Title: Defiant Texas televangelist further scrutinized am
Description: Copeland defies basic laws of God
Description: Copeland defies basic laws of God
al001 - February 2, 2008 10:52 PM (GMT)
One of North Texas most unscrupulous, greedy and self-serving televangelist, Kenneth Copeland, is using his ministry to raise money for Huckabee, build his own mega million dollar empire and claiming it is God’s work when in fact it is all for Copeland. He has said he would go to prison before obeying a congressional order to turn over his records. Well it’s time the IRS revoked Copeland’s tax free status, It’s time Congress took control of all of his assets and allowed him his wish…prison time. Several years in a small cell with a 280 pound brut that hasn’t seen a woman in ten years may cause Copeland to realize that the God he was speaking to was his own greedy nature and not God, who has never spoken to him.
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/448608.html
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Defiant Texas televangelist further scrutinized amid GOP fundraising
BY ANNA M. TINSLEY
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
North Texas televangelist Kenneth Copeland remains defiant in refusing to cooperate with a U.S. senator's request for information about his finances, and despite the controversy he continues having a prominent role in helping raise funds for Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee.
Copeland, whose ministry is based in Newark, northwest of Fort Worth near Eagle Mountain Lake, is one of six televangelists receiving inquiries from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, about their finances and their compliance with tax laws.
Copeland has said he won't be turning over any documents anytime soon, because they belong to God.
"It's not yours, it's God's, and you're not going to get it, and that's something I'll go to prison over," Copeland said during a Jan. 22 closed-circuit broadcast of a ministers conference in North Texas that was first reported by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. "So, just get over it!"
A spokeswoman for Grassley said that the senator is not pleased with the response and that new letters for information could be sent any day.
"A dialogue is ongoing with the ministries to get responses," Jill Kozeny said. "We have let Copeland's attorneys know the response from the ministry falls short of answering the questions ... regarding the tax-exempt policy."
Supporting Huckabee
Copeland held a fundraiser last month for his friend Huckabee, the Fort Worth-trained preacher and former Arkansas governor, during the national ministers gathering at Kenneth Copeland Ministries.
The event pumped more than $100,000 into Huckabee's campaign and generated nearly $1 million more in pledges, according to the Trinity Foundation, a group that monitors televangelists. Trinity has posted a video of Copeland's remarks online.
As the scrutiny from Grassley began generating headlines last fall, Copeland told the ministers at the gathering that he called Huckabee and offered to cut ties with him for the sake of Huckabee's presidential campaign.
"He [Huckabee] hollered at me on the phone. He said, 'Are you kidding me? Why should I stand with them and not stand with you?'" the video shows Copeland telling the ministers gathering. "They've [members of Congress] only got an 11 percent approval rating.' Then he said, 'Kenneth Copeland, I will stand with you.'"
Huckabee, who is courting evangelicals' votes, won the Iowa caucus but has not placed higher than second in other Republican contests.
The investigation
Copeland and five other prominent televangelists were asked for information about their finances late last year.
After reports about televangelists' lavish lifestyles, Grassley said he wants to make sure they and their multimillion-dollar operations are following tax laws. So he has asked for everything from hotel bills to loan information.
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/448608.html
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Defiant Texas televangelist further scrutinized amid GOP fundraising
BY ANNA M. TINSLEY
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
North Texas televangelist Kenneth Copeland remains defiant in refusing to cooperate with a U.S. senator's request for information about his finances, and despite the controversy he continues having a prominent role in helping raise funds for Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee.
Copeland, whose ministry is based in Newark, northwest of Fort Worth near Eagle Mountain Lake, is one of six televangelists receiving inquiries from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, about their finances and their compliance with tax laws.
Copeland has said he won't be turning over any documents anytime soon, because they belong to God.
"It's not yours, it's God's, and you're not going to get it, and that's something I'll go to prison over," Copeland said during a Jan. 22 closed-circuit broadcast of a ministers conference in North Texas that was first reported by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. "So, just get over it!"
