Pimps, Pimp Pastors and the True Shepherd (Notes from Sunday's Broadcast)

 

Pimps, Pimp Pastors and the True Shepherd

(Notes from Sunday's Broadcast...you can listen to the broadcast at www.It-IsFinished.com and click on the "Radio Broadcast" tab.

 A pimp is someone who forces or entices another person into prostitution by use of deceptive tactics and/or physical assault. It is all about self-preservation for them, and they consider it as a business that adheres to strict rules and regulations. They have a distorted since of reality and use manipulative methods to seduce others to follow them. In their own minds, many of them have feelings of low self-esteem, inadequacy, and built-in anger, but often wear a mask of power and authority to gain the respect and control over their subjects. They do this through intimidation, manipulation, humiliation, and a false sense of edification.

 The Pimp Commandments

·         They exploit the vulnerable by promising them a better life that only can be received through their help. These include teenage runaways, women and children. 

·         Pimps place classify themselves and their exploits into a chart of hierarchy where they are at the top and everyone else is underneath. 

·         A pimp carefully selects those with whom he can control through domination and intimidation. He makes the individual feel that they cannot survive without him and therefore, their need for him is of utmost importance for their survival when in fact, he needs them more than they need him to maintain his own greedy lifestyle. He places people in a category of who he can dominate and who he can’t.  

·         A pimp is very crafty because he keeps his subjects flowing in. With each new victim that he gets, he moves the other ones over to the side in order to display his new prize. Once the newness of the next one wears off, reality for the victim sets in that she is no longer of value other than making as much money as possible. He builds his new victim up on a pedestal at first only to tear her down to nothing, where he then lets her know that he is the one in control.

·         The pimp’s popularity increases due to his ability to bring in maximum cash flow from his street walkers, live a lifestyle of luxury, and maintain control over his victims to avoid their desiring to be self-sufficient.

 

Pimp Pastors –

·         Use the Bible to justify the exploitation of God’s people. 2 Peter 2:1-3 But there were also false prophets among the people just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them – bringing swift destruction on themselves. ⁽²⁾Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. ⁽³⁾In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. (NIV)

·         To-be-ministers are influenced by these pimp pastors into thinking that lavish lifestyles, big numbers, and celebrity status is what determines if you are a successful leader or not. They are what many would consider a hierarchy chart where they have not reached success until they have accomplished the success of their mentors. Isaiah 56:10-12 Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep. ⁽¹¹⁾They are dogs with mighty appetites, they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding, they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain. ⁽¹²⁾”Come,” each one cries, “let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better.” (NIV)

·         Pimp Pastors seem to have a category for their members. Those who study the word of God for themselves and will ask questions, and those who will be spoon-fed the word based on his own ideology.

a.)    1 Corinthians 3:1-2 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly – mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed you are still not ready. (NIV)

b.)    Hebrews 5:12-14 ⁽¹²⁾In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk not solid food! ⁽¹³⁾Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ⁽¹⁴⁾But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (NIV)

c.)    1 Peter 2:2-3 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted the Lord is good.

d.)    Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (NIV)

e.)    2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (NIV)

 

 

·         Pimp Pastors have congregations full of people who will pay to hear what they got to say. The Pimp Pastors know that many people will give anything to have a word in their favor and will pay top dollar for it. The more positive the word, the more money that comes in. Therefore, these gullible people are willing to prostitute themselves to the Pimp Pastor in order to be “Happy,” and the Pimp Pastor is all too happy to give them what they want. In contrast, the Pastor Pimp knows that if he/she speaks on sin, confession, repentance, judgment, hell, the End Times, Revelation, and teach that Jesus is the ONLY way to Salvation, those are not sermons that will have people running down to give their dollar bills. As mentioned above, a pimp's success is measured by how many victims he can get to support and maintain his life of luxury and so does the pimp pastor. Isn’t it funny that most Pimp Pastors who believe in the “prosperity gospel” always want to use Abraham, Job and others who rich to support their greed, but they never use the apostles as examples?

