We live in a world of spin. But nowhere could this spin be more pronounced than in news reports released yesterday about Gospel for Asia’s (GFA) massive settlement with donors who alleged that the ministry conned them and stole their money.
According to a CBN News report, which quoted spin-doctor Johnnie Moore at length, the settlement is reason to rejoice for a ministry that finally can put ugly allegations of wrongdoing behind it. The lead reads:
“One of the world’s largest international ministries is thanking God as a more than three-year legal battle against allegations of financial fraud is finally coming to an end.”
The report mentions that GFA “found itself embroiled in a class-action lawsuit accusing the non-profit of betraying its mission to help the poor and needy.” And it included one sentence quoting the plaintiffs, Dr. Garland Murphy III and his wife Phyllis, who accused GFA founder K.P. Yohannan of using GFA as a “front” to build “a reprehensible . . . multimillion-dollar personal empire.” (Only 13 percent of GFA donations ever made it to the mission field.)
However, nowhere in the entire article does it mention the massive amount of the settlement—$37 million dollars. This is a staggering payout and speaks to the legitimacy of the plaintiffs’ case. Fortunately, this fact was reported in a blog post by Warren Throckmorton. His lead reads:
“In court documents filed today, Gospel for Asia settled with plaintiffs Garland and Phyllis Murphy by agreeing to set aside $37 million in a Settlement Fund to provide relief for donors as well as cover court costs and attorney’s fees.”
Throckmorton’s account also mentioned that GFA agreed to have the plaintiff, Dr. Murphy, join the GFA board. In addition, the settlement stipulates that the wife of Yohannan, must step off the board and that no other relative of Yohannan will be allowed to serve on the GFA board.
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Throckmorton’s report also notes that GFA agreed to create a board subcommittee that would provide oversight for the organization’s compliance with the settlement, and this subcommittee will not include K.P. Yohannan.
Stunningly, none of these important facts were included in CBN’s report. Instead, of the 578 words in the article, 425 of them are either quotes or paraphrases of GFA’s hired PR man, Johnnie Moore, or Yohannan, or verbatim parts of the settlement where GFA alleges its innocence.
Sickeningly, the article gives Yohannan a platform to make his cause seem somehow noble and spiritual.
“We are so incredibly thankful for the prayers and the ongoing support of our many faithful friends and partners. We look today toward the future with optimism in our hearts ‘being confident of this one thing: that He who began a good work in (us) will continue to perfect it. I’m most proud of the fact that we managed to continue to serve those in need even as we fought every day to survive ourselves.”
The article also gives Moore a platform to spin and mislead, asserting “that the settlement should not be taken as an admission of guilt, contending that the allegations of racketeering, fraud and financial mismanagement are bogus.”
This is absolutely laughable. Who pays $37 million to settle “bogus” allegations? And if the allegations are so baseless, how does GFA explain that only 13-percent of donations actually made it to the field? Watchdog groups suggest that at least 65-percent of a charity’s expenses should go toward their mission.
Repeatedly, we hear allegations that bloggers are somehow perverting the purity of the press. And I’ll concede that many bloggers are not trained journalists. And they often publish information that isn’t properly sourced.
Yet as this example shows, the press isn’t so pure. And bloggers are providing a much-needed service. Though I think CBN does some good reporting, Christian media tend to give Christian groups more of a pass than they deserve. And if it weren’t for bloggers, many important truths would never come to light.
Bloggers often expose the facts that no one else will. Throckmorton, for example, was key to exposing now-disgraced, former Mars Hill Pastor Mark Driscoll. The Elephant’s Debt played a crucial role in exposing the corruption of Harvest Bible Chapel and its founder, James MacDonald. And similarly, The Broken Twig, which has since been taken down, published crucial letters by alumni and professors asserting mission-drift and heavy-handed management at the Moody Bible Institute. This was a big help to me when I was blowing the whistle on wrongdoing at the institute, which led to the president, provost, and COO of MBI stepping down.
