Franklin Graham Earns over $1 Million a Year

A USA Today article published in October of last year reported that Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, earned over $1 millon in 2008 (Big non-profit organizations have highly paid leaders). I am not opposed to people earning large salaries, after all, it is the American way; but I do have a problem with people who claim to be Christian ministers (word means "servant") earning enormous paychecks. Graham earned $633,722 as President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and another $483,000 from his second job as President of Samaritan's Purse. The former is supposed to be a missionary and evangelism organization, and the latter, a Christian relief organization to help the poor.

What Graham took in was mere "chump change" compared to Television Evangelists such as John Hagee, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn and Joel Osteen. It, of course, is very difficult to get figures on exactly how much income these people get because they don't release the figures or they hide them among various entities to which they belong. Here is what I have been able to find:

John Hagee in 2001 "earned" $842,005 in compensation and $414,485 in benefits. This does not include all the money from his tapes and books.

Creflo Dollar (that is his real name) does pretty well too. He and his wife live in a million-dollar mansion in Atlanta. When he started another church in NYC, he purchased a $2.5M apartment there. He has two Rolls-Royces and his church has not one but two lear jets.

Joyce Meyer in 2002 "earned" a $900,000 annual salary and her husband, the Vice President of her ministry organization, "earned" $450,000. In addition, the ministry's board of directors agreed to provide the couple with free personal use of a corporate jet and luxury cars, a $2 million home where all bills are paid by the ministry and a separate $50,000-a-year housing allowance. The ministry paid $1.475 million to buy three houses for the three Meyer children. The board authorized Joyce and Dave Meyer to control a $790,000 fund to be used at their discretion for bonuses to "executive management."

Benny Hinn is going through a divorce so I expect his real net worth will become public but we know this much: In 2008, he made a cool $800K in less than two days "work" in Australia. Hinn’s salary is somewhere between half a million and a million dollars per year. He also gets royalties from the sales of his books and personal perks for Hinn, family and his entourage include a $10 million seaside mansion; a private jet with annual operating costs of about $1.5 million; a Mercedes SUV and convertible, each valued at about $80,000.

Joel Osteen,  in 2006, earned $13 million on just one of his books, Become a Better You . His Amazon page shows that he now has written over a dozen books. He recently bragged that he told his church to stop paying him his $200K annual salary. How magnanimous of him. If I were making millions off of books, I think I could turn down a measley $200K as well.

The really big money comes from book sales. As of the end of 2008 Rick Warren had sold around 40 million copies of his book: The Purpose Driven Life . Estimates of his royalties for this one book alone would be around $100 million dollars. No wonder he "reverse tithes" to his church (gives 90% and keeps 10%).

Below is a list of other prominent evangelicals and their annual compensation from the Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Neil J. Nicoll, CEO-------YMCA--------------------$432,600
Paul F. Crouch, CEO-------TBN-------------------$419,500
Janice Crouch, VP---------TBN---------------------$361,000
Elinor Hite, SVP----------YMCA---------------------$352,080
Richard Stearns, CEO------World Vision---------$336,472
William F. Horan, CEO-----Operation Blessing--$333,654
Gordon Robertson, CEO-----CBN------------------$326,820
Dennis Ryberg, CEO--------Young Life------------$279,338
James Daly, CEO-----------Focus on the Family-$240,002
Charles F. Stanley, CEO-In Touch Ministries---$226,704
Alexander D. Hill, CEO-InterVarsity Fellowship-$171,088
Michael Treneer, CEO------The Navigators------$161,476

At least these salaries are known. Some in the Southern Baptist Convention are "hopping mad," that the Convention will not publish the salaries of its executives. The blog Baptist Planet reports:

The most recent published figures we could find for top SBC leaders’ salaries are from 1990. They’re cited in the book The Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention by James C. Hefley. According to that book, five top SBC executives at the time were paid more than $100,000 a year. . . .The five, according to [Southern Baptist Advocate Editor Bob] Tenery, were Lloyd Elder, President, Sunday School Board, $157,086; Harold Bennett, President-Treasurer, Executive Committee, $151,079; Larry Lewis, President, Home Mission Board, $113,583; Keith Parks, President, Foreign Mission Board, $113,000. The Annuity Board decline to report renumeration (sic) for its newly-elected president, Paul W. Powell. Tenery further noted that the top six men at the Sunday School Board, where Tenery is a trustee, were paid $715,475 in salary and benefits.. . .

Even simple adjustments for inflation for the equivalent positions today result in very comfortable salaries for all. Such adjustments do not consider the implications of the subsequent revelation of extravagance by Bob Reccord while he headed the SBC’s North American Mission Board. Reccord funneled $3.3 million to business friends, including current SBC President Johnny Hunt, while NAMB staff was downsized. His severance package of two years’ salary plus benefits reportedly exceeded $500,000.