a.)    Proverbs 28:6 Better a poor man whose walk in blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse. (NIV)

b.)    Proverbs 22:1 A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver and gold. (NIV)

c.)    1 Thessalonians 2:2-6 ⁽²⁾We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. ⁽³⁾For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, not are we trying to trick you. ⁽⁴⁾On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. ⁽⁵⁾You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed – God is our witness. ⁽⁶⁾We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. (NIV)

 

·         After the Pimp Pastor has received all he wants from the people such as elevation (from pastor to Bishop), status (ability to be in the inner circle of other well-known leaders, celebrities, and government officials), and/or climbed up the ladder with regards to material gain, he no longer needs them individually. The people who were once the essence of his success are now regarded as mere commoners. He is beyond what he considers as their mediocracy and therefore, surrounds himself by armor bearers, security, and even other leaders who will keep the commoners at bay. To visit the sick now requires an appointment. To preach at a street corner church has now become an occupational hazard. To travel coach on a flight is looked down on as being degrading. To have a small church means a lack of success. The mission is now to gain members instead of gaining souls for the kingdom. The ministry of Salvation has been reduced to mere motivation. The personal pastor has become a mere preacher only.

a.)    1 Peter 5:1-4 ⁽¹⁾To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: ⁽²⁾Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers – not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; ⁽³⁾not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. ⁽⁴⁾And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. (NIV)  

b.)    Luke 12:15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed: a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (NIV)

c.)    Matthew 23:5-12, 25 ⁽⁵⁾”Everything they do is done for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; ⁽⁶⁾they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; ⁽⁷⁾they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi,’ ⁽⁸⁾”But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. ⁽⁹⁾And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have only one Father, and he is in heaven. ⁽¹⁰⁾Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. ⁽¹¹⁾The greatest among you will be your servant. ⁽¹²⁾For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. ⁽²⁵⁾Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” (NIV)

·         The Pimp Pastor makes the congregation feel that they have to rely totally on him. He disguises it as having a “respect” for the “man of God” when in actuality, he does not want his congregation to study the word of God for themselves. He is offended if they dare to question his methods with regards to leadership and delivering the unadulterated word of God. He will make them feel as if they are doing something wrong against God, and consequently against him in an effort to prevent an awakening. He will preach against those who make a stand against the errors of his ways and cause his faithful followers to consider the outspoken as troublemakers. He never encourages group Bible studies outside of the church due to what he considers as safe monitoring of what is being taught.

a.)    Acts 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see of what Paul said was true. (NIV)

b.)    2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

c.)    Deuteronomy 18:21-22 You may say to yourselves, “How can we now when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him. (NIV)

 ·         Pimp Pastors are known to be able to pull in the funds. They use all kinds of deceptive tactics such as guilt, trickery, written pledges, and promises of blessings. Certain Pimp Pastors are used by Christian Media Stations, TV, Churches and other organizations to bring money in for their cause regardless of what it is.

a.)    2 Corinthians 9:6-8 ⁽⁶⁾Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁽⁷⁾Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁽⁸⁾And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (NIV)

b.)    Malachi 3:8-9 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – the whole nation of you – because you are robbing me.” (NIV)

c.)    Deuteronomy 21:22-23 If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord you God is giving you as an inheritance. (NIV)

d.)    Galatians 3:10-14 ⁽¹⁰⁾All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law. ⁽¹¹⁾Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” ⁽¹²⁾The Law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.” ⁽¹³⁾Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming the curse for us, for it is written “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” ⁽¹⁴⁾He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Genttiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (NIV)

 

The early church sold some of their belongings to give to all who had a need. It was not for the gain of the apostles. Acts 4:32-37 ⁽³²⁾All the believers were one in heart and mind. NO one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. ⁽³³⁾With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. ⁽³⁴⁾There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales ⁽³⁴⁾There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales ⁽³⁵⁾and put it at the apostles feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (NIV) Many people are being misled into thinking that God is moved by their money as told by many Pimp Pastors. On the Contrary! God is moved by FAITH. It is impossible to please Him without it.