Moving forward, I hope Christian media become less accommodating in their coverage of Christian groups and more willing to investigate and report the inconvenient facts. But in the meantime, I encourage Christians to read blogs with discerning eyes, but by all means, read them! If you don’t, you likely will be less informed and less able to discern truth from error. And in this particular case, you may falsely believe that Gospel for Asia is a victim instead of a perpetrator.
40 Responses
I am not familiar with this particular case but I agree that in general it is good to have multiple sources including blogs. Of course, both major news organizations and independent blogs should be viewed with discernment.
We looked up recent sermons by KP. He is not the same man I saw at. Calvary Chapel in Austin in 1998. My heart breaks. But if you look up his recent sermons In just terrified at what can happen to a little leaven leaven the loaf Reminds me of the VOM suicide. You absolutely need to be a berean. Forget blogs stop reading Christianity Today… start reading your own Bible and test the Spirits as 1 John says. We live in deceptive days and if you don’t know God’s Word you WILL be deceived
Thank you for sharing this. I am thankful to you for your blog and others who are not afraid to research and try to uncover the truth. Thank you!
Julie – Thank you for seeking the truth. You are in our prayers as you continue your God given mission to expose the “false teachers” of this age!
Wow, so sad and surprising. We have given to them on more than one occasion. No more!
I have been following the GFA situation for years – both in the US and via multiple trips to India and know quite a number of people previously related to them. The actual situation within GFA, unfortunately, is far worse than has generally been understood. Hundreds of millions of dollars in missions donations have gone to an organization and personal fiefdom that has deprived other more circumspect, reputable mission efforts of resources that would have been much better used. The mismanagement, corruption, and abuse of power within GFA has been many times worse than any of the recent domestic debacles you have covered – and has been shielded from more public scrutiny by master “evangelicalese” spinners. We need more accountability for our Christian institutions both from within and without. Thanks for your efforts.
Thanks for posting this update on GFA Julie. We knew something was wrong with KP from the moment we heard his unbiblical lie that American Christians should let “nationals” carry out the work of God’s Kingdom in India and all we should do was send money. The Bible teaches no such thing but rather commands all believers everywhere in all generations to complete the great commission. God calls believers from Japan to serve in Thailand. Indian Australians to serve in Bhutan. Kenyans to serve in the UK. He is the God of all nations sending his people to all nations.
I respect what you are doing on this blog and appreciate it, but in this particular case how do we know for sure that this is not a case of mismanagement? Maybe I need more information, but it sounds like he is complying with their demands and restructuring to give more accountability. Is it possible he paid the settlement to save the ministry in general? And the money is going back to donors not the plaintiffs, correct? I just feel that it’s hypocritical to not acknowledge their obvious actions towards positive change. Like I said, I appreciate your efforts and these things should be exposed for what they are, but possibly with a little more caution as we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Speak the truth in love, which I feel like you are doing, but it could easily teeter into something else if not careful.
Jennifer, it is good you seek more clarification. I encourage you and all others who wish for more information to visit a website call Gospel for Asia Diaspora: https://www.gfadiaspora.com/
This site has testimonies of over a hundred former employees who tried to speak up about financial and spiritual abuses within GFA. For this they were silenced and sidelined or fired and shunned. You can read there about KP Yohanens “face” in America which he presented as “helping the poor South Asians” and his “face” in India where he wore fancy robes, had church leaders kissing his ring and built huge buildings. A far cry from village pastors on their bicycles. Thus the picture at the top of this post. Whenever a leader of a Christian organization tells people all he needs from them is their money this is a huge red flag.
It sounds like they paid out because they were forced to. A settlement usually happens by force- as an alternative to costly litigation. It would have continued on if the weren’t investigated. Like others have said, Warren Throckmorten has covered this for years. Previously on Patheos so not sure if those older articals are available.
Okay, I will look for the older articles. Thanks. It’s very disheartening as my children and I have given at Christmas each year to the GFA Christmas catalog. It truly breaks my heart if these things are true. My reaction to all of these scandals has been complete shock and then deep sadness. It is so hard to believe that these leaders we have trusted can be so different from what we thought they were. I’m glad it is being brought into the light. I am also trying to remember though to be sober minded about the capabilities of my own human heart and humble myself as I read these articles as any one of us if given the opportunity could do the same. I posted because the name calling and slight sensationalism that gives the idea to readers that these fallen leaders are somehow any different from us does not sit right with me.
