PETITION FOR PASTOR HAGEE TO REPENT
(Scroll
down
to sign the petition)
(Your info will not go on any junk mail list; totally confidential!)
Pastor John & Diane Hagee
Matthew 18:15-17 (The Message)
(Our Lord Jesus Talking)
15"If
a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him--work it out between the two of
you. If he listens, you've made a friend. 16If he won't listen,
take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep
things honest, and try again. 17If he still won't listen, tell
the church. If he won't listen to the church, you'll have to start over from
scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God's
forgiving love."
Apparently, Pastor Hagee is engaged with gross immorality: greed. This webpage:
1.
Explains the situation and the evidence
2. Contains an open letter to Pastor Hagee
3. Provides a method (petition) for you to contact Pastor Hagee to make him
aware that we are aware of his wrong-doing
Many links are provided at the end of this document to back-up all of the information on salaries, tax returns, salary surveys, etc. If you would like more information or notice some missing information, please send an email to FreeGoodNews@aol.com . Every effort has been made to contact Pastor Hagee and his Board of Directors, but they refuse all of them.
THE SITUATION
Pastor Hagee is taking too much money from the donors of his ministries for personal gain. The average compensation for a Christian media minister is under $150K per year. According to the latest GuideStar.org tax return (2003 return, filed on 11/15/04), Pastor Hagee was paid $371,000 as Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio Texas (pg. 19), and $949,000 as President of Global Evangelism Television (G.E.T.) (pg. 4). This is over $1 million from donors who intended the money to go into building God's kingdom. Please note that Pastor Hagee specifies that he works, on average, 16 hrs per week at G.E.T., which works out to over $1,000 per hour. IRS regulations state that nonprofits must not be operating for the purpose of personal gain; nonprofits are supposed to be working for the public good, and are a "public trust."
In addition, the Board of Directors for G.E.T. is family controlled (3 of 4 members are family members: Pastor Hagee, his wife, and son). ECFA standards (http://ecfa.org), for example, require a minimum of five members, three of which must be independent (not family). Pastor Hagee is not a member of ECFA, or any other financial accountability group. ECFA was simply formed because of the money scandals by religious operations; being a member of ECFA is a way to demonstrate good Christian stewardship. Many of ECFA's standards may be too low, but at least it is a start!
Many have tried to bring this problem to Pastor Hagee's attention; his response is to ignore it. History has proven that most Christians either don't care or won't do anything. Are you that kind of Christian? If not, please help by signing this petition!
Are you curious what the other major media ministers make? It is public information (unless they are organized as a "church," such as Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, etc.). Click here to download an Excel Spreadsheet with all the info (includes names such as TBN, CBN, Focus on the Family, EWTN, etc.).
OPEN LETTER TO PASTOR HAGEE
Dear Pastor Hagee,
As fellow Christians, we beg you to stop abusing the trust of the faithful donors to your ministry. They are giving money to advance the kingdom of God, not to increase your personal net worth. To demonstrate your repentance, we request that you do these three things:
1. Get a REAL Board of Directors. As an example, please refer to a model ministry, such as Focus on the Family or Coral Ridge Ministries. It is unacceptable to have a family-controlled board (re: see ECFA standards, which require a minimum of three independent members). You need to find peers that can give you honest and critical feedback on all ministry-related matters, including determining your appropriate compensation.
2. Make sure your new Board of Directors set a reasonable salary for all employees. Your compensation should be under the average of your peers; under $150,000 per year, considering it is a part-time job for you (under 20 hrs. per week per your 2003 tax return).
3. Refund the excess thousands of dollars you have taken from the ministry all these years. This should amount to a multi-million dollar refund.
If you refuse to repent and make amends, as Christians following the Lord Jesus (per Matthew 18), we will have to regard you as an unbeliever (no fellowship as a brother in Christ).
Sincerely,
All the signers on this petition.
