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Subj: The Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability-
Con Artists!
Date: 7/2/03 7:33:36 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: JohnDavies_171@hotmail.com (John Davies)
The Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability- Con Artists!
"It's not unprecedented (for ministers to earn a high salary),"
said Paul Nelson, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial
Accountability, an accreditation group for Christian ministries
that monitors the fund-raising practices of its member organizations.
"But it is high," Nelson said about Hagee's compensation.
The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability are real
liars and thieves and give nothing back to society. It's a useless
organization that exists to protect the crooks and not to give
true accountability to the donors. Here are some facts you cannot
deny:
Southern Baptist Evangelist Billy Graham was embarrassed in 1977
when the Charlotte Observer discovered an undisclosed $23-million
fund in Texas, apparently not mentioned in the accountings of
the Minneapolis headquarters of the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association. As a result Graham's business manager led the formation
of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability after
Graham said on a national telecast, ". . . there are some
charlatans coming along and the public ought to be informed about
them and warned against them, " "stated K. Hadden and
Charles E. Swann in their book Prime Time Preachers. http://religiousbroadcasting.lib.virginia.edu/primetime/C6.html
Graham helped start the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability,
a self-policing organization, .the St. Petersburg Times reported
on Oct 11, 1998.
.In 1992 his ministry, Samaritan's Purse, had a run-in with the
Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, the self-policing
organization his father helped start. The ECFA suspended Samaritan's
Purse while it looked into Franklin's (Graham) compensation and
use of the company plane.
FRANKIN'S REAL COMPENSATION AND PERSONAL USE OF HIS COMPANY PLANE
IS STILL A REAL PROBLEM TODAY AND NED GRAHAM'S PROBLEMS HAVE
PROBLEMS!
Although it's the public right as well as each donor's right
to know and ask questions about the total remuneration of Southern
Baptist Billy Graham, including special privileges and expenses
in his North Carolina home paid by BGEA, including support staff,
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Samaritan's Purse, and
Campus Crusade For Christ have developed the art of stonewalling
when it comes to special remuneration and expenses of it's chairmen.
Many prominent Baptist evangelists in America, such as Billy
and Franklin Graham, belong to the Evangelical Council of Financial
Accountability that purports to work on behalf of the donor but
in reality exists for the spenders. Although ECFA has in its
possessions the total salaries of all the religious evangelical
non-profit organizations that belong to it, it will not disclose
them. Christian News Today requested such information from ECFA
but to no avail, although the hypocritical motto of ECFA is
"For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in
the eyes of the LORD, but also in the eyes of men"
"There is something that can be corrupting about power and
notoriety," said Paul Nelson, president of the Evangelical
Council for Financial Accountability, which reviews Graham's
finances each year. "God bless them, they (Graham's organization)
have been able to navigate that." (These remarks turned
out to be false for Billy Graham's total compensation was a lot
higher according to the financial statement of B.G.E.A. not including
fringe benefits pension and health care expenditures and he spent
fifty percent of his time in bed?)
Even though he was sick and dying, spent over fifty percent of
his time in bed or the hospital, Dr. Billy Graham had been taking
a one hundred percent salary and other benefits from the B.G.E.A.
that he had founded: Even though the I.R.S. rules stated that
no non-profit organization should exist for the benefit of one
individual.
No other salaried employee in B.G.E.A. was allowed to take a
one hundred percent salary plus his pension fund and other perks
and spends so many days being sick, as Billy Graham has done
and does. Where was the justice or integrity in all of this?
Billy Graham's own son Ned Graham turned out to be no different
than Jim Bakker. Even though a President of an Evangelical Ministry
must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded,
of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine,
not violent, and not greedy for money, Ned Graham the son of
Billy Graham, Southern Baptist minister, president East Gates
International, a group that distributes Bibles in China told
Christianity Today in an interview that he had abused alcohol
and spent an "inappropriate amount of time" with two
women on his staff.
Grace Community Church, Southern Baptist Convention, in Auburn,
Washington-which counted Ned Graham, his wife, and their two
sons as members established in 1999 the fact that Ned Graham
was an adulterer, alcoholic, wife abuser, and drug user and revoked
Graham's ministerial credentials. It directed Graham to stop
using the title reverend.
Yet in a style reminiscent of Jimmy Swaggart, who refused to
be defrocked by the Assembly of God denomination, Ned Graham
left that congregation for another church.
Most of the staff and board members of East Gates International
resigned amid controversies. East Gates, in Sumner, Wash., withdrew
its membership in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability
after Ned replaced the board members with his sister Ruth Graham
McIntyre, brother-in-law Stephan Tchividjian, and business leader
Peter Lowe.
The Associated Baptist Press - www.abpnews.com on April 3, 2001
reported that:
"About half of Baptist organizations contacted by the independent
newspaper Baptists Today would not disclose salary information
for their top executive. Three Southern Baptist Convention entities
said policies allowed them to release only salary ranges.