I’m certainly not contending any one of us are perfect or even anything more than selfish, at bottom. But I think it’s inaccurate to say any one of us would do this. I personally think very few people would do this, I think most people, in spite of their grave struggles with sin, would not with impunity mismanage and enrich themselves off of tens of millions given for missionary efforts. I believe most people have some kind of conscience and some sense of fair play and decency. It’s no small thing to make yourself rich off of millions and millions in money given to Christian charity. That is outright evil!
If this article leaves a bad taste in your mouth, then the Apostle Paul’s excoriation of the superapostles in 2 Cor 11, those frauds who were doing these same sorts of things, though probably on a much smaller scale, must leave a terrible taste in your mouth. One ought to be able to call out evil for what it is. I think that’s part of the Bible. And no, while we all have sinned and fallen short, not everyone would do this. No way.
I understand your point and appreciate what you said about Paul in Corinthians. It helps me to understand how to view this situation better and I agree with what you are saying. I still feel we need to be careful not to revel in it though and I feel like there is a self righteousness in some of the blogs and twitter posts I’m seeing. Referring to my previous post, I didn’t say “would”, but “could” meaning we all have the capacity to do the same or at least did before we were Christians. My basic point is yes, call it for what it is but do it with a humble heart and don’t assume to know everything. When I was on the GFA Diaspora webpage which is written by over 100 former members who left and wanted to expose the wrong actions of KP and the church, even after all of the things they pointed that he did wrong they still treated the story with the love of Christ. They even said they believe KP is a godly man?? I guess read it if you have time and see what you think, but from what I read not everything is not black and white and I think that should apply to our hearts towards these issues as well.
I found a website called GFA Diaspora and only had to read a few articles to see that there are real problems with this ministry. I apologize for being uniformed. I think the shock and sadness of watching these scandals unfold can initially create defensiveness/denial because it is so heartbreaking when we are personally invested. Thanks.
I read this AFTER I posted that above. In a span of an hour it seems you educated yourself and faced hard facts a lot more quickly that the vast majority do. And that is a sign of one who follows Christ and has a conscience. In any event, sorry for leaping to conclusions before reading the rest of the story.
What you said in previous post is good and I needed to hear that so thanks. No apology necessary.
Good evening Jennifer,
Spend a little time over at Warren Throckmotons Blog – https://www.wthrockmorton.com/. He has covered this issue extensively.
While I understand you feel defensive for ‘Gospel for Asia’, they have resisted many attempts to provide information that would clear up this issue. It has been reported that person behind this organization has major interest in several for profit enterprises in education and health care. After even a little investigation you should see that the hypocrisy is on their part.
A bit of feedback: It has been my experience that both Julie and Warren work very hard to present verifiable information in their blogs. If I feel something is wrong, I spend.a few minutes researching the issue before I post feedback. Also GFA in the past has hired media consultants who’s sole job was to keep information critical of them below off the initial web search response page.
Best regards,
CL
Thank you for the information. I have donated money to them for the last five years and found out about this last year. I did a little research and it seemed like mismanagement from what I read then, so I continued to donate in hopes that any problems were being resolved. After recently reading further on the GFA Diaspora website (former members detailing issues) I can see now that there are major problems with the ministry. Yes, I should have researched before posting feedback on here and should not have assumed that what I read last year was still accurate. I was having a bad day and posted in a knee jerk reaction…apologies for that. I won’t say anything more except that I am outraged and also sad. Sad for myself and others who gave and trusted, but also for these fallen leaders and ministries. I feel a burden of love and concern for them and their relationship with God amidst my outrage and disappointment. I know others surely do too.
Thank you so much, Julie. Couldn’t agree more.
As you said “Christian media tend to give Christian groups more of a pass than they deserve”. As someone who was worked for decades mostly with such “Christian groups” I have found that the traditional media is even worse than you say – it is for the most part completely unwilling to consider and then address the numerous abuses in organizations such as Cross International and World Relief, where I have worked and seen grave injustices, fraud, and misrepresentation.
