Sunday, November 18, 2007

Grassley, Hinn, Snake oil empire.

The Carpetbagger Report:



I’ve never had much use for Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), but I have to give the man some credit: He certainly has shaken things up with these letters to TV ministries.


In case you missed it, Grassley has sent letters to six mega-ministries, asking some pointed questions about their finances. One of his targets is Benny Hinn, perhaps the most transparently fraudulent evangelical TV huckster out there.


Hinn lives in a $10 million estate (considered a “parsonage”), owns a fleet of cars and a private jet. He travels all over the world claiming to heal people of various afflictions. Over the years, numerous news media outlets have tried to take Hinn down. They’ve pointed out his opulent lifestyle. They’ve tracked down people Hinn claims to have healed and found some of them unhealed and others dead.
To no avail. Hinn still packs them in. Let him pack them in — but none of his snake-oil empire should be tax exempt.


Whoever advised Grassley on this matter did some homework. The letters to the ministries are pointed and raise specific issues. His letter to Joyce Meyer Ministries, for example, asks for a “detailed accounting of all expense account items for Joyce and David Meyer for years 2004 to present, including, but not limited to, clothing expenses and cosmetic surgery for years 2002 to present.”

3 comments:

airJackie said...

Now once the evangelical took over the White House the US Treasury was open for all the sickos. Yes the evangelical have an office in the White House and of course Bush is a drunk and druggie he'll believe anything they tell him. With the criminal history of the Bush Family they pay Pastors to be with them so the church goers think their Religious. The Church has become a business and the Pastors are the CEO. Check out the homes, cars and life styles. Some Churches even forgive sin if the Law Maker gives the money like Vitter did. Oral Roberts son stole from the religious school and said God told him it's ok.

KittyBowTie1 said...

Go Grassley go! There are some churches in the Chicago area that passed out newsletters picking candidates. They need their non-profit status revoked. If these Iowa churches engaged in too much politics, they can have their non-profit status revoked, too.

Where is Jesus when you need him to throw the money changers out of the temple!?

SP Biloxi said...

Unfortunately many churches around this country have been run more like a business rather than a place of worship.