Church to obey Senate request

Without Walls agrees to submit information to the U.S. Senate in a financial inquiry.

By Bill Coats, Times Staff Writer
Published March 13, 2008

TAMPA - Without Walls International Church has pledged to begin complying next week with a U.S. Senate inquiry into the megachurch's finances, a spokeswoman for Sen. Charles Grassley said Wednesday.

Grassley, an Iowa Republican and the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, is investigating how six high-profile religious ministries around the country are using their nonprofit status. He sent them detailed requests for financial information last November.

Since then, the Tampa-based Without Walls had not disclosed how it would respond, and none of the church's representatives returned calls Wednesday.

But last week, committee Chairman Max Baucus' staff called the ministries, said Jill Gerber, the Grassley spokeswoman. Without Walls' Atlanta-based lawyer, Andrew Ekonomou, told Baucus' staff, and later Grassley workers, that he would begin sending information next week, she said. Ekonomou "expressed concerns about the privacy and confidentiality of the information that would be provided," Gerber said.

The Senate replied that the information could become public in committee reports, but they "wanted to be reasonable, and not publish ... proprietary information that people could use in nefarious ways," Gerber said.

Only one of the six ministries, Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo., has provided the requested information so far, the two senators said in a joint news release Wednesday.

The senators have sent followup letters this week to the remaining five ministries, clarifying that Grassley wasn't trying to enforce tax laws. Rather, it's the committee's responsibility to monitor how the laws governing nonprofits are working.

In the case of Without Walls, the letter contained a note of thanks for the church's indication it would cooperate, plus a subtle threat to use the power to subpoena church documents.

"We appreciate your cooperation," the senators wrote, "and look forward to mutually respectful discussions that will enable the Committee to obtain the requested information without resorting to compulsory process."

Bill Coats can be reached at coats@sptimes.com or 813 269-5309.

[Last modified March 13, 2008, 01:07:26]