I know that you have your hands full still with “HarvestGate”, and commend you again for your ministry to the Body of Christ in exposing them and continuing to pressure them to reform.
However, when you have time, I would love to talk with you about the abuses I’ve seen at World Relief, Cross International, and elsewhere.
I’ve been supporting one kid in the Bridge Of Hope project. Are these children affected with this obvious wrong doing? It would be so sad if it is true.
Carrie, since only 13% of the funds given to GFA made it to the field it seems likely your money designated for Bridge of Hope children did not get there either. GFA played fast and loose with donor money, all of it.
As someone who has served overseas many decades I am sorry to report that many organizations, not just GFA, use child donor projects as a way to raise funds for overall entire ministry. Once, after a natural disaster in the Philippines a friend here in America received a plea for urgent donations for “her compassion child”. She gave generously but later learned her sponsored child wasn’t anywhere near the effected area. The money raised went to the organization, not to her child. Sorry to say, but this is common practice even among ECFA approved organizations.
Be innocent about evil, yet shrewd as snakes. As donors beware and ask hard questions. Especially be on your guard about appeals which tug at your heartstrings with pictures of “disadvantaged” children. I recommend giving to people you know personally on the mission field who can answer your questions face to face about where your money went.
Donated in the past…first I hear of this!! How do we go about getting more Info?
This is a good place to start – http://www.gfaclassaction.us/.
For anyone wanting to know more about this, I highly suggest reading Warren Throckmorton’s blog. He has covered this issue extensively.
Amen! Thank you Julie. CBN are apostate. The fox guarding the henhouse. Sadly, I supported GFA for several years, giving thousands of dollars. When I finally woke up a few years ago, I called GFA and after a 20 minute conversation work this pathetic woman stopped my monthly allotment. Please read our free by email, 800 page Ebook we recently completed on the documumented scripture based on exposing churches and organizations today. Includes my 50 year testimony of attending church all over the world. Link below
https://thirdheaventraveler.blogspot.com/2018/12/i-don-go-to-church-from-blood-bought.html
Yes, thank you for your reporting! I’m praying for those who speak out against the powers that be, even at the risk of being alienated by others, who are not informed of the situation. I’ve been following the Elephants debt for a few years. I had difficulty trying to share with others what was going on, because they didn’t want to believe it, for one, and I felt like I was gossiping so I didnt speak of it anymore. I’m so glad that the truth has come out (Harvest) and that folks are slowly hearing about it here on the West Coast. JMac was often a guest speaker at Harvest Christian Fellowship, in Riverside Ca, and good friends with Greg Laurie.
On some comments I have seen a concern with gossip. Gossip is nosy chatter about some aspect of a person’s life that may or may not be true but that is really not anybody’s business. Legitimate and well founded concerns about serious matters like financial fraud, sexual harassment, etc. are not idle gossip.
I agree completely. It was more self-righteousness that I was referring to that we need to be careful of. Johnny Moore being referred to as a spin doctor seemed unfair to me. I think he should at least be able to respond to the situation before being characterized as that. The end goal should be to pray for repentance and restoration, not to sensationalize the faults of broken people.
Thank you for reporting this. I left GSA about 4 years ago after growing concerns about them. Sadly, I had foolishly sent these Charlatans thousands of $. Where would I be able to see about getting some of this claim money? I now only do direct funding projects.
Ive recently completed an 800 page Ebook with my Brother in Christ containing over a thousand references, several thousand pages of source documentation titled: ” I don’t go to church. A 50 year testimony of attending church to say in agreement with Dr. Larkin, that today’s churches are building the kingdom of the Antichrist. ” see note 1 below… If anyone wants this open public domain book. I will email you a copy for free. Email me your request to [email protected]. Amazon lists it for $0.99. We wanted to post it for free. But Amazon requires a fee. If you order, please know any profit goes to someone we see in true need that is not a family or related in any way. We by the fear of God will not touch a penny for ourselves. Amen!
But this church going issue has now become my focus. I’m a retired US naval officer, and finished a career in consulting. and recently retired from teaching High school as a licensed teacher. I also spent years living in other countries, including over 6 yrs in Vietnam sharing Jesus with the Vietnamese people.
