Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana - the nonprofit that runs Trinity Broadcasting Network - owns about $54 million of property in Orange County - and some $44 million of it is exempt from property taxes, according to public documents.
Its OC digs include 16 homes and more than a half-dozen commercial and industrial sites.
Nationwide, Trinity owns about $167 million worth of real estate, according to its tax returns (and we’re not counting the value of equipment, transmitters, towers or furniture). Land in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma, Georgia and Pennsylvania, as well as California. Much of it free of property taxes.
Trinity does pay property taxes on the OC homes it owns, but not on its $32.6 million headquarters off the 405 in Costa Mesa (and other properties directly related to its nonprofit mission of Spreading-the-Word-to-Every-Conceivable-Corner-of-the-Globe-via-Satellite).
FUN FACTS ABOUT TRINITY’S OC PROPERTIES
The most expensive single-family home Trinity owns is on San Sebastian in Newport Beach - 10 rooms, 4.5 bathrooms, pool, 4,583 square feet, valued at $2.5 million on county property records.- Trinity also owns a dozen homes in Costa Mesa (close to the TBN headquarters/confection off the 405), valued at some $6 million.
Trinity does not own the home that Paul and Jan Crouch live in (at least, that’s where they live, as far as the Registrar of Voters is concerned). Paul Crouch owns this home on Port Chelsea in Newport Beach: 2,388 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, built in 1969. Bought nearly 20 years ago, its assessed value is just $129,050. Zillow.com estimates it’s worth $1.95 million.
Trinity does, however, own the home right next door on Port Chelsea in Newport Beach - 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1,816 square feet. It’s assessed at $440,730; Zillow estimates it’s worth $1.7 million.
WHY?
Why does Trinity need all these houses? And who lives in them?
The Watchdog called Trinity spokesman John Casoria, seeking his wisdom, but he’s pretty mad about our last post about the Crouches’ rather healthy salaries.
After a long silence, Casoria said that Trinity has enjoyed decades of good relations with the Orange County Register, but, after The Watchdog’s report, it will no longer speak to the Register. Which puts us on par with the Los Angeles Times, which also gets the silent treatment from Trinity.
Casoria then scolded The Watchdog for her snarky tone and accused her of regurgitating the the Los Angeles Times’ 2004 piece on Trinity, which hurt her feelings a wee bit; the Register, after all, took a critical look at Trinity in 1998, six years before the Times.
FROM OUR 1998 STORIES:
At the risk of further regurgitation accusations, here’s an excerpt from the Reg’s series of articles:
“The Rev. R.W. Schambach, 72 years old and fired up, has been exhorting viewers of the world’s largest Christian TV network to give $2,000 each during a spring ‘Praise-A-Thon.’
“Don’t have it? Just send in $200, and God will get you the rest within 90 days, he says, squinting into the camera at Trinity Broadcasting Network studios in Tustin.
“‘You say you got no money? You’re the one I’m after,’ he says. ‘They can’t accuse me of being after your money. You ain’t got none! But if I can help you get it, then I want some of it. You hear me?’
He crushes a Bible against his mustard-colored sport jacket. ‘It works!’ yells the Texas preacher and Praise-A-Thon mainstay. ‘IT WORKS!’”
YES, IT WORKS
To the tune of $201 million in revenue for Trinity last year - about double what Trinity hauled in a decade ago.
For the record, The Watchdog’s $54 million OC-property estimate is conservative. She counted just the assessed values on county property records; as seen in the above examples, market values are often much higher.
But such impressive real estate holdings are just a fraction of nonprofit Trinity’s worth. As we noted before, its net assets are approaching $1 billion ($839 million in 2006, according to tax returns, including $327 million in mortgage-backed securities, which, as you may know, have been having a bit of trouble lately).
THIS IS NEWS?
The reason why this is considered news was summed up rather well by a reader commenting on The Watchdog’s last Trinity post: “What is a non-profit organization doing holding $327 million in mortgage-backed securities?” the reader noted. “Aside from the risk in such an investment, it implies that the ministry has enough extra dough lying around (not going to ministry purposes) to buy speculative investments….I can’t believe they have enough money for speculative investments and then go on the air and ask for more dough!”
