Tuesday, November 06, 2007
 
Gravy Train Turf Battle
A senior Congressman sees fit to inject his office into oversight of televangelism:
    The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the financial dealings of six TV evangelists, including Joyce Meyer, the popular preacher who has built a $124-million-a-year empire headquartered in Fenton.

    On Monday, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Meyer to provide his staff with documents detailing the finances of the Joyce Meyer Ministries, including the religious group's compensation to Meyer, her husband and other family members, as well as an accounting of their housing allowances, gifts and credit card statements for the last several years.
Congress shall make no law doesn't say a thing about fishing expeditions into religious organizations, does it?

Update: James Joyner links to another article that describes other targets of the investigation and applies the adjective mundane.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:59 AM
Comments:
Since they get subsidized in the form of exemption from taxes and deductibility of contributions, it's wholly within the scope of Grassley's office to investigate this.
# posted by Blogger tm : Tuesday, November 06, 2007 8:25:00 PM
 


Right, not paying taxes=government subsidy.

He loved Big Brother!
# posted by Blogger Brian J. : Tuesday, November 06, 2007 8:47:00 PM
 


Let me put it differently, then: they get a benefit that they otherwise would not but for a very specific statutory exception.

Either way, your First Amendment defense of corrupt televangelists, while weirdly touching, holds no water.
# posted by Blogger tm : Wednesday, November 07, 2007 7:46:00 AM
 


I believe jpe is making a wide-ranged assumption that all televangelists are corrupt. Stereotypical, I'm thinking. Do you also believe that everyone and anyone named Abdul is a terrorist or that all girls named Dawn are cheap trailor trash? What a sad day this is. Stereotyping strikes again.
# posted by Blogger Deb : Thursday, November 08, 2007 2:32:00 PM
 


So, ah, since I'm more heavily taxed than the average American, does the federal government therefore have less jurisdiction over me?
# posted by Blogger gimlet : Thursday, November 08, 2007 9:39:00 PM
 


An investigation is not prosecution or persecution. The problem here, is that it should be the IRS performing the investigation since they are granting the exemption. They absolutely have a right to make certain that citizens are abiding by taxation laws. Even private citizens can be audited, and audits can legally be random or targeted. If a religious organization is operation outside the boundaries of tax-exempt regulations, I'd be throwing a fit myself. If it was illegal to investigate them, how would you ever know?
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : Friday, November 16, 2007 4:30:00 PM
 


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