Denomination
Pentecostal & Charismatic
The Pentecostal and Charismatic tradition originates in the early twentieth century — conventionally dated to the 1906 Azusa Street Revival — and is among the fastest-growing branches of global Christianity. Documented episodes in this archive currently centre on the late-twentieth-century American televangelism financial-fraud cases, of which the PTL Ministries / Jim Bakker prosecution is the most prominent.
The Word of Faith Fellowship investigation (Spindale, North Carolina; subject of a Reuters investigative series 2017–2019) and the Jimmy Swaggart scandals of 1988 are within scope and pending writeup.
Filed
3 entriesThe Grassley Senate Finance Committee Televangelist Investigation
A four-year inquiry by the United States Senate Finance Committee under Senator Charles Grassley examined the finances of six major American televangelism ministries, concluding that the federal tax-exemption framework as applied to large religious broadcasters was insufficient to ensure ordinary nonprofit accountability.
FILED · 1988 · PENTECOSTAL · FINANCIALThe Jimmy Swaggart Scandals
The Pentecostal televangelist Jimmy Swaggart was defrocked by the Assemblies of God in 1988 after the public disclosure of his use of prostitutes; subsequent IRS proceedings and a second 1991 disclosure further established the institutional record of one of the highest-revenue televangelism operations of the 1980s.
FILED · 1987 · PENTECOSTAL · FINANCIALPTL Ministries and the Jim Bakker Fraud
The collapse of the PTL televangelism empire after the disclosure of a payoff to Jessica Hahn led to a federal fraud prosecution of Jim Bakker for the oversale of lifetime-partnership memberships in PTL's Heritage USA resort.
