It’s Time to Reboot Christian Television Lee Grady believes the time for preaching styles like TBN's Paul Crouch (center) has passed. (TBN/Facebook)Among the legendary pioneers of Christian broadcasting—a list that includes Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts and Jim Bakker—no one worked harder to establish Christian TV stations around the world than Paul Crouch Sr. In spite of constant controversies over his network’s content and finances, the Trinity Broadcasting Network that Crouch founded in 1973 has grown to be the largest and most profitable religious television enterprise in the world.
But Crouch died last weekend, and all is not well at TBN. Crouch’s oldest son, Paul Jr., who at one time was the heir apparent of the network, abruptly departed in 2011 and went to work for the Word Network, a predominantly African-American ministry. The Crouch’s granddaughter, Brittany Koper, in a lawsuit filed against TBN last year, claimed that millions of dollars of donor funds were misused.
The Crouch’s grandson, Brandon Crouch, has lamented on a blog that the family is now split apart because his sister was fired for blowing the whistle on what she considered fraud.
And as Christian friends and colleagues mourn Crouch’s passing (there will be no public funeral, but TBN plans to air a tribute on Dec. 8 and 9), the wider Christian public is asking a lot of questions about TBN—and about Christian broadcasting in general: Why is televangelism so prone to scandal? Why have so many Christian broadcasters insisted on living lavishly? Why is our most visible outreach to the world so embarrassing?
Some people might say this is not the time to have this discussion. But I think Paul Crouch’s passing signals the end of an era—and it is time for a reformation. Crouch’s generation built monolithic organizations with autocratic leadership, and broadcasters who began their networks in the 1970s created a showy, bigger-is-better style that included endless telethons, sensational preaching and celebrities in spotlights.
That may have worked in 1975—and it still appeals to a segment of the market. But my generation and my children’s generation tuned out long ago because Christian TV came off as fake, campy and spiritually out of touch.
If I were asked to suggest ways to improve Christian television in this new era, I would list the following:
1. Support it with advertising, not donations. Who said Christian programming has to be donor-funded? I’d rather watch ads for steak knives or dietary supplements than endure two hours of begging—especially when the slick-haired evangelist running the telethon reminds you of a used-car salesman.
2. Prosperity preaching shouldn’t be allowed. Networks need to declare a moratorium on sermons that promise magical monetary benefits to people who “call now” to give a credit card donation. This type of merchandising of the anointing of the Holy Spirit grieves God and drags Christian TV down to the level of scam artists.
3. Preachers—and their doctrines—should be more carefully screened. Christian networks should not air programs by ministers who have questionable morals. If we wouldn’t allow that person in our church’s pulpit, why would we let them preach in front of millions on the air?
4. Donors should never be manipulated. If there is an appeal for donations, there should be no hanky-panky allowed. Don’t tell people that if they give tonight, God will give them a house. Don’t promise that God will heal their bodies if they sow a “$1,000 seed.” And don’t tell viewers that if they give in this special “Day of Atonement offering,” God will forgive their sins. This is witchcraft! Shame on any broadcaster who has allowed this garbage to deceive audiences.
5. Money should never be misused. TBN makes millions in donations every year—and the network has donated some of the funds to charitable causes. But why is it that broadcasters like Paul and Jan Crouch had to purchase lavish homes, a private jet and an enormous trailer for their dogs? Donors should demand more accountability for financial contributions.
6. It should be relevant to today’s culture. Young Christians today care about justice, world poverty and community transformation. They also want teaching on relationships, sexuality and practical discipleship. Christian TV must move beyond the talking-head style of the 1980s. If we want to appeal to young viewers, the false eyelashes, pink fright wigs and “Granny hootenanny” music will have to go.
7. Network owners should not set up broadcasting kingdoms. Some leaders in the past generation believed that ministries are like dynasties—that God expects the founder’s son to run it when he dies. But there is nothing in Scripture that even hints at ministries being passed down through family lines. God entrusts His work to faithful people—and He expects us to manage ministries with integrity, humility and accountability. Many of the disasters we have seen in American televangelism occurred because men thought they could take ownership of the work of God.
