At least six high-profile televangelists, who are also prosperity preachers, are now under investigation by Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa who is on the Senate Committee of Finance. They include Paula White, Kenneth Copeland, and Benny Hinn. So far, they have been asked to provide financial statements and records. The investigation was actually initiated by Ole Anthony who is the founder of Trinity Foundation, a watchdog organization for televangelists. 1 Since it began in early November, Anthony has been joined by Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine in supporting the Senate investigation. The primary complaint of Anthony and Grady is essentially that these religious leaders earn too much money and live too comfortably, and this is hardly grounds for instigating and welcoming a congressional-led “reformation,” as Grady put it.2
We are living in an age where Constitutional safeguards are constantly being circumvented by state and federal laws (e.g. hate crime and hate speech legislation), and congress is rife with those who would jump at the chance to eviscerate Christian pulpits under cover of Christian “watchdogs.” This, and a few other things, should have come to Anthony’s mind beforehand.
While Anthony, Grady, and others may openly criticize various religious organizations that they disagree with, the fact that they do not approve of another’s free exercise of religion does not entitle them to prescribe religious conduct to them, and require it to be enforced. If they have broken no laws, are not in violation of tax codes, and comply with regulations governing their type of organizations; they should not be investigated by senators at the behest of individuals who find them distasteful, and who do not claim to have suffered at the hands of these organizations.
Even if they had real damages arising from fraud or other such offences, there are other recourses open to them within the law. But even senators miss this point.
Representatives should know better than to launch senatorial investigations into various religions and their leaders merely because some people disapprove of their religious expressions; expressions that they have deemed appropriate to their respective religions, and are supported in by their members. But Senators do err, and the free exercise clause might suffer under the weight of such spurious investigations of churches and synagogues that sap resources and consequently chill free exercise, and free speech.
This last concern, the right of the churches in America to preach against sin to the salvation of the sinner, is the gemstone many legislators have been constructing gear and tackle for, over several years now; with the design of seizing it away. Wayward actions like this one only gives them more leverage.
Anthony and Grady have allowed their personal dissatisfaction with apparently false Christian sects, or apostates, to cloud their judgment; thus making it hard for them to discern the times and appreciate the larger picture. This is a clearly a case where they should have sought to conquer evil with good, the good news of the gospel and real Christian doctrine rightly preached (or wrote about in columns, in papers, on in websites). In particular, Grady’s magazine Charisma is not without room for improvement in this area.
The gullible and the simple will be mislead and fooled by the charlatans and the cults until the end. We do no service to the gospel by endeavoring to outlaw those religions that we disagree with, or know to be false. A very wise man once said of a similar vane that we must suffer some abuse of the press to keep it free. Christians should be willing to suffer a little more for something much more important: the freedom to preach the gospel. This is not to say that we should suffer a false gospel for even one minute, but we are to confront it with the truth, and not with the arm of the law.
Notes:
1. Lillian Kwon, “‘Prosperity’ Televangelists Probed for Possible Financial Misconduct,” The Christian Post, November 07, 2007.
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071107/29989_%27Prosperity%27
_Televangelists_Probed_for_Possible_Financial_Misconduct.htm
2. Lillian Kwon, “More Questions Raised in Probe of Preachers,”The Christian Post, December 04, 2007.
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071204/30344
_More_Questions_Raised_in_Probe_of_Preachers.htm