However, like Larry, he found no-one willing to talk. So he took it to a Christian broadcasting association - but it didn't want to get involved. Then he approached local district attorneys, who explained that many preachers were protected by the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of religion and free speech , so there was nothing they could do. So he turned back to the media, this time major networks and publications, which said investigations would be too time-consuming.
Ole was faced with a multibillion-dollar industry built, as he saw it, on exploiting the poor - and it was completely untouchable.
And this is how a community church became an investigations office. The Trinity Foundation felt compelled to tackle the prosperity preachers because no-one else would. It is hard to imagine brawls at the foundation these days. Most of its members are at retirement age - Ole himself is 80, and in failing health - and the operation has moved from its "fleabag" office to two adjacent houses in a sleepy part of east Dallas.
On one side is the gentrifying Junius Heights neighbourhood, on the other rows of slightly run-down bungalows. Every day there is an early-morning Bible study session, a group dinner at 5pm, and more theology in the evening, including prayers with guitar-led hymns. The mixed bunch of devotees now includes a Mexican economist and a veteran of Desert Storm. Their semi-communal way of living has led to allegations that they are a cult, but he dismisses this as nonsense.
Ole's dogged work has steered the foundation into an unusual niche, forming a bridge between the Christian world and the media. Though journalists originally pushed him away, they later found his foundation could provide the springboard for their investigations. Gradually it morphed into a watchdog, maintaining detailed files on wealthy evangelists.
Over the years, they have gained a reputation for their gung-ho approach - diving into dumpsters outside ministry offices, in search of potentially incriminating paperwork, and going undercover. Collaborating with ABC News in the early s, Ole posed as a small-scale pastor trying to learn how big-money ministries work. Accompanied by a producer with hidden cameras, he went to a mailing company working for televangelist Robert Tilton and was told how posting gimmicky gifts to potential donors had boosted returns.
It was a well-known technique - sending things such as "vial of holy water" or even dollar bills to prompt people to send a financial gift back - but it was rare to hear someone admitting it. When the TV reports aired on Diane Sawyer's Primetime Live show in , Tilton denied wrongdoing and attempted to sue the network - but he failed and his TV shows were eventually cancelled.
Today, the Tilton ministry is still active but on a much smaller scale. A couple of years later, the Federal Communications Commission reportedly came close to introducing a "truth-in-advertising" clause for religious solicitations. This would have meant that any claims of boosting finances or curing disease would have to be verifiable, and Ole took various trips to Washington to lobby for it.
Ultimately the idea was dropped, which Ole puts down to the fact that the Republicans won the House of Representatives in , with the help of votes from the religious right. He doesn't think much will ever change, but asked if this makes him frustrated or angry, he laughs. That is all there is in this world, injustice.
Pete Evans - a bespectacled believer with a gentle, apologetic manner - is now the foundation's lead investigator. One of his specialities is tracking the movements of private jets, aiming to discover when pastors are using them recreationally, instead of for church business.
Pete took Larry's first phone call. He remembers being moved by it, and starting a crowdfunding page for him. Pete says that just over a decade ago there was great excitement within the foundation, when the US Senate's Finance Committee began to question whether evangelists were taking advantage of their tax-exempt status to break Internal Revenue Service IRS guidelines. While other tax-exempt organisations - notably charities - must at least fill in a basic form, known as the , churches don't have to.
This means they are not required to detail their top employees' earnings or list how much is spent on philanthropic projects. Their inner workings can be entirely unknown. But in the Senate committee appeared to think that some ministries were abusing this privilege and violating an IRS rule that church earnings may not "unreasonably benefit" an individual. The Trinity Foundation shared all its research with the committee, and attended meetings with its officials.
All six denied wrongdoing. Four failed to co-operate satisfactorily, according to the committee White, Copeland, Dollar and Long. Larry had donated to three of them. Yet by , the investigation had lost steam.
Senator Grassley drew no specific conclusions. Instead he asked an evangelical group - the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability ECFA - to study ways to spur "self-reform" among ministries.
He believes the economic crash played a part; the financial world suddenly had much bigger issues to deal with. After years of hanging on, it felt like they just punted the ball. In , it told Senator Grassley that filing full tax returns would be an "intrusion on the most intimate recesses of church administration".
The Senate committee has shown no sign of taking up the subject again, and no government agency has taken a strong interest in it.
Paid-for television channels also fall outside the remit of the national regulator, the Federal Communications Commission - unlike in the UK, where Ofcom might step in. But, although it is rare, sometimes a pastor does come within the IRS's sights.
In , one of Todd Coontz's neighbours called a local TV channel to complain that he was taking up too many spaces in the car park outside his luxury South Carolina apartment block. And that's when we got interested. The channel got in touch with the Trinity Foundation, which provided background on Coontz and the prosperity gospel.
The foundation also shared recordings of his TV appearances - it keeps an archive of televangelist broadcasts, taking notes on the programmes to monitor new techniques.
They might have medical condition or be unemployed. When WSOC-TV's report on Coontz aired, it went far beyond the parking dispute, detailing his personal wealth and casting doubt on the legitimacy of his fundraising tactics. Todd Coontz is not in the same league as some of the other prosperity preachers. He does not have a megachurch, a private airfield or even his own jet.
He preaches at other people's live events, rather than holding them under his own name. But his lifestyle is certainly opulent. He has posted photos on Facebook of his stays in hotel rooms overlooking Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. He has spent tens of thousands on jewellery and diamonds. He also has, or at least had, a fleet of luxury cars, including three BMWs, two Ferraris, a Maserati and a Land Rover, plus a speed boat.
Meanwhile, he has continued to target his operations at those on the breadline. This is far greater that the average salary of a preacher.
The U. The total amount of compensation can be made up of many components, including numerous allowances. To assist with housing, most churches provide a home that is paid for by the church or a specified monthly allowance to be spent on housing expenses.
Allowances for travel and personal expenses commonly are found in pastoral contracts. A preacher's income also is made up of personalized gifts from their congregation. Church members take a personal responsibility for the well-being of their church leaders. Many of them give monetary gifts to their preachers as a token of their appreciation for spiritual leadership.
Gifts are given in a lump sum from the entire congregation or in small increments from individual church members. Preachers often receive monetary gifts after the performance of weddings or funerals at their church. Though the funds are given as gifts, they are considered income and the preacher must report it as such for the tax year.
This was the decision of the members of the church before it closed. Brother, I have a question an concern, my husband an I are a ministry, We are evangelist. We knew there was something wrong when the senior pastor would come in with out notice, an after the associate pastor had prayerfully prepared the message he felt the lord gave him for the service. Only to tell the now doubled in size in attendance , what he had been doing an wanted them to give for his traveling an when questioned about the account from the new board whom he had himself had asked to be on, He became angry an with ugly text an calls intimidating messages to my son, became evident there was something wrong, an he approached the leader of another department to pay for the room of an evangelist he invited , the other department leader was in the middle of a three day yard sale to start an addiction support group to see addiction in the local community find hope.
An when one of the leaders offered to pay for the room to allow the out reach to keep what they had made there was another episode of anger. An when we move to the new facility he had taken two months of checks written to the denomination we rented the building from but they had given the church a covid relief an he pocketed the money an told us he had to keep the 2 months of rent in the old account in order for there checks to clear an we needed to start a new account without his name on it an we would still have to pay out the remaining rental agreement on that building an pay on the new facility as well an he caused a split in the church an we lost a lot of young Christians.
An being unsure how to handle the situation, not wanting to destroy the man or anyone else , My son told the board to not spread around what the pastor had done. What is our rights.
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