A 2005 Associated Baptist Press article noted that even members of the SBC’s own Executive Committee must sign a pledge not to reveal employee salaries. Details from Reccord’s rein emerged only because NAMB marketing director Mary Kinney Branson escaped without signing the standard agreement.

Branson is a former marketing director for the SBC’s North American Mission Board and her book [Spending God's Money: Extravagance And Misuse In The Name Of Ministry ]is “an insider’s account of the extravagance and financial mismanagement there” (See this article).

On the blog, Stop Baptist Predators, Christa Brown writes:

Branson provides details that implicate high Southern Baptist officials and those details are not flattering. For example, (NAMB President) Bob Reccord “had a $1 million fund he could use at his discretion, no questions asked and no receipts required.” (Branson at p. 61)

Can you imagine any other organization that would allow an official to spend such sums with so little oversight? According to Branson, that $1 million fund was replenished each year, and in Reccord’s last two years, the fund was reduced to $350,000. In other words, the money didn’t just sit there. He spent it. “No receipts required.”

When Reccord resigned, 41 Southern Baptist leaders signed a letter, praising Reccord and essentially whitewashing his “undisputed misuse of funds.” (Branson at p. 18) One of those signers was Johnny Hunt, who is now the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Another was evangelist Jay Strack.

According to Branson, after Bob Reccord left the North American Mission Board, “auditors discovered that payments were being made to evangelist Jay Strack ($300,000) and Bob’s mega-pastor Johnny Hunt at Woodstock Baptist Church ($92,000). Final payments were sent after Bob resigned but before he left the building…. There were no written contracts. So nearly half a million dollars was paid to Strack and Hunt through verbal agreements with Bob.” (Branson at p. 113)

I know that the great majority of pastors and Christian workers are paid very modest wages. However, there is a significant number of high profile "leaders" who are compensated quite nicely. Sounds pretty foreign to the concept of a servant, doesn't it?

Atheists in the Pulpit (Repeat)

This is the first time I have ever repeated a post; but since I have had a flood of traffic today due to P.Z. Meyer's reference to the Evangelical Pastors are Discouraged and Depressed post from yesterday, I decided to repeat an earlier post about Atheists in the Pulpit.

Here it is:

I came across a fascinating article in the Washington Post by Daniel Dennett entitled, Skeptical Clergy a Silent Majority. The article deals with a study that was done by Dennett and Linda LaScola of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He begins the article by saying:

Here are some questions that have haunted me for years. How many preachers actually believe what they say from the pulpit? We know that every year some clergy abandon their calling, no longer able to execute their duties with conviction. This can never be a decision taken lightly, and many of them labored on for years before taking the leap. Are they the tip of an iceberg? Is there a problem of deep hypocrisy separating many pastors from their flocks? What is it like to be a non-believing preacher? How do they reconcile their private skepticism with the obligations of their position? And how did they get into their predicament?

Dennett and LaScola interviewed five Protestant pastors who are all still currently serving their churches, yet have given up belief in God (you can read full interviews here). Three of these men are in liberal churches and two are in conservative churches. Some people, I think, would initially react by saying, how hypocritical of these men to continue preaching when they no longer believe what they preach. I can sympathize with that sentiment but I can also sympathize with the preachers because I used to be in their same shoes.

I started having serious doubts about my faith sometime in the year 1994. I can remember being in El Paso, Texas preaching in a Baptist church and during the middle of my sermon, the thought hit me, you don't really believe what you are saying. It was a frightening thought and almost disrupted my sermon. I was taught to attribute such thoughts to the devil. So I went back to my room and prayed for the Lord to defeat the devil in my life and to increase my faith. I decided to investigate as thoroughly as I could all of the issues that were causing me to doubt my evangelical theology. I was in my 8th year of teaching in a Bible college. I never shared with anyone the nature of my doubts because frankly that is not allowed in strict evangelical circles. It was okay for students or new Christians to have doubts but not for a leader and especially not for someone with a Ph.D. in Theology who was entrusted to teach young people studying for the ministry.

At the end of the 1995 school year, I decided that maybe what I needed was a less academic role and a more pastoral role. Thus, I accepted a position as a Pastor at a local Baptist church in Arizona. I spent two years there and my doubts became worse. The last 6 months of my stay, I was convinced that the Bible was not the Word of God and that evangelical Christianity was like every other religion that exists, man-made. Those 6 months were difficult because I felt like a complete hypocrite. I had to get up and teach something that I personally could no longer believe.

The honorable thing, some would say, would have been to resign immediately. I agree but its difficult when you are married, your wife doesn't work, you have two small children, a mortgage and no marketable skills. What could I do? Resign and go to work at Walmart? It was a very difficult situation. Fortunately, in my case, someone approached me who was starting a new business, a recruiting business, and asked me if I would like to run the administrative part of it. I was delighted. I resigned the church and began my new career. It has worked out very well for me and I have been in the executive recruiting business now for 13 years.