CHRISTIAN READER: PLEASE SIGN AS A WITNESS TO THIS INJUSTICE (scroll down to sign or click here)
Your names will be sent along with the letter to Pastor Hagee in June 2006 (he has been sent previous letters with signatures). As believers in Christ from around the world, we will let Pastor Hagee know that we are aware of his evil behavior; stealing from Christ's church (the believers of God). Jesus said to bring the church before him, as a witness. (As of 11-4-07, many letters have been sent to Pastor Hagee and his supporters... for the most part, these letters are ignored. Please keep signing this letter to get their attention.)
ADDITIONAL INFO AND QUESTIONS
This is written to motivate you to encourage Pastor John Hagee to repent and make amends for his financial abuses. To sign this petition, scroll down to the bottom of this webpage (note that a confirmation email will be sent to you). Pastor Hagee needs to publicly repent (including making retribution for these outrageous salaries), at best. At worst, he needs to be "shut down" and maybe even serve jail time. Here is the case, very briefly stated (links to the tax returns are at the end of this article):
1. Excessive
compensation from Global Evangelism Television (G.E.T.).
Pastor Hagee's G.E.T. ministry paid him $900,000 for labor of 16 hrs per
week (equivalent to $1081 per hour). The average for his peer group is under
$150,000 ($72 per hour for a 40 hour work week). This should be seen as an
obvious IRS violation for excessive compensation. Nonprofit ministries are
forbidden to operate to create personal wealth for individuals; rather, they
are intended to be managed for the public good, and to serve the public
good. The IRS is well aware of scammers setting up operations for personal
gain... it has been tried many times. This appears to be an issue of
abusing the trust of his donors; will donors still donate knowing his
compensation packages?
Note 1: Based on a survey of his peers (link), the average pay, based on revenue of these ministries, is $129,000 (nearest 8 peers) or $149,000 (nearest 14 peers). As can be seen in the spreadsheet, a few of his peers also have excessive compensation, but none so flagrant as is Pastor Hagee's excess.
Note 2: He receives additional compensation from Cornerstone Church (link) where he is Senior Pastor, and likely receives royalty money from materials produced by both of these ministries. As far as we can tell, he is not required to publicly report royalty income from any source.
2. Inadequate G.E.T. Board of Directors.
The Board of Directors consists of four members. Three are family members,
and paid by the ministry. Only the fourth serves voluntarily and freely,
which is the norm for nonprofit corporations. If Pastor Hagee had a
reasonable Board of Directors, he likely would never have gotten into this
mess. ECFA is the standard for Christian ministries;
see: http://ecfa.org
. ECFA's minimum standard for the Board of Directors is having at least
five, with at least three being independent (non-family).
3. Nepotism (link) on the Board of Directors. Of the Board of Directors family members, one is Diane Hagee, Pastor Hagee's wife. In the 2002 tax return, she was paid over $100,000 for 20 hrs of work per week. This is excessive pay, and should be addressed (refunded to the ministry). (Thankfully, in the latest 2003 return, she is making a reasonable salary ($17,000 for the same amount of work) It is fine to hire family members, as long as their work and compensation is fair.).
Also on the 2002 tax return, Matthew Hagee (John and Diane's son) made $14,650 for 5 hrs. per week ($56 per hour). (For the 2003 tax return, it was reduced to $8,800 for the same amount of work.) Is he really doing any real work, or is this just a "gift" from Dad? Matthew's title is "Director," referring to being a member of the "Board of Directors" (as mentioned earlier, it's the norm for nonprofit board members to freely serve).
Your Action and Help
Requested!
(Doing
nothing is being part of the problem; spending a few minutes will help solve
the problem.)
You can help expose this scandal in two ways:
1. Sign the petition to let Pastor Hagee and his supporters know of this abuse, that has been on-going for years (scroll down to sign).
2. Send the link of this page to your Christian friends. Our Lord Jesus cleared the temple once (Matt. 21:12-13), that should be enough to teach us to clean our own house. We need to demand stewardship from our leaders... they should be role-models of good stewardship! (Thank God we have great role-models with organizations such as "Focus on the Family" (link) & "NW Medical Teams" (link). Click on the links to see their IRS returns, and to see what a role-model looks like, in regards to fiscal prudence.)
