Word: gospels
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Senator Chick Grassley's investigation of multimillion-dollar ministries does raise First Amendment issues, but they're easy to deal with [Nov. 26]. While the government can't investigate whether Prosperity gospel is good theology, it must act upon probable cause if it believes that commercial activity is being conducted under the guise of religion. Otherwise, Ford Motor Co. could simply rename itself the Church of Our Ford and decline to pay taxes and comply with the Fair Labor Standards...
Copeland wasn't Grassley's only pen pal. He also wrote to the Revs. Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer and Paula White, in total six televangelists who are part of an evangelical subculture known loosely as Prosperity gospel. "Recent news reports regarding the possible misuse of donations made to religious organizations" prompted the probe, Grassley wrote. The ministers' responses are technically voluntary, but the Senator has asked for them in a month and has mused that the replies could lead to testimony under oath. If so, Grassley could end up wiping out what some consider a kleptocracy...
Grassley rejects the criticism. "We're not looking at doctrine. I don't know much about the words Prosperity gospel," he says. But he acknowledges that religious-freedom concerns may make an investigation a "little more difficult to defend." Fellow Senators--"I won't give their names"--have asked what they should tell the preachers. Says Grassley: "My answer was, 'Tell them to do what all the other nonprofits do--answer my letter.'" And hope for a different kind of grace...
That sentiment will find resonance among those Evangelical Christians who worry that Grassley's pursuit of the six preachers, who all belong to a faction of Charismatic Christianity known loosely as "prosperity gospel," amounts to what one observer called a "saint hunt." It will not play as well with others who have grown increasingly frustrated at the opulent lifestyles of the televangelists. In any case, maintaining a friend's innocence allows Huckabee to continue to access a part of the media important to Republican hopefuls. Charisma's editor, J. Lee Grady, was slightly amused that anyone would think Copeland would...
...Romney apostles understand that any successful G.O.P. nominee will have to unite all the ornery wings of the party. With that in mind, they cite not only Romney's strong family values and faithful recitation of the conservative gospel - no new taxes, no gay marriage, no abortion. But also, in an appeal to the business and technocrat wings of the party, they point to his record as founder and CEO of Bain Capital, his management of the Salt Lake City Olympics and track record as a turnaround artist. "That kind of experience," DeMoss wrote, "convinces me Mitt Romney could lead...