Trinity Broadcasting Network / TBN/ Paul & Jan Crouch

Analyst Comments [ Back to top ]

MinistryWatch.com’s Take
February 2003



Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is the largest Christian television network, carried around the globe. The conglomerate files many IRS form 990’s and it is not possible to have an accurate financial picture of the whole without its consolidated financial statements. TBN is willing to promptly send its IRS form 990, but it is against their policy to send copies of its consolidated audited financial statements.

With a vision of Christian television spanning the world, Paul and Jan Crouch started the Trinity Broadcasting Network in 1973 in Tustin, California. From humble beginnings, TBN is currently heralded as the largest Christian television network, carried around the globe by over 3100 broadcast media outlets, satellites, cable systems and the Internet, with programming translated into foreign languages and reaching into literally millions of homes. With a stated purpose of promoting trust, commitment and dependability, TBN offers a place where people from all walks of life can turn for traditionally cherished values of “faith in God, love of family and patriotic pride.”

Getting off the ground
Outdistanced in the 70’s by Pat Robertson’s CBN and Jim Bakker’s PTL, which Bakker first founded as a Christian variety show on Crouch’s fledgling network, it took the Bakkers’ downfall at PTL amidst overwhelming moral and financial scandal to give TBN the market boost it needed to become a contender. With much the same folksy appeal as the Bakkers, Paul and Jan Crouch combined financial and media savvy to build a formidable media ministry conglomerate, eventually eclipsing all comers.

Something for everyone
TBN offers a veritable potpourri of religious programming to satisfy virtually every nominally Christian appetite. From a smorgasbord of in house TBN productions to a schedule of widely ranging denominational affiliates, the network provides an uninterrupted menu of religious entertainment, celebration, youth programming, lifestyle, health and beauty tips, financial counseling and prosperity tips, news and current events, teaching, preaching and revivals. Scheduled broadcast affiliates range from theologically conservative Southern Baptists Charles Stanley and Adrian Rogers to Catholic Ministries’ Father Manning, including possibility herald Robert Shuller, prosperity and Word of Faith gurus Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar and John Avanzini, Christian exorcist Bob Larson, and the edgy spontaneity of contemporary musical-prophet Kim Clement. Entertainment is featured in studio production video and stage pageantry, as well as variety and talk shows before live audiences, JCTV Network’s G-Rock for kids, and musical concerts of every religious genre.

First cabin
Not intimidated by the luster of success, TBN boasts state of the art facilities and technology, combining gold trimmed sets in gilded studios with live remote and pre-recorded broadcasts originating in project headquarters from Florida to California, with plans to expand to Hawaii and the Middle East. A recent commercial cinema venture by Paul Crouch’s son Matt has been a marketing success, with films such as The Omega Code, and promise of bigger things ahead. Though no threat to major studios, Crouch’s production efforts and independent distribution figures have attracted reputable actors and technical staff, raising eyebrows among major sponsors.

Sky’s the limit
An early beneficiary of the boom in private satellite dishes in the U. S., TBN’s determined international broadcast reach has been accomplished with the growth in satellite technology and the increased availability of co-operative commercial networks such as Intelsat, and Eutelsat’s “hotbirds,” combined with TBN’s foreign broadcast service partners. According to ministry information, TBN’s foreign language broadcasts currently cover Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, China and Southeast Asia, with plans to expand into Russian language areas. English language programming carries foreign evangelistic campaign coverage and other televised events back to western audiences, as well as TBN visionary junkets from such places as Mount Nebo in Jordan, where Paul Crouch insisted to a viewing audience that TBN would build a television tower.

Storm clouds
While broadcast horizons have been bright, TBN has been dogged by an increasing storm of controversy in recent years. Paul and Jan Crouch’s charismatic Pentecostalism made the network an early natural for charismatic standard bearers Oral Roberts, Kenneth “Dad” Hagin, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, and more recently such rising stars as Rod Parsley, Mark Chironna, Clarence McClendon, and the cross-culturally popular T. D. Jakes. In the days of wide-ranging independent and denominationally affiliated small ministry broadcasts, such a Pentecostal presence would have simply prompted non-supporters to change the station in search of their favorites. With competing market influences forcing closure of smaller broadcast ministries, many have grudgingly turned to network programming, of which TBN carries the lion’s share. Resulting interdenominational associations, while increasing TBN’s program lineup, have brought heightened scrutiny to the teaching and methods of many of TBN’s marquee ministries, such as Benny Hinn and his center-stage cavalcade of healings, as well as the Crouch’s themselves. Charges of ecumenism, even apostasy, have ushered in an unbroken chorus from more evangelically conservative quarters, among them independent Baptist groups and other denominationally unaffiliated advocates of ecclesiastical, and even “secondary” separation, i.e. separation from those who, though doctrinally sound, don’t separate ecclesiastically. The harshest theological criticisms target the seminal ideas of Pentecostal patron saint, E. W. Kenyon, particularly those dealing with sin, the nature and humanity of Christ, and His saving work, developed and expounded by Word of Faith proponent and TBN supporter Kenneth Copeland and graduates of Copeland’s Rhema Bible School.