Why am I writing this?
From my research, the IRS is very hesitant to get involved in church related ministries. This is due to the reverence for the idea of the separation of church and state in America. In fact, many may not know this, but organizations described as "churches" do not even have to report their income & expenses, etc. to the IRS. This is why Pastor Hagee's income from being Senior Pastor of Cornerstone church is unknown. (Update: it is disclosed on the G.E.T. tax return as a related ministry, pg. 19, $371,000.) This is also why other ministry scammers seem to go on without getting busted, such as Benny Hinn, who is rumored to admitting have a $1 million dollar compensation package. (Note: Thankfully, the IRS is currently investigating big-time Christian scammers Benny Hinn, article and Morris Cerullo article).
Since Global Evangelism Ministry is not a church, but a 501(c)3 nonprofit, it has to disclose this tax info to the IRS and to the public. In effect, he is "hiding in broad daylight." That's why he should be so easy to "take down" as the scandal should be more obvious than Enron or Worldcom.
Is this bad publicity for Christianity?
In the short run, yes. In the long run, it will help to "clean our house," as other abusers of the system will shape up and take notice when they see their peers being held accountable.
Is Pastor Hagee a man of God, or a true Christian?
We can't judge, and it doesn't matter. This is a matter of fiscal
responsibility and good stewardship, in which it should be obvious that he
is abusing. The Pharisees were the religious experts in Jesus Christ's day,
but the Lord had to rebuke them often (link).
The position of an individual within the church is irrelevant; justice needs
to be served for wrong-doing, no matter who does it. Even kings have had to
be rebuked by prophets (link).
Still, if you want to find out more about the theological issues with Pastor Hagee, click here for a very good research report by CRI. (Note, Hank Hanegraaff of CRI also has serious outstanding greed issues; click here for more info, and to read how he was successfully challenged by other Christians with some previous greed issues.)
Why is Pastor Hagee considered to be a "Christian?"
Some are asking me why I consider Pastor Hagee to be a Christian (since I'm following a "conflict resolution outline for Christians," Matt.18), because of his serious theological flaws. My response is to not make a judgment. I'm only trying to confront him on this one behavior, greed, and inappropriate use of donor money. We can't judge the heart, but we can judge actions. Anyway, many people are calling Pastor Hagee out on his false teachings (just google "hagee false teacher" to see 16,000 links), but no one else is challenging him on his documented greed.
How much should he make?
Based on this salary review (link) of his Christian ministry peers, he should be paid about $129,000 (which indicates he has been overpaid by about $730,000 per year). The average compensation for his nearest eight peers (based on ministry revenue) is about $129,000.
In the 2003 G.E.T. tax return, Hagee indicates that he works 16 hours per week. Considering this, $129,000 is well too much (most of his peers are working full-time). He is also the Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church ($371,000)... another ministry paycheck...
NEW: Click
here to read a new report (8/1/05) by CharityNavigator.org called "[CEO
PAY] How much is too much?"
Snippet:
"According to our analysis, the average CEO's compensation (for the 4,257 charities in our database as of July 1st 2005) is $148,477. This figure, based on each charity's most recently filed Form 990, includes salary, cash bonuses, and unusually large expense accounts, but not contributions to benefit plans or deferred compensation. "
Doesn't the Bible (Matt. 18) say that we should confront a brother privately, first?
Yes, that's what we are trying to do! This is not a new accusation, but an old one, in which Pastor Hagee fails to want to rectify.
I did make an attempt to call him on 7-27-05. I spoke to his assistant, Joanne Coffey, at 210-490-1600. I explained my reason to want to talk to Pastor Hagee, per Matt. 18. She told me multiple times that I can't, and to "just do want I want to do." Finally, she abruptly hung up on me as I pressed to arrange a meeting or get additional info. This petition is an attempt to get the Church, at large, to confront him.