Presidents Albert Mohler of Southern Seminary in Louisville,
Ky., and Kenneth Hemphill of Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth,
Texas, declined to provide any information on compensation. New
Orleans Seminary did not return numerous phone calls regarding
the salary of President Charles Kelley. However, the IRS requires
all colleges and universities to report the salaries of the top
five paid staff members, Brumley explained."
But Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said recently on CNN's Larry King
Show: I believe the Roman Church is a false church and teaches
a false gospel. ... Indeed, I believe the pope himself holds
a false and unbiblical office."
The International Mission Board has defended the publishing of
prayer guides for use in Southern Baptist churches that critics
said were insensitive to Jews, Hindus and Muslims.
A leader of a Southern Baptist fellowship of "Messianic"
believers recently announced the group was severing ties with
the convention because of a public perception that Southern Baptists
are intolerant of other faiths.
Southern Baptists such as Albert Mohler are not only intolerant
of other faiths but are thieves who hid their total compensation?
BAPTISTS ALWAYS MAKE THEMSELVES OUT TO BE PEOPLE OF INTEGRITY
AND TRUTHFULNESS WHEN IT'S NOTHING BUT A LIE AS SEEN BY STATEMENT
About half of Baptist organizations contacted by the independent
newspaper Baptists Today would not disclose salary information
for their top executive.
AND TO REMIND YOU HOW CROOKED THE BAPTISTS ARE JUST LOOK INTO
THE BAPTIST FOUNDATION OF ARIZONA WHICH ECFA DOESN'T TALK ABOUT?
The Baptist Foundation of Arizona took in a total of $590 million,
using a maze of shell corporations in a Ponzi scheme, before
it was shut down in August 1999. Ponzi schemes depend on the
solicitation of new investors to pay existing ones.
Christianity Today reported about BFA PHONY DEALS: The foundation
was organized in 1948 to raise funds for Southern Baptist-related
charities. However, it has contributed only about $1.3 million
to such groups over its half-century of operation. By contrast,
in 1996 BFA spent $16 million on staff salaries and $329,000
on staff automobiles. It also invested in a long series of shaky
loans and dubious real estate deals, primarily with companies
controlled by members of its board. These insider deals left
the foundation facing huge losses and are being scrutinized for
possible violations of criminal and civil laws.
BFA's uncertain financial condition came to light in a prize-winning
series of investigative reports by the Phoenix New Times newspaper.
Beginning in 1997, these reports detailed how company insiders
had spun a web of more than 60 corporate shells to cover the
tracks of their deals, while the BFA board, made up of pastors
and some lay persons, was told little or nothing about what was
going on.
The reports also detailed how the largest of these deals, involving
tens of millions of dollars, involved phony land swaps and large
loans to board members, many of which were repaid with inflated
real estate collateral. These deals had some how gone unnoticed
by auditors. BFA's former accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, is
also being investigated by state officials for its handling of
BFA audits.
The Southern Baptist Church allowed the BFA salesmen to Preach
the investment stuff from the Pulpit, Many different churches
that were supported and financed by the BFA and they told they
sheep that they were furthering the CAUSE.
Three people related to the Baptist Foundation pleaded guilty
to defrauding investors in May and have agreed to cooperate in
an investigation of five others indicted on 32 counts each of
theft, fraud and racketeering.
A Phoenix judge had accepted plea bargains from three of eight
defendants charged with crimes in the 1999 collapse of the Baptist
Foundation of Arizona, a subsidiary of the Southern Baptist Convention.
They were accused of bilking 13,000 investors -- many elderly
and most members of Southern Baptist churches -- of hundreds
of millions of dollars in the largest fraud case involving a
non-profit organization in U.S. history.
Foundation officials Edgar Kuhn, Donald Deardoff and Jalma Hunsinger
had earlier pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for
cooperating with prosecutors in a case involving five others
who claimed innocence reported the Associated Baptist Press.
The financial crash in 1999 of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona,
resulted in the largest collapse of a religious financial institution
in the nation's history resulted with many elderly sheep robbed,
hurt and devastated. For all of its talk of love, compassion
and good works the Southern Baptist leadership did very little
to change and reverse this tragic situation.
Restoring Our Integrity, a grassroots effort seeking to repay
Baptist Foundation of Arizona investors and restore Southern
Baptist's integrity, had ceased operations reported the (Southern)
Baptist Press on April 18, 2000 as it had very little support
from Southern Baptist churches or its members.
Only 66 Arizona Southern Baptist churches and missions, out of
about 400 congregations, had pledged to support the ROI plan,
said Larry Deskins, pastor of Gateway Fellowship, SBC, Gilbert,
Ariz., who had spearheading the ROI effort. Another effort the
Jerusalem Fund had only raised $384,918. Although
Steve Bass, Arizona Southern Baptist Convention executive director-
treasurer, who made a annual salary of $89,937, said the churches'
lack of commitment to ROI should not be construed as a lack of
concern for BFA investors, although their real deeds spoke louder
than their hypocritical words
The saga of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona showed how their
religious leaders did not care about what happened to the sheep.
