I have been doing some research, and I am curious to know if anyone has the 411 on this guy. Thanks in advance.

www.artraditions.com
art added regularly

John Hagee is an Assembly of God preacher in San Antonio. I think more the old-time Assembly, not so much the Word of Faith theology that says 'God owes you so you can demand it from him stuff.'

I'm not too crazy about his view on some things, but would still consider him within the church / within Biblical teachings. I could split hairs with him, but they would be minor issues, not the majors.

If you have questions on someone like this, you might check out www.equip.org & do a search for the specific name. You'll get loads of info.

bah...CRI...

The San Antonio paper (Express, I think) did a 3 or 4 page story on him in the Sunday July 6th paper. It is probably still on their website. After reading article don't have a favorable view of him or his ministry, put then again, the paper was out to make him a Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell, clone.

fundamentalist, pre-dispensationalist

The Express News article was pretty interesting - Hagee pulls in more than $1.25 million annually in salary and benefits from his church and TV ministry and owns a home valued at $700k.

"If you're not prospering, its because you're not giving," he tells churchgoers as the collection plates are passed around.

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"If you're not prospering, its because you're not giving," he tells churchgoers as the collection plates are passed around.

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An interesting case of possible distortion, half-truth on his part. Tithing is a spiritual reality and to God's pleasure; but the catch-22 is, it does not necessarily go to *Hagee's* collection plate. If he made his sermon about giving back to the world, rather than him in particular, the percentage of what is rec'd -- it would be more on the mark.

Could someone post the link or text of the Express article?

I could tell you a ton about the not-so-reverend Hagee.

Hagee divorced his wife to marry his secretary. Less than 9 months later, a son was born.

He is arrogant, self-centered and very full of himself.

He lives the life of luxury. He is a member of Sonterra CC, while having the Dominion as well.

Cornerstone Church is in HIS name. (At least it used to be.)

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=370&xlc=1021769&xld=370

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Cornerstone Church Pastor Hagee has prospered along with his organization

By Analisa Nazareno
Express-News Business Writer

Web Posted : 07/06/2003 12:00 AM

Perched atop a red-carpet altar, seated on a wide white-and-blue chair, Pastor John Hagee waits until the jazz band has quieted, the 125-member choir has left the stage and the soloist has moved the congregation almost to tears.


Robert McLeroy/Express-News
John and Diana Hagee's six-bedroom, 5,275-square-foot home in The Dominion is valued at $688,900.


An emotional, energetic half-hour of song praising the glory of God passes. Then Hagee tells ushers at his 5,000-seat Cornerstone Church to "take their positions."

With the dozens of men bearing glinting platters in the aisles, and six cameramen capturing the moment, Hagee instructs church members to hold their money toward the heavens. The thousands repeat after him: "Give and it shall be given."

"When you give, it qualifies you to receive God's abundance," he tells his listeners. "If God gives to you before you give to him, God himself will become a liar. ... If you're not prospering, it's because you're not giving."

He repeats, "If you're not prospering, it's because you're not giving."

For four decades, Hagee's message has motivated his members to give millions to his ministry.

And it is a message that has helped his nonprofit television arm, Global Evangelism Television, become a prosperous, global, money-making family enterprise that has netted millions year after year selling prayer, inspirational books, tapes and the promise of prosperity.

Since Hagee and wife Diana Hagee founded GETV 25 years ago, the organization has gone from a back-room operation broadcasting Sunday sermons to San Antonio-area viewers to a 50,000-square-foot multimedia studio broadcasting to 127 television stations and 82 radio stations nationwide.

"God has blessed it until it has literally reached the Earth," Hagee recently said at his studio about his television evangelism enterprise.

Profitable nonprofit

According to income tax statements GETV filed with the Internal Revenue Service, the nonprofit organization drew $18.3 million in revenue in 2001, the most recent year the organization submitted a return to the IRS. That year, Hagee's total compensation package from the TV ministry and the church amounted to more than $1.25 million.

