United States Senate inquiry into the tax-exempt status of religious organizations Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Joyce Meyer Ministries=== Grassley asked [[Joyce Meyer|Joyce Meyer Ministries]] to divulge financial information<ref name=autogenerated2>{{cite news |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/06/cbsnews_investigates/main3462147.shtml |title=Televangelists Living Like Kings? |publisher=[[CBS News]] |date=November 6, 2007 | access-date=2015-02-03}}</ref><ref name="NPR-Lohr">{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16860611 |title=Senator Probes Megachurches' Finances |publisher=[[NPR.org]] |date=December 4, 2007 |first=Kathy |last=Lohr |access-date=December 10, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://media.npr.org/documents/2007/nov/grassley/meyer.pdf |title=Letter to David and Joyce Meyer |publisher=[[NPR.org]] |date=November 5, 2007 |first=Charles |last=Grassley |authorlink=Chuck Grassley |access-date=December 10, 2007}}</ref> to the committee to determine if Meyer made any personal profit from financial donations, asking for a detailed accounting for such things as cosmetic surgery and foreign bank accounts and citing such expenses as the $23,000 commode. He also requested that Meyer's ministry make the information available by December 6, 2007. Meyer's ministry was one of two that complied with the Senate's requests for financial records and made commitments to future financial transparency.<ref name="rachelZoll" /> ====Commode controversy==== {{quote box |width=25%|quote=While many have mistakenly associated this piece of furniture with a common household toilet, this particular term actually refers to the classic definition of [[commode]] identified by Webster's Dictionary as, 'a tall elegant [[chest of drawers]].'|source=βJoyce Meyer Ministries <ref>{{cite news |first=Bruce |last=Tomaso |title=Joyce Meyer says her $23,000 commode is not a toilet, and it didn't cost $23,000 |date=2007-12-07 |url=http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/2007/12/joyce-meyer-says-her-23000-com.html/ |work=The Dallas Morning News |access-date=2013-05-13}}</ref><ref name="CNW-JMM 2007-11-06">{{cite news |title=Joyce Meyer Ministries: Response to Senator Grassley Inquiry |date=2007-11-06 |publisher=[[ChristianNewsWire]] |url=http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/245714883.html |work=Joyce Meyer Ministries |access-date=2013-05-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204042643/http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/245714883.html |archive-date=2015-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref>}} In her November 29 response to Grassley, Meyer notes that the commode is a chest of drawers. Meyer writes that it was part of a 68-piece lot of items totaling $262,000 that were needed to furnish the ministry's {{convert|150000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} headquarters purchased in 2001. She said the commode's price tag was an "errant value" assigned by the selling agent and apologized for "not paying close attention to specific 'assigned values' placed on the pieces."<ref name="NPR-Lohr" /><ref name="CNW-JMM 2007-11-06" /> ====Financial reports==== Joyce Meyer Ministries responded with a newsletter to its e-mail list subscribers on November 9, 2007. The organization referred to its annual financial reports, asserting that, in 2006, the ministry spent 82 percent of its total expenses "for outreach and program services toward reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as attested by independent accounting firm Stanfield & O'Dell, LLP." The message also quoted an October 10, 2007, letter from the Internal Revenue Service which stated, "We determined that you [Joyce Meyer Ministries] continue to qualify as an organization exempt from federal income tax under IRC section 501(c)(3)." The same information was also posted to the ministry website. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page