Thread by @sarahposner

Can we have a conversation about Paula White, money, and the United States Senate?

Is that a yes?

In 2007, Chuck Grassley--yes, that Chuck Grassley!--launched a probe into whether televangelists were abusing their tax-exempt status; whether they were using tax-exempt donations for luxury spending, and mingling for-profit and non-profit components of their ministries. 1/x

At the time, Grassley was the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. He launched the investigation based on information provided by the Trinity Foundation, a Dallas-based non-profit that made its name investigating televangelist fraud. 2/x

Grassley sought information from six ministries, including White's. Her ministry declined to provide full documentation to the committee. 3/x

Unholy, p. 18. 4/x

This is around the time Trump and White met, became friends, and White bought a condo in Trump Tower.

Unholy, p. 16. 5/x

In addition to most of the televangelists resisting transparency to Grassley, the Christian right launched a vociferous pushback, claiming that the probe violated religious freedom of churches, and represented the government getting involved in theological disputes. 6/x

In fact, although many evangelicals and other Christians strongly contest the word of faith doctrine, aka prosperity gospel, some even considering it a heresy, the probe was not about theology. 7/x

Grassley's probe was about MONEY. It was about TAXPAYER MONEY. IOW, if a ministry has tax-exempt status, both the donor and the donee get a tax break from the donations. It's wrong, then to convert those dollars into luxury goods for the televangelist's personal enrichment. 8/x

In the end, Grassley and his staff punted on the whole thing. They spent years investigating, and then ended the probe without recommending any legislative or regulatory changes that would allow the IRS greater oversight. 9/x

(Christian right hostility to IRS using its power to regulate non-profits is a long-running theme; while the Christian right has expended massive resources claiming, e.g., that not a single penny of taxpayer $ should support abortion, it benefits from weak IRS oversight.) 10/x

For more on all of that, please read UNHOLY. 11/x

bookshop.org/books/unholy-w…

So, back in 2011, Grassley punted on doing anything about the televangelists using their tax-exempt status for self-enrichment, recommending instead that they just regulate themselves. (God loves a free market?) 12/x

Part of the reason his staff concluded that they couldn't figure out the extent of the problem was that the televangelists successfully evaded providing information to the committee! But oh well... 13/x

But here's the real rub. Instead of recommending any changes that would allow more transparency and oversight over how these televangelists were using tax-exempt donations, Grassley's staff memo instead recommended....

Repealing the Johnson Amendment. 14/x

For the uninitiated, the Johnson Amendment is the provision of the IRS Code which prohibits the use of tax-exempt resources (like your church's pulpit) to endorse political candidates. 15/x

Same year (2011) Trump, newly befriended by Paula White, first toyed with a run for president. 16/x

Later, in 2016, Trump promised repeal of Johnson Amendment. Since it's a statutory provision, he can't do that unilaterally, but he did, by executive order, tell the IRS to stop enforcing it. (It was enforced much anyway, but clearly sent a robust signal). 17/x

11/4/20: Paula White, in her church, praying for demonic forces to be cast out so that Trump can remain president. 18/x

19/19

https://twitter.com/sarahposner/status/1324190505966731264

In case you were wondering whether the donors will care that Trump is not using the money he's fundraising for the purpose he says he is (link below) the fact that nothing has been done about televangelist tax exemptions (thread above) is illuminating.

nytimes.com/live/2020/11/1…