Theology The Trinity Broadcasting Network had previously come under heavy criticism for its promotion of the
prosperity gospel, teaching viewers that they will receive a reward if they donate or give offerings. In a 2004 interview with the
Los Angeles Times,
Paul Crouch, Jr. expressed his disappointment that "the prosperity gospel is a lightning rod for the Body of Christ. It's not what drives TBN." Under leadership of Matt Crouch, TBN no longer adheres to or practices that theology, and programming changes such as removing Kenneth Copeland reflect that shift. TBN has always broadcast programming featuring Protestant pastors who do not promote the prosperity gospel, such as
Charles Stanley,
Jack Graham,
Franklin Graham,
Billy Graham,
Michael Youssef,
David Jeremiah and
Robert Jeffress. Scholar Steve Snow states that TBN "regularly promotes the teachings of the
New Apostolic Reformation", which he argues "represents what
Richard Hofstadter referred to as the modern
paranoid style in American politics".
Wealth and transparency TBN is a
501(c)(3) non-profit company. Full disclosure of TBN's financial statements have been evaluated by
Charity Navigator, the largest evaluator of charities and non-profit companies in the U.S. TBN has received a three out of four star rating for four consecutive years, and in 2009 earned a rating of two out of four stars due to a 2% increase in administrative costs in 2009; the report also revealed that for the fiscal year ending December 2009, TBN president Paul Crouch, Sr. earned $419,500; co-vice president Jan Crouch earned $361,000; and co-vice president Paul Crouch, Jr. earned $214,137. TBN is currently under Donor Advisory status with Charity Navigator. Another charity watchdog group,
Ministry Watch, gave TBN an "F" in 2011 for its failure to provide financial statements, lack of timeliness in responding to correspondence, and its lack of clarity in the provided information. As a result, TBN was placed on the group's alert list annually since 2009. TBN's annual financial information is monitored by the
Chronicle of Philanthropy, where it is ranked 243 out of the top 400 non-profit corporations in the United States. TBN is not a member of the
Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. In 2011, Paul Crouch, Jr. resigned from his position as co-vice president on TBN. On November 10 of that year, Crouch, Jr. joined
The Word Network as its Director of Project Development. In February 2012,
Brittany Koper, TBN's former Director of Finance (and the daughter of Paul Crouch Jr.), filed a lawsuit against her former attorneys, Davert & Loe. The three counts of the complaint were for breach of fiduciary duties, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and professional negligence. In this lawsuit, Koper alleged that TBN unlawfully distributed over $50 million to the ministry's directors. Koper filed the suit following the termination of her employment with TBN. Davert & Loe, who also represented TBN, denied her claims. Koper's suit against Davert & Loe is pending; no official judicial ruling has been made in this matter. In a May 2012 interview with
The New York Times, Koper claimed, "My job as finance director was to find ways to label extravagant personal spending as ministry expenses." Koper alleged that the network had herself and
chauffeurs and
sound engineers ordained as ministers in order to avoid paying
Social Security taxes on their salaries.
