Consequences of Prosperity Theology
The Wall Street Journal ran an article about a non-profit dedicated to monitoring the spending habits of religious organizations by pointing at one of the worst offenders. The author of the article began by describing a service led by televangelist Joyce Meyer, where she assuaged the fears of those about to contribute money to collection buckets by assuring them that she would not be "taking it and living a high lifestyle."
Rusty Leonard, the founder of the watchdog group Wall Watchers, discovered that the statement may not be an accurate representation of reality. In 2005, the ministry spent $18,000,000 on "management and general operations" and about $11,000,000 on "meetings and conferences." Details included over $300,000 for books and flowers and over $2,000,000 for travel. Listed items included a $30,000 conference table and an $11,000 clock. Since it's inception, the ministry has purchased five homes for Meyer and her family and a $6.5 million dollar private jet.
It has been said that "there's a sucker born every minute." Popular legend attributes this quote--albeit incorrectly-- to famed 19th century showman P.T. Barnum and his supposed maxim has since been used to describe a vast array of underhanded actions meant to seperate individuals from their money. Users of such techniques generally rely on asymmetries of information to dupe their marks and often end up drawing considerable ire once the game is up.
Caveat emptor, one might argue. A fool and his money are soon parted! The proverbial expression has been used again and again to chastise without pity those who squander their money. However, it is often the case that the "fools" did not have the information necessary to make an educated decision. Enron would make a fine example.
It is safe to assume that the average employee of Enron or WorldCom or a similarly fradulent company had little idea that top management was engaging in institutionalized, systematic accounting fraud. Investors lost billions and employees lost jobs. Some of these employees invested entirely in company stock and ended up losing both. Caveat emptor, one might argue again; everybody knows that refusing to diversify is like playing Russian roulette with your golden years. Caveat emptor, again, since investors should have known better after analyzing the financial statements and discovering that Worldcom was capitalizing maintenance expenses and Enron was trading with Star Wars themed subsidiaries like Jedi and Chewco.
Many investors and employees did not have the level of financial intelligence necessary to identify such frauds. Many of those with the appropriate ability were "caught up in the times." Accountability and transparency was conspicuously absent and, thus, legislation was created in an attempt to remedy this situation. Some argue that Sarbanes-Oxley creates an unfair burden that hampers business and perhaps the legislation could be fine-tuned. It's expensive and cumbersome, but it helps protect people from being victimized.
Perhaps religious organizations should be held to a even higher standard, because something just seems wrong with lying to people in the name of God. The exact amount of funds destined to line the pockets of these "ministers" is unclear, but there is a good chance that the number is staggering. Even worse, when uncovered it has the potential to blindside us like the accounting scandals. After all, the IRS considers these groups to be more trustworthy than both their non-profit counterparts and for-profit corporate cousins and does not require them to provide financial information. Even secular non-profits must maintain a degree of transparency through providing financial statements.
The worst part of all is that this sort of thing is corrected rarely and "ministries" seem to have an adverse effect on one's ability to think critically. Jim Bakker did essentially the same thing as Meyer and got away with it for years, only to have his "congregation" turn on him after allegations of sexual misconduct. Recently, the public has demonized corporate executives for misusing organizational funds, but seems relatively apathetic when "ministers" do the same. Rupert Murdoch recently apologized repaid hundreds of thousands paid by News Corp for his swank 5th avenue apartment and similiar crackdowns seem to appear in the news on a daily basis. That said, Joyce Meyer has paid about $1.5 million in taxes assessed against her "rectories" since coming under the gun, but she continues to insist unapologetically that God "takes care of her." Hopefully her congregation will wise up and begin to see the destination of their money.
And with that, I will provide my own bit of transparency and then retire to bed.
Expense Report
Day 58: 25th
- Lunch at Subway and Sunny's, $7.03
Day 59:
- Lunch from King Veggie Healthy Food Cart (Fried Fish and Chips), $4
- PATH, $3
Day 60:
- Morton Williams Supermarket, $10.27
- Fairway Market, $52.23
Day 61:
- Target, $60.95
- Tom's Pizza, $11.50
- Corner Store, $3.43
- Dinosaur BBQ, $28.97
Day 62:
- Lunch at Subway, $5.84
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