When Elijah prayed against rain, it was dry for 3.5 years. We are experiencing some major drought now.
In the last two weeks, there was a big fall with televangelists. The senate is investigating them for all their money and spending. Today on CNN, we find another fall.
Jezebel is coming down over Atlanta. There is a shaking going on. The fire is hot. Atlanta is burning again. It is raining in the spirit for certain.
DECATUR, Ga. — The 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta church is at the center of a sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother’s wife and fathered a child by her.
Members of Archbishop Earl Paulk’s family stood at the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church a few Sundays ago and revealed the secret exposed by a recent court-ordered paternity test. This is not the first sex scandal involving Paulk. But this time, he could be in trouble with the law for lying under oath about the affair. For years, 34-year-old D.E. Paulk was known publicly as Earl Paulk’s nephew. He became head pastor a year and a half ago. D.E. Paulk says he did not learn the secret of his parentage until the paternity test. A judge ordered the test at the request of the Cobb County district attorney’s office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. They are investigating Earl Paulk for possible perjury and false-swearing charges stemming from a lawsuit. The archbishop, his brother and the church are being sued by former church employee Mona Brewer. She says Earl Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation. Earl Paulk admitted to the affair in front of the church last January.Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
Here’s last week’s:
Senator: Count preachers’ blessings
Opulent lifestyles of some ministers, including two here, prompt powerful lawmaker to seek records.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/07/07
The gospel message that links God with dollars has been called to judgment before a powerful U.S. senator.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent letters requesting detailed financial documents to two metro Atlanta preachers and four other ministries nationwide whose leaders are known for opulent, or as the ministers would say, blessed, lifestyles.
Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has developed a reputation for demanding financial transparency from nonprofits.
He wants to know how much Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia and the Rev. Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International in College Park make, how their church-issued credit cards are managed and how many cars, planes and foreign bank accounts they own. He has asked for information on the ministries’ boards, business relationships and associated organizations.
“I’m following up on complaints from the public and news coverage regarding certain practices at six ministries,” Grassley said in a press release.
The other ministers are the Rev. Benny Hinn, based in Grapevine, Texas; David and Joyce Meyer, Fenton, Mo.; Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Newark, Texas; and Randy and Paula White, Tampa. All are well-known in the evangelical religious broadcasting world. They are also known for preaching that financial blessings are part of Christian life.
“The allegations involve governing boards that aren’t independent and allow generous salaries and housing allowance and amenities such as private jets and Rolls-Royces,” Grassley said.
“I don’t want to conclude that there’s a problem, but I have an obligation to donors and the taxpayers to find out more. People who donated should have their money spent as intended and in adherence with the tax code.”
Grassley’s request is voluntary, but the Finance Committee has subpoena power to force the ministers to comply.
A spokesman for Long said that he intends to comply fully with Grassley’s request.
Dollar said in a written response that Grassley is setting a precedent that would allow the Senate to pry into donations from any church or church school.
“Because of this fact, we feel it is prudent to consult well-respected legal professors and scholars to see what their thoughts are,” the statement said in part.
“The questions are much bigger than World Changers as it could affect the privacy of every community church in America.”
Grade F
Dollar said his life and ministry have always been an open book.
Not so, said Rod Pitzer, who helps run Ministrywatch.com.
The seven-year-old group finds and asks for information on ministries and grades them on openness so that donors can decide where to give their money.
Many nonprofits have to file Form 990s with the Internal Revenue Service that detail salaries and expenses. Those forms are public documents, but religious ministries are exempt from filing them.
Pitzer said because of that, he depends on churches to voluntarily provide information. He has requested documentation from Dollar’s church, such as audited statements or yearly reports. He has never received anything from them, he said.
Because of its lack of transparency, Ministrywatch.com grades World Changers an F.
“He’s one of the few organizations that have an F, among about 500 that we are currently grading,” Pitzer said.
Pitzer has not dealt with Long’s ministry.
Unprecedented
None of the six organizations that got Grassley’s letters belong to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
It is a voluntary organization of more than 2,000 members that sets professional standards for ministries.
Ken Behr, its president, was an executive with Ford for 24 years. He called the letter from Grassley unprecedented.
“If they were [ECFA members], this probably wouldn’t have happened,” Behr said.
The agency re-quires its members to have independent boards that do not include family members, but do adhere to high accounting standards and justify expenses.
“When a person using a credit card turns in a receipt, they have to justify that charges were ministry purposes, not for a family vacation to Hawaii,” he said.
Jill Kozeny, a Grassley spokeswoman, said the senators chose the six ministries because of reports from third parties, whistle-blowers and the press.
In 2005, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a story that looked into Long’s founding of a charity that paid the minister more than $3 million over a 3-year period, bought him a $1.4 million house and paid for the use of a $350,000 Bentley car.
Grassley’s letter to the Dollars mentions information that Dollar tried to raise $1 million from other ministers to give to Kenneth and Gloria Copeland for a celebration of their 40th year of ministry and that the Dollars’ ministries gave more than $500,000 to them.
Kozeny said, “Some of the accounts were of particular concern about lack of transparency, about how [the ministries] spend millions while you have it all exempted from federal taxes.”
Lake Lanier hits lowest point since its construction
Water levels hit 1,052.64 feet on Monday night, surpassing record set in 1981
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/19/07
Lake Lanier on Monday night dropped to its lowest point since the reservoir was constructed in the 1950s.
The lake hit 1,052.64 feet above sea level, about 11 feet below average.
The old record of 1,052.66 was set in December 1981, also during a severe drought. The next year, an El Nino weather pattern pumped monsoon-like rains into the metro region and refilled the lake within six months.
That’s unlikely to happen this time. The opposite weather pattern is in effect, La Nina, which typically creates a warmer, drier winter here.
Since spring 2006, Lanier has been depleted by the relentless drought and by releases of its water downstream to keep power plants operating and federally protected mussels alive.
Federal biologists on Friday agreed to let the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers keep more water in Lanier. That will buy some time for more than 3 million metro Atlantans who rely on the lake for drinking water. But it won’t fill the lake; that could take three years of normal rainfall.
Right now, Lanier is holding only 42 percent of its stored water capacity. Twenty-two percent of the lake’s surface water has disappeared. That’s clearly evident in aerial photos showing wide stretches of beach and bank never visible before.
Most docks are dry. Only one of the corps’ 104 boat ramps is still usable.
Yet Lanier contains more water than two other, smaller federal reservoirs downstream. The corps, which operates the lake, increasingly has relied on Lanier to help meet downstream needs.