Like most nonprofit organizations, GETV is obligated to disclose its finances by making IRS income tax statements, called 990 forms, available to the public. In return for complying, it isn't required to pay income taxes on revenue, business and operation taxes and property taxes. It also receives a discount on bulk mailing.

And it also is able to sell products tax-free and at a 50 percent profit because selling religious books, tapes and albums fits within GETV's broadly stated mission, which is to "spread the gospel of Jesus Christ."

According to the 990 forms for GETV, the organization netted $12.3 million from donations, $4.8 million in profit from the sales of books and tapes, and an additional $1.1 million from various other sources, including rental income in 2001.

As the nonprofit organization's president, Hagee drew $540,000 in compensation, as well as an additional $302,005 in compensation for his position as president of Cornerstone Church, according to GETV's tax statements.

He also received $411,561 in benefits from GETV, including contributions to a retirement package for highly paid executives the IRS calls a "rabbi trust," so named because the first beneficiary of such an irrevocable trust was a rabbi.

The John Hagee Rabbi Trust includes a $2.1 million, 7,696-acre ranch outside Brackettville, with five lodges, including a "main lodge" and a gun locker. It also includes a manager's house, a smokehouse, a skeet range and three barns.

Taken together, his payment package, $842,005 in compensation and $414,485 in benefits, was one of the highest, if not the highest, pay package for a nonprofit director in the San Antonio area in 2001.

Amazing income

"I'm amazed at the income," said Pamela Smith, an accounting professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Smith, whose research interests include taxation of nonprofit organizations, said it's fairly common for nonprofit directors to receive what some might perceive as high salaries. Nonprofit directors are allowed to receive competitive salaries, she said. They aren't, however, allowed to get a share of profits made from the sales of products or services.

Smith said she wasn't aware of any nonprofit director in San Antonio who earned more than Hagee.

Dr. John Russell earned $361,587 and received $44,974 in benefits as executive vice president of medical affairs for Baptist Health System in 2001. John Brazil, the president of Trinity University, where Hagee received his bachelor's degree in history in 1964, earned $300,000 and received $142,835 in benefits in 2001.

In addition, Hagee's compensation was among the highest pay packages for television evangelists in 2001, according to IRS 990 filings.

Paul Crouch, president of California-based Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, received $403,700. His wife, Janice Crouch, earned $347,500 as the vice president for the organization, which broadcasts sermons nationally on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Billy Graham earned $174,000 in compensation and $28,403 in employee benefits for his role as director and chairman for Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which netted $96.7 million in revenue in 2001.

"It's not unprecedented (for ministers to earn a high salary)," said Paul Nelson, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an accreditation group for Christian ministries that monitors the fund-raising practices of its member organizations.

"But it is high," Nelson said about Hagee's compensation.

When discussing the finances of GETV and his compensation, Hagee and his wife defended their earnings.

"You're comparing apples to oranges," Diana Hagee said when discussing Graham's compensation and comparing it with her husband's compensation.

"Billy Graham is set up with 400 acres of property, with a house in the middle of it, with a chain-link fence and security dogs around it. His ministry provides all that," John Hagee said while seated in the "living room" stage set of GETV's Stone Oak studio.

"I provide my own house," he said. "I provide my own insurance. I provide everything for myself."

A spokesperson at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said Graham has owned his own home since the 1950s, but receives a housing stipend that is folded into his total compensation package. This year, Graham's total compensation package was $190,000, which included a $47,500 housing stipend.

Hagee and his wife are listed in the Bexar County Appraisal District database as owners of their six-bedroom, 5,275-square-foot house in one of San Antonio's most exclusive gated communities, The Dominion.

The house, similar in architectural style to the building at Cornerstone Church — classical Greek revival and white with tall pillars reaching from the ground to the roof — is appraised at $688,900.