My prayer for TBN—and every other Christian television network in this country—is that ministry leaders will take their hands off of God’s work and let Him use broadcast technology in new and creative ways to reach the world for Christ.
J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma and the director of the Mordecai Project (themordecaiproject.org). You can follow him on Twitter at @leegrady. He is the author of The Holy Spirit Is Not for Sale and other books.
A piece of good news emerges in the story below, to wit: "The lawsuit attention comes at a bad time for TBN, which has seen viewer donations drop steeply."
Private jets, 13 mansions and a $100,000 mobile home just for the dogs:
Televangelists 'defrauded tens of million of dollars from Christian
network'
Two former employees of the world's largest
Christian television channel Trinity Broadcasting Network are accusing the
non-profit of spending $50 million of its funding on extravagant personal
expenses. Among purchases, the network founded by
Televangelists Paul and Jan Crouch, is accused of misappropriating its
'charitable assets' toward a $50 million jet, 13 mansions and a $100,000-mobile
home for Mrs Crouch's dogs. Their granddaughter, Brittany Koper, 26,
recently filed her allegations in court after a brief appointment as the
network's chief finance director in July.
Accused: Brittany Koper, center, recently filed a suit
accusing the Trinity Broadcasting Network, its founders Janice Crouch (left) and
Paul Crouch Sr (far right), in squandering $50 million of its
funding
She claims she was fired in September after
discovering the 'illegal financial schemes' according to the lawsuit obtained by
the Los Angeles Times, and consequently reporting them to Mr
Crouch. Her lawsuit follows a second by another former
employee and Koper in-law, Joseph McVeigh, the uncle of Mrs Koper's husband,
Michael Koper, who detailed the opulent spending by the Christian
network. According to Mr McVeigh's accounts filed in
his lawsuit, the network used their collections for side-by-side mansions in
Florida, as well as in Texas, Tennessee and California. The network's $50 million luxury jet was purchased through a sham loan while Mrs
Crouch's personal jet, a Hawker, totalled $8 million, according to his
suit.
Dog house: Mrs Koper claims she was fired after reporting
financial irregularities in their spending which according to one of two suits
filed accuses Mrs Crouch of spending $100,000 on a mobile home for her
dogs
The 13 properties listed in the suit were also
referred to as 'guest homes' or 'church parsonages' while their directors also
received $300,000 to $500,000 in meal expenses, as well as the use of
chauffeurs. The suit also accuses the network of using
funds to cover up sex scandals according to the Times' review of the
suit.
CLAIMED EXPENDITURES
$100,000-mobile home for Mrs
Crouch's dogs
$50 million luxury jet purchased through a
sham loan
$8 million personal Hawker jet for Mrs
Crouch
13 properties listed in the suit as 'guest
homes' or 'church parsonages' in Florida, Texas, Tennessee and
California
$300,000 to $500,000 meal expenses for
network directors, as well as the use of chauffeurs
In a reverse lawsuit filed by debt-collection
company Redemption Strategies last year, the Kopers have been accused of forging
documents to obtain items such as several vehicles, jewelry, a boat, motorcycle,
and life insurance. The debt collection
company was registered with the state by a TBN attorney one day before it filed
suit against Mr Koper. They accuse Mr McVeigh of also receiving
thousands of dollars from the non-profit without their authorization. That lawsuit against Mr McVeigh and Mr Koper
was later dropped by the court, but not before Mrs Koper and two in-laws were
added as defendants. Mrs Koper countersued, alleging that TBN's
attorneys formed Redemption Strategies to retaliate against her for
whistleblowing. Her suit doesn't list TBN as a defendant, but
it alleges that Mrs Koper was fired and made to turn over her house,
condominium, life insurance policy, car, furniture and jewelry as 'an act of
Christian contrition' when she complained about the financial misdeeds at
TBN. In the similar suit filed by Mr McVeigh, he
alleges that TBN attorneys also targeted him as part of a campaign of
retaliation for his reporting of their lavish spending.
