Love Way · @lovewayisbest
10th Jan 2011 from Twitlonger
ORAL ROBERTS COMMENTS ON ECFA
In 1987 Oral Roberts testified before Congress. His comments are included in the Memo to Grassley. This is an official Senate Finance Committee report.
From pages 27-28
It is telling that the witnesses at the 1987 Hearing representing religious organizations required to file information returns were uniformly supportive of the Form 990 filing requirement. Oral Roberts did not see self-policing by a voluntary accreditation agency like the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) as an adequate substitute to filing reports with the IRS.90 (Note that Oral Roberts University became an ECFA member in 2009). Asked whether his ministry was a member of ECFA, the Rev. Roberts responded:
We were invited to be a member of that … but we believed there was no teeth in it; and I think that has been proved by the PTL thing. Ours was so much stronger; our auditing procedures and our filing of the [Form] 990 every year…. We have a corps of auditors…. Anybody in the United States can get a copy of our [Form] 990 report at any time, by writing the IRS; it is available to the media, to everybody in America…. Why wouldn‘t all file a [Form] 990 – why? I have no objection at all. In fact, if it will help, if there is a loss of confidence, let us do something about it.
link to document:
http://finance.senate.gov/newsroom/ranking/download/?id=1f92d378-baa2-440d-9fbd-333cdc5d85fc
Televangelists Pass Senate Probe, But New Commission Formed
Friday, 07 January 2011 http://tinyurl.com/2fbjmn3
Sen. Church Grassley’s probe into high-profile television ministries may be over, but the ranking member of the Committee on Finance’s investigation has led to the formation of a new commission on accountability and policy issues for churches and other religious organizations.
Grassley reviewed the activities and practices of six media-based ministries—Joyce Meyer Ministries, Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Creflo Dollar Ministries, Bishop Eddie Long Ministries, Benny Hinn Ministries, and Paula White Ministries—and found no wrongdoing.
One of the six ministries, Joyce Meyer Ministries, responded fully to Grassley’s inquiry and joined the ECFA in March 2009. Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church also provided complete answers to all questions. Four ministries either did not provide any information or provided incomplete information, according to the Senator’s office.
“The tax-exempt sector is so big that from time to time, certain practices draw public concern,” Grassley says. “My goal is to help improve accountability and good governance so tax-exempt groups maintain public confidence in their operations.”
Grassley then asked the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) to lead an independent, national effort to review and provide input on major accountability and policy issues affecting such organizations. The ECFA created the Commission on Accountability and Policy for Religious Organizations in response.
The commission aims to address some of the most challenging tax and policy issues involving religious organizations, such as whether churches should file the same highly-detailed annual information return that other nonprofits must file (Form 990); whether legislation is needed to curb abuses of the clergy housing allowance exclusion; whether the current prohibition against political campaign intervention by churches and other nonprofits should be repealed or modified; and whether legislation is needed to clarify tax rules covering "love offerings" received by some clergy.
"ECFA is honored and humbled to be asked by Senator Grassley to lead the independent effort to obtain input from the religious and nonprofit community on these issues," says Michael Batts, a CPA with extensive experience in board governance, financial reporting and tax compliance issues for nonprofit organizations. Batts been appointed by ECFA's board to chair the commission.
"The conversation that will ensue in the coming months will focus on the significance of the issues raised by the senator's staff and effective ways to address them. It is our hope, as well as the senator's, that solutions will be found without the need for burdensome legislation that creates excessive entanglement between the church and the government. One obvious area that will be explored carefully is the concept of self-regulation."
Batts, who is also a managing shareholder of Batts Morrison Wales & Lee, PA, an Orlando-based accounting firm dedicated exclusively to serving nonprofit organizations and the former chair of the board of ECFA and is currently a member of ECFA's board and executive committee, says a variety of groups will be consulted in the work of the commission. The commission has not yet determined a timetable for the completion of its work.
http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/29938-televangelists-pass-senate-probe-but-new-commission-formed#ixzz1AZfMMpqS
The Evangelical Council Of Financial Accountability Is A Joke
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17662575/The-Evangelical-Council-Of-Financial-Accountability-Is-A-Joke
The Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability came into being due to the threats of Congressman Charles Wilson of Texas who had introduced a bill that would have required disclosure "at the point of solicitation unless the Fundamental Evangelical Evangelists would clean up their own house and police themselves.
For Southern Baptist Evangelist Billy Graham was embarrassed in 1977 when the Charlotte Observer discovered an undisclosed $23-million fund in Texas, apparently not mentioned in the accountings of the Minneapolis headquarters of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
As a result Graham's business manager led the formation of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability after Graham said on a national telecast, ". . . there are some charlatans coming along and the public ought to be informed about them and warned against them, " "stated K. Hadden and Charles E. Swann in their book Prime Time Preachers.
Jeffrey K. Hadden and Charles E. Swann in their book Prime Time Preachers: The Rising Power of Televangelism (1) stated:
In 1977 Senator Mark Hatfield informed a group of evangelical leaders that if they did not assume responsibility for regulating themselves there was every likelihood that legislation would be required. In fact, Congressman Charles Wilson of Texas had already introduced a bill that would have required disclosure "at the point of solicitation."
