Friday, November 30, 2007

What does Rev. Ike, Daddy Grace, Father Divine ....

What does Rev. Ike, Daddy Grace, Father Divine, Prophet Jones and the Bishop from Oakland who said he walked on water in the sixties, have in common with the current Televangelist?

Just a question for you to ponder and pray about.

We are praying for our brothers and sisters at this time who have been targeted by Grassley and others, and the various falls from grace that have happened this year. Let us also pray for the brothers and sisters who follow these ministries, that they not turn away from the Lord because of what is said in the press.
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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Senate Panel Probes 6 Top Televangelists

Why is this happening in America?

Senate Panel Probes 6 Top Televangelists
Sen. Charles Grassley Asks Ministries To Turn Over Financial Records Within One Month
CBS News Interactive: Eye on Religion
(CBS) WASHINGTON CBS News has learned Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is investigating six prominent televangelist ministries for possible financial misconduct. Letters were sent Monday to the ministries demanding that financial statements and records be turned over to the committee by December 6th. According to Grassley's office, the Iowa Republican is trying to determine whether or not these ministries are improperly using their tax-exempt status as churches to shield lavish lifestyles. The six ministries identified as being under investigation by the committee are led by: Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn. Three of the six - Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar - also sit on the Board of Regents for the Oral Roberts University. A spokesperson for Joyce Meyer Ministries provided CBS News with an IRS letter to the ministry dated October 10, 2007, that stated: "We determined that you continue to qualify as an organization exempt from Federal income tax." The letter could not be independently verified in time for this story. The ministry also pointed to audited financial statements for the last three years that are posted on the organization's Web site. In a statement, Benny Hinn's spokesperson, Ronn Torossian, said the ministry was in the process of determining the best course of action in response to the Senate investigation. "World Healing Center Church complies with the laws that govern church and non-profit organizations and will continue to do so," Torossian wrote. In a statement to CBS News, Creflo Dollar called his ministry an "open book" and said he would comply with any "valid request" from Grassley. But he noted that the inquiry raised questions that could "affect the privacy of every community church in America." The other three ministries did not respond to requests for comment from CBS News on Monday. Because they have tax status as churches, the ministries do not have to file IRS 990 forms like other non-profit organizations - leaving much financial information largely behind closed doors. The letters sent Monday were the culmination of a long investigation fueled in part by complaints from Ole Anthony, a crusader against religious fraud who operates the Dallas-based Trinity Foundation, which describes itself as a watchdog monitoring religious media, fraud and abuse. "We've been working with them for two years," Anthony told CBS News. "We have furnished them with enough information to fill a small Volkswagen." Anthony said after twenty years of working with media organizations to expose televangelists, he saw little reform. He says that's why he turned to another tactic, going straight to Grassley. He is confident that Grassley's inquiry will be different, "What we hope is that this will lead to reform in religious nonprofits." The structure of many televangelist organizations - in which the leadership is often concentrated in one person or one family - has itself been the target of criticism. "Churches like these are ruled as a dictatorship," says Rod Pitzer, who directs research at Ministry Watch in North Carolina, which provides advice for donors to Christian organizations. Pitzer welcomes the Senate committee investigation. Ministries lacking accountability, he says, "give a black eye to churches and Christians who are trying to do things in the right manner."
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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Read More . . .

Background

When I was four years old, my thirteen-year-old brother raped me. My older sister and her friends treated me as their “doll,” dressing me in girl’s clothing. My father, a pastor, sexually molested me.

This upbringing led me to a life of sexual deviancy in which I was sometimes the victim and sometimes the perpetrator, to the point that I described myself as a “sex machine.” Through the intervention of God, I have been delivered from this cycle and cleansed, freed to live the victorious Christian life.

Purpose of This Book

Sexual sin is rampant in the church. Stories of moral failures by men and women in church leadership roles have become commonplace. In the pew, too, sexual immorality and incest are more widespread than anyone knows—except those involved.

So long as these sins are allowed to remain in the shadows, they have power. They must be exposed, and the people affected by them must have help finding the recovery they so desperately need.

Don’t Say a Word about This! is designed to lead the church to find the truth and healing in Christ, which will set them free from the blight of sexual sin committed by Christians.

It is my conviction that every person has a right to live life from babyhood to adult life without any form of abuse. I believe that every person who did not have the opportunity to live from babyhood to adult life without abuse is entitled to healing, deliverance, and a second chance to live life.

Sources

The content of Don’t Say a Word about This! is drawn from my life, the Bible, a wide range of secular books dealing with human behavior, and films that address human pain and suffering.

My Story

My father was a pastor and part-time handyman at women’s’ clothing stores. Most of the time my brother and sister and I were left on our own since my brother was nine years older than I and my sister was eighteen years my senior. A lack of supervision, combined with my father’s sexual perversions and my mother’s continuing love for a man she married who had turned into a secret monster contributed to my exposure to sexual matters at such a young age.

For the first few years of my life my sister, eighteen years my elder, dressed me in little girl’s clothes and made me her personal doll. When I was four, my thirteen-year-old brother raped me. Dad often took me to work with him at the women’s clothing stores and while he worked, I would masturbate with the mannequins.

What does a young boy do when in the first ten years of his life he experiences rape and incest, is treated as a girl, and learns to masturbate in lingerie with an older neighborhood boy? He goes to a dark place in his soul.

At age eleven I became not the victim but the perpetrator. I molested one boy from my neighborhood and two boys who were members of my father’s church—usually in the church building or at church functions.

As I grew into my teens I was involved in many other sexual encounters with church musicians (male and female), and I had other sexual escapades at church meetings.

When I was eighteen I got married, thinking my sexual behavior would change. The marriage lasted twenty-four years but not because of my fidelity. I was faithful to my wife for only five years before the cycle began again.

In college, though I was married, my time was filled with the constant search for excitement and sexual release through:

  • Marijuana, cocaine, crack, crank, speed, and other drugs I cannot remember
  • Homosexual and bisexual acts
  • Threesomes
  • Voyeurism
  • Exhibitionism
  • Phone Sex
  • Transvestism
  • Pornography
  • Lingerie Fetish
  • Oral Sex

By the time I was 30 I had had sex with more than one hundred women. I was a sex machine.

After college, I appeared to have a model life. I worked as an analyst for Fortune five hundred companies, I had a wife and son, and I was developing my own private tax practice. However, my personal life centered around one promiscuous affair after another.

I wasn’t living the Christian life by any stretch of the imagination at this point, but still something (Holy Spirit) prevented me from molesting my son, though my father had molested me and this is how the cycle is continued. God was intervening in my life, and in my son’s life, though I certainly wasn’t walking with Him then.

But His interventions were just beginning. He allowed me to be involved in a major auto accident in which four other cars ran into mine. I survived the accident, but was left with a recurring nightmare that eventually drove me to seek therapy.

I started therapy to stop the nightmares but before long I had spilled my guts about my sexual escapades. With the help of the psychiatrist and the Holy Spirit I was able to begin the healing and deliverance from my childhood sexual abuse.

It turned out I had repressed much of the detail of what happened to me as a child. Over a time, together with prayer and fasting, I began to hear from the Holy Spirit about how to proceed and get my healing.

I have been writing the manuscript for Don’t Say a Word about This! for over ten years. During that time many obstacles attempted to sidetrack me. One of those was how my brother, who physically raped me when I was 4, attempted to financially rape me 50 years later.

My father died a few years ago. After he passed, my brother sued several of the businesses that had cared for my father, alleging neglectful service. In order to retain the bulk of the award money, he and my half-sister told these businesses that I had died. By the grace of God I have been able to forgive my brother for both rapes.