The Truth about the Fred Price 20/20 Story

the last thing that dr. Frederick price and his congregation expected was a false and misleading ABC news story about their ministry but that's just what they got on March 23 2007 when ABC's 20/20 aired a story on what it called secretive Christian ministry spending but how much of what you give the vague heat dr. price the Crenshaw Christian Center and ever increasing faith ministries were only a small part of the story but that small part was a complete falsehood that shocked and outraged the congregation Angela Evans is president of Crenshaw Christian center and dr. Price's daughter I could have never imagined that they would do something like what they did I mean it's really it's it's unbelievable it's really like you know pinch me I'm in my sleeve you know am I gonna wake up this is a nightmare because really it was it's really devastating over a period of three decades dr. price had built the church from nothing to a congregation of 22,000 members the nationally syndicated ever-increasing faith television program which has aired for 29 years and compassionate missions to several of Africa's poorest communities the crown jewel of his ministry is the 32 acre Crenshaw Christian Center and the massive faith dome where 5,000 parishioners gather for Sunday service God sent me to the people that need it you know you don't you don't need to go to tell well people that there well you need to go to tell sick people they can get well well people are really well so our people as African Americans traditionally in this country have been put down economically and it's not just a message for them it's a message for everybody it raises everybody's sights to a higher level the 20/20 story question whether the leaders of some large Christian ministries secretly misspent their parishioners donations on themselves dr. price and his staff were shocked they openly share the church's annual budget with the congregation they were offended not only by the allegations of greed but by the implication that material wealth is vulgar this was the complete opposite of the message of hope and prosperity that dr. price had brought to his largely african-american congregation where so many Haddix oppression and discrimination in their lives it's not in theology it's not in denominationalism but it is in the Bible I mean I can go to the scriptures and quote scripture after scripture after Scripture this shows us it is God's will for us to materially prosper in my own ministry and others that teach along these lines we've been telling people we're always going to have opponents because Satan is gonna fight us tooth and nail so we can keep everybody poor but the worst shock of all was the dishonesty of the broadcast here is what 20/20 correspondent John Stossel reported when I did for this church I didn't know that my money didn't put the good excellent news without one question and yet her pastor fred price vote that i live in a twenty five room mansion I have my own six million dollar yacht I have my own private jet and I have my own helicopter and I have seven luxury automobiles at least he tells people about it but many preachers don't advertise that well they live in fact dr. price does not own those things and he didn't say that he owned them his words were part of a sermon about how a person can have many material things and yet live a spiritually bankrupt life here's what he really told his congregation well I was pointing out that there is such a thing as bad success and I was telling you about what bad success was I said bad success is I got twenty five million dollars in my financial statement free and clear I have no debt I live in a twenty five room mansion I have my own six million dollar yacht I have my own private jet and I have my own helicopter and I have seven luxury automobiles so I never get bored having to drive the same car more than once in a given week rolls-royce Bentley BMW Maserati whatever turns you on however with all of that which normally all of the financial reviews would call me successful but while all that's going on my wife's making out with the gardener and the cat raped the canary this morning all of my children are on drugs and I really don't know who my friends are because I don't know if they like me or like what I can do for them because of my money and I can't eat a decent meal and keep it down because my stomach is so full of holes from worrying that I can't keep any food down friend to me that's bad success I feel like telling john stossel's shame on you and shame on ABC News for portraying my pastor in such a false light at a minimum I feel it was a reckless reckless disregard for the truth and for it to be done so maliciously that's what what really got me it was no attempt to gain the truth in any way over the years they've built up what I thought was an excellent reputation for reporting neutral journalism and now they sunk to the level of what I might expect to see in the checkout line at a grocery store it's appeared to me to be deliberate because we know the resources that they have and they could have taken it a step further and determine whether or not the information that they received was correct and they didn't do that the inaccuracy an apparent dishonesty of the 20/20 broadcast brought a swift and angry response from CCC church members and friends hundreds sent emails to ABC News ABC published an apology and correction on its website but CCC felt it didn't come close to repairing the damage that was done after the church demanded an on-air correction ABC broadcast a brief apology that included this we used his quote out of context and for that we apologized the dr. price and the Crenshaw Christian Center and we apologize to you if we misled you neither the price family nor the church leadership felt ABC had rectified the harm done to dr. prices reputation dr. prices daughter Cheryl a price is executive vice president of the fellowship of inner-city Word of Faith Ministries an association of inner city ministries founded by dr. price people who don't know or who were watching from TV they may not have as much interaction with dr. price to know you know of the things that he actually has because he is very transparent and he shares everything sometimes our family thinks achieve just tell all of her business dad but you know he's an honest man and he's oh he always says what you see is what you get that's the truth you

Channel: Jason Caston

Views: 2,175,984

Rating: 4.4348912 out of 5

Keywords: abc, fred, price, frederick, crenshaw, christian, center, ccc, ever, increasing, faith, eif, nightline, 2020, preacher, money

Id: cu82W0o4200

Length: 7min 8sec (428 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 25 2007