In December 1977 representatives of thirty-two evangelical groups met in Chicago to discuss cooperative efforts. Thomas Getman, chief legislative assistant to Senator Hatfield, told the group, "Legislation is not important; disclosure is." Getman encouraged "a voluntary disclosure program . . . that will preclude the necessity of federal intervention into the philanthropic and religious sector."
Almost two years later Dr. Stanley Mooneyham, president of World Vision, acknowledged, "There is no denying that this threat of governmental action was one of the stimuli'' that produced the December meeting and the subsequent activities which led to the founding of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
A tax exempt non profit organization and corporation, especially a religious one, is not like a private company which exists for profit? Its revenues come from the donations and gifts of ordinary individual some of whom have sacrificed to give to them. For this is what many Evangelical Evangelists have requested 'their sacrificial giving?"
Many Southern Baptists evangelists in America, such as Billy and Franklin Graham, belong to the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability that purports to work on behalf of the donor but in reality exists for the spenders. For although ECFA has in its possessions the total compensation of all the religious evangelical non-profit organizations that belong to it, it will not disclose them. Years ago I have requested such information from ECFA but to no avail.
Do your own homework on Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability which Billy Graham founded.
It is a fact that Fundamental Evangelical leaders in America, even those who belong to ECFA, never show their total compensation to their donors. They are not stupid. If they disclose anything is just your basic salary but not their personal income tax?
So to whom is the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability accountable to? To themselves? Definitely not to their donors or the public as seen by their own words!
For the ECFA has as its Mission Statement that it is committed to helping Christ-centered organizations earn the public's trust through developing and maintaining standards of accountability that convey God-honoring ethical practices.
Also Its donor bill of rights states that its responsibility to make sure your charity's standards and guidelines assure you of a "bill of rights" as a donor. You have the right to:
1. Know how the funds of an organization are being spent.
2. Know what the programs you support are accomplishing.
3. Know that the organization is in compliance with federal, state, and municipal laws.
4. Restrict or designate your gifts to a particular project.
5. A response to your inquiries about finances and programs.
6. Visit offices and program sites of an organization to talk personally with the staff.
Nothing in the donor's "bill of rights" talks about checking into illegal or unusual expenses or salaries? But ECFA states that it wants to earn the public's trust through developing and maintaining standards of accountability that convey God-honoring ethical practices.
A simple examination of ECFA seven standards of responsible stewardship shows that it gives nothing to the donor or the public to ensure that there is no hanky-panky other than their word. Unfortunately as shown by the BFA bankruptcy the word of Southern Baptists doesn't mean much!
An excellent way to determine responsible stewardship of any ministry that belongs to ECFA is to see the personal income tax of the chairmen of each of the nonprofit organizations who belong to ECFA. One can easily see if an individual is profiting from their own indirectly owned non-profit religious organization?
Why is it important to know the salaries of religious leaders? The downfall of Evangelist Rex Humbard says why.
From its modest $65 beginning, the Rex Humbard Ministry was now worth millions. And was all paid for by private contributions. Still, like those of many of his fellow television colleagues, Rex's ministry appeared ever on the brink of bankruptcy. On his April 13, 1980, broadcast he made an impassioned plea for immediate cash contributions needed to stave off disaster. The program was $2.5 million behind in its obligations, and Humbard was running an average of four months behind in payments to stations for TV time.
Humbard's appeals brought in $4 million and wiped out the debt. About the same time, a Cleveland Press writer discovered that Rex and two of his sons, who work with him on the television ministry, had purchased a home and condominiums in Florida valued at $650,000 with down payments of $177,500 in cash.
A lot of people have long believed that preachers, especially the evangelical variety, have their hands in the offering plate. In light of this belief, the timing of Humbard's corporate debt and personal investment certainly didn't make him look very good. And he didn't help his own cause any when he told the prying Press reporter, "My people don't give a hoot what I spend that money for
But people do give a hoot how much money their favorite minister steals and that is why ministers especially prominent ones hide their salaries. As a result of Rex Humbard's thievery his ministry folded because people and even God does not like crooks in the House of God.
AND RICK JOYNER SUPPORTER OF TODD BENTLEY IS A FALSE PROPHET WHO HAS RUN OUT OF MONEY BECAUSE HIS WEALTH TRANSFER THEOLOGY IS DEMONIC
MorningStar Hosts Kingdom Economic Summit
www.charismamag.com
Mobilizing God’s Marketplace Army. That’s the theme of the 4th Annual Kingdom Economic Yearly Summit, also known as KEYS.Eighty speakers and presenters will offer marketplace strategies and insights in general sessions, breakouts, workshops and roundtables
Walter Kambulow
http://tinyurl.com/2b7at7k
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Third Wave Dangerous, Deceptive And Demonic http://tinyurl.com/288apq7
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMAVPXPx6H8
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http://tinyurl.com/2eyec74
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Solution financial problems http://tl.gd/634hr1
THE DEVIL’S CHANNEL http://tl.gd/7m0b7b
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CONTROLLING MEGA PASTORS http://tl.gd/6p6hi3
Todd’s Lies http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/26/index-to-all-articles-on-todd-bentley-lakeland-outpouring-florida-revival/
BROWNSVILLE DEMONIC REVIVAL http://www.rickross.com/groups/brownsville.html