Here’s a portion of my testimony below:
The true state of the brick and mortar 501c3 buildings called churches run by charlatan Jesuit trained CEOs called pastors is summed up statistically here:
In his book House Church Manual William Tenny-Brittian insists “the institutional church is in trouble in the United States. According to Tom Clegg, the Western culture is the only culture in which Christianity is an endangered species.” He goes on to point out that, according to Clegg, the church is “losing more than three million people each year” with three times more churches closing than opening. He reports that Thom Rainer’s research indicates that “it takes the combined efforts of eighty-five Christians over the period of one year to produce one convert to the faith. And get this. “Worse yet, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia, the institutional church spends $1,551,466 for each new convert” (William Tenny-Brittian, House Church Manual,St. Louis,Missouri, 2004 p. 2
BACKGROUND:
I’ve been seriously disillusioned, shocked and actually sickened by churches today. This goes back to my first dose of reality in 1976 when my mother mailed me the newspaper clippings of my once beloved pastor Charles E Blair of Calvary Temple, Denver Colorado, being led out in hand cuffs for fraud and other serious SEC violations. The rap sheet would have made Al Capone envious.
This was the same church where one of the associate pastors scammed my parents in a pyramid scheme to the tune of about $4,000. (In 1970 dollars). Yes, we attended that church for many years.
Before that church we had been asked to leave a staunch Methodist church when I at the age 5 the Sunday school said I said a naughty word. Mom and Dad would later tell me as an adult that they were glad to leave that church and that Sunday School teacher was an atrocious, mean and bitter woman.
Since then I’ve had the distinct experience to attend literally 100s of churches around the world, including small country folk churches in rural Arkansas, large mega churches in Los Angeles, Black churches, Korean churches, Catholic churches (including a private Jesuit all boys school where we had to fight to keep from getting groped by the “Brothers” and in one instance nearly raped).
I’ve attended every major denomination from Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist to Assembly of God churches, Evangelical, Non-Denomination, Pentecostal, etc… all over from Virginia to Hawaii. Where in a church in Lanai Hawaii, I wrote a $25,000 check to a Pastor to finish building his church, he took the money and moved his family back to California, but at least Pastor Mike told me I was a super faith kingdom builder.
Just like Kenneth Copeland Ministries told me in 2007 before the bank foreclosed on my home. They told me God would reward all my sowing into his kingdom. I asked to speak with Copeland, but they said he was busy. But, at least the lady prayed for me that day and seemed to really care when I told her my faith was weak because the faith sowing didn’t work out like they said.
Let’s not go into detail about the false teacher John Hagee (do your own research on multiple links exposing his demonic lies) who refused to pray for my sister dying of cancer after my parents had foolishly drove to his pagan building called a church.
My list includes personal, first hand experience with a $100,000 Herbalife Vitamin Pyramid scam I caught a church Pastor pushing (I later learned that pastor dropped dead in his office while counselling 2 underage girls with his pants down) ; another MEGA Church TV ministry using God to run millions of secular advertising revenue into their personal bank accounts whereby I exposed the married associate pastor involvement with one of his single female employees; The Oral Roberts defunct Medical Center and Business operations running inside the Tower of Power in Tulsa Oklahoma run mostly by manical pimple faced kids from ORU; attending micro churches I attended where we were routinely supposedly slain in the spirit, spoke in gibberish languages, etc.
I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the many fraud TV Evangelists I watched and supported and the conferences I attended including the Mega Azusa Centennial in Los Angeles to hear Benny Hinn and all the other Charlatans.
The list also includes the likes of Calvary Chapel and the Harvest movement of Masonic Greg Laurie. Even my once YouTube pastors, teachers Dr. Kim, Pastor Lawson, Bryan Denlinger, JD Farag, Amir Tsarfati. Joel Rosenberg, Dr. Andy Woods and others have have been exposed and rebuked. See my Blogs in Rebuke to these individuals to substantiate my claims.
