Four for fighting

Charity: Clash escalates between ministries and lawmaker | Rusty Leonard and Warren Cole Smith

On July 7, Charles Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, announced that only two of the six televangelists from whom he had sought information have made good faith and substantive responses.

The two are Joyce Meyer (Joyce Meyer Ministries) and Benny Hinn (World Healing Center Church). The other four ministries—led by Randy and Paula White, Eddie Long, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, and Creflo and Taffi Dollar—have so far failed to engage in what Grassley called "open and honest dialogue" with his staff.

In an unusual "Memorandum to Reporters and Editors," Grassley also made a forceful case for what he believes is the Finance Committee's right to conduct this investigation, which he began last November. He concluded: "The ministries that continue not to cooperate appear to be heeding the advice of attorneys who are not familiar with congressional oversight in general and specifically the Finance Committee's oversight and legislative work in the area of tax-exempt organizations over the last seven years."