A spokeswoman for Grassley said that the senator is not pleased with the response and that new letters for information could be sent any day.
"A dialogue is ongoing with the ministries to get responses," Jill Kozeny said. "We have let Copeland's attorneys know the response from the ministry falls short of answering the questions ... regarding the tax-exempt policy."
Supporting Huckabee
Copeland held a fundraiser last month for his friend Huckabee, the Fort Worth-trained preacher and former Arkansas governor, during the national ministers gathering at Kenneth Copeland Ministries.
The event pumped more than $100,000 into Huckabee's campaign and generated nearly $1 million more in pledges, according to the Trinity Foundation, a group that monitors televangelists. Trinity has posted a video of Copeland's remarks online.
As the scrutiny from Grassley began generating headlines last fall, Copeland told the ministers at the gathering that he called Huckabee and offered to cut ties with him for the sake of Huckabee's presidential campaign.
"He [Huckabee] hollered at me on the phone. He said, 'Are you kidding me? Why should I stand with them and not stand with you?'" the video shows Copeland telling the ministers gathering. "They've [members of Congress] only got an 11 percent approval rating.' Then he said, 'Kenneth Copeland, I will stand with you.'"
Huckabee, who is courting evangelicals' votes, won the Iowa caucus but has not placed higher than second in other Republican contests.
The investigation
Copeland and five other prominent televangelists were asked for information about their finances late last year.
After reports about televangelists' lavish lifestyles, Grassley said he wants to make sure they and their multimillion-dollar operations are following tax laws. So he has asked for everything from hotel bills to loan information.
oleblueraider - February 3, 2008 07:53 AM (GMT)
Ya know, I take my grandson to Church around hear cause I know how important it is to him socially! Ya gotta know one of the first questions you are asked when you try and make him friends with better folks who can help his life in the future is "what church do ya go to?" You had better have a quick answer like it is taken for granted, etc!
However, they scare me to death!
I don't buy any of it! It seems more and more it is just another elite club to just socialize. My mega church that is not as dogmatic just is also a ticket machine????
Tickets to this group, this meeting, this event, etc! Just $25 for this and $15 a tix for that and on and on.
I have begin to realize as I read how many NEW churches intend to open in just this area alone that---well it must pay good to be a minister to X amount of people?
There is much more money in it as long as you also like the social aspect of it than I ever thought about before?
Plastic used to be a word to describe a lot of it?
But Don't ask me to say that in public. Yeah, hypocrit, you bet, but I will crawl through the real crap to advance that grandson and it appears I will have to do just that!!! :good: :tongue:
However, they scare me to death!
I don't buy any of it! It seems more and more it is just another elite club to just socialize. My mega church that is not as dogmatic just is also a ticket machine????
Tickets to this group, this meeting, this event, etc! Just $25 for this and $15 a tix for that and on and on.
I have begin to realize as I read how many NEW churches intend to open in just this area alone that---well it must pay good to be a minister to X amount of people?
There is much more money in it as long as you also like the social aspect of it than I ever thought about before?
Plastic used to be a word to describe a lot of it?
But Don't ask me to say that in public. Yeah, hypocrit, you bet, but I will crawl through the real crap to advance that grandson and it appears I will have to do just that!!! :good: :tongue:
Wayne in WA State - February 3, 2008 08:13 AM (GMT)
Hey Blueraider!
For your grandson, you gotta do what you gotta do..
But, you remind me how glad I am to live in the "unchurced Northwest" :coolwink:
Go West, Ye Unchurched - Washington state has lowest number of churchgoers - Brief Article
Insight on the News, Feb 15, 1999 by Julia Duin
Recent research confirms an adage coined by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: `The Pacific Northwest may be God's country, but no region in the nation is less religious.'
