From BloggingStocks.com, the news that Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa is considering a Congressional investigation into an intriguing tax break: “whether it’s right that they avoid paying any taxes while their ministries contribute immensely to their personal wealth”.
The site quotes the Wall Street Journal that: “Mr. Grassley said his investigation was prompted by complaints from watchdog groups and others that the ministers live in multimillion-dollar homes, travel on private jets and engage in profit-making ventures from their ministries. He said the complaints raised suspicions, “but I would not make a final judgment until I get the story from the ministries.”
Among those Grassley is apparently likely to assess is Benny Hinn, who has made gazillions from donations and tasteful retail items such as this Lord My Rock Desk Sculpture (“A good conversation piece, it is a rugged reminder of the safety and protection God’s provides His children” – yours for $20). BloggingStocks has helpfully provided the following excerpt from a 1991 interview with Hinn in Florida Magazine in 1991, which provides some useful additional context:
He looks like a Ralph Lauren advertisement, a true gentleman of leisure. As always, his hair is sprayed solidly in place. “I don’t know if you’ll ever [again] see a reverend without socks,” he says proudly. [He’s wearing no socks.] “That’s the way I am. I’m more down to earth than most people.”
This comes from a man who just turned in his Mercedes for a Jaguar and recently moved from the exclusive Heathrow development to the even more exclusive Alaqua, where he now lives in a $685,000 home. His suits are tailored, his shoes are Italian leather, and his wrists and finger glitter with gold and diamonds … what he considers a modest lifestyle, as if everyone lives like this.
He wears his diamond Rolex, diamond rings, gold bracelet and custom suits for all to see. …”What’s the big deal, for goodness sake?” he says. “What am I supposed to do, drive a Honda? …That’s not in the Bible. … I’m sick and tired about hearing about streets of gold [in heaven]. I don’t need gold in heaven. I got to have it now!”
