Pastors Who Lost Moral Compass, Deserve Law Enforcement Review

Published: Jun 2, 2007

The public is used to television preachers asking for money. Some of us still remember the 1980s nickname for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's PTL Club: "Pass the Loot."

Neither is it a shock to learn celebrity preachers live in waterfront mansions on both coasts, travel by private jet, drive fancy cars or have cosmetic surgery to appeal to their audience and their personal vanity.

But never will people tolerate ministers who take advantage of poor or elderly members of their flock.

That is where society draws the line, the same line that Randy and Paula White - founders of Without Walls International Church in Tampa and Lakeland - seem blinded by.

The preaching power couple - with their expensive cars, private jet and homes on Bayshore Boulevard, New York City and Malibu, Calif. - has grown rich and famous. They say they pastor to thousands of Central Florida residents of all means.

But their trail of broken promises - reported by Tribune writers Michelle Bearden and Baird Helgeson - casts doubt on their moral compass and raises legal questions worthy of investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the federal Internal Revenue Service and the state Department of Consumer Affairs.

With FDLE in the lead, the multi-agency review should start with the Whites' treatment of Ruth McGinnis, an 85-year-old widow who loaned the couple her life savings of $170,000 so that they could put a down payment on a $650,000 home in tony Cheval, a Lutz subdivision. In return, she says the Whites promised to care for her, in their home, for the rest of her life.

Instead, her money's gone and she lives alone.

The Whites, through a public relations firm, claim their relationship with McGinnis has always been on the up and up. They say McGinnis had legal advice all along.

Still, the Whites signed papers promising to make payments to McGinnis and agreeing that she would live and travel with them as though she were family. But when they sold their home for $1 million, the elderly widow said she received nothing because she signed another document she says she didn't understand - a satisfaction of the mortgage.

If what happened to her isn't illegal, it's morally reprehensible. FDLE should decide which it is.

In another case, the Whites misled a single mother of three who won a church essay contest promoted as promising a new home to the winner. "Congratulations on your new home!" Paula White told LaShonda Dupree in a video aired repeatedly on the Christian Television Network.

Only later did Dupree learn she had won a down payment, not the actual house. She had told the church she couldn't qualify for a mortgage, but they urged her on. When the winner was announced, a church official said the person had qualified for a mortgage. So Dupree went through with the hoopla, believing the home was hers.

The church's actions in this case were duplicitous, if not fraudulent, which is why the state Department of Consumer Affairs should investigate. False promotions carry consequences.

Bearden and Helgeson found other examples, too, of the couple's broken commitments. Five lawsuits or claims of lien have been filed against them and resolved in the plaintiffs' favor.

One claims Paula White told her to use the church's tax-exempt status so that she could buy furnishings without paying sales tax - an act worthy of IRS review.

Another sued for his commission after the Whites reneged on a deal to buy a small business jet. The case settled for $125,000.

The Whites formed Without Walls in 1991 as "the perfect church for people who are not." Today it's one of the largest and fastest-growing independent churches in the country.

Many find their spiritual needs met by the pastors White.

But given the series of disturbing reports about their business practices, it's time for law enforcement to take a close look at the Whites' collection plate.