<text>  CNNCreflo Dollars new scheme to raise 60 million to purchase a luxury Gulfstream G650 airplane is the latest chapter in a long and sordid history of televangelists exploiting their churches tax-exempt status -- and their congregants -- to line their own pockets. Preaching the word of faith, or prosperity gospel, and capitalizing on lax government oversight of his churchs finances has enriched Dollar and his family to the detriment of his followers and the American taxpayer. World Changers Church International, Dollars 30,000-member church, is a tax-exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Code. That means the churchs donors receive a tax exemption for their donations including for Dollars new jet ambitions, and the church pays no tax on the revenue. Whats more, because it is organized as a church, the federal government does not require World Changers to file a publicly available tax return, as other nonprofit organizations are required to do. Those tax returns provide at least some financial information to donors and the public about the organization, including its revenues, assets, expenditures and executive compensation. Dollar is known for his custom suits, luxury homes and private jets that ferry him, among other places, from his home base in College Park, Georgia, to his satellite church in Manhattan, where he and his wife reportedly have a 2.5 million apartment. For Dollar, though, these excesses arent embarrassments. Instead, they are proof that his theology works, that God blesses the faithful with abundant riches. Dollar tells his congregants to sow a seed with him, promising that a plentiful harvest will be their own blessing and, essentially, a return on their investment. To promoters of the word of faith, or prosperity gospel, sowing a seed with your pastor is required for Gods blessing, even if youre taking it out of your rent money or the last remaining cash in your wallet. Many Christians find word of faith a heretical theology, an embarrassing distortion of Jesus teachings, not to mention a fraud on congregants. While the government cannot constitutionally mediate theological disputes or otherwise interfere in a churchs internal affairs, it can use its oversight powers to ensure that preachers who use their pulpits for profit dont exploit the tax advantages afforded to ordinary houses of worship to pursue their legitimate charitable purposes. In 2007, the Senate Finance Committee, under the chairmanship of Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, launched an investigation into the financial practices of six televangelists, including Dollar. The committee requested documents from Dollar and his wife, Taffi, explaining that taxpayers should be assured that their donations are being used for the tax exempt purposes of the organizations. The documents sought by the committee included audited financial statements for World Changers, information about related for-profit and nonprofit entities, and data on executive compensation and the churchs real and personal assets. More than three years later, after an outcry from the televangelists, most visibly Dollars mentor Kenneth Copeland, the committee opted to abandon its efforts to instigate any sort of regulatory changes. Instead, the committee called on the ministries to engage in self-reform, even though the committee staffs findings plainly demonstrated that four of the ministries, including Dollars, were unwilling to engage in any sort of meaningful transparency or accountability. Of the six televangelists from whom the committee sought financial data, Dollar was deemed the least cooperative. Without Dollars cooperation, the committee was left to piece together a puzzle about his finances through public documents, third parties and news reports. It concluded that in 2006, World Changers had received 69 million in contributions at its Atlanta church alone, that the Dollars owned two multimillion-dollar homes in Georgia, and that the church and related business entities had at various points owned four aircraft flown for personal use -- although none was nearly as pricey as the luxury Gulfstream Dollar now seeks to acquire. The committee staff was clearly troubled by the array of business entities, including private airports and aircraft leasing companies, that raised red flags about the use of the churchs tax-exempt status to avoid taxation. Precisely because of Dollars lack of cooperation, the staff concluded, we are unable to determine whether and the extent to which they are reporting and paying taxes on income earned in those entities. Dollar is now looking to raise 60 million for this new aircraft, purportedly to continue reaching a lost and dying world for the Lord Jesus Christ. Four years after the abandonment of the Senate Finance Committees televangelist investigation, it looks like the absence of government oversight has only emboldened Creflo Dollar. 