The letters sent to at least five televangelists by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa-R), ranking member and former chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, were pretty strong medicine from, as his website claims, a Republican farmer and “Baptist Church†member (the exact denominational affiliation is not stated). Sen. Grassley, though he claims to be a consumer advocate, is more of a business advocate. He “reformed†bankruptcy, i.e., made it more difficult for those crushed by debt, regardless of fault, to get a fresh start, and he “reformed†class action lawsuits so that corporate America might litigate less about its accounting practices and its claims about its financial performance in order to influence investors. In both cases, Sen. Grassley thought federal judges, state judges and jurors were not capable of managing and balancing these types of matters.
While I’m certainly not a fan of many televangelists, and while I’m in favor of transparency in charitable and tax-exempt organization accounting, I am concerned about how far this will go. While I am not an adherent of Word of Faith doctrine, as are the ministers and ministries targeted by Grassley, and while I certainly agree that any ministry that misuses donated money should face consequences, I am hesitant to agree that the federal government should be the policing agency.
Our protections under the 1st Amendment seem to be dwindling. The separation of church and state seems headed toward oppression of religious organizations and people by government’s attempt to remain separate. Then, abruptly, the government crosses the chasm of separateness and bludgeons some ministries.
The letters to Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and “Pastor Benedictus Hinn†by Grassley demanding voluntary disclosures of numerous financial facts should be the templates used by the Christian media to demand that same information. But, in his role as a U.S. senator, Senator Grassley is crossing the chasm of separateness in an aggressive and provocative manner.
Admittedly, he feels he has to protect the donors who are trusting those ministries. Admittedly, use of the enormous power of the U.S. Senate, including its subpoena power, to gather this information from understandably reluctant persons, may be the only way the information will be obtained. Admittedly, he wants to prevent tax-exempt status from being used to shield what is really being stolen, or used as undeclared income. Nevertheless, these very important goals are insignificant compared to the importance of separation of church and state.
Christian news media should be doing this job. It should have been done a long time ago, and it should be a mainstay of Christian news media to test the transparency of Christian charities and ministries. If donors have been abused, once alerted by the Christian news media, they can stop giving. Donors may even demand an accounting in class action lawsuits. If these televangelists are treating donations as income without paying income taxes, then the government has a legitimate reason to audit them, like any other taxpayer, and demand the money. In the final analysis, after the Christian news media has done its job, if donors want to continue to support these ministries, if they really are ministries and not scams, the separation of church and state should make that a private matter.
I wonder, too, if Sen. Grassley has not started a ball rolling. The Christian “right†seems so fragmented that it will be largely ineffectual in influencing next year’s elections. Indeed, as a result, won’t the Christian right retreat from government to avoid, if not Sen. Grassley, then governmental audits and restrictions potentially arising from his inquiries? Will that cascade into a deepening swell of support for the seemingly inevitable Clinton Administration? Wouldn’t the next Clinton Administration institutionalize Grassley’s senatorial “audit†of religious organizations to further drive them underground and further reduce their influence? Would the eventual trend be that tax-exempt status would be ultimately unavailable to churches and ministries?