 

By NEW YORK TIMES

Family Battle Offers Look Inside Lavish TV Ministry

By ERIK ECKHOLM MAY 4, 2012

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — For 39 years, the Trinity Broadcasting Network has urged viewers to give generously and reap the Lord’s bounty in return.

The prosperity gospel preached by Paul and Janice Crouch, who built a single station into the world’s largest Christian television network, has worked out well for them.

Mr. and Mrs. Crouch have his-and-her mansions one street apart in a gated community here, provided by the network using viewer donations and tax-free earnings. But Mrs. Crouch, 74, rarely sleeps in the $5.6 million house with tennis court and pool. She mostly lives in a large company house near Orlando, Fla., where she runs a side business, the Holy Land Experiencetheme park. Mr. Crouch, 78, has an adjacent home there too, but rarely visits. Its occupant is often a security guard who doubles as Mrs. Crouch’s chauffeur.

The twin sets of luxury homes only hint at the high living enjoyed by the Crouches, inspirational television personalities whose multitudes of stations and satellite signals reach millions of worshipers across the globe. Almost since they started in the 1970s, the couple have been criticized for secrecy about their use of donations, which totaled $93 million in 2010.

Now, after an upheaval with Shakespearean echoes, one son in this first family of televangelism has ousted the other to become the heir apparent. A granddaughter, who was in charge of TBN’s finances, has gone public with the most detailed allegations of financial improprieties yet, which TBN has denied, saying its practices were audited and legal.

The granddaughter, Brittany Koper, and her husband have been fired by the network, which accused them of stealing $1.3 million to buy real estate and cars and make family loans. “They’re just trying to divert attention from their own crimes,” said Colby May, a lawyer representing TBN. Janice and Paul Crouch declined requests for interviews.

In two pending lawsuits and in her first public interview, Ms. Koper described company-paid luxuries that she said appeared to violate the Internal Revenue Service’s ban on “excess compensation” by nonprofit organizations as well as possibly state and federal laws on false bookkeeping and self-dealing.

The lavish perquisites, corroborated by two other former TBN employees, include additional, often-vacant homes in Texas and on the former Conway Twitty estate in Tennessee, corporate jets valued at $8 million and $49 million each and thousand-dollar dinners with fine wines, paid with tax-exempt money.

In the lawsuits and interviews, Ms. Koper, 26, also charges that TBN has spent millions of dollars in sweetheart deals with a commercial film company owned until recently by a son of the Crouches, Matthew, including poorly monitored investments made after he joined the TBN board in 2007.

“My job as finance director was to find ways to label extravagant personal spending as ministry expenses,” Ms. Koper said. This is one way, she said, the company avoids probing questions from the I.R.S. She said that the absence of outsiders on TBN’s governing board — currently consisting of Paul, Janice and Matthew Crouch — had led to a serious lack of accountability for spending.

Ms. Koper and the two other former TBN employees also said that dozens of staff members, including Ms. Koper, chauffeurs, sound engineers and others had been ordained as ministers by TBN. This allowed the network to avoid paying Social Security taxes on their salaries and made it easier to justify providing family members with rent-free houses, sometimes called “parsonages,” she said.

The company did not always succeed. Last year, officials in Orange County, Fla., turned down TBN’s application to register the adjacent lakefront houses in Windermere as parsonages, saying they served no religious purpose, The Orlando Sentinel reported. The designation would have resulted in religious exemptions and saved TBN roughly $50,000 in taxes a year.

Ms. Koper said that the company run by Matthew Crouch, 50, who is her uncle, had received an estimated $50 million in TBN money over the years, with little oversight, to finance religious film projects and television shows. TBN recouped only a small fraction of its loans and investments, sometimes forgiving large sums in return for broadcast rights of limited value, she said.

