An Overview of Religious Financial Fraud - The $34 Billion Scandal

[Mimi]

A Global Problem

Barrett and Johnson in the reference book “World Christian Trends” reported, “Probably 80% of all cases are kept private or swept under the carpet, but each year a rash of megathefts (over $1 million each) is uncovered and publicized in the secular media.” 3 Here is a small sample of religious financial scandals from around the world:

    * Brazil: Bishop Edir Macedo, head of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, and 9 of his associates have been charged with embezzling more than $2 billion. 4
    * Canada: Televangelists Ron and Reynold Mainse allegedly recruited investors in a Ponzi scheme. 5
    * China: A whistleblower goes to jail for speaking out after donations for earthquake victims were stolen. 6
    * Italy: Police confiscated 23 million euros in a Vatican bank account as part of an investigation into money laundering. 7
    * Ukraine: Pastor Sunday Adelaja charged with fraud in promoting a business venture to his congregation that lost $100 million. 8
    * United Kingdom: Church treasurer Derek Klein embezzled funds to pay for a stamp collection. 9
    * United States: Trent Huddleston, former senior accountant at Oral Roberts University, alleges that more than $1 billion was money laundered annually by members of the Oral Roberts University board. 10

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[Richard Myers]

All in the name of Jesus.    Judgment day is not May 21, but it will be soon enough for those who have misrepresented the truth about God. As a Christian, I ask forgiveness for what some have done in my Saviour's name. It has nothing to do with His character or His Word. Jesus is a witness of God's ways which include mercy past understanding and a perfect justice that will not clear the guilty.

Here is what God said:

The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,  Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. Exodus 34:7,8 

God loves us while we were yet sinners. He gave His innocent Son for us, but unless we turn from our evil and repent, we shall in noways escape justice. Some will suffer more than Sodom and Gomorrah.