A Tenable Belief analyzes ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett’s holiday fund-raising appeal. On his home page, Bennett claims an immediate need for $25,000 to repay debts and then warns that his activist operation might not continue unless donors supply $100,000 by Dec. 31 to cover just the first three months of 2007.
ATB notices what’s missing from Bennett’s claims of financial hardship:
- No mention is made of funds earmarked for, or expenses paid because of, the radio show, the Jerusalem trip, or the new church.
- A drop in donations would be expected after giving up travel for preaching and speaking engagements in June.
- Receiving $100K in December might increase Bennett’s peace of mind, but only $25K is urgently needed to pay off debt.
- Is the new church is consuming a significant proportion of the ministry’s energy? If so, is there a plan to bring in enough $50/month global members in order to fund it?
“The church shares phone/fax numbers, a P.O. box, and apparently a Tax ID with the Bennett ministries. There are no indications as to whether its physical presence is more than a room in the Bennett family’s basement.”
Speaks volumes. I can appreciate that some monies must be spent, but $100,000 for 3 months? Also, was there any verification that Bennett did indeed travel to Jerusalem and performed ministry?
The accounting person in me thinks that this is a lot of bucks for the bang.
Well, all that hairspray does get expensive…
This is a typical megga church tactict to rip-off the naieve and fearbased. When you hear phrases like “we cannot continue this ministry unless we get $100,000.00 from you by the end of December” or something to that affect. I wonder whether Mr. Bennett is paying taxes or free loading it on the “tax exempt” status of his church.
LOL, Benjamin, this reminds me of the time in the 1980’s when Oral Roberts announced he’d had a vision of a 700 foot Jesus in a supermarket parking lot and Jesus told him that if he didn’t raise $700,000 (or whatever) by the end of the month, Roberts was going to die.
One of our local radio stations had a non-pledge marathon during morning drive time, where people would call in and unpledge dollar amounts, in order to hurry Roberts along to the hereafter!
On two occasions, I was able to give alms to Buddhist monks walking through my neighborhood.
There are rules they have to accomodate when entering a home.
Same for Mormon missionaries. But it gets terribly hot during the summer in my neck of Los Angeles.
And my home baked stuff is hard to turn down.
But when my husband’s cousins were on their missions, I hoped that they were treated kindly.
I was just casting bread…
Anyway, I really wanted to talk to these young people and see what was on their minds and what brought them such devotion to endure what they were.
The monks were VERY different from the Mormon kids.
But they ARE kids after all.
Kids are interesting. Like the varieties of flowers I see all the time.
And sometimes I’m just as awestruck at the variety and beauty of kids too.
I think Bennett should rethink his grandiose schemes and do it the Jesus way.
Eschew trappings and material things and test himself among those who might talk to him of their joys or hardships or dreams.
Instead of telling his community about HIS.
HE wants to be served, instead of really serving his community the way a good Christian would…and should.
That young woman, who coined the oath “commit random acts of kindness and senseless beauty”
got it exactly right.
One doesn’t need a label whatsoever to do such a thing, and the person who receives it won’t care what you are.
Bennett never had the sight required. And this solicitation just proves it.
Regan, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head! Rather than asking to be served, SB and a host of others should really listen to Christ’s words instead of their own, go out and serve those truly in need. It might be an eye and soul opening experience.
It’s all too easy to preach with words only.
I guess his $30: I can gay-proof America fee, or his $50: I can gay-proof America fee and we’ll pray about it over the wires of my NetChurch, ministry partnerships must not be paying off the way he expected. Or maybe he’s saturated the market with his music CDs.
I just wonder how many he scams… er, gets to help him out yearly.
It could be that the recent mid-term elections and the Haggard fiasco bode an ill wind for funding such causes in the short term future. Could be a reason for the source of his shortfalls.
BTW – strangest thing happened… the security code for posting was one I had used before here and MS Explorer gave me the drop down for it.
. . .