She also questioned the justification for providing rent-free houses for Matthew, now a TBN vice president, and his wife, Laurie, and separate houses for their young-adult sons in Costa Mesa, Calif., including one that Ms. Koper said was remodeled at company expense with wall-mounted Transformer robot figures costing several thousand dollars, a putting green and an indoor basketball court.

Ms. Koper and her husband, Michael Koper, 28, who formerly managed sales of TBN airtime, said they were fired last September after writing memorandums to the elder Mr. Crouch about questionable spending. They showed a reporter for The New York Times what they said were copies of the memos.

“People have been conned by my grandparents,” Ms. Koper said.

But TBN said the pair made their charges only after the company confronted them with evidence of embezzlement. TBN later filed and then dropped a civil lawsuit accusing the Kopers of fraud, and this week filed a new suit in a California court, repeating only a few of the original allegations. No criminal charges against the Kopers have been filed.

Mr. May, the lawyer, offered a broad defense of TBN and the Crouches. He said that TBN had indeed ordained hundreds of people who felt a true “ministerial call” and that performers at Holy Land Experience, for example, were “ministers playing roles.”

He said that all contracts with the film company that Matthew Crouch led until mid-2010, Gener8Xion Entertainment, had been at “arm’s length” and provided good value to TBN.

 

Mr. May added that TBN owned so many homes because traveling employees and guests used them. He said that the remodeled house, in the Lifestyles complex in Costa Mesa, was not occupied, but used as a set for youth television programs, with the Transformers serving as props. Matthew Crouch, through the company spokesman, declined an interview request. But Gilbert J. Luft, president of the Lifestyles Homeowners Association in Costa Mesa, said that the sons were familiar residents and that the association does not permit filming there.

Extolling TBN’s prominence and programs, Mr. May said the spending that some call opulent “is necessary to convey the ministry’s position of accomplishment.”

The Gospel of Prosperity

On the air, the Crouches combine uplifting talk with encouragement to give to the Lord, and so be repaid. This “prosperity gospel” is shared by several televangelists who appear on TBN. But many conventional Christian leaders regard it as a sham.

“Prosperity theology is a false theology,” said R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Between its message and its reputation for high spending, Mr. Mohler said, “TBN has been a huge embarrassment to evangelical Christianity for decades.”

While TBN said it provided tens of millions of dollars’ worth of free advertising time to conventional charities like the Salvation Army and a few million dollars in some years for aid to disaster victims, it is forthright about its overriding purpose: “to spread the Gospel to the world” through its cable systems, satellite transmitters and, now, via computers and smartphones.

Janice Crouch, called “Mama” on the air, is known for her pink-tinged wigs, which look like huge swirls of cotton candy, and for talking emotionally about the Lord’s blessings. Mr. Crouch, or “Papa,” is relentlessly upbeat as he quotes flurries of Bible verses on signature programs like “Praise the Lord.”

Clearly, many viewers have heartfelt responses. In 2010, TBN received $93 million in tax-exempt donations, according to its tax report. The company also had $64 million in additional income from sales of airtime and $17 million in investment income that year.

It spent $194 million operating its far-flung network and investing in new programs. The company was in the red for the year, but could draw on its cushion of $325 million in cash and investments.

Rusty Leonard, an independent tax expert and the leader of Wall Watchers, a charity watchdog group that has long criticized TBN for financial secrecy, said televangelists often escape penalties for extravagant spending because the definition of taxable “excess benefits” is subjective, and authorities are reluctant to challenge religious groups.

Marcus S. Owens, a tax lawyer with Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, said that lavish spending by nonprofit organizations could raise red flags for tax officials. “The law says that any compensation must be reasonable, and the value of a house is part of that,” he said. “Dinner on the company every night could be an issue too.”