For while a group called "Restoring Our Integrity,"
composed of local pastors had attempted unsuccessfully to raise
money in Arizona and elsewhere for BFA investors, the Southern
Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination of sixteen
million members had not been a good Samaritan to help the oldsters
who have lost their life savings and were hurting.
It had been all talk and words but no real concrete action and
deeds to correct the injustice to the elderly brought about by
the Southern Baptist Convention through its support and management
of BFA.
But it was the Southern Baptist convention who supported and
propagated the support of the $590 million Ponzi scheme that
enriched insiders. Private companies controlled by one insider,
former BFA director Harold Friend, were paid about $11 million
from BFA and its maze of related companies from November 1998
to November 1999,
However Armstrong, a retired Southern Baptist minister, and his
wife, Lois, 76, need money from BFA and can't get a penny. He
suffers from diabetes, cancer and a liver malady. The Armstrongs
sold their Casa Grande home in June and wired the proceeds, about
$160,000, to their BFA account. In all, the Armstrongs had entrusted
about $460,000 to BFA. Their "investments" amounted
to promissory notes. BFA borrowed their money at a high rate,
and promised to pay it back , reported the Phoneix News Times.
BFA didn't keep its promises. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection in November, claiming $640 million in debts and $160
million to $200 million in assets. Now the Armstrongs are living
in their RV. It is the only home they can afford.
While others are investigating and prosecuting the BFA leaders
no one is looking into the system that allowed the Southern Baptist
pastors and former pastors to do their thievery - The Southern
Baptist Convention. Was this fair and right? It this the way
justice was done in America?
QUOTES FROM SOME SO CALLED BFA INVESTORS....
"These people are wolves in sheep's clothing, and our money
has been consumed by them. They are nothing more than thieves,
and God says, 'Thou shalt not steal'."
"What's bothering me really, I am deafened by the silence
from the pulpits of the Southern Baptist churches in the state
of Arizona."
"This is the largest charitable religious scam in the history
of the United States. It makes Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker look
like they were kindergarten kids."
"I just can't understand [where the missing $590 Million
went]. You'd have to be in a casino 24 hours a day for years
to get rid of that kind of money."
"How is the fox who raided the henhouse going to bring back
the chickens? They ate them all, and now they're fat."
QUOTES FROM BAPTIST FOUNDATION PAMPHLETS
BFA's Biblically-based stewardship perspective...
"Stewardship Investing" through the Foundation is a
TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY TO BE FOUND FAITHFUL ABOVE and BEYOND
the TITHE TO YOUR LOCAL CHURCH...
Do good while doing good...IT'S WISE STEWARDSHIP IN ACTION...
Don't let your retirement dollars fly away! In the complex and
changing world of today, planning for retirement is CRITICAL.
WE CAN HELP you ACHIEVE YOUR RETIREMENT DREAMS (NIGHTMARES).
If you are living on a fixed income, you certainly want to be
ASSURED OF THE STABILITY OF YOUR INCOME STREAM...Call us today...You'll
learn firsthand about the UNIQUE MINISTRY and EXCELLENT SERVICE
WHICH CAN BE YOURS WHEN YOU PUT YOUR "TRUST" in the
Baptist Foundation of Arizona.
Touching hearts and lives AS THE DREAM IS REALIZED.
"Up close and personal" service. Our Financial Services
Representatives will GLADLY come to your home or place of business
to handle a transaction for you. In addition to our three offices,
we also provide "SATELLITE" OFFICES IN CHURCHES throughout
Arizona...
We re-invest your money, and THE PROFIT we earn GOES to further
such ministries as Christian education, care for children and
senior adults, missions and new church starts...
...NOT ONE BFA client has ever lost one penny of their investment
or interest they earned...
WE HAVE A PROVEN TRACK RECORD OF PRUDENT AND PROFITABLE OPERATIONS...Profitable
for whom!)
EACH YEAR, AN INDEPENDENT AUDIT of BFA is CONDUCTED BY ONE OF
THE LEADING ACCOUNTING FIRMS IN THE NATION.
We know that for most of you, our common ties to the churches
are one of the most important reasons you invest with BFA, CFP,
and NCV, AND THOSE SAME TIES CAN HELP CARRY US THROUGH THESE
DIFFICULT TIMES.
How about it? The Baptist Foundation of Arizona, a subsidiary
of the Southern Baptist Convention used Southern Baptist pastors
and former pastors as sales representatives to rob 13,000 mostly
elderly Christians by promising high returns, the security of
church backing, and the chance to help Baptist charities. It
was nothing but a fraud and a big Ponzi Scheme.
SO NEXT TIME YOUR WRITE ABOUT ECFA PLEASE TELL THE WHOLE STORY
AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH THAT THEY ARE CROOKS!
John Davies |