All in the family

Hagee wasn't the only one making money from the enterprise. Diana Hagee received compensation of $67,907 as vice president of GETV and $58,813 as the special events director for Cornerstone Church.

Their son, Matthew Hagee, 24, received a compensation of $10,288 for his role as a director at GETV. And according to the 990 form, one of their daughters earned a salary for serving as the director of publications for GETV.

Matthew and his sisters, Tina and Sandy, make up the John Hagee Family Singers, who also earn royalties from album sales and honoraria for singing at events and get paid through GETV.

Diana, Matthew and John Hagee are listed on the 990 filing as three of four GETV officers, along with the church's chief financial officer, Alan Hulme.

It's a setup some observers say creates a conflict of interest and allows the officers to determine their own salaries, benefits and other forms of compensation.

"That is a serious, serious problem in accountability," said Ole Anthony, president of Trinity Foundation, a Dallas-based watchdog group that conducts undercover investigations of television evangelists.

Anthony said he and his organization, which operates a victim hot line for people who feel they've been bilked by television ministries, have not received any substantive complaints of fraud about John Hagee Ministries, GETV or Cornerstone Church.

"We have had calls, mostly from disgruntled employees, but not the real extraordinary complaints from someone who's been defrauded," Anthony said. "Usually, we get those complaints from people who've been involved in the healing ministries, the ones that claim to cure illnesses and disease."

But when Anthony learned about Hagee's compensation package and the board's tight family structure, he said the Trinity Foundation might consider conducting an investigation in the future.

"The amount of money he's making is unconscionable for a minister," he said.

Hagee defended his GETV compensation package, saying he earned the money and benefits through speaking fees and "royalties" for book and tape sales and not from individual donors calling the station's prayer line.

"I have no salary here (with GETV), none whatsoever," Hagee said. "What I have is a royalty from products I produce. That's very, very different. And to call that an income would be a misappropriation of terms."

Hagee said John Hagee Ministries buys books that he and his wife have authored at a 78 percent discount from the Thomas Nelson Book Group, a publisher of Christian books in Nashville, Tenn.

Thomas Nelson has published and sold more than 2 million copies of Hagee's various titles, including his latest, a novel called "Avenger of Blood." John Hagee Ministries is selling the book for $19 — a 99-cent discount off full retail price.

Books, tapes, salvation

The organization's 42-page catalog of resources includes books such as his wife's, "The King's Daughter: Becoming the Woman God Created You to Be," $16. It sells Hagee's taped sermons, such as his six-tape series on the "Final Judgment," a video package selling for $99 or the audio version for $32.

The Web site for John Hagee Ministries offers many of the same books, tapes and opportunities to donate money. It also offers a salvation plan, a prayer and guidance toward reaching salvation by calling GETV's prayer line.

Additionally, for parents seeking to "protect you and your children from the dangers of the Internet," the Web site offers John Hagee Online, an Internet service for $21.95 a month.

With the growth of the Internet over the past five years, John Hagee Ministries has penetrated 83 nations — including Tanzania, Turkey, Greenland and Gabon.

GETV's current computer mailing list includes the names and addresses of 850,000 people who've called the prayer line, made a purchase over the Internet, contributed toward the Operation Exodus campaign to send Zionist Jews to Israel, or donated money to support the nonprofit organization's operations.

Saved

Inside the TV station, 50 workers buzz daily in the prayer room, a college classroomlike setting with a large brass bell at front.

The workers answer the phone pleas from people seeking divine intervention on everything from a surgery to depression, cancer, a lost child, a bad infection, salvation. They ring the brass bell whenever someone says they've accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.

The calls, about 30,000 a month, come from throughout the nation. And the prayer line workers, volunteers who work in four-hour shifts and get gas money or bus fare, mostly are elderly women, Cornerstone parishioners from the San Antonio area.

When callers dial the prayer line, these volunteers pray on the spot, pray at the end of the day and pray every day over five stacks of prayer request forms.

