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The lack of financial transparency in churches

Questioninggeller

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TITLE: In God's Hands Or The Pastors'?
BY: BAIRD HELGESON and MICHELLE BEARDEN
PAPER: The Tampa Tribune
DATE: Jul 1, 2007

Worshippers at Without Walls International Church are accustomed to seeing the offering collected two or three times each service.

At services in May and June, worshippers stuffed the offering buckets with cash, jewelry, and hundreds of colorful envelopes filled with checks and credit card numbers. The envelopes identify seven donation designations: tithes, offering, building fund, Without Walls television, benevolence, pastor's gift and Paula White Ministries.

With all the money pouring into the $40 million-a-year enterprise, how do those who give know where it all goes? How can congregants be sure their money supports the causes they intended?

The answer: They can't.

Unlike all other U.S. nonprofit organizations, churches are not required to report income or any other financial information to the public or the Internal Revenue Service. Larger denominations usually have independent boards to review finances, but independent megachurches sometimes keep detailed financial information a closely guarded secret.
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Full article at The Tampa Tribune: http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBIOAJWK3F.html
 
There are a lot of "Religious" institutions that offer little in the way of financial transparency. For a run down on some of the best known, and how they score, try Ministry Watch. I checked for Without Walls, but they don't seem to be listed.

IMHO it was Ministry Watch that caused Joyce Meyer to make some changes in how she did things. Before getting a bad rating at MW she offered little to no disclosure of how the money she took in was used. Now, though last time I checked there were still some areas of concern, she has at least made some disclosures that give her donors an idea of what the money is spent on.

But I suspect that most of those that give to these groups will not change their giving habits. The sheep will continue to be fleeced.
 
Not those Church Without Walls guys again! Anyone remember them before all the creepy plastic surgery?
 
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