The true state of the brick and mortar 501c3 buildings called churches run by charlatan Jesuit trained CEOs called pastors is summed up statistically here:
In his book House Church Manual William Tenny-Brittian insists “the institutional church is in trouble in the United States. According to Tom Clegg, the Western culture is the only culture in which Christianity is an endangered species.” He goes on to point out that, according to Clegg, the church is “losing more than three million people each year” with three times more churches closing than opening. He reports that Thom Rainer’s research indicates that “it takes the combined efforts of eighty-five Christians over the period of one year to produce one convert to the faith. And get this. “Worse yet, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia, the institutional church spends $1,551,466 for each new convert” (William Tenny-Brittian, House Church Manual,St. Louis,Missouri, 2004 p. 2
BACKGROUND:
I’ve been seriously disillusioned, shocked and actually sickened by churches today. This goes back to my first dose of reality in 1976 when my mother mailed me the newspaper clippings of my once beloved pastor Charles E Blair of Calvary Temple, Denver Colorado, being led out in hand cuffs for fraud and other serious SEC violations. The rap sheet would have made Al Capone envious.
This was the same church where one of the associate pastors scammed my parents in a pyramid scheme to the tune of about $4,000. (In 1970 dollars). Yes, we attended that church for many years.
Before that church we had been asked to leave a staunch Methodist church when I at the age 5 the Sunday school said I said a naughty word. Mom and Dad would later tell me as an adult that they were glad to leave that church and that Sunday School teacher was an atrocious, mean and bitter woman.
Since then I’ve had the distinct experience to attend literally 100s of churches around the world, including small country folk churches in rural Arkansas, large mega churches in Los Angeles, Black churches, Korean churches, Catholic churches (including a private Jesuit all boys school where we had to fight to keep from getting groped by the “Brothers” and in one instance nearly raped).
I’ve attended every major denomination from Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist to Assembly of God churches, Evangelical, Non-Denomination, Pentecostal, etc… all over from Virginia to Hawaii. Where in a church in Lanai Hawaii, I wrote a $25,000 check to a Pastor to finish building his church, he took the money and moved his family back to California, but at least Pastor Mike told me I was a super faith kingdom builder.
Just like Kenneth Copeland Ministries told me in 2007 before the bank foreclosed on my home. They told me God would reward all my sowing into his kingdom. I asked to speak with Copeland, but they said he was busy. But, at least the lady prayed for me that day and seemed to really care when I told her my faith was weak because the faith sowing didn’t work out like they said.
Let’s not go into detail about the false teacher John Hagee (do your own research on multiple links exposing his demonic lies) who refused to pray for my sister dying of cancer after my parents had foolishly drove to his pagan building called a church.
My list includes personal, first hand experience with a $100,000 Herbalife Vitamin Pyramid scam I caught a church Pastor pushing (I later learned that pastor dropped dead in his office while counselling 2 underage girls with his pants down) ; another MEGA Church TV ministry using God to run millions of secular advertising revenue into their personal bank accounts whereby I exposed the married associate pastor involvement with one of his single female employees; The Oral Roberts defunct Medical Center and Business operations running inside the Tower of Power in Tulsa Oklahoma run mostly by manical pimple faced kids from ORU; attending micro churches I attended where we were routinely supposedly slain in the spirit, spoke in gibberish languages, etc.
I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the many fraud TV Evangelists I watched and supported and the conferences I attended including the Mega Azusa Centennial in Los Angeles to hear Benny Hinn and all the other Charlatans.
The list also includes the likes of Calvary Chapel and the Harvest movement of Masonic Greg Laurie. Even my once YouTube pastors, teachers Dr. Kim, Pastor Lawson, Bryan Denlinger, JD Farag, Amir Tsarfati. Joel Rosenberg, Dr. Andy Woods and others have have been exposed and rebuked. See my Blogs in Rebuke to these individuals to substantiate my claims.
I don’t disagree with much of what you say, but that’s a very odd nom de plume for one who calls out charlatans. I’d be a mite careful claiming the same sort of experience that Paul claimed. But then again, I guess it’s just a nom de plume.
My journey has spanned to include over 6 years living in Vietnam. Where I sat in a meeting with high level government Communist officials to learn that nobody messes with prime real estate property that belongs to the Vatican.
