Religious Organizations Receive $7.3 Billion in PPP Loans, Megachurches Amass Millions
By: Benjamin Fearnow (Newsweek)
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Religious organizations across the U.S. have received at least $7.3 billion in federal rescue package loans, with evangelical leaders tied to President Donald Trump and megachurches tied to scandals pulling in some of the largest payouts.
Treasury Department data released Monday shows that religious organizations, ranging from nearly 10,000 Catholic churches to hundreds of Jewish groups, received 88,411 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans since the program began April 3. Several churches affiliated with outspoken Trump supporters and close associates amassed at least $17.3 million in loans intended to help small businesses and nonprofits retain workers.
Included among the top loan recipients is the megachurch of pastor Robert Jeffress, who last year called Trump a Christian "warrior." Another is City of Destiny, the Florida megachurch run until recently by White House spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain.
Houses of worship across the country, including many tied to sexual abuse and financial scandals, took advantage of PPP, which allows recipients of the government's 1 percent interest loans to have them converted into nontaxable grants. This week's Treasury Department report of payouts through June 30 notes that "traditionally non-profits are not eligible to receive SBA-guaranteed small business loans," but PPP has enabled the aid during the coronavirus pandemic.
Multiple megachurches with more than 10,000 members were approved for the highest bracket of payouts, including Jeffress' First Baptist Church of Dallas, which hosted Vice President Mike Pence for an event two weeks ago. The 13,000-member Southern Baptist megachurch received between $2 million and $5 million in April, according to OpenTheBooks.com. Willow Creek Community Church, which averages 18,000 attendees at its seven locations in the Chicago area, received between $5 million and $10 million, according to the Treasury Department data.
In 2018, court records cited by the Chicago Tribune found that Willow Creek paid $3.25 million to settle lawsuits alleging a church volunteer sexually abused children. Reuters reported on Tuesday that the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, California, received between $5 million and $10 million, despite publicly acknowledging its role in decades of sexual abuse.
Joyce Meyer Ministries, a Missouri megachurch that was the target of a 2007-2011 Senate finance investigation, was also approved for the $5 million to $10 million government loan. The average loan paid out by PPP nationwide was $107,000. PPP is part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the $2 trillion economic relief package passed by Congress and signed by Trump in March.
City of Destiny received between $150,000 and $350,000 from the PPP. Churches and evangelical leaders tied to Trump amassed at least $17.3 million in rescue package loans, the Associated Press said Tuesday.
In addition to keeping their employees on the payroll, faith-based organizations that receive the loans must adhere to "certain nondiscrimination obligations" required by federal law. But the Small Business Administration (SBA)application says that "once the loan is paid or forgiven, those nondiscrimination obligations will no longer apply."
Newsweek reached out to the Treasury Department for clarification and comment but did not hear back before publication.
The Treasury Department reported that 4.8 million PPP loans totaling more than $521 billion have been paid out to businesses and organizations nationwide since the start of the pandemic. Religious organizations were defined by the SBA as "churches (including temples, mosques, synagogues, and other houses of worship), auxiliaries of churches and conventions of associations of churches."
Nearly 10,000 Catholic churches across the U.S. were approved for PPP loans by the end of the second round of payments in early May.
"The PPP isn't about the federal government assisting houses of worship or churches," Pat Markey, the executive director of the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference, an association of finance officers from Catholic dioceses, told CBS News.
"PPP is about keeping people on payrolls, and a large segment of our society is the not for profit world," he continued. "And a large segment of that society are churches and houses of worship. And they have people on payrolls too. So if what this is about is keeping people on payrolls, then we all should have availability to do that."
A LifeWay survey released May 1 found that 40 percent of Protestant pastors had applied for government assistance. Smaller churches with fewer than 200 members in their congregation were much less likely than larger churches to have applied for SBA loans. Fifty percent of pastors at churches with more than 200 members, on average, applied for nonprofit PPP loans.
President Donald Trump is greeted by pastor Robert Jeffress during the Celebrate Freedom Rally at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on July 1, 2017. Jeffress' First Baptist Church of Dallas has received between $2 million and $5 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans.Getty Images/OLIVIER DOULIERY/Pool
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Trolling, taunting, spamming, and off topic comments may be removed at the discretion of group mods. NT members that vote up their own comments, repeat comments, or continue to disrupt the conversation risk having all of their comments deleted. Please remember to quote the person(s) to whom you are replying to preserve continuity of this seed.
Non-profits are usually eligible for disaster assistance loans from the SBA. PPP loans were issued under section 7a, like other EIDLs.
churches taking PPP loans are admitting they are a business and should be taxed accordingly.
They certainly admitted to having employees on a payroll.
great. taxpayers get to foot the bill for all the court settlements against thumper child molesters...
In 2011 the Jesuits had to pay out $166 million for sexual and physical abuse of NA and Alaska Natives.
Sure hope that they didn't get any of PPP money.
I wouldn't doubt if some of that PPP money wasn't funneled towards that payout
you can count on it.
Well the settlements are an effort to protect the Churches paychecks, perhaps that's what they thought the 'Paycheck Protection Program' was all about. It's a way they can cover their asses while staying free to grope others asses.