Update: 9/22/05. I again attempted to contact Pastor Hagee by phone. I was told again, by a representative of his, that Pastor Hagee has no time to talk to me, even if I were to come there in person. He doesn't take walk-in appointments. I was assured that his lawyers would be contacting me shortly. Unfortunately, the lawyers would be paid by the donors to his ministry... not exactly what they intended, I'm sure.
According to
the Lord Jesus, men who do evil want to hide in the dark, under a rock like
a cockroach (link).
How does that line-up with Pastor Hagee's behavior? Ironically, if he does
file a lawsuit, he'll be helping me spread this information (of his money
scandal) far and wide by making this a news item. There's no way to hide
from the truth!
Update: 9/26/05. In trying to reach Matthew Hagee (Pastor John
Hagee's son and Board Member), his secretary told me that their attorney
will be contacting me, and then she hung up on me. Still trying to reach
Board members Diane Hagee (Pastor John Hagee's wife) and Allan Hume.
Update 10-6-05.
Wally Rich from Cornerstone church called me. His cell was: 210-317-5972.
Not clear what his title was, administrative something… he talked fast and
was eager to hang-up, which he did. I had to call him back so I could
write down notes (he first called as I was walking in a hallway). He said
no one from the ministry will call me back, including Board members Diane
Hagee and Allen Hume, the only ones I haven’t got a return call from yet.
He said that if I have any questions, I can call their attorney, Mary
Wigodsky, 210-271-1700. Yes, I have a lot of questions, so I’ll be calling
her. I just can’t understand why this ministry has to talk through
lawyers! By the way, I can tell from his comments, that they are reading
this webpage.
Your signatures do make a difference!
Note: Why post cell phone numbers?
Because Global
Evangelism Television is a 501c3 nonprofit; as a "public trust," he is
required to disclose this info to the public. They are making this
difficult, refusing to answer any questions, so they are bringing this upon
themselves. If anyone else wants to try to reach them, I'm trying to help
them through some of the communication barriers Pastor Hagee is throwing up.
Update 10-21-05. Apparently, they are using Mary for a
stonewalling tactic. After leaving voice mails for her almost daily
(for over 2 weeks), I finally reached her assistant, Sandy Reagan, in
person. Sandy said Mary has been too busy to call back (apparently, she's a
real estate attorney). OK, I'll try talking to her boss next. Why would
Pastor Hagee refer to someone who's too busy to call back? This is the
website for her organization:
http://www.hsfblaw.com/ . This is Mary's webpage:
http://www.hsfblaw.com/home.htm (email is:
maryw@hsfblaw.com).
Update 10-28-05. I found out that Pastor Hagee's G.E.T. org. had
filed a 2004 tax return. I requested a copy from G.E.T., and it's on its
way (not available on guidestar.org yet). I can't wait to see if there's
been any changes... better or worse... If you want a copy, call G.E.T. and
ask for Anita in Accounting. They are required to supply this info to the
public upon request, by law, since they are a nonprofit 501c3 and not
defined as a "church." Why don't they just post it online so it's easier to
get, and cheaper than using postage and handling? Update: Nov. 2006, here's the update
((click
here to see a copy):
Total Compensation from G.E.T. and Church-related ministries
|
|
John Hagee |
Diane Hagee |
Matt Hagee |
Alan Hulme |
|
2001 |
$1,256,000.00 |
$126,000.00 |
$10,300.00 |
$123,000.00 |
|
2002 |
$1,223,000.00 |
$144,000.00 |
$14,000.00 |
$122,000.00 |
|
2003 |
$1,320,000.00 |
$116,000.00 |
$9,000.00 |
$155,000.00 |
|
2004 |
$798,000.00 |
$72,000.00 |
$47,000.00 |
not listed |
|
Loss from 2003 to 2004 |
39.5% |
37.9% |
|
|
Total Hagee Family Income from Hagee-related Ministries:
Pastor John Hagee's Ministry Compensation:
As you can see, Pastor Hagee and his wife's compensation each fell by almost 40%! Wow! Guess why? It must have been this petition and open letter, because nothing has happened before this, and his scandal has been well-known for quite some time. Let's not stop! Even with this big decrease, he is still grossly overpaid, compared to his peers, and he should be returning previous overpayments, as well as getting a valid Board of Directors for a long-term fix.
