BREAKING: Huckabee Scandal
Wed Jan 30, 2008 at 05:25:53 AM PST
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.
