By Robert Marus
WASHINGTON (ABP) -- Sen. Chuck
Grassley insists he’s not trying to impose his Baptist theology on
Pentecostal and Charismatic ministries; he simply wants them to obey
the tax laws.
The Iowa Republican has drawn fire
for using his position as ranking minority member of the Senate
Finance Committee to investigate six ministries -- most of them
embracing so-called “prosperity gospel” theology -- for their
financial habits.
The ministries had already drawn
scrutiny from former followers and media outlets for allegedly
inappropriate spending habits. In an echo of the televangelist
scandals of the late 1980s, the charges include using ministry funds
to purchase private jets, multi-million dollar homes and a $23,000
marble-topped chest.
Grassley’s office sent letters to the
ministries Nov. 6 asking them for information on their receipts,
expenditures and holdings.
“The allegations involve governing
boards that aren’t independent and allow generous salaries and
housing allowances and amenities such as private jets and Rolls
Royces,” he said at the time. “I don’t want to conclude that there’s
a problem, but I have an obligation to donors and the taxpayers to
find out more. People who donated should have their money spent as
intended and in adherence with the tax code.”
Grassley set a Dec. 6 deadline for
response. While all of the ministries produced statements saying
they complied with all tax laws, only the St. Louis-area Joyce Meyer
Ministries provided the information Grassley sought.
Benny Hinn Ministries provided
information Feb. 25, but Grassley's office said it would take time
to look through the information and determine if it satisfied the
senator's request.
At a Feb. 1 press conference
following his appearance at a Baptist meeting in Atlanta, Grassley
said his office planned to send a second round of letters to the
ministries that were not cooperating, asking again for the
information and threatening further action. However, the senator
said at the time, “it would be a while before I would think about a
subpoena.”
But leaders of several of the
targeted organizations have vowed to fight Grassley, with some even
going so far as to say they’d go to jail rather than answer a
congressional subpoena.
“You can go get a subpoena, and I
won’t give it to you,” said Texas-based evangelist Kenneth Copeland
at a January pastors’ conference. “It’s not yours, it’s God’s and
you’re not going to get it, and that’s something I’ll go to prison
over. So, just get over it. ... And if there’s a death penalty that
applies, well, just go for it.”
Copeland’s remarks were taped and
posted on the video-sharing site YouTube, as well as reported by the
Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.
Copeland and other targeted
evangelists have said the investigation is violating their religious
freedom. While most nonprofits organized under Section 501(c)(3) of
the federal tax code have to file information about receipts and
expenditures with the Internal Revenue Service, churches do not.
Religious organizations under
investigation might be able to claim a First Amendment violation
based on a theory of excessive entanglement in church affairs or
discrimination based on religion -- if they can show they were
targeted on the basis of their religious beliefs, said Holly Hollman,
general counsel with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious
Liberty.
“Of course, the stated purpose of the
investigation is congressional oversight for the tax laws that
govern nonprofit entities. The First Amendment certainly does not
provide a blanket exemption from the tax laws that govern
nonprofits, including many religious entities,” she added.
Grassley stressed he is not targeting
churches per se but simply investigating whether they comply with
laws that apply to them.
“Here’s the bottom line: The tax laws
that apply to nonprofits, there’s no difference between those tax
laws as a nonprofit or ABC church as a nonprofit,” he said at the
Atlanta news conference, adding that the only difference between the
Red Cross and a church is that churches don’t have to report in the
same way to the IRS.
Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee,
who is close to Copeland, has also criticized the investigation. In
an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, the former Baptist
pastor said it was “a little chilling” to him.
“Is Congress going to start going
after nonprofit organizations?” he asked. “And if so, are they going
to do all nonprofits? Are they going to start looking at [liberal
group] MoveOn.org?”
But Grassley has repeatedly
investigated secular nonprofits, including the Nature Conservancy
and the Red Cross. At the press conference, he said he has almost
always gotten cooperation from nonprofits whose finances he’s
investigated.
“Except for Jack Abramoff and his
nonprofits -- and he’s in prison now -- every time I asked
nonprofits for information, I got it,” he said, referring to the
disgraced former GOP lobbyist.
A former religious adviser to
President Bush has said Pentecostals and charismatics view the
investigation as an assault by more mainstream evangelicals like
Grassley -- potentially driving a wedge between Republicans and part
of their conservative Christian base.
Doug Wead, in a Feb. 16 Des Moines
Register story, said, “the Grassley probe, by the time it is
full-blown and the media does its job of attacking these ministries,
will have Pentecostals feeling demeaned and helpless and dirty and
targeted.”
Wead, a former board member of one of
the targeted ministries, said the investigation would cause
Pentecostals to feel that the media had been “used by a Baptist to
settle a score.” In a blog entry, he accused Grassley and other
mainstream evangelicals of elitism in pursuing the investigation.
Grassley, for his part, has
repeatedly denied a theological agenda in the investigation.
“I’m not interested in what they’re
preaching; they can call their gospel anything they want to,” he
said in Atlanta. “This nonprofit investigation is nothing about
Pentecostalism. … It’s about obeying the tax laws and being a
trustee of the money of the people that contribute.”
He’s gotten some backing from at
least one prominent charismatic source. Lee Grady, editor of the
flagship magazine for charismatic and Pentecostal Christians in the
United States, used his February column to call on such ministries
to be transparent.
“Perhaps the Lord is offended that
our beloved gospel of prosperity has created a cult of selfishness,”
he wrote in Charisma magazine. “If so, our best response is
to open our account ledgers and welcome correction.”
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