TBN attorney Colby May called the McVeigh's
lawsuit a 'tabloid filing' and said the allegations in both cases were 'utterly
and completely contrived.' TBN suspects McVeigh, who claims he received a
$65,000 loan from the family empire, was working with the Kopers to steal money
from the ministry, Mr May said.
Attacks: The family feud could draw further scrutiny of
TBN after its previous trouble with allegations of a homosexual encounter by Mr
Crouch and a five-year battle with the FCC
The network's spending is in line with its
mission to spread the gospel throughout the world, Mr May said, and the Crouches
travel by private jet because they have had 'scores of death threats, more than
the president of the United States.' The ministry keeps large amounts of cash in
reserve because incurring debt goes against the Biblical exhortation to 'owe no
man any thing,' he said. 'The answer is, there is no fire there,' Mr
May said. 'They pay as they go and every now and then one of the things that
they pay as they go on is the acquisition of a broadcast facility and that's a
multi-million dollar transaction.' The outbreak of legal skirmish offers a rare
window into the secretive world of the sprawling religious non-profit and
exposes a family feud that could draw more outside scrutiny of TBN. Attorneys
from both sides say they have contacted police and the Internal Revenue
Service.
Growth: The network, whose headquarters is pictured, is
seen on every continent but Antarctica 24 hours a day, seven days a week, raking
in $92 million in donations in 2010 and $175 million in tax-free
revenue
The Crouches founded TBN in 1973 and grew it
into an international Christian empire that beams prosperity gospel programming
— which promises that if the faithful sacrifice for their belief, God will
reward them with material wealth — to every continent but Antarctica 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. It has 78 satellites and more than 18,000
television and cable affiliates and owns seven other networks, as well as its
headquarters in Costa Mesa in Orange County, an estate outside Nashville called
Trinity Music City, USA and the Holy Land Experience, a Christian amusement park
in Orlando. On any given day — or night — viewers from the
United States to India can watch Christian-inspired news updates, documentaries,
movies, talk shows and sermons by preachers such as Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes and
Dr. Creflo Dollar without leaving their armchairs.
Expenditures: Additional claims detail the purchase of two
jets at a cost of $50 million and $8 million each, and 13 mansions across the
U.S. reported as 'guest homes' or 'church parsonages'
The lawsuit attention comes at a bad time for
TBN, which has seen viewer donations drop steeply. TBN raked in $92 million in donations in 2010
and cleared $175 million in tax-free revenue, but its net income plummeted from
nearly $60 million in 2006 to a loss of $18 million in 2010, the most recent
year available. Donations fell by nearly $30 million in the same period — a hit
the network blames on the bad economy. At the same time, Mrs Koper's father — the
eldest Crouch son — resigned abruptly as vice president and chief-of-staff late
last year. The unexplained departure of Paul Crouch Jr. roughly coincided with
his daughter's legal battle and came just months after he launched iTBN, a
project to expand the network's online and mobile reach.
TBN places a premium on privacy and it's
almost impossible to divine what is going on behind the scenes. Yet
televangelist empires built largely on charisma often encounter choppy waters as
their founding personalities age.
Needs: The attorney for Mrs Crouch, seen shielded by
security in New York, said the Crouches travel by private jet because they have
had scores of death threats, more than the president of the United
States
'It's true that in these large ministries,
they do become family enterprises ... and in many ways that can be a most
precarious problem for them,' said David E. Harrell, a professor emeritus of
American religion at Auburn University, who has written about well-known
televangelists. 'Business squabbles, if they're complicated with family
squabbles, can get nasty indeed.' Mr May dismissed the idea of family turmoil
and said the reason behind the legal fight was simple: Mrs Koper and her husband
stole from the network. 'They're attempting to create a diversion and
to create as much public spectacle as they can in the vain hope that this will
all get resolved and that's simply not going to happen,' he said. TBN's reach and programming are expansive, but
what is more impressive is the amount of money it receives from viewers — even
in a downturn.