Many ask me if I'm sure about the effect of the petition. When did I write it? I looked over my records. My first article was 11-9-2004. Click here to read it. His 2004 tax return (the one with the big reduction) was filed 8-11-05. This means he had 9 months to consider my article and all the follow-up, including the calls & letters to his office and staff. I think what likely happened was that he was overpaid, as usual, in 2004; then before filing in August he paid back a large sum and adjusted the records. All perfectly "legal," and just my speculation. I think he's trying to graciously back-out of this mess, rather than publically confess his sins and make retribution.
Update
11-15-05.
I wrote to all the directors of the law firm (
http://www.hsfblaw.com/ ) representing Hagee... no response. Maybe they
don't want to be associated with Hagee's organization and scandal?
11-18-05, still trying to reach Mary (Hagee's lawyer) and her boss by phone
... they still will not return my call... it's been about six weeks now
since I first tried to contact her by phone.
If I don't hear back by from Mary or her boss by 12-1-05, I'll call Wally
Rich at Cornerstone Church in San Antonio and ask him what the problem is
(why is he referring me to someone who won't return calls?)...
Update 4-24-05. I decided not to bug Wally since he told me before not to call back. I have heard nothing from Pastor Hagee or his lawyers. Please help spread the word; we are getting many more signatures, and the "open letter" is getting to be very easy to find in the search engines. Anyone looking for info on Pastor Hagee will run across it quite easily now. I check my search engine results, and we are getting many hits from people looking for just general info on Pastor Hagee. I think if we can expose this thing to the light, healing can come.
Update 7-14-06. I sent about 100 postcards to Pastor Hagee, his ministry supporters, Texas and US Senators, San Antonio churches (his "neighbors"), etc., informing them of Pastor Hagee's financial abuse. Please continue to help by signing the petition if you haven't yet.
Update 7-25-06. I think the game is over. What has Pastor Hagee done? He has "merged" his GETV organization into a church called "Grace Church of San Antonio" (what is this??? It's not his main church, which is "Cornerstone Church"). Churches aren't required to file a tax return (form 990), so now he can do whatever he wants, in the dark, with no public accountability at all. Now he is in the league of financial abusers like TD Jakes and Benny Hinn, who also are organized under a "church" so they don't have to disclose their gross financial abuse to their donors... other than in a sanitized "annual report" in which they prepare and manipulate to make themselves look as good as possible.
In case anyone else wants to follow up-- all this info will stay on the web. It is part of a paper trail that will expose Pastor Hagee for anyone who is looking for info. The info about the "merger" is in the 2004 tax return (click here to see it), and you can also see the Texas State approval by clicking here (it's also in the 2004 return).
Many questions still remain. Chief of them, who or what is "Grace Church of San Antonio???" The (2004 tax return) paperwork says the Senior Pastor is Pastor John Hagee, but he's also Senior Pastor of his mega-church "Cornerstone Church in San Antonio." Is his "Grace Church" really a sham church-- or a real church??? There is no mention of his "Grace Church" on his webpage: http://jhm.org/pastor.asp . To read more about these recent issues, read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article (click here). Also read my blog article called "Christian Scum" here: http://www.freegoodnews.com/2006/07/reformation_chr.html .
Update 10-6-06:
People continue to sign the petition. Thanks! I still
send out postcards to let people know of this issue-- to other churches,
businesses, and even Hagee's church. Pastor Hagee continues to ignore
all of his, thinking it will all just go away or blow over... and it will if
Christians don't do anything. Most Christians don't seem to care once
they find out, and that is why I now know we have these continuing money
scandals in the Christian churches... it gives all Christians a bad name,
but I guess we deserve it if we refuse to clean house.