Many of those prayers result in donations. Some of them result in big donations.

The most dedicated contributors are called "Salt Covenant Partners." For their monthly contribution, the volunteers pray for them every day. And the partners have direct access to a toll-free partner prayer line where a partner-relations specialist patches the phone call to Hagee, who then prays for them especially.

Diana Hagee said the prayer line and television ministry have offered hope to millions, including a man she claims stopped his plans of suicide when he turned on the television and heard her husband talking about a new life and new hope.

"So, no matter what the responsibility is, the pressure is always worth it," she said while giving a tour of the TV station.

Worth every dime

Because he worked "80 hours a week" writing books, singing songs, meeting international dignitaries and answering the call to preach the word of God, John Hagee said: "I deserve every dime I'm getting."

And while watchdogs and outside observers may feel differently, many of his church members, upon learning about his compensation after services, agreed with Hagee's assessment that he was worth every dime.

"God has given to him because he has given to God," Canyon Lake resident Trampus Smith said. "He's a good man serving a lot of lost souls, and I love him to death. He is my pastor."

Smith, a 38-year-old construction contractor, said he started his Sunday 75-minute commute five years ago to attend the church after having watched GETV's programming from home. He now tithes 10 percent of his income to Cornerstone and has given additional income toward the John Hagee Ministry campaign to move Jewish people to Israel.

Smith said he likes "everything" about attending church at Cornerstone.

"It's more exciting here," said Smith, who grew up attending Lutheran churches. "I learn more here about the Bible. The church has a wonderful choir. And his son Matthew is blessed with a great singing voice."

Alicia Loeffelholz, a retired nurse, said: "I know the reason that he earns what he earns is because God has blessed him. It is powerful to preach the word of God. And because he does, he is going to receive everything he needs and more."

Loeffelholz said she has purchased products from GETV to send to out-of-town relatives and friends who watch his sermons on television.

"We are blessed to have him here in this city," Loeffelholz said.

Conflict of interest

But while it may be common for preachers to receive royalty payments for books and other intellectual property, experts on television ministries say that selling books and tapes through the ministry and getting royalty payments from that organization creates a conflict of interest.

"We prohibit any personal profiting on a product that is promoted and marketed with the dollars that have been donated to the ministry," said Nelson, with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

"If the ministry or charity promotes a book written by the leader or senior officer of that organization, the royalty paid by the publisher on the purchase of that material goes to the charity and not the individual," he said.

Additionally, the arrangement with the book sale profits or "royalty payments" being placed in a retirement trust — instead of being counted as ordinary income — created the impression that Hagee was trying to avoid being taxed for ordinary income, said one intellectual property rights attorney.

"The purpose of the arrangement of the sales this way is that it shifts the income from him, where it would be taxable as ordinary income, to a trust where it would not be taxed as income," said Ronald Mann, professor at the University of Texas School of Law.

"As a business lawyer I look at this and say, 'That's clearly what someone is trying to do, someone is not wanting to voluntarily pay a tax,'" Mann said.

'I'm not afraid.'

Faced with questions about his personal finances and the profitability of GETV, Hagee raised his voice and said: "We are hiding absolutely nothing from nobody. I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of the government, but I am afraid of God. And I'm not going to lie to God and go to hell over this."

Hagee would have little reason to fear the federal government. Other than disclosing their 990 forms, nonprofit organizations have little federal government oversight. Each year, the IRS may examine the tax returns of 1 percent of the 1 million nonprofit organizations that disclose income, according to an IRS spokesman.

So, while the IRS has stringent rules about the disclosure of profits and investments, as well as income requirements for officers, most nonprofits such as GETV will operate virtually tax-free with little scrutiny, if any.

In fact, when the federal government challenged his church's nonprofit status in the mid-1990s, Hagee elicited the help of high-profile lawyers who worked often with Christian enterprises and sued the U.S. Postal Service when it denied his church a nonprofit bulk mail discount.

