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"We will analyze this list, and we will contact our members," says ECFA president Paul Nelson. "We have a responsibility to enforce our standard number five, which requires the disclosure of financial statements. … I suspect that our members, once they're contacted, will either say 'I didn't know that. We're sorry. We'll send it right away.' Or they'll be big-time upset, and they may be upset with us as well. But that's our business."

In fact, Nelson says, one small organization resigned from ECFA when told to send MinistryWatch its financial statements. "We have not seen the amount of animosity among a certain number of ministries as much as this whole issue has engendered," he told Christianity Today. "Even a transparency grade is seen as an extortion by some."

Thirteen of the ministries on the Transparency Watch list are members of ECFA (at least three others are former members). As of Thursday evening, one of these, the Christian Research Institute, had already contacted MinistryWatch to say it is sending along financial information. "Christian Research Institute's prompt and professional response exemplifies what we hope will be the case with many of the other ministries on the list," Hempe told CT. "Assuming we do receive their 2002 audited financial statements, their grade will improve to an A."

Other organizations will be contacting MinistryWatch as well. And they aren't happy.

"We can prove that we have responded to every request we have gotten," says Norm Whitney, director of organizational development for the youth ministry Awana Clubs International. "They are going to have to prove to us that they actually requested this. We work with churches and thousands of volunteers, so this kind of information [Transparency Watch], if it is erroneous, would be a very serious thing for us."

In response to a Friday morning call from Awana's lawyers, Wall Watchers says it will remove the group from its Transparency Watch list by the end of the day, and will assign a grade after receiving more financial information.

Steven H. Aden, chief litigation counsel for The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization, says that it has been in regular contact with MinistryWatch and is on the list erroneously. "Our financial staff has repeatedly sent financial documentation to MinistryWatch, and actually that information is posted on MinistryWatch's website for the most recent fiscal years available," he says. "Their assertion that Rutherford has failed to provide financial statements or to respond to their request for information is utterly false. We'll be calling on MinistryWatch to withdraw its irresponsible statements and to stop attacking this ministry."

The Rutherford Institute is not a member of ECFA, but is a member of the Better Business Bureau, which Aden says has stricter auditing standards.

"This should not be news to any ministry," MinistryWatch's Leonard said in a telephone press conference announcing Transparency Watch. "They have had plenty of time to respond to the fact that we were rating in this manner." But most organizations contacted by Christianity Today were surprised at their inclusion on the list.

Nancy Guthrie, spokeswoman for Anne Graham Lotz's AnGeL Ministries, says it has no record of a request for financial information from Wall Watchers. "It is AnGeL Ministries' policy to provide the 990 tax return and audited financials to whoever requests that information. The ministry has received only a handful of requests for that information in its 14 years, and has provided the information promptly to everyone who has requested it."

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November (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46