the one hand, while wasting donor’s money on frivolities and extravagance on the other.

TELEVANGELISTS, PLEASE STOP AND COMPARE:

We dig water wells for the thirsty.  Sure you do; but what about the Perrier, Smart Water, and Champaign served to you chilled in First Class or on your private jet?

We build and finance orphanages for the fatherless.  Sure you do, but compare the mansion you live in to most orphans’ stone walls, uncomfortable cots, meager meals, and dirty bathrooms.

We feed and clothe the homeless.  You must feel good about this, but compare your daily rich diet and the expensive suits you wear as opposed to the bean and rice staples and worn hand-me-down rags of street people in your own community.

This sheep’s-clothing disguise will always wear thin and wear off, eventually exposing the insatiable, self-seeking core of corrupt religious leaders— evident for all to see.

Continue reading “Are You Fed Up Yet?”