If Trinity did not have nonprofit status from Uncle Sam, it would likely be paying millions upon millions in taxes each year into public coffers.
Trinity is the world’s largest religious broadcasting company. In addition to reaching most every American home, it produces films, runs theme parks and arrives via satellite on TVs in Russia, Spain, Portugal, the Middle East, Central Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and, oh, many more places. It even broadcasts in Arabic and Farsi.
(And to nip a criticism in the bud, we note here that the Diocese of Orange owns about 90 properties in Orange County - many more than Trinity. The Watchdog promises to tally up all that in coming days. If she is soon struck down by lightning, you’ll know why.)
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I should have been a preacher . . .
All in the name of the Bibile…give me a break! This is just con to suck the money the people’s pocket and line their own fat pockets. Makes me sick!
Shut up and get back to work. You all build and maintain this idiocracy.
And all you dummies that buy into this media scam by contributing your money to these T.V. ESCANDALISTS in hopes of buying your way into heaven…Look at what your money has done…Nice homes in O.C. and around the country…Just look at the pictures…A so called pastor..Looks like your typical slick talking car salesman with a wife who can not put enough Mary Kay face paint on that face or enough hair spray on that mop that sits on top of that head…
For the same reason this Sham/Scam artist Rev. R.W. Schambach asks for money is the reason I do not give ANY money to churches. God will provide for the churches. (Yeah right /sarcasm)
If one feels the need to give money, then give it directly to charities that really need the money. And not to businesses AKA churches.
Most televangelists are not into this for anything but the money and recognition.
An MBS isn’t necessarily a speculative investment. We don’t know what the credit quality of these loans is. If we had access to the agency ratings of the securities, we’d know if they were investment grade (high quality) or junk bonds.
And we wonder why our state and country are so broke. It’s because we’re getting swindled and loop-holed by a**hole corporate giants like Trinity. They get 10s of millions in tax breaks each year in the name of Jesus, while we’re all broke. Yeah, that makes sense.
money grubbers. this is where people’s hard earned donations go to, so these hacks can live the high life. sweet. I used to work for the Ritz Carlton and Mr Benny Hinn would come in and spend frivilously. These people are all the same. Anything not avalable to the public, like these expensive homes, should be taxed.
And everyone is hostile at Saddleback about tickets - Jeeesh!!!
327 million in mortgage backed securities? Are there poor and needy living in any of the real estate that they own? What exactly do the contributions go to ?
They are theives! Tax reform should including taxing churches for their income and property hodings…
we could pay off the nation debt if it were to be done!
I’ll have to come back to this one.
Way to much to say in such a short time.
But I will say this.
This is exactly why people think Christians are just money grubbers.
TBN gives Christians a BAD NAME.
.
Benny Hinn, anyone?
Anyone wonder why we have two of the worst presidental candidates in history running for office?
These are the rotten fruits of a marriage between charismatic materialism religion and consumer-driven show business. Earthly kingdom is right. If each person in their audience are treated as a complex of needs and unfulfilled desires (like any good advertising agency would assume), then the message will conform to what most of the audience would most likely want to hear. Needs met and desires fulfilled.
This is the sell: you are making an investment with a guaranteed return. Not guaranteed by any old person but God himself in his holy Word! This is where their notion of Word-faith comes in.
(Of course, that means they are all to forget this idea that the Christian faith is about NOT making full use of the things of this world but instead grounding their faith in the hope of the resurrection and the age to come, in the things that do not rot and rust and are destroyed)
This is the second coming of John Tetzel, but worse. While Tetzel with his indulgences was able to leverage collective audience guilt, TBN leverages collective felt needs. It is not Christianity, it is the extension of secular consumerism into religious exteriors.
So this report on the high value of TBN properties should be no great shock. It is the logical conclusion from their premise. If the “servants” of the TBN ministry are doing the greatest amount of work to spread God’s petty blessings among so many needy people, then the servants should get the greatest return of all. It’s a simple matter of return being proportionate to effort, right?
