Court: Evangelist May Continue Defamation Suit against ABC's 20/20

Frederick K.C. Price doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He’s up to his elbow in the cookie jar. Same for all the other shakedown and scam artists touched on in the 20/20 report.

I think it’s great that Ministry Watch is holding to account televangelists and big ministries, but where’s the accountability and financial transparency in many local churches? The same financial cover-up goes on, albeit on a smaller scale. I’ve been in churches where they routinely take up “special offerings” for the pastor (pastor appreciation month—an institutionalized shakedown!) and the congregation is never told how much was collected, how much the pastoral staff is paid, or where their tithes and offerings go each week. Many churchgoers who watched this 20/20 expose and pride themselves on being too sophisticated to send money to TBN, Copeland or Brother Benny are doing the same thing in their own churches. I am all for transparency; the church I pastored provided members a detailed accounting of every penny that came in and where it went, including my salary. People greatly appreciated that.

We do the same Gary

What I meant was that our church does our best to disclose where the money is spent. Our church does reveal what I make, I don’t know that that is required. Again, I am not opposed to it otherwise we would not do it. :)

I’m the last person to defend his doctrine, but Price has more than a leg to stand on in this case. I have seen the entire message from which ABC took the clip they aired, and there is no possible way that was not done to intentionally misrepresent what was preached. They played it as a personal boast/admission from Price and it simply wasn’t.

Robert, I will defer to you on this point because I admit I have not seen the full clip. And as the USDA learned from the Shirley Sherrod debacle, a fair assessment should come only after putting controversial comments in a fuller context. The facts will prove whether Price indeed lives the lavish lifestyle he spoke of in that edited clip. Thanks for calling me to account on that (my distaste for that prosperity doctrine sparked my rush to judgment).

Roger, I appreciated your comments about transparency. I suspect we are in the minority. And I’m not boasting about it from on high—that was simply the church’s policy when I came aboard and I had no say in it, but I fully agreed with it and saw only good outcomes from it (e.g., no whispering campaigns about where he got the money when the pastor buys a new car or a take a trip, etc.).

[Gary Peterson] I’m not boasting about it from on high—that was simply the church’s policy when I came aboard and I had no say in it, but I fully agreed with it and saw only good outcomes from it (e.g., no whispering campaigns about where he got the money when the pastor buys a new car or a take a trip, etc.).

Brothers, what does Scripture teach on this point?