Hagee's mailings contained advertisements for a sermon series on self-help and a Bible study cruise to Israel. A year after Hagee sued, the Postal Service settled with him, granted his church the discount on its mailings in 1999 and refunded more than $40,000 in excess postage fees.

Hagee said he was certain his finances complied with IRS requirements because he hired tax attorneys and accountants to make sure his books complied with tax laws. He said he's prepared for the IRS, if ever it decides to conduct an investigation.

"We said, 'We want a set of books so that when the IRS comes in here and looks they'll say, those people are clean,'" Hagee said. "And I am waiting for the day that the IRS is going to come look at our books. I have spent a chunk of money waiting for them."



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anazareno@express-news.net

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Jews already have a covenant with God that has never been replaced with Christianity, Hagee says.

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“The Jewish people have a relationship to God through the law of God as given through Moses,” Hagee said. “I believe that every Gentile person can only come to God through the cross of Christ. I believe that every Jewish person who lives in the light of the Torah, which is the word of God, has a relationship with God and will come to redemption."

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“The law of Moses is sufficient enough to bring a person into the knowledge of God until God gives him a greater revelation. And God has not,” said Hagee

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Julia Duin, “San Antonio Fundamentalist Battles Anti-Semitism,” The Houston Chronicle, 30 April 1988, 1.

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In Hagee’s theology, the Jews can hardly be faulted for not flocking to Christianity since it was supposedly Jesus who declined their request for Him to be their Messiah. “The [Jewish] people wanted Him to be their Messiah, but He absolutely refused,” writes Hagee. “The Jews were not rejecting Jesus as Messiah, it was Jesus who was refusing to be the Messiah to the Jews!”

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"I provide my own house," he said. "I provide my own insurance. I provide everything for myself."

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Interesting choice of words ...

Too bad that he has to compare his wealth with other preachers/men-of-God to justify it.

Like I said - it is all about him. Very full of himself. Most preachers I know of dont say they provide anything - all provisions come from above.


FWIW: Max Lucado takes no money for preaching at Oak Hills Church of Christ on I-10 in San Antonio.

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“The Jewish people have a relationship to God through the law of God as given through Moses,” Hagee said. “I believe that every Gentile person can only come to God through the cross of Christ. I believe that every Jewish person who lives in the light of the Torah, which is the word of God, has a relationship with God and will come to redemption.".

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I believe this is actually classic-Dispensationalism, such as what Sperry taught back in the early to mid 1900s’. I believe that the Sperry study bible is still around in some peoples hands. I beleive the Ryrie study bible is the latest Dispensationalist study bible.

When we lived in San Antonio we visited that church one Sunday and couldn't wait to get out of there. It was way too charismatic to us. We felt like we were watching a true "TV Evangelist". I got absolutely nothing out of the sermon and couldn't wait to leave.

If I had no morals, I’m sure I could be a multi-millionaire tel-evangelist too. The key is this: Take money from people who are weak, sick, poor, or just looking for some meaning in their lives, by providing them false hope. Brainwashing, through fear is really quite easy to do if you are a charismatic person with plan. People like Hagee scare me. In some ways they are no different than violent religious fanatics we read about, in the news, almost daily. They just use a different strategy for spreading hate.

Doesn't the Bible say that its harder to get a camel through the eye of a needle than to get a rich man into heaven? I'm not saying he is wrong, because these articles could be scewed. But, I know it is awfully difficult to be a solid Christian with all of that money laying around.

www.artraditions.com
art added regularly

YYZ

I really hate to be the one to inform you, but you are wrong on this one.

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I believe this is actually classic-Dispensationalism, such as what Sperry taught back in the early to mid 1900s’. I believe that the Sperry study bible is still around in some peoples hands. I beleive the Ryrie study bible is the latest Dispensationalist study bible.

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I also have one question for you. Who is this Sperry that you mention? Tell us a little more about him.

