Who: Televangelist; head of Inspiration Network, a “seed faith” mega-ministry built from the ashes of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s PTL Club, whose assets were purchased by his father, Morris Cerullo…
…a Pentecostal Christian evangelist prominent in the faith healing movement. He holds crusades in which people with serious illnesses and disabilities are encouraged to attend where Jesus allegedly ‘heals’ them. He has used posters of people abandoning wheelchairs and crutches to promote his crusades.Cerullo was an early and prominent promoter of the scare over Satanism which later became known by critics as Satanic Panic. Cerullo championed the testimonies of two fraudulent “ex-Satanist” fakes, John Todd and Mike Warnke… Cerullo cut off his association and promotion of John Todd early on but remained closely associated with Mike Warnke until Warnke left to start his own ministry at the time of the publication of his phony memoirs, The Satan Seller.
Cerullo has been indicted by a Grand Jury for IRS fraud. His ministry has been under investigation for years by the government for his fund raising practices. While no charges were brought against Cerullo’s ministry, Cerullo was found to have underreported his income for 1998 through 2000. However, on August 8, 2007, the US District Court, Southern District of California ordered that the indictment be dismissed as a consequence of the prosecutor’s inaccurate explanation of the Duberstein test to the jury. …
Over the years Cerullo has been criticized for the manner and style of his fundraising practices in the developed countries to finance his mission work. His record shows decades of much travel through out other parts of the world with those funds even in war zones. Many ministers and pastors all over the world attribute thanks to Morris Cerullo for coming to their country and being exhorted into the Christian ministry. Many effective ministers today view him as an apostolic style minister.
He is also known to have solicited funds from television viewers, and equating fund raising and purchase of his books as a matter of faith. On a January 27, 2009 appearance on the Benny Hinn ministry show on Trinity Broadcasting Network, Cerullo urged viewers to rush to their phone to purchase his bible commentary for $100, and further added that “those of you who rush to your phone… are demonstrating your faith in God.”
A documentary on the BBC, Newsround, reported that an epileptic woman stopped taking medicine (although she was never instructed or advised to do so by the ministry) after she believed herself to have been healed during Cerullo’s rally. The woman subsequently died following a seizure in her bath.
In 1991, British authorities suspended the license of a satellite station for broadcasting the program, Victory with Morris Cerullo. The license was reinstated after the station agreed to precede the program with the disclaimer, “Morris Cerullo World Evangelism cannot substantiate the claims made by those participants featured in this programme,” and advising all persons suffering from illness to seek medical attention.
In the 1999, the Christian Channel, a UK cable channel, broadcast an advertisement for one of Cerullo’s European rallies which claimed that “Satanic hordes” had “occupied the principal palaces of power.” As a result, the channel was fined £20,000 for breaching advertising codes requiring political impartiality, for denigrating other religious beliefs, for potentially frightening viewers, and for making statements prejudicial of “respect for human dignity.”
Why David Cerullo is one to watch: He’s the subject of growing interest as a result of his own fundraising tactics, his high salary and increasing wealth, and the 93-acre “City of Light” he’s building in South Carolina — with a big boost from taxpayer money.
He brings home more than $1.5 million a year, making him the best-paid leader of any religious charity tracked by watchdog groups. His salary dwarfs those of executives leading far larger religious nonprofits.David and Barbara Cerullo live in a 12,000 square-foot lakefront home in south Charlotte – complete with an elevator and an 1,100-square-foot garage. Their grown children also receive handsome salaries. …
His network, with a budget of nearly $80 million last year, sprang from the remnants of Jim Bakker’s PTL Club. Cerullo and his colleagues have raised much of the money by repeating this on-air assertion: God brings financial favor to those who donate. …
But some donors are disillusioned. …
Much of the money … is now funding the City of Light, a 93-acre campus in northern Lancaster County, S.C., where the network’s plans include a sophisticated training and broadcast center.
Taxpayers are also helping to pay for it. Eager to bring jobs to a county with 19 percent unemployment, South Carolina offered the network incentives worth up to $26 million to land the campus — a deal that has been questioned by economic development experts. …
His father, Morris, grew up in a Jewish orphanage in New Jersey and converted to Christianity at age 14. Later, Morris Cerullo staged worldwide crusades in which, his Web site says, “the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear.” …
Throughout most of the 1990s, the [Inspiration] network differed from many other religious TV stations: It didn’t ask for donations on the air. …
That changed in 1999. David Cerullo decided Inspiration should create its own programs to spread God’s word. “We started to put a face on the network,” he said.
That required money, so the network began soliciting donations from the public. Increasingly, it came to rely on “prosperity preachers” – guest evangelists who told viewers that God favored those who donated. …
Few nonprofit leaders are paid more than Cerullo. …
Concern about Cerullo’s salary prompted Wall Watchers, which monitors religious charities, to issue a “donor alert” to caution people about giving to the Inspiration Networks. …
[Cerullo's] family is also on the payroll. …
Cerullo’s staff is also well-paid. More than 25 of the network’s 330 employees collected over $100,000 in 2007, the IRS filing shows. …
Inspiration has chosen not to join the 1,385-member Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), which sets standards for governance and fundraising by Christian charities. …
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who is investigating the finances of six other televangelists, questioned why any religious nonprofit would decline to join ECFA, which he likens to a Good Housekeeping seal of approval. …
— Surging ministry, growing questions
Charlotte Observer, May. 23, 2009
See also these articles, archived at RickRoss.com:
Another former Cerullo associate accuses him of fund-raising fraud
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 24, 2000
Evangelist Cerullo indicted in tax case
San Diego Union-Tribune, July 13, 2005
Evangelist going on trial
for tax evasion charges
WCNC News, South Carolina, March 14, 2007
Grand jury misled, federal judge rules
San Diego Union-Tribune, August 14, 2007
For more on the “Prosperity Gospel” (the “Word Faith,” a.k.a. “Positive Confession,” a.k.a. “Seed Faith,” a.k.a. “Giving and Receiving,” a.k.a. “Health & Wealth,” a.k.a. “Name It and Claim It,” a.k.a. “Blab-It-and-Grab-It”), see Paul Crouch.
