Trinity Foundation (Dallas)

{{Short description|American religious ministry and watchdog group}}
{{use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
The '''Trinity Foundation''' is an American watchdog ministry founded by [[Ole Anthony]] in 1972. Its main mission is to expose abuse of public trust by [[televangelism]] and religious organisations. It has provided information to news outlets as well as state and federal agencies. As of 2020, the president of the organisation is Peter Evans.

It launched the '''Dallas Project''' in the 1980s as a challenge to religious organizations to help the [[homeless in the United States]], which was in 2010 taken over by '''Community on Columbia''' (The Block), a church attended by many members of Trinity Foundation.

==History==
The Trinity Foundation was founded by [[Ole Anthony]] in June 1972.<ref name=dmag2012>{{cite web|last=Nightengale|first=Krista|title=God's Work|website=D Magazine|date=November 2012|quote=Anthony helped start the Trinity Foundation 40(sic) years ago this month.|url=http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2012/november/ole-anthony-trinity-foundation-gods-work|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930061822/http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2012/november/ole-anthony-trinity-foundation-gods-work|archive-date=30 September 2015|url-status=live|access-date=7 April 2022}}</ref><ref name=about>{{cite web|title=About Us|website=Trinity Foundation|date=26 May 2012|url=https://trinityfi.org/about-us/|access-date=7 April 2022}}</ref>{{efn|Assume typo in the D Magazine article; website says 1972.}} and based in [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]], [[Texas]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-47675301|title=The preachers getting rich from poor Americans|first=Vicky|last=Baker|work=[[BBC News]]|date=29 May 2019}}</ref>

The organization started with the purpose of conducting demographic research on [[televangelism]] and other religious television programming. During a series of scandals in the 1980s and 1990s, the Trinity Foundation established itself as a watchdog group that provided information about fraud and abuse by religious groups.<ref name=about/>

It has provided the results of its research and collaborated with journalists at [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]], [[CBS News]], [[NBC News]], [[CNN]], and ''[[Last Week Tonight]]'' with [[John Oliver]].<ref name=about/> 

Anthony died in 2021.<ref name=obit2021/>

==Televangelists==
Trinity Foundation's investigative work into the fundraising tactics of big-money televangelists first came to national attention in 1991 following a ''[[Primetime Live]]'' hidden-camera look at televangelist [[Robert Tilton]]. The foundation was instrumental in providing evidence for the many state and federal investigations of Tilton in the years that followed.<ref name=obit2021>{{cite web|last=Smietana|first=Bob|title=Ole Anthony, longtime critic of prosperity gospel televangelists and head of Trinity Foundation, dies at 82|website=Religion News Service|date=18 April 2021|url=https://religionnews.com/2021/04/18/ole-anthony-longtime-critic-investigate0televangelists-prosperity-gospel-robert-tilton-jan-paul-crouc-tbn-primie-time-dies-trinity-founation/|access-date=9 April 2022}}</ref>

Other televangelists investigated by Trinity include [[Benny Hinn]], [[Jan Crouch|Jan]] and [[Paul Crouch]]<ref name=obit2021/> [[Kenneth Copeland]], [[Joyce Meyer]], [[Paula White]], [[Peter Popoff]], [[W.V. Grant]], and [[Edwin Barry Young]].{{cn|date=April 2022}} It has been a critic of the [[Trinity Broadcasting Network]], and called for ministries of prominent tele-evangelists [[Billy Graham|Billy]] and [[Franklin Graham]], [[Charles Stanley]], [[Ron Luce]], and others to withdraw from the network.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ross|first=Bobby Jr.|title=The Trouble with TBN|website=ChristianityToday.com|date=8 November 2012|url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/november/trouble-with-tbn.html|access-date=7 April 2022}}</ref>

Regarding Benny Hinn, Trinity claimed to have evidence showing that his ministry does not qualify as a church under [[Internal Revenue Service]] guidelines, as reported by ''[[The Dallas Morning News]]'' in July 2005.  Specifically, Trinity claims that Hinn's ministry did not hold regular public worship services at its facility, as access is strictly limited to employees with access badges.{{cn|date=April 2022}}

===Senate Finance Committee investigation===
The foundation was directly involved in Sen. [[Charles Grassley]]'s [[Senate Finance Committee]] investigation of abuses by a number of televangelist ministries. Beginning in 2005, after being asked to help by the committee’s general counsel, the foundation submitted over the next six years 38 separate reports on abuses by religious not-for-profit organizations, which were incorporated into the committee’s final report.<ref name=grassley2013>{{cite web|title=Televangelist watchdog group questions ECFA response to Sen. Grassley investigation|website=Trinity Foundation|date=11 March 2013|url=https://trinityfi.org/televangelist-watchdog-group-questions-ecfa-response-to-sen-grassley-investigation/|access-date=7 April 2022}}</ref>