At the same time, Mr. Owens said, churches have considerable latitude under the First Amendment. Regarding the ordination of untrained workers, he said, “absent clear fraud, the government is not going to touch that.”

A TBN spokesman said executive salaries were recommended by independent consultants. In 2010, Mr. Crouch received $400,000 as president, Mrs. Crouch $365,000 as first vice president.

On the air, Mr. and Mrs. Crouch tell viewers that they have almost no personal assets. But that only underscores the problem, said Tymothy S. MacLeod, a lawyer for the Kopers. “It’s the tax-exempt company that is giving them this opulent lifestyle.”

Accounts of Extravagance

Relatives and former employees agreed that Paul and Janice Crouch seem to have deep spiritual feelings and believe they are doing the Lord’s work — a belief, according to a former employee, Troy Clements, that seemed to justify almost any extravagance.

Mr. Clements, a former executive at Holy Land Experience, said that when employees questioned decisions like remodeling the cafe three times in six weeks, Mrs. Crouch said, “No one has told me ‘no’ for 30 years, and you’re not going to start now.”

Mr. Clements, who was sales and then personnel director at Holy Land, said that he resigned in frustration in 2008 and that working for Mrs. Crouch had often been “surreal.”

In 2008 and 2009, as Mrs. Crouch began remodeling Holy Land Experience, she rented adjacent rooms in the deluxe Loews Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando — one for herself and one for her two beloved Maltese dogs and clothes, according to Mr. Clements and Ms. Koper. Mrs. Crouch rented the rooms for close to two years, they said.

Ms. Crouch was seldom without her little white dogs, pushing them in a pink stroller and keeping a costly motor home, originally purchased to serve as an office, for two years as an air-conditioned sanctuary for her pets, the two former employees said.

In Newport Beach, according to Ms. Koper, the elder Mr. Crouch sometimes traveled in a chauffeured Bentley, which TBN says is used to ferry television guests in proper style.

First-class “working dinners” are a way of life. In pending lawsuits, the Kopers say that Mr. Crouch, Mrs. Crouch and their son Matthew each ran up meal expenses of at least $300,000 per year. Mr. May, the TBN lawyer, said this was not accurate but did not offer other figures.

A Contentious Exit

When Brittany Koper and her husband decided to join TBN in 2007 after college, they were tempted by the generous perquisites, they admit. But they said that as Mr. Koper completed law school on the side, and Ms. Koper her M.B.A., they began to feel uneasy and moved out of their company house.

Nonetheless, they did borrow company money for their down payment on a private home and the purchase of a condominium, and gave Mr. Koper’s uncle a company loan of $65,000, among other acts that Mr. May called thefts. The Kopers said the loans were authorized in writing by the elder Mr. Crouch, with clear repayment terms.

TBN says Mr. Crouch’s signature was forged. Mr. May showed a reporter letters from the fall in which Ms. Koper apologized for lying and lending herself company money.

Ms. Koper said that she had never admitted to breaking the law. She said she was pressured by TBN lawyers to show “Christian contrition” and to hand over company property and repay their loans.

In October the Kopers moved to New York. “We just wanted a fresh start,” Ms. Koper recalled.

Her father, Paul Crouch Jr., Matthew’s older brother, was also forced off the staff and quit the board.

He declined to be interviewed, but he wrote in an e-mail, “Getting caught in the middle of disputes involving my daughter, brother and parents is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to endure.”

As lawsuits and countersuits swirl, the Kopers are living in the basement of his father’s modest house in Elmont, on Long Island.

Mr. Crouch and an assistant, Matthew and his family, and two pilots are nearing the end of a six-week world tour in the larger company jet, visiting affiliates, taping programs and scouting new territory for evangelism in Rome, Dubai, Israel, Hong Kong and Hawaii.

“Others may do things differently, and may criticize TBN for how it operates, its look, its doctrine and belief,” Mr. May said. “But what is absolutely clear is that TBN, with God’s grace, has succeeded where most others have failed.”