Paul Crouch

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Paul Franklin Crouch (born March 29, 1934) is the American co-founder, chairman and president of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the world's largest Christian television network. The network has grown to 47 satellite stations and 12,500 affiliates, reaching nearly 100,000,000 households globally.

1 Biography
2 Criticisms and Controversy
- 2.1 Alleged sexual harassment
- 2.2 Alleged plagiarism
3 Books
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Crouch, raised in Missouri, is the son of Pentecostal missionaries. He became interested in amateur radio at an early age and announced he would use such technology to "send the Gospel around the world." He attended the Central Bible Institute in Springfield, Missouri. In the early 1950s, he worked for the Assemblies of God as a film librarian. He married his wife, Jan, in 1958. His sons are Matt Crouch, a director of Christian films, and Paul Crouch Jr., the heir apparent to the ministry. In 1961, he was hired to run the Assemblies of God's broadcast production facility in Burbank, California, and from there he left to start TBN (originally Trinity Broadcasting Systems) with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker in 1973. Crouch was given sole control over the network soon after its launch after a falling out with Jim Bakker. Crouch claims that a vision from God in 1975 led him to move the network into satellite transmission.

Crouch family members control the boards of all Trinity network entities, which makes Trinity "ineligible to join" the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an evangelical self-regulating group.^[1] According to Charity Navigator, TBN paid him $419,500 in 2004 and gives TBN a rating of three out of four stars.^[2] His wife earned $361,000 and son Paul F. Crouch Jr. earned $105,803.^[3] In addition, Crouch has produced products for TBN such as books and videos that account for a portion of his income.

On December 23, 2005, Paul Crouch broke four ribs and underwent surgery to repair internal bleeding and building fluid in the chest cavity suffered after he took a fall. His son, Paul Crouch Jr., said his father was doing "just fine" after the surgery and was expected to make a full recovery.[1]

[edit] Criticisms and Controversy

[edit] Alleged sexual harassment

In September 2004 the Los Angeles Times reported that Crouch in 1998 paid Enoch Lonnie Ford, a former employee, a $425,000 formal settlement to end a sexual harassment lawsuit.^[4] Ford alleged that he was forced to have a homosexual encounter with Crouch under threats of job termination at a network-owned cabin at Lake Arrowhead in 1996.^[4] TBN officials acknowledge the settlement but characterize the accuser as a liar and an extortionist (as well as having a criminal record involving drug use and statutory rape), and stated that the settlement was made in order to avoid a lengthy and expensive lawsuit which could have deteriorated into "mud-slinging".^[4]^[5]

Ford, who wrote a book manuscript about the alleged encounter, was forbidden by an arbitrator to publish it because of the previous settlement. From prison (for violation of a previous probation agreement from a past felony conviction), Ford offered TBN all rights to the book for $10 million for the purpose of making it into a motion picture, but his offer was rejected by Crouch, who called it extortion. In October 2004, Judge Robert J. O'Neill awarded Paul Crouch $136,000 in legal fees to be paid by Ford for Ford's violation of the terms of the settlement agreement, specifically the prohibition of discussing the settlement's details.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Alleged plagiarism

In 2000, Crouch was sued by author Sylvia Fleener, who accused Crouch of plagiarism in his popular end-times novel (and subsequent movie), The Omega Code. Fleener's lawsuit alleged that the movie's plot was taken from her own novel, The Omega Syndrome. A former Crouch personal assistant, Kelly Whitmore, revealed that she had encountered a loose-leaf binder in Jan Crouch's luggage that the Crouches referred to as "the End Times project" and that he often called it "The Omega" but said he disliked the working title, "especially the word 'Syndrome'." The case was subsequently settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.[2]

[edit] Books

Hello World! A Personal Message to the Body of Christ. (autobiography) (Nelson, 2003) ISBN 0785263128
I Had No Father But God
The Omega Code: Another Has Risen from the Dead.
Megiddo: The Omega Code 2
Shadow of the Apocalypse. (Berkley Trade, October 5, 2004) ISBN 0425200116