The foundation criticized  Grassley for turning to the [[Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability]] (ECFA) for suggested solutions instead of acting on tough legislative proposals from his staff for policing abuses by religious organizations. It said that the ECFA's recommendations were too lax and were compromised by close ties to the very ministries they were proposing to oversee.<ref name=grassley2013/>

==Other investigations==
Trinity has also investigated the [[St. Matthew's Churches|St. Matthew's Churches/Church By Mail, Inc.]], a "[[Seed-Faith|seed-faith]] ministry" of James Eugene "Gene" Ewing, which targets the poorest zip codes in America with religious mailings.<ref>{{cite web|title=James Eugene Ewing, Founder of St. Matthews Churches: the Religious Direct Mail Monster|website=Trinity Foundation|date=1 April 2022|url=https://trinityfi.org/investigations/james-eugene-ewing-founder-of-st-matthews-churches-the-religious-direct-mail-monster/|access-date=7 April 2022}}</ref>

An investigative report on [[ABC Television (Australia)|the Australian ABC TV]]'s ''[[19:30]]'' programme on 6 April 2022 revealed that [[Hillsong Church|Hillsong]], the global [[megachurch]] headquartered in [[Sydney]], had acquired a lot of property that had been hidden behind a web of entities across the world. It had done this in part by assuming financial control over other churches, starting with [[Garden City Church]] in [[Brisbane]] in 2009. The Trinity investigator, Barry Bowen, found that Hillsong owned at least three [[Condominium (living space)|condominium]]s in [[New York City]], a US$3.5-million home in California and 31 properties in [[Arizona]], expected to be worth a total of US$40 million by 2023. Its corporate and financial structures mean that the church is protected against litigation which demands large payouts to [[plaintiff]]s.<ref name="Cohen 2022">{{cite web|last1=Cohen|first1=Hagar|first2=Alex|last2= McDonald|first3=Raveen|last3=Hunjan|first4=Mario|last4= Christodoulou|title=Former Hillsong pastors say they were threatened by Brian Houston to hand over their church and assets|website=ABC News|publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]|series=[[7.30]]|date=6 April 2022|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-06/hillsong-property-empire-financial-control-over-churches/100969258|access-date=7 April 2022}}</ref>

==Other activities==
The foundation published ''[[The Door (satirical Christian magazine)|The Wittenburg Door]]'', a magazine of Christian satire that was established in 1971, from 1995 to 2008.<ref>{{cite web|last=Mujica|first=Gus|title=What is The Wittenburg Door and why is it needed? – The Wittenburg Door|website=The Wittenburg Door – The Wittenburg Door|date=24 February 2021|url=https://wittenburgdoor.com/what-is-the-wittenburg-door-and-why-is-it-needed/|access-date=7 April 2022}}</ref>

It launched the Dallas Project in the 1980s as a challenge to religious organizations to help the [[homeless in the United States]], which was in 2010 taken over by Community on Columbia (The Block), a church attended by many members of Trinity Foundation.<ref name=about/> This is an independent church congregation separate from the foundation's oversight, but still in friendly cooperation and agreement with its mission.<ref>{{cite web|title=What's The Block?|website=Community on Columbia|date=18 October 2018|url=https://communityoncolumbia.org/?page_id=4|access-date=9 April 2022}}</ref>

==Controversy==
Some former members of the group have been critical of the foundation and Anthony, accusing it of abuse and [[cult]]ism.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dallasobserver.com/2006-08-03/news/the-cult-of-ole|title=The Cult of Ole|publisher=[[Dallas Observer]]|date=3 August 2006|access-date=2007-05-17}}</ref><ref name=obit2021/>

==Footnotes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Official website}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20131208024622/http://www.trinityfi.org/media/Ole_interviewOnPilgrimRadio.mp3 Radio interview with Ole Anthony] - Pilgrim Radio Network - interview by Bill Feltner, November 2012.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20131208222042/http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/ole_anthony God Doesn't Need Ole Anthony--The Antichrist of East Dallas: The man televangelists hate] (Reprinted from ''The New Yorker'', Dec. 6, 2004).
*{{youtube|szMpscvPZmY |Nailin' it to the Church}} - Excerpt from a documentary on ''The Wittenburg Door'', 5 October 2008.

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Organizations based in Dallas]]
[[Category:Foundations based in the United States]]
[[Category:1972 establishments in Texas]]
[[Category:Cults]]