January 8, 2004 | Read Time: 2 minutes
A Christian watchdog group has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate seven preachers who give televised sermons and to consider revoking the tax-exempt status of the churches where the ministers work.
Wall Watchers, a group in Matthews, N.C., that evaluates Christian charities, says it is concerned that too much of the money raised by the televangelists is being spent for their own benefit, allowing them to enjoy luxurious lifestyles paid for by donors. News reports about several of the preachers have shown them living extravagantly, Wall Watchers says. The group questions whether the preachers are in violation of federal laws that require compensation for officials to be “reasonable.”
Wall Watchers also noted that several of the churches have refused to publicly disclose how their donations are being spent, making it difficult to figure out how much is going to charity. Houses of worship do not have to file informational tax returns as charitable organizations do. Wall Watchers suggests the IRS could withdraw the “church” designation from the groups, forcing them to disclose their finances.
“The IRS has a duty to investigate these groups in order to protect well-intentioned donors from being taken advantage of,” says Rusty Leonard, founder of Wall Watchers. If problems are discovered, “the IRS should retract the church tax-exempt status that many of these groups currently enjoy,” he says.
Taking such a step, however, would be extremely difficult for the IRS because of constitutional requirements that church and state be kept separate, tax experts say.
The IRS is barred by law from disclosing whether it is pursuing any of the churches named by Wall Watchers.
One of them — Life in the Word, an organization in Fenton, Mo., led by Joyce Meyer — released an audited financial statement after Wall Watchers raised its complaint. Ms. Meyer says she scrupulously follows all federal laws.
Wall Watchers has since questioned some of the figures her church released. “Donors might well ask why Joyce Meyer needs a 10,000-square-foot ‘parsonage’ with a heated and air-conditioned eight-car garage, or why ministry money is used to pay the property taxes for this house and the houses of family members, together worth over $4-million,” Mr. Leonard says. “Might not some of this money have been better spent on teaching the Gospel, feeding the poor, clothing the naked, or ministering to prisoners?”
Ms. Meyer says there’s nothing wrong with the ministry-owned homes, which are parsonages for the church, and notes that the head of the Roman Catholic Church lives in the Vatican in Vatican City, a palace of more than 1,000 rooms that holds priceless art and historical documents.
