From Business Insider · David Ibekwe · · 1m 20s
Inside the televangelist prosperity gospel machine
A pastor who escaped his uncle's empire reveals how televangelists build wealth through faith and donations.
In brief
A pastor who escaped his uncle's empire reveals how televangelists build wealth through faith and donations. Prosperity gospel televangelists use staged healing events, private jets, and aggressive fundraising to build luxury lifestyles while maintaining tax-exempt status. Originally reported by Business Insider.
Meet Costi Hinn, the insider
Costi Hinn is a pastor and author who spent years in his uncle Benny Hinn's televangelist organization before breaking away in the early 2010s to publicly criticize the prosperity gospel model.
The prosperity gospel promise
Benny Hinn's televangelist empire teaches that faith and donations bring wealth and health to believers, positioning financial giving as a path to personal prosperity.
How the money flows
Televangelists use staged healing environments and aggressive fundraising tactics to extract donations from followers while maintaining tax-exempt status for their ministries.
Luxury funded by the faithful
Televangelists like Benny Hinn live lavishly with private jets and multimillion-dollar properties, all funded by tax-exempt donations from believers seeking prosperity.
Government scrutiny arrives
The US Senate investigated Benny Hinn and other televangelists in 2008 over tax-exempt status concerns. The IRS executed a search warrant at his headquarters in 2017, though no public charges resulted.
The organization fights back
Benny Hinn Ministries' board disputes Costi's account, calling his allegations false and categorically rejecting his characterizations of the organization.
“The allegations and characterizations attributed to Costi Hinn are false and categorically rejected.”
What it means
Prosperity gospel televangelists use staged healing events, private jets, and aggressive fundraising to build luxury lifestyles while maintaining tax-exempt status.