Do you happen to be referring to Lewis Sperry Chafer? He was a well-known American premilleniarian, dispensationalist.

His father was a graduate of Auburn Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian/Congregational institution in New York.

Lewis Sperry Chafer's major legacy was his emphasis on the centrality of Christ and the grace of God; the preeminence of Christ and Calvary was the very heart of Chafer's religious passion.

Oh if we had more men like Lewis Sperry Chafer today!

[This message has been edited by Blessed Hope (edited 7/17/2003 5:59p).]

Blessed Hope

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YYZ

I really hate to be the one to inform you, but you are wrong on this one.
One question. Who is Sperry? Are you referring to Lewis Sperry Chafer?

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It's ok to inform me... I like to be informed!

Actually I was wrong, it was not Lewis Sperry Chafer that had the study bible, it was the other classical Dispensationalist, Scofield. both of them are the ones that taught the church in heaven, and Israel on earth and the two shall never meet, two ways of salvation. Works in the OT, and faith in the NT. Chafer even held to 2 New Covenants. This was the dominant form of Dispensationalism from the 1800’s to the 1950’s

My understanding is that this would differ from neo-Dispensationalism Like Charles C. Ryrie, John F. Walvoord, and J. Dwight Pentecost hold to. They hold that Israel and the Church will be together after the millennium, and that there is only one way of salvation in both testaments, that being faith. In this view there would be only one New Covenant.

Then of course there is hyper-dispensationalism that says that the church started in the middle of Acts, or at Acts 28. Therefore only a few of Paul’s epistles apply to the church today, the rest of the NT is Jewish and applies only to Israel.




[This message has been edited by YYZ (edited 7/17/2003 7:35p).]

YYZ

I agree with you that Mr. Hagee is probably a screwball with many problems. But to lump him in with a group of people that you obviously do not like is just not right.

From where to you obtain your information?

I have never read where Scofield taught two ways of salvation (works in the OT and faith in the NT) as you say.

Scofield held that there is only one way of salvation and that is simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

C.I. Scofield was an orthodox Presbyterian cleric who defended traditional orthodox interpretations of the Christian faith.

I also agree with you that there are many false teachers out there today that we must mark and identify as being apostate.

But the contribution of C.I. Scofield to the development of the evangelical fundamentalist movement in the twentieth century has been enormous.

I know this is an old hat, but I've been doing some research. For what its worth, I feel I was very wrong about him. He preaches directly from the bible. I cannot find a single thing on him I could catch him with. Also, I attended his service last sunday. This was the first time in my history of attending church (about 15 years) that I didn't start daydreaming about something else. The service was very very inspiring. One thing Hagee does, is tell it like it is. I feel that is why so many people hate him. I also know for a fact he doesn't believe that second covenant with the Jews stuff. He was misquoted big time. I read one of his books "Day of Deception". In it, Pastor Hagee uses a lot of sensationalism to get his points across, but all of his points are very valid and very eye opening. Anyway, if anyone here is missing that burning feeling in your walk with Christ, I recommend you read some of his books, or listen to one of his sermons.

John Hagee is running a business. The product he is selling is hope, comfort, and a promise of eternity; he’s a good salesman. From a business perspective, I’d say he deserves the money.

Jeremy:

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Doesn't the Bible say that its harder to get a camel through the eye of a needle than to get a rich man into heaven? I'm not saying he is wrong, because these articles could be scewed. But, I know it is awfully difficult to be a solid Christian with all of that money laying around.

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I don’t know the exact context of the camel quote but, at its face, it seems pretty clear. Do big-money evangelists ever speak on this issue? Most Christians I know who bank a lot of money seem to ignore it. Does anyone see Jesus putting up a $700,000 house? Isn’t the goal to be Christ-like when possible?

And why the heck isn’t his business being taxed?

If John Hagee is in the wrong then he will have to answer to God about it...

FYI

http://www.equip.org/free/DH005.htm