Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 6, 2011

SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY’S COMMITTEE RELEASES FINDINGS FROM EXTENSIVE INQUIRY INTO SIX MAJOR CHURCH MINISTRIES

“I appreciate these efforts…,” says committee chairman Grassley, citing Benny Hinn Ministries’ voluntary cooperation and extensive documentation.

Completing the inquiry regarding the financial accountability of six church ministries, Senator Charles Grassley’s Senate Finance Committee staff has released its findings today after over three years of careful research and analysis.

In that 61-page release, the committee recognized Benny Hinn Ministries for being responsive, transparent, and for demonstrating a high degree of integrity.

The front page of the press release singles out Benny Hinn Ministries as two of the six which fully complied with the requests and “engaged staff in constructive, open dialogue. Through our review of their responses as well as our conversations with their representatives, we learned that they…had…undertaken significant reforms, some of which began before [the] inquiry.”

Throughout the inquiry process, Pastor Benny Hinn personally led the effort to encourage greater transparency and more aggressive self-governance in his own ministry and encouraged others to follow that example.

Detailed in the findings is the fact that Benny Hinn Ministries has consistently undertaken rigorous internal controls while utilizing exceptional outside sources to govern salaries. Pastor Hinn is not involved in setting or directing his own salary but has directed the ministry’s board of directors to hire outside executive compensation firms to provide professional guidance. Further, he has instructed that such salary recommendations follow the most conservative recommendations of those compensation firms.

Additionally, the church’s senior pastor’s executive compensation, on a percentage basis, (especially in comparison to large church organizations), is well within acceptable standards and is considered reasonable—a term outlined by the IRS.

In a related action, the committee praised actions undertaken by the church, including the expansion of its board of directors, and took notice that the church’s board has no Hinn family members and elects its members by a majority of its members.

The submission also reports that the church has no outside business interests, such as real estate holdings, beyond its administrative, media production, international facilities, and senior pastor’s residence.

Specifically, in response to the significant cooperation and positive actions on the part of Benny Hinn Ministries, Senator Grassley wrote in the January 6, 2011, press release, “I appreciate these efforts. Self-correction can be more effective than government action.”

According to the church’s spokesperson, “At the direction of the church’s board of directors and its senior pastor, Benny Hinn, the ministry voluntarily provided a cumulative total of 3,790 pages of documentation in response to a wide range of topics outlined in the senator’s initial letter on November 5, 2007. These detailed submissions of in-depth answers reflected the church’s commitment to provide comprehensive responses to the senator’s questions and to demonstrate proactive leadership to our donors.”

Pastor Hinn has offered special thanks to Senator Grassley’s ongoing efforts as chairman or ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee for the past 10 years. The committee has exclusive Senate jurisdiction over tax policy, including tax-exempt policy. In his leadership capacity, the senator from Iowa has served with great distinction while reviewing issues of concern regarding specific organizations, such as the Red Cross, the Nature Conservancy, and the Smithsonian Institution, and general areas of the tax-exempt sector, such as tax-exempt hospitals and college endowments.

“Today, with this press release from the Senate Finance Committee,” said Pastor Benny Hinn, “we are encouraged with this outcome as it pertains to Benny Hinn Ministries and believe it will have a positive impact on our ministry. We also highly commend the integrity, patriotism, and professionalism by Senator Charles Grassley, the Senate Finance Committee members, and the committee’s staff and representatives. We found each person involved in the inquiry to be sincerely dedicated to making sure that the laws of our country are being followed. As the findings are now released to the American public, we want to express our appreciation to Senator Grassley and his staff for the awareness this process has provided and for how the experience has caused us to renew our commitment to always honor our partners’ sacrificial giving with the highest level of integrity and responsibility so that the name of the Lord Jesus may always be protected.”

LINK:WWW.BENNY HINN.ORG

where are the rumor mongers?