It's official: Washington state is the country's leading bastion of the unchurched, according to a recent survey. In a massive sampling of 19,761 adults 18 and older during a six-year period, a pollster found that 29 percent of the Evergreen State's populace attend a worship service in a typical week -- compared with Louisiana, which has a 56 percent weekly attendance, the country's highest.
"It's always been the Northwest that's been the lowest in church-going," says George Gallup. "It may be the ethos of the state."
The poll defined the "unchurched" as those who are not members of a religion or have not attended services in the previous six months except for religious holidays, weddings or funerals. Forty-four percent of America's population falls into this category. The West Coast and New England both hover at 31 percent church or synagogue attendance.
Generally, the unchurched most likely are men younger than 30 living in the West, single or married to a spouse with a different religious background. This profile resembles a frontier archetype: the self-made young man who, like Horatio Alger, heads west to make his fortune.
"Life is good and challenging for them," Gallup says. "Their health is vibrant, and they don't see any need for God. Most people come to a stronger belief in God after going through valleys."
John Boonstra, executive minister of the 1,700-member Washington Association of Churches, says it's all a matter of regional culture. Congregations in the Pacific Northwest tend to be quite small, with most congregations numbering less than 1,000.
"As regions go, we have an extremely high percentage of nonchurched people who'd call themselves `spiritual,'" he says. "People who act out of their convictions here do it from their own spirituality or faith commitment, but they're not necessarily going to church."
Washington state also has attracted political mavericks and freethinkers who have rejected ties to established institutions, according to Barry Kosmin and Seymour Lachman, authors of the 1993 book One Nation Under God. Major denominations, such as Catholics and Baptists, are weak in the region, while smaller denominations and independent churches are stronger. The state's largest church, the 4,800-member Overlake Christian in Redmond, just east of Seattle, is an independent congregation.
"Independent churches market something the community doesn't have," says the Rev. Matt Studer of the Calvary Church of Walla Walla, in southeastern Washington. "The further west churches came, the more they were able to be innovative. There is a pioneering spirit in the Northwest because spiritually it's an open territory. All the legislative initiatives -- euthanasia, medical use of marijuana, homosexual rights -- all of them were started out this way."
The Very Rev. Gerald Porter, priest in charge and acting dean at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, calls the local lack of religiosity "the ethos" of the Pacific Northwest. "There's a spirit of independence and entrepreneurship and freethinking that's unique here," he says. "They're much more interested in satisfying their own personal hopes and individualistic lifestyles. People are not tradition-bound or institution-bound. The Pacific Northwest doesn't have the history of institutions the East Coast does."
Plus, people like to spend their weekends exploring Washington's mountains, beaches and waterways. "The spiritual satisfactions from the scenery and nature outweigh church services, which lose out in the battle for people's limited leisure time," write authors Kosmin and Lachman.
Seattle's young and the unchurched do flock to one religious service: St. Mark's late Sunday evening Compline ceremony, a monastic liturgy. Lasting a half-hour and sung by a male choir, the ceremony has been a popular draw since the 1970s. The quasimystical setting: a semi-dark cathedral packed with 550 high-school and college-age youth all listening to sonorous chant ricocheting off the walls.
America's population continues to be overwhelmingly Christian and Jewish, notes Gallup. Despite recent figures from Muslim groups claiming huge rates of growth, his researchers found that Muslims, along with Buddhists and Hindus, number less than 1 percent of all Americans.
CHURCHGOING, BY STATE
SOUTH 46%
Southeast 45%
Florida 35%
North Carolina 47%
Georgia 50%
Virginia 41%
Tennessee 49%
Rest 49%
Southwest 48%
Texas 47%
Louisiana 56%
Rest 47%
WEST 32%
Rocky Mountain 36%
Pacific 31%
California 31%
Washington 29%
Oregon 32%
EAST 38%
New England 31%
New York 36%
Pennsylvania 43%
New Jersey 39%
Maryland 46%
Rest 40%
MIDWEST 43%
East Central 41%
Illinois 44%
Ohio 43%
Michigan 37%
Indiana 39%
West Central 45%
Wisconsin 45%
For your grandson, you gotta do what you gotta do..
