You probably haven't heard of the Dallas-based Trinity Foundation, but might be familiar with some of their work. The Daily Show's classic "God Stuff" segment with Joe Bob Briggs (a.k.a., John Bloom) was their brainchild. They also publish the Wittenburg Door: "pretty much the world's only religious satire magazine." They live in a kibbutz in one of the roughest neighborhoods in East Dallas, routinely taking in the homeless. But what they are most famous for is their (often sub rosa) exposes of televangelists like Benny Hinn, Paul Crouch, and the ubiquitous Kenneth Copeland.
Most of the hypocrisy they uncover is just plain funny, like the report in the Los Angeles Times that TBN founder Paul Crouch was (allegedly) having sexual relations with a former drug addict working at the station -- who also happened to be male. But occasionally, they come across a diamond in the rough.
Looks like they've got the Huckster in a bit of a bother....
This story is just breaking, and could really use some legs. (It's a press release by Ole and the guys, and intended for wide dissemination; I used to help them out with investigations back in the day.) The bottom line here is that Charles Grassley is breathing down Copeland's neck with his investigation of televangelists who turn their ministries into ATM machines (on a MUCH lighter note, check out Robert "Tootin'" Tilton); the Huckster ran to Copeland for a little cash, and he just happened to be in the market for a little protection.
Republican hopeful Mike Huckabee reached out to a questionable funding source this week. Texas televangelist Kenneth Copeland, one of the targets of a Senate Finance Committee investigation into the funding and governance of "prosperity gospel" ministries.
At Copeland€'s annual by-invitation-only Minister's Conference at his Newark, Texas, headquarters Jan. 23, Copeland received a call during the meeting from Huckabee requesting emergency financing. According Doug Wead, former Bush family evangelical adviser, Copeland and his supporters at the conference raised $111,000 in cash for Huckabee, with about a million dollars in pledged donations, after he temporarily adjourned the conference and then reconvened the group as a "private meeting."
Wead relayed a report in his blog from a source at the meeting that "Last night [Jan. 23] the Governor called his friend in the middle of a conference and Copeland, carefully observing all the laws governing non profits, as a private citizen, re-convened a private meeting, turned to his friends and raised a few million dollars for Huckabee." (See "Mike Huckabee's Big Mistake")
According to video clips of the conference obtained by Trinity Foundation, an investigative watchdog group in Dallas, Copeland revealed that Huckabee had pledged his total support to Copeland's ministry while dismissing the Senate investigation.
Video clips are here(the second clip is on Huckabee -- transcribed by them below).
"[Huckabee told me] Why should I stand with them and not stand with you? They've only got 11 per cent approval rating.' And then he said, 'Kenneth Copeland, I will stand with you.' He said, 'You're trying to get prosperity to the people and they're trying to take it away from 'em.' He said, 'I will stand with you any time, anywhere, on any issue.' That settled that right there. I said, 'Yeah, that's my man! That's my man, right there.'"
The Huckster's association with Copeland might just put the final nail in the coffin of his presidential aspirations. Those who delight in oppo research really ought to know.