I know first hand the only true worshiping of Jesus Christ according to the Bible is only found at the personal individual level between Saint and Christ.
Only the outsider fed up with mainstream fake religion, found as an example in the underground churches in China and Vietnam. Homes around the world that are hungry for Jesus and not religion. I have first hand experience I’m not at liberty to discuss of my time in China.
One Protestant church of many I attended in Vietnam was so deeply infiltrated by the Babylonian Whore Church aka Catholic Church, they told me I couldn’t take communion unless the Priest gave it to me. Also, all sermons in Communist countries have their sermons scripted and approved by the government.
Sadly, this is soon coming here in the US. Only recently churches in Houston Texans were ordered to provide the city transcripts of their sermons. Only by direct intervention of the state Governor was this avoided. But this was only a trial run. The Government has full control by use of the 501C3 including private run organizations.
I began to be skeptical when I began to see heavy envelopes more than once a month for Gospel for Asia requesting money. I wondered where they got the money to do all this mailing. I have given to this ministry for more than 10 years. When the first child I supported reached the age of 18, they automatically sent me another name to start supporting. No requests that I continue to participate, just sent me her picture and her family statistics. If my donations never got to their intended destination, I could use a new car and I’d like my money back. When I received a postcard telling me I was part of a class action suit, I tried to contact them and ask if I should stop donating. I never got an answer and that was over 5 weeks ago. Needless to say, they will get no more of my money.
Julie-I wanted to apologize for some of the assumptions I made in my previous posts. After much thought and reading through comments I realize I have been in effect “shooting the messenger”. My anger/disappointment about JMac and GFA was misdirected at you and this blog. I really do appreciate you bringing attention to these issues and the corruption. It hurts for sure, but it must come out. Thanks, Jennifer.
I was on staff for nearly five years, and we left quietly, being quite young and disillusioned with the increasingly cult-like attitudes and philosophy we had unwittingly bought into. We were actually both emotionally and physically sick from the experience and it took about 8-10 years to recover fully. There were very good and honest staff there being led by godless, prideful, power-hungry leadership and an inner circle that both protected and enabled the mess.
I must also add ― God was and is still sovereign. We learned many lessons and can say we are thankful for this period of darkness in our lives, as it only served to ultimately show us our own pride, sin and worship of man, rather than the Creator.
I was shocked to read that the boy I was helping to support through GFA/Bridge of Hope probably never got the monthly money that I’ve been sending for years. Would you suggest that I contact GFA and withdraw the monthly auto-payment? I need your advice. Thank you.
P.S. Julie, I think Moody owes you a formal apology for the way ‘they’ treated you. They need to be thanking you. I have not stopped my monthly giving to Moody, the Lord is working there.
I wanted to thank you for putting up this blog post. I have been following this story since it started on Warren’s blog about 4 years ago. You bring up legitimate questions and, as a former donor, I have found the evidence to be damning that hundreds of millions of dollars have been scammed off of well intentioned donors. The fact that media outlets are more beholding to potential rich advertisers like the perhaps billionaire KP Yohannan than the truth speaks volumes about the state of deception within what calls itself a church. Jesus said that you cannot serve God and Mammon and this is exactly why. Every time money becomes more important than the truth in God’s Word things get perverted. This situation has caused me to rethink the biblical word “charity” to find a definition that is not centered on money. You just cannot give Mammon to things and create the Kingdom of God with it. This is never how things have ever worked…
I find this alarming and plan to pull my support immediately, but the most optimistic thought I have about why $43 million went missing and was not reported on the FC-6 form in 2013 is potentially that GFA was underreporting to maintain that they were compliant under India’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. I’ll be upfront to say have no basis for this assumption and I would require supporting evidence to back the thought, but maybe GFA was using other methods to bring the money into India to support the ministries and that disclosing this would get them booted from India. Given the number of NGOs that were kicked out of India under FRCA, I wouldn’t be surprised if a charity whose mission was focused primarily on India would try to find a workaround if full disclosure meant being barred from the country.
That being said, transparency is trust. I’m reading more and I think that the most optimistic thought probably isn’t correct, but I’ll leave it on the table anyway.