I have to ask, why are churches getting money? They rely on donations.
Should non profits have gotten the money?
Think about how many churches were taboo to attend during the pandemic. I am sure the "donations" were at a slow crawl.
So should all non profits be able to receive money meant for small business?
Or just mega churches...
What? They can't mail a check for their tithes?
Sure can. How many would? What if they were furloughed from work do to the pandemic and cash was low? I know I like listening to the sermon and deciding what to give from there.
And to answer, if there are employees that is what the PPP was so that people could still be paid working or not and not think about looking for another job.
From what I've heard from certain segments of society is that tithing is mandatory and is at least 10% of your gross and must be paid even before you pay the light bill.
Jes sayin'.......
Depends on the church you attend. I haven't attended one where it was, and I've attended a few. Most of the articles I've read on the subject say that 10% is not mandatory and that thinking of it that way misses the point, which I agree with. Rather, Tithing is something one should want to do and is a matter of conscience. There's more to it but you probably wouldn't be interested.
Unless you wanted their employees all to lose their jobs, yes.
Their job is getting money from other people. I would rather give the money to a hospital than some church.
That's true of the accounts receivable dept in any company.
I'm sure you would.
[deleted]
Then, as you live in a still mostly free society, give your money to a hospital rather than a church. Problem solved.
It's rather simple. People who attend church pay taxes. Why should they not get the benefits that others get from taxes?
Not all of them pay property or income tax
About payroll....How many people can a church have on the payroll?
These mega churches rake in millions. Where is all that money?
I imagine the mega churches probably have 100s because of the all the things that go into making a church a mega church.
I think it's disgusting that people like Joyce Meyer got millions of dollars when she rakes in that much in a month
I still don't see it. A hundred people to do what...sweep the parking lot once a week?
Count the money that they rake in!
Can you imagine the accountants and lawyers they have on the payroll?
I guess that is their employees, the money counters....
My church has about 45. Larger churches have more.
When the church has been forced to close and people prohibited from attending, the giving dries up quickly.
That doesn't seem to be true in all cases.
Sitting on billions, Catholic Dioceses amassed taxpayer aid.
No...it really does.
What the had in reserve is different than what they were bringing in, just like your paycheck is different from your savings account.
At the time, nobody had any idea how long they were going to be shut down. So yes....they took government money to protect their employees.
Again, there is a difference between what they have in reserve and what they are bringing in.
In times of uncertainty, it is the responsibility of any enterprise to do everything possible to protect itself and its employees.
The fact that you don't happen to like this group does not change that.
Nice deflection, but then there is this.
Do you understand the rules of the PPP program?
Do you understand that the only way to get those loans forgiven was to document that you used the funds to pay employees and not lay people off?
Do you understand that it did not cover salaries above $100k?
So yeah, churches have employees. The secretary at the church deserves the same protection as the secretary at the doctor's office or anybody else whose employer was forced to cease operations.
Yes, I understand all of the above.
I simply pointed out that Overall, Catholic recipients got roughly twice as much as 40 of the largest, most well-known charities in America combined, AP found.
Plus a few other details.
Daylight being shined on this certainly invoked a reaction.
Catholic church organizations employ over a million Americans.
Lots of things invoke reactions. That doesn't mean the people reacting understand anything at all about the situation.
And other non-profits employ over 12 million.
I guess that you'd be an example of that.
Interesting how you keep changing the basis of comparison.
I'm sure you'd like to think so. I'm currently torn between the idea that you just really don't understand any of the numbers surrounding this program and the idea that you're just posting shite hoping nobody else understands them.
Don't hurt yourself trying to decide.
I guess that the AP or Newsweek doesn't understand them either.
Another con job.
Religion is the biggest con of all.
George Carlin had it exactly right.
So they are going to treat the Catholic church as an enterprise with 10k franchises around the country...
Time to start taxing them like a business when they act like they are.
Wasn't the Public Law No: 116-136 (03/27/2020), Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or the CARES Act, to include the PPP Act, introduced by a House Dem?
And that has to do with what I said how?
What's this got to do with Trump?
Trump supported and signed the program into law!
Um...So they participated in a program that was designed to include them?
The horror!
What needed to be done was more discrimination in how the money was handled, not give millions to a large world wide tax free organization.
Is it all tax exempt organizations receiving the funds [deleted]
Did you read my post? I said discrimination in who got the funds, which seemed to be lacking.
You actually think the Catholic church, which is worth millions itself, should get the money over a mom and pop restaurant...
What mom and pop didn’t? Isn’t there a surplus?
First I heard of that. I know the first run ran out.
Isn't bipartisanship great.
And what are you being bipartisan on?
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act vote was bipartisan, PPP was a part of CARES.
I'm amused that NT's are seemingly surprised at federal execution with PPP program.
PPP was part of the bipartisan Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, written approved by Congress and signed into law just three weeks after the COVID national emergency was declared. $800 billion thrown that fast at an emerging problem is bound to have issues - nothing new there.
The focus was on being timely more than being targeted. It certainty saved paychecks but a great cost.
PPP cost around $180K per job per year for one year for jobs that paid around $60K.
It seems the bigger bitch here is some selected recipients rather than the targeting or not of the entire program.