162 Broadcasters Face Expulsion Over Finances

National Religious Broadcasters is ready to expel 162 members for failing to meet standards of financial accountability, according to the organization’s president.

Most of the member groups on the list are relatively small radio and television ministries that have failed to provide financial statements detailing income and spending, NRB President David Clark said Wednesday at the conclusion of a four-day convention of nearly 3,700 religious broadcasters here.

The organization’s monitoring group is also looking into complaints about the controversial Larry Lea Ministries in Tulsa, Okla., but had no immediate plans to drop the group from its approved list, Clark said. The television evangelist’s use of money raised in on-air appeals recently came under scrutiny of a news organization.

Members are monitored by the NRB’S Ethics and Financial Integrity Commission, which provides a seal of approval when standards are met.

The commission was set up by the broadcasters’ organization in the wake of widely publicized scandals involving television evangelists in the mid-1980s. Since then, doubts have persisted about the organization’s ability to regulate financial activities of its own members--among them many of the major television evangelists in the United States.

Clark said of the Lea Ministries, “Thoughtful people who have listened to their explanation believe there are two sides to this story.” He said the monitoring group will conduct an “on-site visitation” at the headquarters of Lea’s ministry in Tulsa at the end of next month. But he said, “The word investigation is too strong” to describe the inquiry.

The names of the other ministries threatened with expulsion are being kept confidential. They will receive a final letter asking for the financial statements before the monitoring group cuts them off, Clark said. He said the house-cleaning drive would leave the group with 565 members in good standing, including Larry Lea Ministries.