Update 1-5-07:
I still send Pastor John Hagee postcards about this issue.
He and his leadership know about it, but their response has still been...
zilch, nothing (it's called "stone-walling"). They are ignoring it.
If they react in any way, it will only publicize it more and lead to their
demise. The only way out of it for him is to come clean and repent,
and prove his repentance by making amends by doing two things:
1. Create a legitimate Board of Directors (and again make GETV a separate organization from his church so all financial info is publicly disclosed).
2. Return the excess money he has received to the ministry; it should be a multi-million dollar reimbursement.
Before I would accept any of these actions, he must set-up an independent study group inquiry from independent people (such as leaders of other ECFA-sponsored Christian ministries; not other scammers like TD Jakes or Benny Hinn), for a full report of abuses and solutions. This is the easy-way out for him. The hard-way for him will be to continue to go the way he is, and he'll probably end up in jail like the Enron crooks.
Update 3-18-07:
People continue to sign the Open Letter and I still send Pastor
Hagee postcards to let him know that others are aware of his financial
abuse. He and his staff still refuse to discuss it.
Update 11-4-07:
More people are becoming aware of Pastor Hagee's abuse, since the
ORU scandal is erupting and Pastor Hagee is one of the ORU overseers.
Update 3-13-08:
People are still signing, and it is getting some press attention.
Hagee recently endorsed McCain for President, so people are trying to figure
out who this Hagee character is. They are easily finding this petition
when searching the net for info on him. "All that's necessary for evil
to flourish is for good men to do nothing." Thank you for signing and
doing something!
Why Pastor Hagee? Who's next on your list?
The reason why Pastor Hagee is singled-out is because his case is the most extreme, by looking at the spreadsheet analysis (link). His compensation is outrageous, especially when considering the relatively small revenue the ministry brings in (compared to his peers), and the fact that he works part-time (per the IRS return, links are mentioned below). Who's next? I hope no one. If this petition is successful, it will send shock waves through the entire Christian world, and the wayward ministers should clean-up their acts! (I hope this isn't wishful thinking... that ministers would clean themselves up...)
----- Background Links -----
1. G.E.T. organization 2003 tax return (filed Aug. 2004) (link). Pastor Hagee's compensation grew... it is now $949,000.
7-25-06 Update, 2004 tax return (filed 8-15-05): Click here to see all of Hagee's tax returns from GuideStar.org (membership is free, and you can see the latest tax returns for free). If you don't want to hassle with it, you can see my copy by clicking here: http://www.prettygoodnews.com/form_990/getv_2004_return.pdf
2. G.E.T. organization 2002 tax return (filed Nov. 2003) (link).
3. Salary Analysis. The spreadsheet analysis for ministry salaries, including an analysis of Hagee's peers (link). The salary review was conducted in Jan. 2005 using the latest financial returns posted to the public, via Guidestar and CharityNavigator (link for G.E.T.). Note: Guidestar provides the tax returns on their web, with a free membership. Please remember, "churches" are not required to file a tax return, so they don't.
4. Hagee Ministry Links: Pastor Hagee is senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church (link). He is also President of Global Evangelism Television (G.E.T.) (link). You can try to reach him by calling his assistant, Joanne Coffey, at 210-490-1600 (Church number). The G.E.T. ministry number, where Pastor Hagee works part-time, is 210-494-3900.
5. External Article. I just noticed this old article (June 2003) about Hagee's financial scandal. He's been challenged before, and it looks like he's a fighter (article link). This is proof that he's well aware of the situation and is fighting it, rather than repenting. Article excerpt:
"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.
This petition was first published by Bernie Dehler on 7-26-05. You can reach Bernie by sending an email to FreeGoodNews@aol.com or by calling him at 503-317-0746. This petition is a volunteer operation by volunteers; no money is requested or needed to finance it.
