State foiled in bid to regulate ministry money

A court ruling frees a local ministry to continue a controversial gift-giving program. But the ministry remains under investigation.

The Tampa Tribune, August 16, 1999
By Michael Fechter

TAMPA - A state appeals court has cleared the way for a Tampa-based ministry to continue an unorthodox gift-giving program.

``Faith Promises,'' operated by Greater Ministries International Inc., is not a security subject to state oversight, the court ruled.

The state Comptroller's Office has tried to shut down the program, arguing it's not the faith-based gift exchange Greater Ministries describes, but a shaky investment scheme that puts the public at risk.

State officials and other investigators think the program and its two previous incarnations - ``Double Your Money'' and ``Double Your Blessings'' - are Ponzi schemes. In such illegal investment scams, early donors reap profits from participants who join in later.

Eventually, the deal collapses of its own weight and investments, often equaling life savings, are lost.

Pledge forms provided to donors in ``Double Your Blessings'' and ``Double Your Money'' included specific payment schedules that promised donors twice their investment back within 17 months. The programs are based on three biblical verses: Luke 6:38, II Corinthians 9:6 and Mark 4:24 - which in essence say God rewards those who are generous toward the church.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal found that Greater Ministries sufficiently tweaked its ``Faith Promises'' program to eliminate any promises of profit. Rather, donors are encouraged to pray that God rewards them for helping the Ministries.

``The `Faith Promises' agreement shifts any supposed `expectations of profits' from Greater Ministries to a supreme deity,'' the court said in its Feb. 5 ruling.

In an affidavit submitted to fight the state's injunction, Ministries founder Gerald Payne said only Christians may participate and only if their contribution is based on faith, not ``a materialist, business venture.''

Payne, who runs the Ministries from a Sulphur Springs office tower, declined to comment on the ruling. He said he planned to sue the media and others he blamed for the state action.

``We're not finished yet. This is one step. A small step but a good victory step,'' said Payne, 60. ``We're coming for the ones that caused this tragedy. And it's a great tragedy. The church lost millions over this.''

The appeals court ruling does not take Greater Ministries out of government scrutiny. The judges included a footnote saying that the way the gift-giving program is promoted could be subject to investigation under the state's Deceptive Unfair Trade Practices Act.

And there are at least four other investigations involving Greater Ministries, which boasts membership in at least a dozen states.

-- A federal grand jury is investigating the church's financial dealings. Former Ministries volunteer Linda Murrhee showed The Tampa Tribune a copy of a subpoena she received to testify before a grand jury last June.

-- A criminal investigation by the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office remains open. Local prosecutors also have examined whether ``Faith Promises'' is religious expression or a financial scam.

-- Pennsylvania's Securities Commission is warning religious groups that ``investment swindlers who are posing as one of the faithful'' are at work there. The warning comes three weeks after the Lancaster, Pa., Intelligencer Journal reported on a ``Faith Promises'' solicitation at a Days Inn that collected $500,000 from area Mennonites.

-- A Tampa Police Department investigation into a $3 million robbery at Greater Ministries headquarters last July remains open but dormant. Church officials told police that three men, posing as computer delivery workers, hit a Ministries guard with a bat and emptied out a vault.

``We have our suspicions as to what really happened,'' said Sgt. Bob Wright. ``If it did happen the way they [church leaders] say, this is one of the perfect crimes.''

In Kentucky, efforts by a Greater Ministries offshoot to buy the state's second-largest hotel also have drawn scrutiny.

Servco of Kentucky, led by Greater Ministries board member Jim Biggerstaff, has committed more than $2 million toward the purchase of the Executive Inn Rivermont in Owensboro, Ky. The money is nonrefundable and is part of a $9.5 million buyout needed to buy the debt-laden hotel.

The 640-room hotel is credited with fueling the city's $100 million annual tourist trade. Until the hotel's financial troubles mounted last fall, the Executive Inn was host to an international bluegrass music festival each year that attracted thousands of tourists.

Biggerstaff already is running the hotel, which owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes, the Owensboro Messenger Inquirer has reported.

On Dec. 31, skepticism about Servco's purchase turned to fear and anxiety. A ``federal common law lien'' filed on Servco's behalf against the hotel sought to freeze Servco's investment and prevent a sale to any other parties.

Handwritten on the side of the document was the name ``Church of the Avenger'' and the Tampa home address of church founder Charles Eidson.

The Church of the Avenger has gained notoriety through the years for racist and anti-Semitic beliefs. The Avenger, Payne told the Tribune last month, is under Greater Ministries' umbrella.

When that news was reported by the Messenger Inquirer last month, Owensboro's mayor and a local ministerial alliance expressed concern about the deal. Biggerstaff met with local leaders, the newspaper reported but has failed to assuage those concerns.

In an interview Friday, Eidson said his Avenger church is based in his home but is not active. He said he is a Greater Ministries member and has provided it with legal help in Kentucky while working at the group's headquarters, 715 E. Bird St.

The headquarters, called the Greater Share Tower in church newsletters, is a four-story former bank building just south of the Tampa Greyhound Track. According to church newsletters, the Ministries holds religious services, operates thrift stores, sponsors an herbal research center and supports missionaries abroad.

Eidson, who ran for Tampa mayor in 1991 and is appealing a federal prison sentence for pollution and mail fraud violations, said he is working to unite Christians of all faiths.

He renounces the bigotry he exhibited in the past. ``If a wall-kissing Jew came in here today, I'd hug his neck.''

Greater Ministries wants the Kentucky hotel as a Christian convention center, Eidson said. He has legal contacts in Kentucky, which is ``a natural breeding ground for what we [Church of the Avenger] used to be.''

While the Church of the Avenger may be reined in, it had been linked to right-wing militia movements. Now Greater Ministries appears connected to similar philosophies.

Its own literature includes references to excessive government intrusion and the harassment of Christians.

During the comptroller's efforts to shut down ``Faith Promises,'' Payne submitted a constitutional common law judicial notice that Greater Ministries was dissolving as a corporation. The document, signed by Payne a year ago, said the church would answer only to the ``Constitutional Court of We the People'' and the ``Constitutional Common Law Militias.''

Tampa attorney Paul Johnson, who successfully argued Greater Ministries' appeal, said he knew of no connections between the Ministries and right-wing militia movements.

Johnson takes offense at characterizations that ``Faith Promises'' is anything but a religious program. While the appeals court did not consider First Amendment issues in its ruling, they are relevant, he said.

``Many, many religious groups feel that by helping the church, they're blessed, too,'' Johnson said. ``It's really very inappropriate for a state to come in and tell religious groups how they should believe and how they should raise money.''

And if it was a true Ponzi, Johnson added, the 4-year-old program would have collapsed by now.

But Pennsylvania officials aren't convinced. They issued orders in 1995 and 1996 barring Greater Ministries from soliciting in the state.

``We are always worried that scamsters will be preying on people utilizing religious affinity as a means to gain credibility for their worthless schemes,'' said Michael Byrne, who directs the Pennsylvania Securities Commission's enforcement wing.

The warning issued to Pennsylvania religious groups Wednesday did not cite a group by name. Byrne would not say if it was issued in response to the Greater Ministries meeting in Lancaster last month.

Susan Steinberg Sandler, assistant general counsel with the Florida Comptroller's Office, called the appellate court decision disappointing. While the ``Faith Promises'' pledge sheets make no promise of payment, people are given verbal assurances, she said.

Simple religious donations aren't the state's business, Sandler said. ``Our office is concerned because people are being promised double their money.''