Unfortunately for TBN, power prestige and wealth does not excuse them from the bar of history as well as God’s word. EVERY ministry in the name of Christ must stand before the bar of history and God’s word, and will be judged by a high standard indeed. That is all.
j
My gosh. These people should merge and consolidate with Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church. They could form a unified religion. WIth all the money and politicians in their back pockets they could rule the entire state of California and create their new theocracy!
Where are the IRS when you need then?
When a non-profit organization has this much in nontaxable holdings and income the gov. should step in and investigate.
These people are obviously in the business of running cartels and real estate fraud.
sick
As a Christian this makes me sick. Honestly I am finding it harder and harder to believe in the Church. I love GOD, CHRIST is my savior and I love HIM with all my heart. But the church as a whole is getting harder and harder to trust. It’s sad and heartbreaking. I have always thought the Crouches were dishonest money grubbing liars. Taking from the poor and the eldery too get rich. Their time will come and they will be judged.
Its time for people who refer to themselves as “real Christians” to do something about this. If non-believers do it, it will appear retributive. But if “real Christians” go after them, well, its your deal. Until then, I can’t tell the difference.
I’m a Catholic–My church owns a lot of property, too. The reason churches are tax exempt is to keep the government out of their business. Part of our constitutional guarantees. Trinity may be taking advantage, but it ain’t defrauding anybody, and I, for one, will do NOTHING to attack their tax exempt status–just like I would do noting to attack Planned Parenthood or any of the myriad other organizations that are in opposition to what I believe is true. Keep the government out of our private lives and we’ll all live better.
Victor
TBN doesn’t defraud anyone?
Really?
good job
this is a good case of the shepherd(s) fleecing the flock!
it is all entertainment to them
modern day Annaias and Sapphira’s who play false to the leadings of the holy spirit and are more concerned with the material
expose them all: Rick Warren, Chuck Smith, Greg Laurie, Schullers,etc
the harlot will be deavsted and the merchants will be sad on the day of their demise!
Plenty of money to pay off the next gay harassment lawsuit.
Sounds to me like a whole lot of envy going on here. Remember the 10th Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Covet…
TBN started over 20 years ago with nothing. The have grown to, not just national, but international, ministry, and that takes a lot of money to support. They have husbanded well what they have been given. Is this a crime? Or immoral? There are a couple parables taught by Jesus which commend the good steward of his master’s assets. Is it immoral or illegal for a church, or anyone, to own property? Are you just envious because you did not have the good sense to forgo the TV’s and Nintendos and new cars every other year, and the meals out, and the beers, and save enough to buy property on west Newport beachfront when it could be had for $58,000, or a few years later, for $200,000, and now over 1.5 million?
And remember, no one holds a gun to the heads of people who give money to TBN. Unlike the IRS. Just try not paying your income tax–or, if you are an employer, your quarterly withholding and social security taxes, etc., and see what happens. If you do not like their message, turn off your TV and don’t send them any money. But what they do with what is given to them freely is nobody’s business but their own as long as they do nothing illegal, do not injure, or do not coerce anyone. Can you apply that standard to the government you are clamoring to have interfere in their property, business, and lives?
And yes, I am a Christian–come late in life to the Faith–but I do not attend any church and have no connection with TBN. But I am certain that the work done by the Grahams, the Schullers, the Rick Warrens and Greg Laufie’s of this world, as well as all the unsung missionaries who try to help and teach in places of poverty we cannot even imagine, are our ultimate, and perhaps only, defense against a
militant Islam. What are you doing to spread the Good News and
to counteract the work of false prophets?
From what I read above, most of you have very little real knowledge of Christianity,. it’s history (and yes, it has some bad spots–after all, all men are sinners– but they are far outweighed by the good) or its theology. You take some second hand mishmash out of a collegiate sophmore’s level of understanding and think that’s all there is. I know because I was in that condition most of my life.
All of us, including the televangelists, will be judged one day. What grade to you anticipate?
Been around a long time.
