There is a stately, gigantic and strikingly white building that greets all Orange County residents driving to and from Los Angeles.
This West Coast White House of sorts is lit year-round with a cornucopia of Christmas lights, beckoning the weary freeway travelers to “Praise Jesus!” and “Celebrate Christ!”
The building is the world headquarters of Trinity Broadcasting Network, a televangelist conglomerate that broadcasts its shows across the globe.
It is, in other words, a symbol of an ever-growing market of commercialized faith ““ one that has at once benefited from and abused its tax-exempt status and its followers’ trust and money.
A recent Senate probe (introduced just a few days ago) rightfully seeks to examine and expose the conflict between the purpose of the federal tax exemption for religious organizations and the financial practices of six television ministries.
The numbers justify the concern; donations from the faithful apparently funded 23,000 marble toilets and $20 million planes.
Among the pastors named in the inquiry were Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar, who both preach through self-named ministries in the South (Texas and Georgia, respectively). Both men used donations to purchase jets, which they apparently see as essential to their jobs.
Dollar went so far as to tell ABC News “Like a carpenter has to have a hammer, I’ve got to have a plane to fly around the world.”
Copeland also made a similarly foolish claim. He mandated that the plane “will never, ever be used for anything other than what is becoming to you, Lord Jesus.”
Apparently his never-evers do not pertain to his trips to Maui, Honolulu and the Fiji Islands, trips that ABC News reported he took.
Dollar’s Web site praises him as “a much sought after conference speaker and best-selling author,” known for his “practical approach to the Bible.” It is not surprising that the word “best-selling” comes before the word “Bible” in his biography.
He is both pastor and chief executive officer of World Changers Church International, the parent company to four other for-profit groups: Arrow Records (of which his wife is CEO), Creflo Dollar Ministries, Creflo Dollar Ministerial Association and World Changers Church of New York.
Apparently, God’s work is to be done through mega-corporations, best-selling books, conference speeches and jet trips to exotic island locales.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dollar’s church also maintains (in sermons and books) that wealth and “a debt-free lifestyle” are signs of God’s favor.
Considering Dollar’s church took in $69 million in 2006, someone (God or not) must be on his side.
Sen.Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, initiated the probe when he grew tired of hearing of the Rolls Royce and marble-commode lifestyles of these supposed clerics.
While Dollar hesitantly voiced his concerns over whether Grassley was muddying the waters between religion and government, it was Bishop Eddie Long ““ another leader of the six churches facing inquiry ““ who openly called the attack “unjust, intrusive” and “an attack on (American) religious freedom.”
It is somewhat ironic, then, that Long does not mind the federal tax-exemption his church has thus far enjoyed.
Apparently, Long and Dollar and the other pastors and megachurch CEOs do not see their government-granted tax exemptions as evidence of American respect for faith, nor do they see them as government involvement in America’s religious discourse.
They are not alone in their delusions of God-given wealth.
After all, the Catholic Church may well be among the richest corporations in the entire world, with assets reaching far into the billion-dollar range.
Today, religion is surely intertwined with monetary gain. To say that faith is safe from the stain of avarice or that churches care little for luxury is to speak in ignorance of the massive wealth obtained by the likes of Dollar, Long, Copeland and perhaps even the Pope.
The government must thus ensure that its tax exemptions are given only to those churches that shun lives of gross excess and avoid corporation mentalities.
E-mail Makarechi at kmakarechi@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.