Televangelist Kenneth Copeland's request for an IRS audit is being called a "clever and deceptive" move. Ministry watchdog Warren Smith also believes the request is designed to distract from a Senate investigation into alleged financial misconduct by Copeland's prosperity gospel ministries.
For the past few months, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has been asking for financial records from six televangelist ministries that have allegedly been using supporters' donations to fund lavish lifestyles. But one of the six -- Kenneth Copeland Ministries -- has refused to cooperate with the Senate Finance Committee probe because Copeland claims it threatens the First Amendment rights of his non-profit ministry. Copeland's church announced earlier this month that it would instead request a confidential IRS investigation into the ministry's financial integrity. However, Warren Smith of MinistryWatch.com notes that any information Copeland discloses to the IRS does not have to be released to the public -- and he argues that Copeland needs to be more transparent with the public and his donors. "By requesting an IRS audit, he's avoiding this openness to the public that we believe all Christian ministries should voluntarily submit to," Smith maintains. "Number two, when the IRS does an investigation of you, you basically get a 'get out of jail' card free for the next five years." Smith clarifies that when the IRS conducts such an investigation, it will not do another for at least five years. And he believes Copeland is hoping to drag out a confidential IRS probe for several years and that people will forget about Senator Grassley's call for accountability. MinistryWatch.com founder Rusty Leonard warns that if Copeland continues to be non-compliant with Grassley, the Iowa Republican could issue subpoenas. He adds that Copeland's non-compliance could undermine "the reputations of the many ministries that do voluntarily inform their donors and others of their financial activities." "Copeland doesn't want the public or his donors to see what he's been doing -- and that's alarming," Leonard tells The Charlotte World. "It screams that he is hiding something from KCM donors and the public." Copeland, he adds, should "come clean." Four of the ministries initially contacted by Grassley -- Joyce Meyer Ministries, Eddie Long, Paula and Randy White, and Benny Hinn -- are either in substantial compliance with the requests or have taken significant steps toward compliance, says the senator's office. But Leonard calls Creflo Dollar Ministries' absence of even an attempt at compliance "a true slap in the face" of both the Senate Finance Committee and that ministry's donors.
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