Public Square "Lining Pockets with Tax Free Money"

            The role of the church and its leaders has always been to promote the spiritual well being of others and bring them to having a relationship with God. But what happens when the leaders of the church are more interested in lining their own pockets than preaching the word of God. The church preachers become very rich, very quickly. Televangelists are a somewhat new phenomenon, they use certain aspects of the church to their own benefit and make millions doing it. This is not to say that all televangelists are selfishly taking money from unsuspecting individuals seeking faith, but there are quite a few, who have done so very successfully.

            To understand how these preachers are successful at taking millions of dollars from believers, it is necessary to understand some of the methods that they use to be so successful.

The core cause of many televangelist scandals is the belief commonly known as the health-wealth gospel. Televangelists are the primary propagators of the idea that it is always God’s will for all Christians to be perfectly healthy and financially wealthy. The essential message of the health-wealth gospel is that if you give money, God is obligated to bless you with health and wealth. If you give money, but are not blessed with health and wealth, you either did not give enough money, or do not have enough faith to truly receive the blessing. In this, health-wealth televangelists encourage people to give large sums of money, while preemptively explaining why the people are not blessed with health and wealth as they were promised.

Some televangelists preach a type of faith, which rewards those for giving monetary donations to the church, in return for favor from God.  They are able to sway countless individuals to make countless donations in hopes of receiving a miracle, but these individuals are left with no miracle, and less money in their pockets.  One of the major reasons these preachers are able to make an enormous amount of profit is due to the way our government treats churches.

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) classifies churches as 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organizations, which are exempt from federal income tax and are able to accept tax-deductible donations . . . In addition, using a benefit known as the "parsonage exemption" (or "parish exemption"), "licensed, commissioned, or ordained" ministers of religion may deduct most of the money they spend on housing from their federal income tax, and these properties are often exempt from state property taxes. The exemption has existed since 1921, and no equivalent tax break is available to leaders of secular nonprofit charities. 

Built into our system is a way for individuals with poor intentions to take advantage of the government and individuals of faith. They are able to purchase property, completely tax exempt, with no limit to the amount of properties purchased. This has been in effect since the founding of our country. Not only are these "men of faith" able to convince their sheep to give copious amounts of money, they use the benefits given by the government to further their wealth. A comparison to a parasite would be quite acceptable, considering these preachers reap all of the benefit from others, and give very little to nothing in return. However, one might argue many do the same thing televangelists are doing in business every day. With pyramid schemes, insider trading etc. this type of fraud is not new to us. However, this type of religious fraud is atrocious because of the types of people it affects.
            Most of the people affected by this religious fraud, are people who are extremely ill, or just on their last legs. These people have nothing else to lose, and no other options but to believe that donating money to these preachers' churches will result in their last miracle, the one that saves them. Howeer, these poor individuals are left spending thousands of dollars only to die without help, and without money. The saddest part of this story, is undoubtedly the fact that this fraud is allowed to continue, and not much effort has been placed in putting a stop to these preachers' scams. A change needs to happen, and these parasites must be stopped.