Ministry Watchdog Calls for TBN to Submit to Investigation
by Allie Martin and Jody Brown
October 5, 2004
(AgapePress) - A North Carolina group that monitors the finances of more than 500 Christian nonprofits is calling for the founders of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) to step aside while a panel of Christian leaders investigates its finances.MinistryWatch.com, a division of Wall Watchers, has issued a "Donor Alert" (PDF) regarding TBN. The alert asking donors to consider withholding contributions to TBN comes on the heels of a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times focusing on the network's finances and the luxurious lifestyles of TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch. According to those articles, the Crouches receive combined annual salaries of more than $750,000 ("considerably higher than the average for executive pay for nonprofits," MinistryWatch says), and the ministry holds more than $230 million in U.S. Treasury bonds and more than $30 million in cash reserves.
Michael Barrick with MinistryWatch wonders why the network continues to solicit donations. "TBN presently has cash in short-term investments and long-term investments of about $280 million dollars, yet [they] continue to ask for more money?" he asks.
A TBN press statement, dated September 22, 2004, explains that "because the nature and demands of [the network's] growth create large capital and long-term contract cost demands, extensive cash reserves must be maintained."
Still, Barrick suggests the Crouches should step aside as leaders of TBN until an impartial panel of Christian leaders investigates the ministry. "TBN regularly asks its viewers to step out in faith and make donations larger than they feel able to do because the Lord will ultimately provide for the donors' needs," he notes. "Yet it seems odd that TBN itself is so lacking in a similar faith."
Colby May, an attorney for TBN, says the ministry is transparent when it comes to finances. "The Trinity Broadcasting Network operates publicly. It has always operated publicly for the more than 32 years of its existence," he says.
Allegations of financial mismanagement, the attorney says, are false and misleading. "It has open and public state charitable registrations in each of the 50 states," May states. "It undergoes annual financial and operational audits."
May also points out that a business reporter for the LA Times investigated TBN and said the ministry "ran a tight ship." He says that was not reported in the recent series of articles in the newspaper, whose reporting he has described as "selective and subjective" and whose publisher he says "has its own agenda."
MinistryWatch counters May's statements (PDF), reporting that TBN "refuses to release consolidated audited financial statements," thereby "making it impossible for MinistryWatch to fully and accurately analyze the financial operations of TBN on behalf of donors." It also says questions regarding the "extravagant lifestyle" of Paul and Jan Crouch "remain unanswered."
TBN is watched by more than five million households in the U.S. alone each week. That is more viewers than its three main competitors combined.