“Show me the money”
Additional criticisms deal with the brand of prosperity thinking so evident in TBN’s regular appeals for financial support, virtually promising categorical financial increase as God’s blessing for having supported the work, not only of spreading the Gospel, but apparently also of ministering to the diverse habits and tastes of popular Christianity. Financial inquiry has not been limited to Christian constituents, as government and regulatory agencies at both local and federal levels have shown investigative interest in what has become, to some, the power elite of religious broadcasting. To all of this, the Crouch’s respond with resoluteness and a fiery posture of high moral purpose, declaring that persecution has been the lot of God’s “anointed” leaders from earliest times, and that detractors are merely heresy hunters looking to impede the work of God. Most would agree amidst accolades and criticism that the TBN vision to span the globe with religious broadcasting has become virtual reality.

“Will a man rob God?”
TBN’s fundraising efforts have been the subject of critical scrutiny as long as they have been effective in raising what is today estimated to be easily in excess of 9 figures annually. Strong proponents of O. T. storehouse tithing, ministerial staff and friends regularly cite Malachi 3:10 to motivate donor support of TBN’s techno-church efforts ranging from providing toy “gifts from Jesus,” to the acquisition of additional “devil busting” satellite broadcasts. From telethon-like studio sets, Pentecostal senior statesmen R. W. Schambach, Oral Roberts and others invoke the well oiled Bible analogy of implanted seed producing fruit as they “rebuke the devourer” and demons of want and need, “declaring blessings” – invariably financial – upon the lives of prospective donors, directly equating not only material success but good health, physical healing and daily comforts, with sacrificial giving. Unwilling to leave the financial pitch to others, Crouch is on record boldly declaring that Christians dare not stand before God without a gift, that anyone failing to give financial support after enjoying a benefit from TBN is “robbing God,” and will lose heavenly reward.

Inquiries have issued regularly into TBN ministry salaries, collection and use of designated contributions, and dubious business practices apparently aimed at minimizing competition. In a ruling released in April, 1999, TBN was chastised by the FCC and denied renewal of licensure for Station WHFT TV in Miami, Fla., for committing “serious misconduct,” for having “deliberately concealed material facts” concerning TBN’s apparent effort to circumvent FCC regulations regarding station ownership. While it is frequently expected that legitimately differing viewpoints in business will be resolved in the courts, many evangelicals find matters of this kind to fall short of a Scriptural standard for leadership, especially when coupled with a determined financial policy emphasis which many Christians and non-Christians alike find unseemly, all of it glibly excused with marginal Biblical interpretations unacceptable to all but a few. Far exceeding debate over the relevance of sign gifts, tongues and healing, or varying interpretations concerning the security of the believer, Crouch and TBN’s most vocal supporters seem to have espoused a theological construct wherein every blessing of God has a materially prosperous manifestation, wherein Christ Himself was materially wealthy, leaving us an example thatwe should follow in His steps. Crouch’s use of numerous O. T. illustrations of God’s conditional blessing in response to the obedience of O. T. saints becomes a carte blanche assurance to TBN listeners and supporters that God will materially enrich them if they give to the network. Crouch illustrates further with an assertion that God Himself met His own “need” for redeemed children with the gift of His Son, an interpretation of the Sovereign sufficiency and Saving Grace of God unknown outside the scope of prosperity theology.

Legitimate fundraisers of every stripe have born the burden of persuading that theirs is a worthy cause, and Christians have long understood that ministry has legitimate costs, that those who serve in the ministry are entitled to be supported by it, and that sacrificial giving to God is a Christian joy and duty. It is beyond dispute that TBN offers much needed communication media for a broad range of legitimate evangelical ministry. It is the litany of endlessly urgent appeals for support of a ministry that appears to be already well supplied that is hard to understand, the defiance of its officers that is hard to accept. Paul Crouch’s vitriol in response to his critics, many of whom are Christians of renown, is summarized as follows:

• " ... they're damned and on their way to hell and I don't think there's any redemption for them ...”
  
• "I say, `To hell with you! Get out of my life! Get out of the way! Quit blockin' God's bridges!”
  
• "I don't care about your doctrines as long as you name the name of Jesus, as long as you believe He died... and was buried but came out of the tomb on Sunday morning and ascended to the Father ... I don't care about anything else! Let's join hands ... to get this gospel preached in all the world.“

• The conglomerate files many IRS form 990’s and it is not possible to have an accurate financial picture of the whole without its consolidated financial statements.

• Significant salaries for 2001 included Paul Crouch at about $403,700 and Jan Crouch at $347,500.
• In December 2001, the board of directors of TBN Productions, Inc (TBNPI) which is an affiliate of Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, Inc. (TCCSA) approved the ceasing of all film projects and any other work in progress and to commence the winding up of TBNPI for the purpose of eventual dissolution. In addition, the board of directors assigned all assets of TBNPI to TCCSA.
• A note receivable is due from Gener8xion Entertainment, Inc., a company owned by a family member of the president, Paul Crouch. The note receivable was assigned to TCCSA by the board of directors of TBNPI.
• TBNPI entered into an agreement with Gener8xion Entertainment, Inc. and a related production/ financial agreement with Megiddo Productions, Inc., a single-purpose corporation formed by Gener8xion whereby TBNPI agreed to finance and produce a motion picture and Gener8xion whereby TBNPI agreed to finance and produce a motion picture and Gener8xion agreed to provide all customary production services. The board of directors of TBNPI assigned the related film costs to TCCSA.

• TBN is willing to promptly send its IRS form 990 to comply with laws, but it is against their policy to send copies of its consolidated audited financial statements.