Lawsuits In September 2004, the
Los Angeles Times reported that Paul Crouch had paid former TBN employee Enoch Lonnie Ford a $425,000 formal settlement to end a
wrongful termination lawsuit in 1998. Ford alleged that he and Crouch had a homosexual tryst during his employment with the ministry. TBN officials acknowledged the settlement but contested Ford's credibility, noting that he had previously been convicted for
child molestation and drug abuse. In 1996, Ford was fired by TBN after he was arrested for drug-related offenses and returned to prison for a year. Ford allegedly threatened to sue TBN for wrongful termination and
sexual harassment after the network refused to hire him following his release, resulting in his claims against Crouch. TBN officials stated that the settlement was made in order to avoid a lengthy and expensive lawsuit. In late 2003, Ford attempted to
extort Crouch, threatening to release an autobiographical
manuscript of their alleged affair if TBN did not purchase the document for $10 million. In October 2004, Judge Robert J. O'Neill awarded Crouch $136,000 in legal fees to be paid by Ford for his violation of the terms of the settlement agreement, specifically the prohibition of discussing the details of the settlement. On March 15, 2005, Ford appeared on the
PAX TV reality series
Lie Detector to be given a
polygraph test; the results of the test were never broadcast or made public. In June 2012, the
Orange County Register reported that Carra Crouch, a granddaughter of Paul and Jan Crouch, alleged in a lawsuit that she had been
raped by a TBN employee when she was 13 years old. Carra claimed to have been
sexually abused while staying at an
Atlanta hotel during TBN's "Spring Praise-a-Thon" in 2006. She also claimed that Jan Crouch and TBN attorney John Casoria blamed her for the incident, yet agreed not to turn the fired employee in to authorities if he did not file for
unemployment,
worker's comp or
EEOC benefits. TBN attorney Colby May "vehemently denied" Carra's claims. In 2017, a year after Jan Crouch's death, a jury awarded Carra $2 million in damages for "mental suffering", but found that Jan had not been acting as a "Trinity Clergy Member" and therefore wasn't legally required to report the assault.
Pre-emption of programs due to criticism of other religions Bible prophecy scholar
Hal Lindsey's program
International Intelligence Briefing, which occasionally aired commentary segments criticizing
Muslims and
Islam, aired on TBN from 1994 to 2005. In December 2005, TBN pre-empted the program for the entire month. Lindsey accused the network of
censorship, saying, "some at the network apparently feel that my message is too pro-
Israel and too anti-Muslim." Paul Crouch issued a press release stating that the show was only pre-empted for
Christmas programming, but eventually admitted that TBN management was concerned that Lindsey "placed
Arabs in a negative light." Lindsey resigned from TBN on January 1, 2006, effectively canceling
International Intelligence Briefing. However, one year later, Crouch and Lindsey reconciled and a new program,
The Hal Lindsey Report, premiered on the network. In June 2011, TBN refused to rebroadcast an episode of
Jack Van Impe's weekly program
Jack Van Impe Presents, in which the evangelist criticized pastors
Rick Warren and
Robert Schuller for participating in
interfaith conferences alongside Muslim leaders. Both Warren and Schuller denied the accusations. Paul Crouch defended TBN's decision, stating that it was against network policy for personalities to attack each other on-air (Schuller had a regular show on TBN). As a result, Jack Van Impe Ministries announced that it would no longer air Van Impe's program on TBN.
Travel the Road in Afghanistan TBN produces and airs the Christian
reality show
Travel the Road, which features missionaries Tim Scott and Will Decker in remote and often war-torn locations. In December 2008, the program attracted criticism from the
Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a watchdog group that looks for
religious discrimination in the
United States military, which claimed that Scott and Decker were embedded with U.S. troops stationed in
Afghanistan. According to MRFF president Mikey Weinstein, the military exercises a "complete prohibition of the proselytizing of any religion, faith, or practice...You see [Scott and Decker] wearing American helmets. It is obvious they were completely embedded." When
ABC News contacted the
U.S. Army in Afghanistan about Scott and Decker's alleged embed, which had taken place four years previously, they said that they no longer had the documentation of the missionaries' status with the troops. Scott defended the trip to Afghanistan, telling ABC, "It wasn't like we were hiding in the back saying we're going to preach. [The military] knew what we were doing. We told them that we were born again Christians, we're here doing ministry, we shoot for this TV station and we want to embed and see what it was like. We were interviewing the chaplains and we talked to them. We spoke at the services and things like that. So we did do our mission being over there as far as being able to document what the soldiers go through, what it's like in Afghanistan. So I could say that we were on a secular mission as well as far as documenting. I would say we were news reporters as well, we were delivering news of what was actually happening there, but we were also there to document the Christian side." Scott argued that since the pair were acting as Christian journalists, they had the same right to cover the war in Afghanistan as secular networks. ==Awards and honors==