146 - A Shocking Cost Benefit Analysis of Mega Churches Pt2
Local churches provide homeless outreach, school programs, and emergency aid. How much do Televangelists and Mega Churches give back to the public…?
America has a history of looking the other way where church money is involved. John Oliver of Last Week Tonight claimed the IRS has only audited two churches in two decades, and Christianity Today tells their congregants the IRS officially halted all tax audits on churches back in 2009. If true, this might explain why Mega Church pastors will not stop buying private jets with congregant money, and why so many of them live in multi-million-dollar mansions, totally tax free, under a loophole called the Parsonage Allowance.
What exactly do mega churches do with their money? Are mega church pastors little more than overpaid motivational speakers? Perhaps most importantly, how many of these mega churches spend more money on private jets than charity programs? The answers probably won’t shock you, but the stories and interview clips will.
Finally, we’ll discuss the elephant and the donkey in the room. If churches risk having their tax-free status revoked for backing a political candidate or encouraging members to vote red or blue…why are so many pastors turning political? How many of them have had their all-important 501 (c) (3) status revoked? And why did one evangelical preacher willingly dissolve his church’s tax exempt status?
Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LtF34MrsfI&ab_channel=InsideEdition
https://leadnet.org/salary-survey-now-closed-with-public-report-coming-in-august/