(7 of 7)
Schuller looks out for the interests of his family: eight members are on the payroll. Among them is his wife Arvella, who is executive program director of the Hour of Power; she is secretary of the 20-member Robert Schuller Ministries board. Her salary: $50,000. Schuller gets a salary of $80,000 and tax-exempt housing allowances of $43,500. The couple owns one home and three condos, and the ministry has extensive real estate holdings. Schuller draws no royalties from books and tapes sold by his ministry, but royalties from commercial book sales have garnered him some $2 million in the past 25 years.
Nothing, including the PTL scandal, seems about to change televangelism's practice of financially secretive one-man rule. None of the current crop of big-time TV preachers seem eager to follow the example of the most famous of modern evangelists, Billy Graham, who still gets the highest TV ratings of any preacher for his occasional prime-time crusades. Decades ago Graham pioneered a cleanliness campaign among evangelists by taking a straight salary (currently $59,100, plus housing allowance and expenses) rather than living off unaudited gifts. Graham led the way in giving control of his ministry to an independent board of businessmen and in issuing audited financial statements. Donations to pay for Graham's TV crusades and other forms of evangelism are holding about even with last year's $66.6 million.
Short of government intervention, which no religious denomination welcomes, the probity of the major TV preaching empires will continue to rest with the character and personality of their leaders. Still, none of the other important figures shows any signs of being as perplexing, as grandiose or as misguided as Jim Bakker, who now says that "if God ever lets me resume television, I hope that I will be able to do it differently." Supporters of America's other video evangelists can only hope that they will never hear their spiritual leaders ask for the same kind of second chance.
CHART: TEXT NOT AVAILABLE
CREDIT: TIME Chart by Joe Lertola
CAPTION: SHAKEN FAITH
Households viewing televangelist broadcasts, in millions
DESCRIPTION: May 1986 to May 1987; Swaggart (weekly), Schuller, Roberts, Falwell, 700 Club, Swaggart (daily), PTL Club. Does not include cable audience. Illustration of shouting man holding up Bible.