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TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, is the world's largest religious TV network. It claims to be a Christian ministry. However, while some legitimate ministries and teachers (those who adhere to the orthodox teachings and practices of historical Christianity) appear on TBN, the network - led by founders Paul and Jan Crouch - promotes such an incredible amount of heretical material, including extremist Word-Faith teachings, that it is often referred to as "The Blasphemy Network."
Most of TBN's shows present the world with a mockery of Christianity, in which tall stories, unbiblical teachings, false prophecies, un-Christlike behavior and the love of money occupy center state.
Paul and Jan Crouch frequently join their guests, among whom TBN star Benny Hinn, in verbally attacking those who call TBN to accountability for its blasphemous teachings and its unbiblical practices.
The parade of guests who are featured on Paul and Jan Crouch's TBN programming runs the gamut from the serious, sound Christian thinkers and ministers to the superficial, silly, and outright heretical. How many viewers can tell the difference? How many care to try? Spiritual gullibility is widespread throughout our culture, of course, but the Word-Faith movement is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
The Bible tells Christians to teach sound doctrine, to confront and counter errorenous teachings, and to be on the alert for false teachers.
The Bible says:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, {17} so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Paul Crouch, however, has a message for those who dare to rebuke and correct him:
To hell with you! Get out of my life! Get out of the way!…I say get out of God's way! Quit blocking God's bridges or God's going to shoot you if I don't…I don't even want to even talk to you or hear you! I don't want to see your ugly face!
Source: Paul Crouch, Praise-a-thon, April 2, 1991
TBN's founders and leaders, Jan and Paul Crouch, tirelessly promote the so-called "Prosperity Gospel." Based on a deliberate misrepresentation of Biblical teachings, it is in reality a financial scam that can be classified as 'affinity fraud' (scams directed at people who may think that a common affiliation, such as membership of a church, club or organization, reduces or prevents the possibility of fraud).
Many have criticized Trinity's glitzy sets, extravagant on-air personalities and the lifestyles of network founders Paul and Jan Crouch.
The Crouches drive expensive cars and own several homes, including a Newport Beach estate reported to be worth $5 million.
According to year 2000 tax documents, Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, which oversees a network of Trinity Broadcasting organizations and overseas ventures, had $444 million in net assets.
Pastor Paul Crouch calls it "God's economy of giving," and here is how it works:
People who donate to Crouch's Trinity Broadcasting Network will reap financial blessings from a grateful God. The more they give TBN, the more he will give them.
Being broke or in debt is no excuse not to write a check. In fact, it's an ideal opportunity. For God is especially generous to those who give when they can least afford it.
"He'll give you thousands, hundreds of thousands," Crouch told his viewers during a telethon last November. "He'll give millions and billions of dollars."
Preachers who pass the hat while praising the Lord have long been the stuff of ridicule in film and fiction. But for Crouch and his Orange County-based television ministry, God's economy of giving is no laughing matter. It brings a rich bounty, year after year.
Crouch has used a doctrine called the " prosperity gospel" to underwrite a worldwide broadcasting network and a life of luxury for himself and his family.
For at least a century, preachers have plied the notion that dropping money in the collection plate will bring blessings from God — material as well as spiritual. But Crouch, through inspired salesmanship and advanced telecommunications technology, has converted this timeworn creed into a potent financial engine.
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