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Most ministries claim to be financially accountable, offering viewers audited financial statements to prove it, but few actually provided the printed material. Updating a mail study I conducted in 1992, I wrote each ministry with a request for the financial information it sends to a typical viewer who would like to investigate the organization's finances before making a donation. The previous study showed that only 20 percent of the TV ministries provided an audited financial statement in response to my mailed request. For this project, I requested the information through each ministry's Web site. Most of the ministries immediately sent a computer-generated e-mail thanking me and letting me know that someone would be back to me soon to respond to my request.

Half of the organizations never responded with any financial information (including Robert Schuller, Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, Falwell, Swaggart, Robison, Benny Hinn, and Jack Van Impe). About one-fourth replied by sending inadequate pie-chart information that gave no specific details about how much money was spent on salaries and who made up the board of directors. Charles Stanley's In Touch ministry first put me on the fundraising mailing list before sending the requested information two months later, and it took a second request to get Graham's organization to finally send a basic financial statement.

Two of the ministries, Radio Bible Class and Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network, mailed detailed audited financial statements within a week of my request. Radio Bible Class is the industry leader in providing more than enough information for a viewer to make an informed decision to support the ministry financially. A current copy of the organization's IRS form 990 included the addresses for the board of directors and the specific salary of president Mart De Haan—all this from a television program that did not ask for money on air.

In summary: few television ministries are as accountable to contributors as they could be. Few are willing to give detailed information on how your donations are spent, and most will not even give potential contributors specifics regarding who is on the board.

In the area of politics, two events were of high interest to the television ministries last year: the 2000 presidential race and the escalating crisis in the Middle East. More than half of the broadcasters addressed one of these issues from their video pulpits, with an average 4 percent of airtime being devoted to these subjects. But a few used a relatively large portion of their airtime to discuss political events.

Robertson, in particular, used a substantial portion of his 700 Club to discuss both issues, spending 15 to 20 minutes a day discussing the presidential race with a cohort he called a "CBN political analyst." He repeatedly expressed concern that George W. Bush was not doing enough to win the support of Robertson's Christian Coalition. Political discussions occupied one-third of his program time, which is an increase from 1996 (18 percent) and 1992 (24 percent). In fact, politics takes up as much programming time as it did in the 1980s.

Other ministry leaders encouraged viewers to vote and implied that there was a correct or godly way to cast a ballot. "I'm going to vote for God," said Mike Hayes, a guest host on Paul Crouch's Praise the Lord on TBN. "Don't vote for any other reason except for life," Mother Angelica told her audience. D. James Kennedy said that his followers "should elect Christians to rule over them." And Robison said, "If you're just going to vote for big government, don't vote, because big government is not God."

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October 22 2001, Vol. 45, No. 13