So, I do sympathize with these men, but I also think that they need to find a way to get out of the ministry for the sake of their own sanity and self-esteem. In addition, they need to get out for the sake of their parishoners. I believe its wrong to intentionally mislead them. One of the pastors had this to say about his role:

Here’s how I’m handling my job on Sunday mornings: I see it as play acting. I kind of see myself as taking on a role of a believer in a worship service, and performing. Because I know what to say. I know how to pray publicly. I can lead singing. I love singing. I don’t believe what I’m saying anymore in some of these songs. But I see it as taking on the role and performing. Maybe that’s what it takes for me to get myself through this, but that’s what I’m doing.

I think that is sad and its unhealthy for the church and for the preacher. I wonder how many preachers are doing the same thing as this man every Sunday?

Here is the story of Scott Campbell , an evangelical Baptist pastor who found himself in the pulpit although he no longer believed.



I must also ask why do Christians have so many doubts if the Christian religion is true? Someone in the comment section on the article by Dennett and LaScola said this: Even the most devout and confident among us will have days when we step into the pulpit praying, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief." To which another person replied:

I have often heard religious people say this, and frankly, it boggles my mind. This kind of crisis of confidence seldom, if ever, happen to people in other lines of work. A programmer does not wake up thinking that computers don't really work after all. Biologists don't worry that natural selection doesn't exist. Farmers do not question the wisdom or benefit of growing carrots. With all due respect, it seems to me that if you have difficulty believing something, or you keep coming up with reasons to doubt, you should immediately stop trying to believe it. Put aside religion and if compelling evidence emerges later on, you can always go back to believing. (I'll grant it would hard to do that if religion is your livelihood.) When a programmer develops grave doubts about a design, it is time to abandon that approach and try something new. A Democrat who decides Republican ideology makes more sense should change parties (and vice versa!). What possible benefit can there be to holding back and trying to persuade yourself to ignore a logical conclusion that fits the facts? It is an abuse of your own intellect. You can't do it anyway; your mind rebels. You just give yourself a headache -- or neurosis. It is like trying to eat food that tastes rotten.

He is correct. We don't doubt most things that we believe. Why do so many doubt Christianity? Could it be because its really not true?

Evangelical Pastors are Discouraged and Depressed

The son of the late Jerry Falwell is concerned about what is happening among evangelical pastors. Half of pastors would leave the ministry tomorrow if they could. Seventy percent are fighting depression and 90 percent can't cope with the challenge of ministry. Those are the statistics Pastor Jonathan Falwell laid out to thousands of ministers who were in Lynchburg, Va., Tuesday for the "Refuel" conference. The well-known pastor stated bluntly, "Something is wrong in ministry" (see article).

While I would not criticize anyone for having clinical depression, depression due to discouragement is another matter when it comes to an evangelical Christian pastor. He (there aren't very many shes in evangelical pastorates) is supposed to be a child of God, have direct access to the throne of God to ask for help and provision, be certain of going to heaven when he dies, have all of his sins and guilt removed, what in the world does he have to be depressed about--if what he believes is really the truth? The very name of the conference is interesting-- Refuel . Why is it that Christians have to constantly be refueled and recharged in order to keep going? Why do they have to be reminded all of the time that their God is real?

Another article reveals even more telling statistics based on a survey of 1,050 evangelical Pastors (note these are evangelical pastors not liberal pastors):

• 89% considered leaving the ministry at one time.
• 57% said they would leave if they had a better place to go—including secular work.
• 77% felt they did not have a good marriage!
• 75% felt they were unqualified and/or poorly trained by their seminaries to lead and manage the church or to counsel others. This left them disheartened in their ability to pastor. 
• 71% stated they were burned out, and they battle depression beyond fatigue on a weekly and even a daily basis. 
• 38%  said they were divorced or currently in a divorce process.
• 30% either has an ongoing affair or a one-time sexual encounter with a parishioner.
• 23% said they felt happy and content on a regular basis with who they are in Christ, in their church, and in their home!

The same article also gives the following research distilled from Barna, Focus on the Family, and Fuller Seminary.

• 1500 pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.
• 50% of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.
• 80 percent of pastors feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastor.
• 50% of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
• 80% of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
• 70% of pastors constantly fight depression.
• 40% of pastors polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.

Now why I am posting this? To gloat? No, I truly feel sorry for anyone who is depressed or who feels locked into an occupation that they don't enjoy. Life is too short to go through it like that. I post this because, in my opinion, it confirms my conclusion that evangelical Christianity is not true. It seems to me that if it were true, there would be a marked difference between Christians, especially Christian leaders, and the rest of society. If anything, it seems that evangelical pastors are in a worse condition than the average nonbeliever.