Televangelist investigation: What is a church? Who is a minister? Should the tax man decide?

In this June 18, 2003 photo, televangelists, (from left): Billy Joe Daugherty; Gloria Copeland; Kenneth Copeland; Charles Green; Richard Roberts; and Lindsay Roberts lay hands on Oral Roberts, 85, during the International Charismatic Bible Ministries conference in the Mabee Center at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

By David Waters
WashPost

Do you know how your church -- or the megachurch down the street -- spends its tax-exempt money? Do you know how much tax-exempt compensation your pastor receives or how he or she spend their money?

Shouldn't you know? Shouldn't the the government to find out for you?

Those are some of the intriguing and unsettling questions raised by a must-read staff review released last week by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).

The 66-page report, filled with references to nearly every major religious figure in America from Billy Graham to Jerry Falwell to Rick Warren, concludes Grassley's three-year investigation of six media-based, multi-million-dollar "ministries."

(More here.)