If they decide you are not, they can force a ministry to pay the difference in non profit and first class mail for all mail for years back.  Yes, it could bankrupt a ministry.

These ministries are run like family businesses, and the perks to family will especially look bad.

It is indeed time to pray, not just for these ministries, but for all. 

What ever happened to Evangelism, “The Great Commission” the call to “PEOPLE”, churches have become so large with massive buildings along with the expense, strangling them with pressure and debt to raise more money in order to keep the monolith from sinking. Lets become for profit that is for “Souls”.

(2) Whether the allegations are false or true, it is time to pray like never before. Who should we pray for ? Ourselves that we don't fall into temptation And men everywhere.

It's election year…how will that impact this?

It's a Republican starting this ???

http://grassley.senate.gov/public/

You can view the actual pdf files of the letters that he sent out.

It is very intriguing.  I am not sure of how the jurisdiction / authority lines up for the senator, but as I understand it, if his "committee" backs him, then there is authority.

What I find hard to imagine is the timeline in which these ministries have been requested to comply.  It is very aggressive.  Especially for some of them that have tremendous amounts of data to report.

This should really be an eye-opener – if the ORU lawsuit wasn't already.  So many of these mega – ministries appear to function in a manner that more resembles a kingdom than a ministry.  It does seem that there is so much secretive regarding their finances, that one might get the feeling that they don't understand accountability.  Sure they understand accounting!  LOL!  That isn't what this is about.  It is about accountability.  It IS very sad that our government needs to get involved at all.  But remember we are to run from even "the appearance of evil".  Our mega-ministries really have not done that.  Most of them have been hiding things, not running from them. 

We can do that ourselves, so we need to be careful how we judge.  Let's keep a balance here.  Search ourselves for things that we hide.  However, we also understand the principal that "to whom much is given, much is required."  Hiding is exactly what Adam and Eve did.  They hid from God when they knew they had sinned.  If we can be truly transparent, then we have less to worry about.  It will be real interesting to see how these ministries handle this.  Will they fight it and keep trying to hide things, or will they make an honest effort to be transparent?

My guess is that not all 6 ministries will be afraid to show their books.  But I also believe that several have much to protect – much to hide.  I wish it were not so.