But, you remind me how glad I am to live in the "unchurced Northwest" :coolwink:
Go West, Ye Unchurched - Washington state has lowest number of churchgoers - Brief Article
Insight on the News, Feb 15, 1999 by Julia Duin
Recent research confirms an adage coined by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: `The Pacific Northwest may be God's country, but no region in the nation is less religious.'
It's official: Washington state is the country's leading bastion of the unchurched, according to a recent survey. In a massive sampling of 19,761 adults 18 and older during a six-year period, a pollster found that 29 percent of the Evergreen State's populace attend a worship service in a typical week -- compared with Louisiana, which has a 56 percent weekly attendance, the country's highest.
"It's always been the Northwest that's been the lowest in church-going," says George Gallup. "It may be the ethos of the state."
The poll defined the "unchurched" as those who are not members of a religion or have not attended services in the previous six months except for religious holidays, weddings or funerals. Forty-four percent of America's population falls into this category. The West Coast and New England both hover at 31 percent church or synagogue attendance.
Generally, the unchurched most likely are men younger than 30 living in the West, single or married to a spouse with a different religious background. This profile resembles a frontier archetype: the self-made young man who, like Horatio Alger, heads west to make his fortune.
"Life is good and challenging for them," Gallup says. "Their health is vibrant, and they don't see any need for God. Most people come to a stronger belief in God after going through valleys."
John Boonstra, executive minister of the 1,700-member Washington Association of Churches, says it's all a matter of regional culture. Congregations in the Pacific Northwest tend to be quite small, with most congregations numbering less than 1,000.
"As regions go, we have an extremely high percentage of nonchurched people who'd call themselves `spiritual,'" he says. "People who act out of their convictions here do it from their own spirituality or faith commitment, but they're not necessarily going to church."
Washington state also has attracted political mavericks and freethinkers who have rejected ties to established institutions, according to Barry Kosmin and Seymour Lachman, authors of the 1993 book One Nation Under God. Major denominations, such as Catholics and Baptists, are weak in the region, while smaller denominations and independent churches are stronger. The state's largest church, the 4,800-member Overlake Christian in Redmond, just east of Seattle, is an independent congregation.
"Independent churches market something the community doesn't have," says the Rev. Matt Studer of the Calvary Church of Walla Walla, in southeastern Washington. "The further west churches came, the more they were able to be innovative. There is a pioneering spirit in the Northwest because spiritually it's an open territory. All the legislative initiatives -- euthanasia, medical use of marijuana, homosexual rights -- all of them were started out this way."
The Very Rev. Gerald Porter, priest in charge and acting dean at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, calls the local lack of religiosity "the ethos" of the Pacific Northwest. "There's a spirit of independence and entrepreneurship and freethinking that's unique here," he says. "They're much more interested in satisfying their own personal hopes and individualistic lifestyles. People are not tradition-bound or institution-bound. The Pacific Northwest doesn't have the history of institutions the East Coast does."
Plus, people like to spend their weekends exploring Washington's mountains, beaches and waterways. "The spiritual satisfactions from the scenery and nature outweigh church services, which lose out in the battle for people's limited leisure time," write authors Kosmin and Lachman.
Seattle's young and the unchurched do flock to one religious service: St. Mark's late Sunday evening Compline ceremony, a monastic liturgy. Lasting a half-hour and sung by a male choir, the ceremony has been a popular draw since the 1970s. The quasimystical setting: a semi-dark cathedral packed with 550 high-school and college-age youth all listening to sonorous chant ricocheting off the walls.
America's population continues to be overwhelmingly Christian and Jewish, notes Gallup. Despite recent figures from Muslim groups claiming huge rates of growth, his researchers found that Muslims, along with Buddhists and Hindus, number less than 1 percent of all Americans.
