Going After the Money Racking Ministries*

By DAVID VAN BIEMA
Time Magaizine

On the website for their ministry based in Newark, Texas, Kenneth and
Gloria Copeland commit to "teach Christians worldwide who they are in
Christ Jesus and how to live a victorious life." And they appear to be
victorious in theirs, with books in 22 languages, a global crusade
schedule and a TV show reaching millions. No less a luminary than
presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is advertised to appear on the show
for six days straight to discuss "character in the Bible."

Huckabee might want to opt out. On Nov. 6 the Copelands got a
saw-toothed, 42 point questionnaire inquiring into their own character
from Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate
Committee on Finance. Grassley wanted to know how Kenneth Copeland--who
as a church leader pays no taxes but is expected to plow revenue back
into the public welfare--got a private plane and whether flights to
Hawaii and Fiji qualified as business trips. Grassley sought credit card
receipts and the numbers of the church's offshore bank accounts.

Copeland wasn't Grassley's only pen pal. He also wrote to the Revs.
Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer and Paula White, in
total six televangelists who are part of an evangelical subculture known
loosely as Prosperity gospel. "Recent news reports regarding the
possible misuse of donations made to religious organizations" prompted
the probe, Grassley wrote. The ministers' responses are technically
voluntary, but the Senator has asked for them in a month and has mused
that the replies could lead to testimony under oath. If so, Grassley
could end up wiping out what some consider a kleptocracy but what is
certainly the public face of a popular theology.

Prosperity adherents believe the right thoughts and speech, along with
giving to the church, will prompt divine repayment in this life, with a
return as high as $100 on each dollar handed up. On a small scale,
Prosperity's positive thinking has sometimes energized the march of the
poor into the middle class, but many Christians find it theologically
and ethically perverse. Prosperity dominates American religious TV, and
millions of adherents send millions of dollars to preachers they have
never met. For Grassley, this might be fine if the ministers put all the
money back into their mission work. But his now famous question about
Meyer's $23,000 commode suggests he questions the destination of her
estimated $124 million annual take. He has asked for her real estate
records, reminding her fellow Missourians of an extended duel she had
with Jefferson County officials that resulted in her agreeing in 2005 to
pay taxes on half of her $20 million headquarters.

Among Grassley's questions to Dollar was one about a gift of $500,000 to
Copeland. Dollar told TIME that he made a gift but said the sum was not
that high. He and the Copelands claim to be tax-compliant. Hinn and Long
did not respond by press time. White's ministry says to the best of its
knowledge it complies with all tax codes. Meyer posted a 2006 IRS letter
confirming tax-exempt status.

The larger conservative Christian community has not been supportive.
"Grassley has a shotgun, and lead is spraying all over the place, but
I'm looking at the good that can be done," says Marvin Olasky, editor of
the evangelical weekly World. J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine,
where some of the six advertise, hopes all can prove their innocence,
but he adds, "If God wants to use a Senator to help the American church
clean up its act, then I say bring on the Reformation."

But should Grassley play the role of Martin Luther? Some see Grassley's
acts as a religious vendetta, launched by a white-bread Evangelical who
doesn't get the group's view of rich pastors as a sign of divine grace.
Grassley has hinted that his purpose may be to revamp tax laws to keep
up with rapacious preachers. Remarks Charles Haynes, senior scholar with
the First Amendment Center: "I'm worried that [the six] might be used to
push for stringent transparency regulations that would affect all
religious groups. They are extreme, and extreme cases can lead to bad law."

Grassley rejects the criticism. "We're not looking at doctrine. I don't
know much about the words Prosperity gospel," he says. But he
acknowledges that religious-freedom concerns may make an investigation a
"little more difficult to defend." Fellow Senators--"I won't give their
names"--have asked what they should tell the preachers. Says Grassley:
"My answer was, 'Tell them to do what all the other nonprofits
do--answer my letter.'" And hope for a different kind of grace.