Sex scandals: The suit also accuses the network, whose
headquarters is pictured from the roadside, of using funds to cover up
additional sex scandals according to the Los Angeles Times' review of the
suit
During TBN's Praise-A-Thon earlier this month,
a preacher exhorted viewers to bellow 'Fear not!' three times, count down from
10 and then rush to the phone with donations. In exchange, he said, they would
receive a miracle from God 'about this time tomorrow.' Within seconds, all 200
phone lines were busy. Ministry watchdogs have long questioned how
TBN — which declared more than $800 million in net assets in 2010 — spends that
wealth. TBN files reports with the IRS, but the
Crouches run nearly two dozen other organizations that are harder to track and
they operate extensively overseas, said Rusty Leonard, who founded Wall
Watchers, an organization that monitors the financial transparency of church
ministries to which its members donate. Wall Watchers gives TBN an 'F' for financial
transparency and keeps them on its list of the 30 worst ministries.
Lawsuits: In a reverse lawsuit filed against Mrs Koper and
her husband, they have been accused of forging documents to steal from the
network themselves, whose Texas location is shown, but that case was dropped by
the court
'They could run a loss like the one they ran
last year for an awfully long time before they would run out of money,' Mr
Leonard said. 'They're basically taking money from old people and putting it in
their pocket and living the high life.' TBN is no stranger to outside
scrutiny. In 1998, the elder Crouch secretly paid an
accuser $425,000 to keep quiet about allegations of a homosexual encounter.
Crouch Sr. has consistently denied the allegations, which were first reported by
the Los Angeles Times, and has said he settled only to avoid a costly and
embarrassing trial. In 2000, after a five-year battle, a federal
appeals court overturned a ruling by the FCC that found Mr Crouch had created a
'sham' minority company to get around limits on the number of TV stations he
could own. With their termination from the network, both
Mr MacLeod and Mrs Koper plan to file a wrongful-termination suit according to
the Times.
John Wycliffe was one of the firebrands of Church history. Known as the
“morning star of the Reformation," John Wycliff preceded Luther, Calvin, and
Knox by almost two hundred years.
The Youthful Wycliffe
Except for the year of his birth, 1320, not much is known of the young
Englishman until he received his doctorate from Oxford in 1372. After receiving
his degree, Wycliffe was thrust into prominence by being granted a professorship
and becoming a leading scholar at the university.
The Salad Days End
Any quiet scholastic days he might have had were short lived. A debate
erupted regarding who had God given the right to rule over men, and how is that
right to be exercised. Wycliffe dove headfirst into the debate by arguing that
the civil government had the divine right to correct the abuses of sinful church
leaders. According to Wycliffe, the civil magistrate even had the right to seize
the corrupt churchmen's property.
Wycliffe, though, was just getting started. His message of reform included
the following:
Wealth had corrupted the church; he called for a return to the poverty and
simplicity of Apostolic times
The pope was the antichrist and should not have the temporal (i.e.,
political) power to rule over men
With regard to the aforementioned
Wycliffe wrote, “Christ is truth, the pope is the principle of falsehood. Christ
lived in poverty, the pope labors for worldly magnificence. Christ refused
temporal dominion, the pope seeks it.”
Transubstantiation (i.e., the bread and wine become the body and blood of
Christ) was a false doctrine
The Bible, not the church, is the only rule for faith
As a consequence of his calls for reform, Wycliffe was expelled from his
teaching post. Then, in 1377, Pope Gregory XI condemned Wycliffe’s doctrines and
writings and called for his arrest. Wycliffe, however, remained unmolested due
to the protection of influential friends.
Here is the public record of the lawsuit by Ms. Kober, granddaughter of Paul and Jan Crouch of TBN and also the CFO for TBN against the law firm/TBN issue of misallocated moneys in the amount of $50,000,000. All 22 pages. http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/files/2012/02/Koper-Complaint.pdf