It’s kind of refreshing to know that when you visit Saddleback, they actually ask you to NOT give. TV programming costs a LOT of money…
I was told by an owner in Harbor Ridge in Newport Beach, that the wives lives in a Lavish home there, and her so called husband lives down the street with his “partner” (being male). I never watch them, so I didn’t really care. This is just what I heard.
that was suppossed to be “wife” not wives…
Phebe Adams — shouldn’t they be helping the poor or something? This is exactly the opposite of what Christ taught. How can you be so ignorant about the teachings of your very own religion.
I think Jesus said “first, sell everything, and give the money to the poor.” In other words, before you can even get to step one, you have to dispose of all of your worldly possessions. How can any body with money call themselves a Christian? Because so many people are so ignorant about what their very own scriptures say.
You cannot blame the IRS — two wrongs do not make a right. You don’t see how destructive these people are to Christianity. It is like prostitution — sure, love, too, is a wonderful thing, but it can be debased. These people make Christianity into a gaudy, ugly, sinful object of greed.
Anyone who gives these people money desreves to be ripped off. What they preach (prosperty doctrine) is false teaching. Jesus said that if we follow Him we would have trials and tribulations, not health and wealth. When Jan Crouch asked every old lady watching to send their grocery money in, it was because she needed more plastic surgery (check out old photos of her versus new photos of her), yet another wig (it’s not her hair), another gold gilded chair (they love gold), or Paul needed to settle another lawsuit for hitting up a male employee. If you think they live in that run down Newport shack worth 1.9 million, you don’t know where spyglass hill is at.
Who’s Bentley is parked in the back at TBN’s Bear st. palace?
TBN should be shut down or have them pay their share of taxes. These so called preachers will someday be judged. Sooner the better. As far as some of the other tv preachers, i know for a fact that Benny Hinn shops south coast plaza with at least $10,000 in his pockets (cash) and asks for two receipts when he purchases something. One for business and one for personal. I just wonder how much Joel Osteen racks in. Wake up stupid people!
This is the field I played in as a kid. It makes me sick to think that people like this can get away with stone cold stealing from people right out in the open with not a care in the world who they are hurting. Long ago I delivered food to a lady that sent all of her money to these people and she lived in horrible conditions and wore old clothes just so she could send these people her money. I am saddened that our country lets people get away with it. They are no better than the monsters that are from these other countries, the only thing better is those monsters are dead.
I’ll tell you one other thing. The Crouch’s don’t even live in the same homes in Newport Beach. They live in 2 homes one on 1 Yorkshire, Newport Beach (at least a $5-7M home) and on San Sebastian (Paul’s home). I don’t care what anyone says, it is a crime watching them drive around in their exotic cars and expensive homes (not even living together) and spending all the money from widows and orphans. I would have thought God would have smote them by now. I can’t believe that no one cares enough in a position of power to expose these people for what they are…. crooks!
If people want to give to the poor, they should give to the SALVATION ARMY. The SA has a shelter in Santa Ana. I know because I stayed there. There needs to be more facilities for single men and single women and couples. There’s more for “abused women and children”; not even much for families (meaning husband , wife and children).. That’s where money should go— not for paul and jan crouch, etc. I feel sorry for them on Judgement Day when they are asked by God… I am not perfect; but I don’t “fleece the flock”. To live in expensive houses and drive fancy cars…. I will get off my soapbox now…
Hey everybody out their in TV land: send me your ‘love offering’ now at http://www.praisethelord.com. Click on: “I’m an idiot” and watch as the power of Jesus works wonders with your bank account.
VISA/Mastercard accepted.
If you want to hear a real Christian discuss this stuff, check out Hank Hannegraf on xm radio channel 170. His ministry is to expose deceptive ministries. Very interesting
You stupid losers rant and rave about people taking total advantage of a system you all help setup, after reading the submitted comments it answers the question, where did all of the morons around town come from. Lets see, not one word about somebody having to pay property taxes so grossly unfair its amazing, if a 500,000 house will cost the owner 10,000 a year in property tax that not a story worth commenting on, but some guy with a TV network makes all of you mad, what a joke. As for them not talking to the O.C Register or the L.A Times of coarse not, I wouldn’t line my bird cage with those rags. Also, you all watch regular TV with all the commercials, something only a fool would do. You people aren’t good enough to carry Jan’s make up bag.