Holy Crap: Funny Money Edition
Pastor Steve Furtick of the Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, brings in 20,000 worshippers and $500,000 every weekend. That’s tax-free money.
I guess some eyebrows raised when it got out that they “asked volunteers and employees alike to sign a confidentiality agreement, which threatens to sue if volunteers and members disclose church finances.”
Hummm … Then there’s the fact that they give away 12% of that they take in. Nobody knows what exactly happens to the rest of the money. I suppose that church members don’t care because they get Jesus out of the deal.
Furtick was recently asked how much money he makes. His answer?
That would be the most arrogant thing I could do and it would rob me of the blessings of what Jesus said, which is that when you give, you don’t get up and tell everyone how much you’ve given.
Uh, we’re asking how much you get, not how much you give.
The church recently built him a $2,000,000 home which he says is “not that great of a house.” It’s got 7 and half bathrooms, which is probably the bare minimum because this guy is full of crap.
Thanks to Alan for the heads up.
It is way past time to get rid of the tax exemption for churches and religious institutions.
1HMP – human manure pile
2What a self absorbed maroon! I grew up listening to stories of missionaries who lived of the local economy in some of the most forsaken parts of Planet E. Once a year we took up a collection for them. None of them ended up with $2 million dollar houses or whatever. A lot of them ended up dead in foreign lands under the worst circumstances (Mao). They had my respect. This guy would get my boot up his butt.
3He’s half way there. He already knows how to use the words “arrogant” and “rob” in a sentence. Now if he can just use them in the proper context.
4Oh so many years ago there was a brilliant documentary about a kid who preached……..he grew up and made this film…..of course, in my old age, I cannot remember his name or the name of the film…….but it should be a must see for the poor giving members of churches such as mentioned here…..if anyone can remember it……..pass it on!
5fran – it’s Marjoe Gortner.
6So long as these Theocratic States of America gives SPECIAL treatment to churches, I could care less how many people demonstrate that believers are not to bright! He can con them all he likes. This is a very easily solved problem…TAX the schite out of churches and as with any 501 charity they present PROOF of doing and then they get their tax break.
7Til them this pastor has a license to steal, given to him by the gov’mint!
I am curious about this “Elevation Church.” Do the core beliefs have something to do with Viagra?
8He lives in some tiny little $2M home? Oh that poor man. How does he survive?
9Thanks!
10Tax the crap out of this arrogant con man and then he won’t need 7.5 bathrooms.
With some people religion comes in one ear and the brain goes out the other one. Doesn’t anybody hold up Jesus’ words against this smug robber and say “Hmmm…”?
11In addition, does he know the 20,000 worshippers by name? And just exactly who and what are they worshipping? A $2million house that is “not that nice”, with seven bathrooms he could help out quite a few homeless people.
12This reminds me of what Cary Grant told David Niven in “The Bishop’s Wife,” a wonderful 1947 Christmas movie I watch every year.
Niven was the bishop who was trying to raise millions for the construction of a new cathedral, which was mainly being built to honor the memory of the husband of a rich widow. Grant’s character, Dudley the angel, tells Niven “That one big roof could make many little roofs.”
Somebody needs to send this jackass a copy of the movie.
13Come on, IRS, do unto this con man as you do unto others.
14Nail him for fraud.
Whenever I think of evilgelicals I think of this kind of manure. I’ll never get why people cannot see these asshats for what they are.
15Simply remove the middle three letters of his last name and you define his attitude about how to treat other people.
16“Come on, IRS, do unto this con man as you do unto others.
Nail him for fraud.”
maryelle:
fraud is one of the most difficult white-collar crimes to prosecute, as it requires the state to prove intent. that is, what the person was thinking at the time. unless they were stupid enough to actually write it down (not surprisingly, this does happen on occasion, but rarely). it’s easier to just get the church’s tax exemption revoked.
I assume pastor furtick doesn’t know, and neither the church’s attorney nor CPA have told him, but the church’s tax return (F990, required to be file annually) is considered a matter of public record (because they are getting a benefit paid for by the taxpapers). as such, anyone can go the official IRS web site, and pull it down, for no fee. save it as a .pdf file on your HDD. that “confidentiality agreement” is worth less than the paper it’s printed on, as far as keeping the “church’s finances” a secret. geez, I do hope he didn’t pay those much.
17Is he related to the Grahams? I understand there is a young relative who has his own church. He sounds like Franklin, who was being paid full pay ($400,000 or so) from his dad’s foundation, as well as paying himself about the same amount from his own foundation, until some donors complained. All this collecting huge sums of money from stupid people is obscene and makes me want to puke. It certainly is not Christian.
18Elevation is not a church or house of worship, it’s a SCAM. Go after it, IRS.
As for taxing churches, let’s do it on a case by case basis. Most barely squeak by (pastors are definitely middle class and all have college degrees as well as seminary training), and do good work in their communities without asking for anything in return and welcoming all. I’ve kept books for a couple of churches so am very familiar.
19cpinva: churches are not required to file Form 990 (not for profit tax return). But perhaps they should be, to root out the scammers.
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