CHURCHGOING, BY STATE
SOUTH 46%
Southeast 45%
Florida 35%
North Carolina 47%
Georgia 50%
Virginia 41%
Tennessee 49%
Rest 49%
Southwest 48%
Texas 47%
Louisiana 56%
Rest 47%
WEST 32%
Rocky Mountain 36%
Pacific 31%
California 31%
Washington 29%
Oregon 32%
EAST 38%
New England 31%
New York 36%
Pennsylvania 43%
New Jersey 39%
Maryland 46%
Rest 40%
MIDWEST 43%
East Central 41%
Illinois 44%
Ohio 43%
Michigan 37%
Indiana 39%
West Central 45%
Wisconsin 45%
trueconservative - February 3, 2008 06:29 PM (GMT)
Actually, believe it or not, this is actually good news in a respect. Not Copeland's gold-mining mind you, but it shows just how disenchanted the Bible Belt is getting with the GOP. They want Mike Huckabee because he is a Christian first.
Many of them do not like Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon. They don't believe in Latter Day Saints because of The Book Of Revelations saying nothing can be added past the Bible including the Book Of Mormon, and The Pearl Of Great Price.
Many of them don't like Rudy Giulianni because of his stand on abortion.
Many don't like John McCaine because he is too much like Bush.
But instead of pushing them into holding their noses and voting GOP this November, we should encourage them to vote Democrat because of freedom of religion, and freedom of choice!
Also, I am a Methodist. What's wrong with that?
Many of them do not like Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon. They don't believe in Latter Day Saints because of The Book Of Revelations saying nothing can be added past the Bible including the Book Of Mormon, and The Pearl Of Great Price.
Many of them don't like Rudy Giulianni because of his stand on abortion.
Many don't like John McCaine because he is too much like Bush.
But instead of pushing them into holding their noses and voting GOP this November, we should encourage them to vote Democrat because of freedom of religion, and freedom of choice!
Also, I am a Methodist. What's wrong with that?
al001 - February 3, 2008 06:59 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (trueconservative @ Feb 3 2008, 12:29 PM) |
| Also, I am a Methodist. What's wrong with that? |
True, There is nothing wrong with Methodist. I spent many years in the Methodist Church but Copeland and his followers are the radical branch of ultra conservative Baptist.
Most of my Mothers family grew up as Southern Baptist but were forced out of the Church they attended for 80 years by this fringe group. I live less than 12 miles from Copelands empire and I can assure you he is one sick man. His only concern is for the accumulation of wealth for his own personal use.
Robert Tilton was the same but it was only thorugh his divorce that the truth came to light. Now he lives in disgrace after robbing the countless poor,
Wayne in WA State - February 4, 2008 05:37 AM (GMT)
Certainly there's nothing wrong with being Methodist and no offense intended.
I just thought I would put in a recent editorial cartoon relating to how Hillary Clinton is viewed by many (not literally!) and how she might like to portray herself.
But as for those people who claim to be holy while they are lining their pockets at the expense of the poor..:mad:
Surely they will receive their reward.
I just thought I would put in a recent editorial cartoon relating to how Hillary Clinton is viewed by many (not literally!) and how she might like to portray herself.
But as for those people who claim to be holy while they are lining their pockets at the expense of the poor..:mad:
Surely they will receive their reward.
trueconservative - February 4, 2008 05:52 PM (GMT)
No offense taken Wayne, I am ready to vote for her and jump party for the first time in my life. Unlike Ann Coulter, I am NOT telling a lie!
It was just irritating because Republicans always try to portray Democrats as the Anti-Christ,
The Devils,
Or as Coulter put it "Godless".
Here's the real Devil!
It was just irritating because Republicans always try to portray Democrats as the Anti-Christ,
The Devils,
Or as Coulter put it "Godless".
Here's the real Devil!
ALGOREismylife - February 4, 2008 10:29 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (trueconservative @ Feb 4 2008, 11:52 AM) |
| Here's the real Devil! |
You got that right................ :clap: :clap: :clap: