The traitorous and sanctimonious ”Bishop” Hagee addresses his befuddled cult in front of the colors of a foreign land. The Zionists gave the man his own Jet to tool around in – while preaching falsehoods to duped Christians and laughing all the way to the bank! [INCOG]
Veteran Christian nationalist Willis Carto scares arch-Zionist preacher John Hagee half to death.
Dripping in diamonds and gold and draped in designer clothes, hundreds of well-heeled supporters of Texas evangelist John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel poured into the Washington Convention Center, July 21-24, for Hagee’s third annual “Israel Summit.”
Big on the agenda was promotion of Israel’s — and Hagee’s — long-standing demand that the United States destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran. Joining the applause for Hagee’s campaign was Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, a featured speaker at Hagee’s “Night to Honor Israel” banquet on July 21.
Critics say Hagee’s outfit is cult-like and not Christian at all, and that it places worship of the modern-day state of Israel (and the Jewish people) at its center, rather than devotion to Jesus Christ and His teachings. With this in mind, some traditional Bible-believing Christians greeted Hagee and his followers outside the convention center, waving picket signs and distributing literature exposing the un-Biblical and un-Christian nature of Hagee’s theology.
These critics patiently explained to Hagee devotees who dared to listen that Hagee’s theology is not Biblical in origin, but rather a product of the late 18th century and only came to popular attention in the mid-20th century. Critics denounced Hagee as a “Judas goat” and as a “false prophet” and urged him to repudiate the anti-Christ teachings of the Jewish Talmud.
Among those seeking to educate Hagee’s followers was AFP correspondent Willis Carto, joined by AFP staffers Vince Ryan, Steve Lombardo, Mike Piper, AFP contributor Pete Papaheraklus, as well as veteran Christian writer E. Stanley Rittenhouse and others.
Inside the convention center, Hagee and his followers were warmly greeted by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) [right], an Orthodox Jew who is a strong supporter of Israel and close friend and pivotal spokesman for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).
Always popular with the so-called “Christian Right” — despite Lieberman’s devotion to the teachings of the Jewish holy book, the Talmud, which makes unpleasant comments about Jesus — Lieberman praised Hagee, saying Hagee’s support for Israel was “so much more important” than bitter anti-Catholic remarks made by the Texas evangelist.
Lieberman said he was “proud” to stand with Hagee and spoke of “the bond” he felt with Hagee and the members of his cult.
TOP: Willis Carto, the veteran nationalist organizer and publisher of The Barnes Review, the bimonthly historical magazine, is shown handing flyers to members of the John Hagee pro-Israel cult as they arrive at Hagee’s 2008 Israel Summit in downtown Washington. (The flyer that Carto handed them is reproduced below). Many Hagee cultists angrily threw the flyer back at Carto when confronted with the truth.
BELOW: John Hagee, back to camera, is shown scurrying away from Willis Carto, after Carto attempted to hand Hagee one of the flyers (critical of Hagee’s fraudulent theology) that Carto was providing to Hagee’s supporters as they arrived for Hagee’s Christians United for Israel conference. Hagee was accompanied by an official entourage which included a number of tall, burly bodyguards, including former members of the Israeli Defense Forces and Israel’s domestic intelligence service, the Shin Bet.
Other than Lieberman, at least one other member of Congress was advertised as among the guests, namely Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican. Others who lent their prestige to Hagee’s cult were: Jonathan P. Falwell, son of the late evangelist Jerry Falwell; and neo-conservative pro-Israel Muslim-bashing propagandists Frank Gaffney, Daniel Pipes, Clifford May, Robert Satloff and Dennis Prager. Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) — defeated for reelection and angling for a comeback — and country singer Randy Travis also popped up.
Last, but far from least, joining the festivities were the Bilderberg group’s William Kristol [right], editor of Rupert Murdoch’s Weekly Standard, and Kristol’s close friend and collaborator Gary Bauer, touted as a defender of “family values” in Republican circles.
Here’s the Text of Carto’s Anti-Hagee Flyer:
“Hagee Is an Apostate; John Hagee is a Liar; Hagee Is an Extreme Racist.” “When the Jews demanded that Pilate crucify Christ, they said: ‘Let His blood be on us and our children.’—Matthew, 27:25”
John Hagee literally worships the killers of Jesus Christ. He raises millions of dollars for anti-Christ Israel—where witnessing for Christ is a crime. He gets misled Christians to lobby Congress for more and more of your tax money every year for Israel.
Hagee is an extreme racist and wants all Palestinians—including Christians—to be moved out.
Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin has bragged that they drove out 800,000 people, who have lived penniless in tents supplied by the UN since then. Their houses were demolished by Caterpillar bulldozers supplied free by American taxpayers.
Although the record of Israel insofar as naked military aggression, genocide as defined by the Genocide Convention, intolerance for all religions other than Judaism, spying on “allies,” refusal to agree to treaties restricting arms and rejection of dozens of United Nation resolutions is unsurpassed by any other nation, Hagee preaches that today’s Israel is God’s chosen nation and does not have to abide by rules, laws or treaties of mere men.
In 1982, 2700 Palestinians were slaughtered by an Israeli ally—the phalange, 780,000 were forced into Syria and Lebanon. Today, they live in tents and small houses they built for themselves. The U.S. demands that the UN pay for the meager living expenses of these refugees.
Hagee insanely wants the U.S.A. to nuclear bomb Iran and start another war. He believes this will start Armageddon and destroy the world, and he and his followers will be wafted up to Heaven.
Hagee operates a number of independent businesses, of which his “religious” business, Global Evangelism TV is only one. His income is over $15 million per year and he pays no income tax on additional millions he receives as “expenses.” He has an airstrip, has a jet plane and crew, given him by U.S.- supported Israel. He has a 7600-acre ranch in Brackettville, Texas, a chef, waiters, servants and ranch hands to feed him and cater to every whim. He operates a hotel on his property and charges “guests” $250 per night.
Hagee preaches that Jews do not have to accept Christ to go to Heaven. The Book of Galations (1:9) says: “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed.”
E. Stanley Rittenhouse, a longtime Christian critic of pseudo-Christian evangelists who place the modern state of Israel and the Jewish people—rather than Jesus Christ—at the center of their faith, was among those on hand at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center to “greet” the supporters of John Hagee’s theology.
E D I T O R I A L
HELLO SUCKERS II
By Willis A. Carto
In addition to the fact that Americans do not want to be hornswoggled into another no-win war—this time against Iran—let’s not forget one certain but disastrous result to follow a U.S. attack: the price of oil.
The black stuff is the basis for civilized life, it seems. Not only gasoline and diesel fuel are central to the economy, but heating oil, propane and other derivatives without number are also. The loss of Iranian oil and a blockade of the Persian Gulf—which would be duck soup for the Persians—would double or treble gas at the pump to $8 or $12 per gallon.
What this means is that the cost of everything would skyrocket— all food, building supplies, clothing—every thing that is moved by train, truck or horse.
There goes the cost of living!
So the next time you read, see or hear some Israel-first pundit, politico or preacher, such as John Hagee, tell you how important it is that we attack Iran, think on these things.
Michael Collins Piper can be heard every week day night live on the Internet at RepublicBroadcasting.org. He is the author of Final Judgment, the controversial “underground bestseller” documenting the collaboration of Israeli intelligence in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He is also the author of The High Priests of War, The New Jerusalem: Zionist Power in America , The Judas Goats: The Enemy Within, Dirty Secrets: Crime, Conspiracy & Cover-Up in the 20th Century, and The GOLEM: Israel’s Hell Bomb. These works can be found at America First Books and FIRST AMENDMENT BOOKS: 1-888-699-NEWS. He has lectured on suppressed topics in places as diverse as Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Russia and Abu Dhabi.
(Issue #31, August 4, 2008 AMERICAN FREE PRESS) American Free Press – 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003
[Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003]
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August 4, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Matt from NC
incogman, thanks for the info on this protest of sorts. This is the type of activism we need to turn things around. It is critical that white Christians awaken to the apostacy of “Judeo-Christianity”, and embrace true biblical “Christianity.” Then they will see that the Jews are our eternal enemies masquerading as our “friends”, and the rest will fall into place.
Hagee is probably the most disgusting preacher-whore for Satan’s minions. But we must remember that most of his followers, and other “Judeo-Christians” are essentially decent people who’ve been duped and are blinded to the truth and trapped in that mindset.
It would be interesting to see if they video-taped some of the interaction with people coming to the event.
August 6, 2008 at 8:46 am
dna
JEEBUS was a JOO…….When dem bones ob the catacombs in Italy are analyzed for DNA, you all will see the entire swindle is a SWINDLE !! Besides what GOOFUS nutz follow a KOOK that believes he WALKED on WATER…. Houdini was good, also, but even he sunk like a rock !!!!!!!!
August 6, 2008 at 11:48 pm
African Man
John Hagee is actually good person.(i am joking) He proves Jews have infiltrated and twisted Christianity.
Anyone with eyes can see that! This is why many people who see the truth hate Christianity. As in the case of DNA!
DNA is right about Christity. It reminds me of Cortes and the Aztecs. The Aztecs taught Cortes was god and thus dooming the Aztecs.
If White race falls, Christianity will be the main reason!
August 7, 2008 at 7:48 am
andy
Check out the ZETGEIST movie. ZEITGEIST proves that chrisianity is a fraud.
August 7, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Chet Manmaster
Hello andy,
Can I ask you a question? What do you believe in? You? The self? Fire gods? Shade trees? Ritz crackers? Nothing? When’s the funeral?
Zeitgeist doesn’t prove anything about Christianity except you can be won over with one pop-culture movie.
I’ve got a book or two for you – but it’s going to require a lot more of your attention span than watching Zeitgeist. It’s called, The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop. You can find it online for free if you look. Another is the Bible itself – cover to cover, but this time, try using Stong’s Concordance to check translations and try to read it in a way to observe content and measure the arc of the whole, long story.
Let me sum this up. So, the big storyline in Zeitgeist is that the whole Jesus Christ thing, savior of the world and stuff, is a big copy of older pagan and pantheistic religions. Right? Isn’t that what the movie says? (That Akhenaten, I recall, even has a hand in it and invents monotheistic sun worship and all that? Or maybe it was the Babylonian priests of Marduk declaring supremacy over all other Babylonian dieties if you read Sitchin?)
Well, if you’ll believe all that completely without any research, then you might as well ponder this fable:
From the very beginning, since way back in Adam’s time, there was a belief by a very few (of whom Moses recorded the information) that God would send a redeemer and redeem his people from their separation. So they waited and waited. Sound familiar?
Then, God put the huge whammy on the planet for their apostacy and darn near killed everybody. Well, the grandson of one of the selected surviors ( the Noah guy ) had a grandson, named Nimrod. He was very powerful, warlike, and ambitious. He created cities in the fertile crescent and was really, really hacked that God blasted the planet. Let’s just say, Nimrod hated God for that (after all, doesn’t everybody think that surely God wouldn’t do anything as harsh as that – God is “love”, right?). Nimrod took a woman named Semiramis. Both Nimrod and sexpot Semiramis loved to be worshiped. Nimrod gets killed. Semiramis “mysteriously” has a baby boy named Tammuz and declares that Tammuz is Nimrod “resurrected” or “reborn.”
It was they who used a story of an immaculate conception/birth, knowing it was coming someday. So, they wanted people to worship them and therefore “scooped” the redeemer’s story. From them, came sun worship, more idolatry, tree worship, the Babylonian mystery religions and so forth that are portrayed as the pioneer, original theologies put forth in Zeitgeist. The Nimord/Tammuz worship (and it’s various incarnations – spawned from ancient Babylon, like even Osiris/Isis/Horus of Egypt) was hugely successful because people, by nature, love to worship idols (tangible things).
Eventually, Christ came, died, and somehow came back to life and fulfilled all this just like the way Isaiah said it would and Isaiah wasn’t at all concerned about the mislead worshippers of all of Nimrod/Tammuz’ subsequent incarnations, like Marduk/Ishtar sun worship. Believe it or not, but I really don’t care what you think. A lot of people happily died for that Christ belief in the Roman Empire. A lot more people were converted because of it. They gained spiritual freedom from it from their worldly, earthly masters, the Caesars. Yeah, long story. Then it (the long story, not just Christianity) starts to get perverted again when that no good Constantine hijacks the church, reapplying the Nimrod plan.
What did you hope to accomplish by posting that little comment? Well I want to thank you for this chance to vent. I really mean it.
Because, I have this to say: Christmas is a lie. Easter is a lie. Valentines’s Day is evil (they’re just Roman orgies, rewrapped). People cannot “accept Christ” and pray “Sinner’s Prayers” like Billy Graham says. That’s all a lie. Dead things cannot spring themselves to life. Read the Bible deeply and ask for understanding. God doesn’t love everybody (“Jacob I loved, while Esau I hated…”), no one is “basically good,” so my advice is that you don’t become a believer. You obviously don’t want the torment. Live your life. Party on. Be a silly court jester with a floppy hat full of bells for all I care.
But if God wants you, andy (and dna I’m talking to you, too), He’ll reach out and grab you. There’s nothing you can do about it. And there is nothing about it you will be able to reason why it is happening. It may take decades of your life and you may lose everything.
Real believers burn now. Non-believers burn later. You really don’t have a choice in the matter.
August 8, 2008 at 8:38 am
Matt from NC
Chet, good post. There’s almost no point arguing with people who CLAIM “there is no G-d”, because deep down even they know/believe that there must be a Creator or Higher power. They’re just lying to themselves and living in denial.
I agree with almost everything you said, with the exception of a few interpretations of Scripture (specifically your inference that all “humans” are descended from Adam and that Noah’s flood was worldwide).
My beliefs are almost entirely consistent with those in the “Christian Identity” movement. This movement is at the cutting edge, IMO, of reforming the Bible and “Christianity” back to it’s true/intended message (via scholarship, examining the texts critically to correct the many mistranslations and misinterpretations, and exposing the many false doctrines planted by the enemy).
A few of the interesting areas of discovery/re-discovery particular to the Christian Identity movement:
1.. The idea that all “humans” descend from Adam is a false doctrine. The idea of a common ancestory for all humanity is postulated by the theory of evolution and is the basis for the “multicultural” “one world community” NWO agenda, and not supported by a correct translation and understanding of the Bible. The reality, as supported by logic, scientific evidence, and the Genesis/Bible account, is all humans did NOT descend from a common ancestry. It is biologically impossible for Adam and Eve (or Noah and his wife…or whomever the first human couple was) to have produced black, white, and asian offspring. The Bible, when translated and interpreted correctly, tells us that Adam and Eve were the progenitors of only one race of “humans”, and that there were other humans on the earth before Adam and Eve were created. This is how Cain was able to find a wife and found a city after being banished from Adam, Eve, and their family. All the available evidence supports the fact that the white peoples of the world are descended from Adam & Eve…with the non-white races being “pre-Adamite” races of humans. As support for that, consider that the asiatic and black races were generally not exposed to nor concerned with the “traditions of Adam & Abraham” (ie, Christianity, Judaism, or Islam) being isolated far away from the Biblical land of Israel, until just the last few centuries of human history. Yahweh forbid mixing between the Adamite/white and non-Adamite races, including explicit commandments that the Israelites were not to intermarry with foreigners.
2. The religion of Yahweh (ie, the religion of the Israelites and now “Christianity”) is not intended for all peoples of the world – but rather exclusively to racial Israelites descended from Jacob/Israel. Yahshua aka “Jesus” was a “kinsman redeemer”, and only sent to the “lost sheep of the House of Israel.”
3. Modern-day so-called “jews” are NOT the descendants of the Israelites — but rather usurpers who are actually a mongrelized people descended from Canaanites, Edomites (Esau), Khazars, and others. The Canaanites are descendants of Cain, the literal/physical offspring of Satan. This is why Yahshua aka “Jesus” condemned the Pharisees as “children of the devil.” And this is why Yahweh hates entire races of people–eg, Esau, Canaanites, etc — they are they literal/biological offspring of Satan and are irredeemable.
4. The TRUE descendants of the Israelites –as supported from Biblical and historical record — are the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Scandinavian, Celtic, and kindred peoples.
5. Noad’s flood was not worldwide, but localized (the Hebrew word translated to mean “earth” should be understood as “land” or “country”). China, for example, has an uninterupted history going back at least 6-7 thousand years and was never completely wiped out by any flood.
August 8, 2008 at 11:05 am
Greg Bacon
Not bad work, if you can get it.
I imagine i could get by on $20,000 + dollars a week, TAX FREE, as long as it included a couple of mansions to live in.
Critics say John Hagee’s compensation is too high
San Antonio Express-News/June 20, 2003
By Analisa Nazareno
Perched atop a red-carpet altar, seated on a wide white and blue throne, Pastor John Hagee waits until the jazz band has quieted, the 125-member choir has left the stage and the soloist has moved the congregation almost to tears.
An emotional, energetic half-hour of song praising the glory of God passes. Then Hagee tells ushers at his 5,000-seat Cornerstone Church to take their positions.
With the dozens of men bearing glinting platters in the aisles, and six cameramen capturing the moment, Hagee instructs church members to hold their money toward the heavens. The thousands repeat after him: “Give and it shall be given.”
“When you give, it qualifies you to receive God’s abundance,” he tells his listeners. “If God gives to you before you give to him, God himself will become a liar. … If you’re not prospering, it’s because you’re not giving.”
“If you’re not prospering, it’s because you’re not giving,” he repeats.
For four decades, Hagee’s message has motivated his members to give millions to his ministry.
And it is a message that has helped his nonprofit television arm, Global Evangelism Television, become a prosperous, global, moneymaking family enterprise that has netted millions year after year peddling prayer, inspirational books, tapes and the promise of prosperity.
Since Hagee and his wife, Diana Hagee, founded GETV 25 years ago, the organization has gone from a back-room operation broadcasting Sunday sermons to San Antonio area viewers to a 50,000-square-foot multimedia studio broadcasting to 127 television stations and 82 radio stations nationwide.
“God has blessed it until it has literally reached the Earth,” Hagee recently said at his studio about his television evangelism enterprise.
Profitable nonprofit
According to income tax statements that GETV filed with the Internal Revenue Service, the nonprofit organization drew $18.3 million in revenue in 2001, the most recent year the organization submitted a return to the IRS. That year, Hagee’s total compensation package amounted to more than $1.25 million.
Like most nonprofit organizations, GETV is obligated to disclose its finances by making IRS income tax statements, called 990 forms, available to the public. In return for complying, it isn’t required to pay income taxes on revenue, business and operation taxes and property taxes. It also receives a discount on bulk mailing.
And it is also able to sell products tax-free and at a 50 percent profit because selling religious books, tapes and albums fits within GETV’s broadly stated mission, which is to “spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
According to the 990 forms for GETV, the organization in 2001 netted $12.3 million from donations, $4.8 million in profit from the sales of books and tapes, and an additional $1.1 million from various other sources, including rental income.
As the nonprofit organization’s president, Hagee drew $540,000 in compensation, as well as an additional $302,005 in compensation for his position as president of Cornerstone Church, according to GETV’s tax statements.
He also received $411,561 in benefits from GETV, including contributions to a retirement package for highly paid executives the IRS calls a “rabbi trust,” so named because the first beneficiary of such an irrevocable trust was a rabbi.
The John Hagee Rabbi Trust includes a $2.1 million 7,969-acre ranch outside Brackettville, with five lodges, including a “main lodge” and a gun locker. It also includes a manager’s house, a smokehouse, a skeet range and three barns.
Taken together, his payment package, $842,005 in compensation and $414,485 in benefits, was one of the highest, if not the highest, pay package for a nonprofit director in the San Antonio area in 2001.
Amazing income
“I’m amazed at the income,” said Pamela Smith, an accounting professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Smith, whose research interests include taxation of nonprofit organizations, said it is fairly common for nonprofit directors to receive what some might perceive are high salaries. Nonprofit directors are allowed to receive competitive salaries, she said. They are not, however, allowed to get a share of profits made from the sales of products or services.
Smith said she wasn’t aware of any nonprofit director in San Antonio who earned more than Hagee.
Dr. John Russell earned $361,587 and received $44,974 in benefits as executive vice president of medical affairs for Baptist Health System in 2001. John Brazil, the president of Trinity University, where Hagee received his bachelor’s degree in history in 1964, earned $300,000 and received $142,835 in benefits in 2001.
In addition, Hagee’s compensation was among the highest pay packages for television evangelists in 2001, according to IRS 990 filings.
Paul Crouch, president of California-based Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, received $403,700. His wife, Janice Crouch, earned $347,500 as the vice president for the organization, which broadcasts sermons nationally on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
Billy Graham earned $174,000 in compensation and $28,403 in employee benefits for his role as director and chairman for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which netted $96.7 million in revenue in 2001.
“It’s not unprecedented (for ministers to earn a high salary),” said Paul Nelson, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an accreditation group for Christian ministries that monitors the fund-raising practices of its member organizations. “But it is high,” Nelson said about Hagee’s compensation.
When discussing the finances of GETV and his compensation, Hagee and his wife defended their earnings.
“You’re comparing apples to oranges,” Diana Hagee said when discussing Graham’s compensation and comparing it with her husband’s compensation.
“Billy Graham is set up with 400 acres of property, with a house in the middle of it, with a chain-link fence and security dogs around it. His ministry provides all that,” John Hagee said while seated in the ‘living room” stage set of GETV’s Stone Oak studio.
“I provide my own house,” he said. “I provide my own insurance. I provide everything for myself.”
A representative for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said Graham has owned his own home since the 1950s but receives a housing stipend that is folded into his total compensation package. This year, Graham’s total compensation package was $190,000, which included a $47,500 housing stipend.
Hagee and his wife are listed in the Bexar County Appraisal District database as owners of their six-bedroom, 5,275-square-foot house in one of San Antonio’s most exclusive gated communities, The Dominion. The house, similar in architectural style to the building at Cornerstone Church – classical Greek revival and white with tall pillars reaching from the ground to the roof – is appraised at $688,900.
All in the family
Hagee wasn’t the only one making money from the enterprise. Diana Hagee received compensation of $67,907 as vice president of GETV and $58,813 as the special events director for Cornerstone Church.
Their son, Matthew Hagee, 24, received a compensation of $10,288 for his role as a director at GETV. And according to the 990 form, one of his daughters earned a salary for serving as the director of publications for GETV.
Matthew and his sisters, Tina and Sandy, make up the John Hagee Family Singers, who also earn royalties from album sales and honoraria for singing at events and get paid through GETV.
Diana, Matthew and John Hagee are listed on the 990 filing as three of four GETV officers, along with the church’s chief financial officer, Alan Hulme.
It is a setup that some observers say creates a conflict of interest and allows the officers to determine their own salaries, benefits and other forms of compensation….
Hagee defended his GETV compensation package, saying he earned the money and benefits through speaking fees and “royalties” for book and tape sales and not from individual donors calling the station’s prayer line.
“I have no salary here (with GETV), none whatsoever,” Hagee said. “What I have is a royalty from products I produce. That’s very, very different. And to call that an income would be a misappropriation of terms.”
Hagee said John Hagee Ministries buys books that he and his wife have authored at a 78 percent discount from the Thomas Nelson Book Group, a publisher of Christian books in Nashville, Tenn.
Thomas Nelson has published and sold more than 2 million copies of Hagee’s various titles, including his latest, a novel called “Avenger of Blood.” John Hagee Ministries is selling the book for $19 – a 99-cent discount off of full retail price.
Books, tapes, salvation
The organization’s 42-page catalog of resources includes books such as his wife’s, “The King’s Daughter: Becoming the Woman God Created You to Be,” which sells for $16. It sells Hagee’s taped sermons, such as his six-tape series on the “Final Judgment,” a video package selling for $99 or the audio version for $32.
The Web site for John Hagee Ministries offers many of the same books, tapes and opportunities to donate money. It also offers a salvation plan, a prayer and guidance toward reaching salvation by calling GETV’s prayer line.
Additionally, for parents seeking to “protect you and your children from the dangers of the Internet,” the Web site offers John Hagee Online, an Internet service for $21.95 a month.
With the growth of the Internet over the past five years, John Hagee Ministries has penetrated 83 nations – including Gabon, Greenland, Tanzania and Turkey.
GETV’s current computer mailing list includes the names and addresses of 850,000 people who’ve called the prayer line, made a purchase over the Internet, contributed toward the Operation Exodus campaign to send Zionist Jews to Israel or donated money to support the nonprofit organization’s operations.
Saved
Inside the TV station, 50 workers buzz daily in the prayer room, a college classroomlike setting with a large brass bell at front. The workers answer the telephone pleas from people seeking divine intervention on everything from a surgery to depression, cancer, a lost child, a bad infection, salvation. They ring the brass bell whenever someone says they’ve accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.
The calls, about 30,000 a month, come from throughout the nation. And the prayer line workers, volunteers who work in four-hour shifts and get gas money or bus fare, are mostly older women, Cornerstone parishioners from the San Antonio area.
When callers dial the prayer line, these volunteers pray on the spot, pray at the end of the day, and pray every day over five stacks of prayer request forms….
Worth every dime
Because he worked “80 hours a week” writing books, singing songs, meeting international dignitaries and answering the call to preach the word of God, John Hagee said: “I deserve every dime I’m getting.”
And while watchdogs and outside observers may feel differently, many of his church members, upon learning about his compensation after services, agreed with Hagee’s assessment that he was worth every dime.
“God has given to him because he has given to God,” Canyon Lake resident Trampus Smith said. “He’s a good man serving a lot of lost souls, and I love him to death. He is my pastor.”
Smith, a 38-year-old construction contractor, said he started his Sunday 75-minute commute five years ago to attend the church after having watched GETV’s programming from home. He now tithes 10 percent of his income to Cornerstone and has given additional income toward the John Hagee Ministry campaign to move Jewish people to Israel.
Smith said he likes “everything” about attending church at Cornerstone.
“It’s more exciting here,” said Smith, who grew up attending Lutheran churches. “I learn more here about the Bible. The church has a wonderful choir. And his son Matthew is blessed with a great singing voice.”
Alicia Loeffelholz, a retired nurse, said: “I know the reason that he earns what he earns is because God has blessed him. It is powerful to preach the word of God. And because he does, he is going to receive everything he needs and more.”
Loeffelholz said she has purchased products from GETV to send to out-of-town relatives and friends who watch his sermons on television.
“We are blessed to have him here in this city,” Loeffelholz said.
Conflict of interest
But while it may be common for preachers to receive royalty payments for books and other intellectual property, experts on television ministries say that selling books and tapes through the ministry and getting royalty payments from that organization creates a conflict of interest.
“We prohibit any personal profiting on a product that is promoted and marketed with the dollars that have been donated to the ministry,” said Nelson, with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
“If the ministry or charity promotes a book written by the leader or senior officer of that organization, the royalty paid by the publisher on the purchase of that material goes to the charity and not the individual,” he said.
Additionally, the arrangement with the book sale profits or “royalty payments” being placed in a retirement trust – instead of being counted as ordinary income – created the impression that Hagee was trying to avoid being taxed for ordinary income, an intellectual property rights lawyer said.
“The purpose of the arrangement of the sales this way is that it shifts the income from him, where it would be taxable as ordinary income, to a trust where it would not be taxed as income,” said Ronald J. Mann, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law. “As a business lawyer I look at this and say, ‘That’s clearly what someone is trying to do, someone is not wanting to voluntarily pay a tax.’”
‘I’m not afraid.’
Faced with questions about his personal finances and the profitability of GETV, Hagee raised his voice and said: “We are hiding absolutely nothing from nobody. I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of the government, but I am afraid of God. And I’m not going to lie to God and go to Hell over this.”
Hagee would have little reason to fear the federal government. Other than disclosing their 990 forms, nonprofit organizations have little federal government oversight. Each year, the IRS may examine the tax returns of 1 percent of the 1 million nonprofit organizations that disclose income, according to an IRS spokesman.
So, while the IRS has stringent rules about the disclosure of profits and investments, as well as income requirements for officers, most nonprofit organizations such as GETV will operate virtually tax-free with little scrutiny, if any.
In fact, when the federal government challenged his church’s nonprofit status in the mid-1990s, Hagee elicited the help of high-profile lawyers who worked often with Christian enterprises and sued the U.S. Postal Service when it denied his church a nonprofit bulk mail discount.
Hagee’s mailings contained advertisements for a sermon series on self-help and a Bible study cruise to Israel. A year after Hagee sued, the postal service settled with him, granted his church the discount on its mailings in 1999 and refunded more than $40,000 in excess postage fees.
Hagee said he was certain his finances complied with IRS requirements because he hired tax lawyers and accountants to make sure that his books complied with tax laws. He said he is prepared for the IRS, if ever it decides to conduct an investigation.
“We said, ‘We want a set of books so that when the IRS comes in here and looks they’ll say, those people are clean,’” Hagee said. “And I am waiting for the day that the IRS is going to come look at our books. I have spent a chunk of money waiting for them.”
http://www.rickross.com/reference/tv_preachers/tv_preachers7.html
August 8, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Chet Manmaster
Matt,
Thanks for the outline; I appreciate it. Christian Identity Movement is a new concept to me. I’ll research it further.
My brother in law was recently telling me about it as well. We’ll both be studying on this.
Greg, thanks for the article on the beloved right reverend hagee and others. I can’t wait to send it to my brother in law, too.
August 8, 2008 at 9:49 pm
African Man
WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND Z.O.G. GEORGIA! IF NATO JUMPS IN, CHINA MAy JUMP IN! Before you know it, WORLD WAR 3!
WHITES/JEWS are the main cause of WORLD WAR 3! How can anyone feel sorry for WHITES after this?
August 12, 2008 at 12:55 am
Angela Harrison
That’s a super photo of Carto handing the flyers to the gullible cattle.
What a shock that such a nice looking older man was passing out information. Not just that, but a retired CIA officer as Carto is. Good to see Carto out and about causing awakening about Jewish control of our media and nation.