Cruise With A Cause 2011

So here’s an interesting piece of Christian pop culture: Cruise With A Cause (CWAC) 2011, a Christian cruise/short-term mission trip/Christian entertainment something-or-other [link]. Entertainment headliners include Casting Crowns, NewSong, and various permutations of the Crabb family; speakers include Josh McDowell, Johnny Hunt, Ergun Caner, John Hagee, his son Matthew Hagee, and Jentezen Franklin. It really is a vast and varied cast; I’m not sure I can do it justice.

The very idea of a Christian cruise makes me a bit uneasy, but given how popular and varied the offerings are (Catholic Answers, Christian Research Institute, and various Reformed ministries [link] all do them) I suppose they’re just another sign of American Christianity becoming wealthier, having more disposable income, and being interested in seeing and hearing e.g. Hank Hanegraaff or Steve Camp daily for four days running.

I have to admit that little of what I believe to be true about cruises generally comes from first-hand experience and much of it comes from David Foster Wallace’s 1996 Harper’s article “Shipping Out: on the (nearly lethal) comforts of a luxury cruise” [PDF] which successfully portrays his experience on a Celebrity Cruise seven-nighter as a vulgar, exploitative, gluttonous, numbing, spiritually deadening affair. There’s probably no good reason to believe that Cruise With A Cause 2011 will be anything similar. After all, CWAC is using a Carnival ship and their cruise is six days long.

Cruise With A Cause is run by PraiseFest Ministries; a cursory glance at their 2007 IRS Form 990 [PDF] and 2006 IRS Form 990 [PDF] suggests that they spend $2 million running this cruise each year, and nothing else they report to the IRS is a significant line item, including whatever salaries they pay. How president Matthew Dunaway feeds his family spending 24-38 hours in a typical week running PraiseFest while taking no salary is something a mystery.

Finally, here’s my favorite excerpt from the CWAC 2011 advertising, for a personality with the stage name Nikita Koloff:

Having traveled all over the world as a top athlete in professional wrestling, Nikita was one of the baddest. A Russian guy who spoke not a word of English, a superior athlete who came off the boat from the Soviet Union to the United States. In reality “I was just a guy from the projects of Minneapolis, who grew up on welfare. I lived the part of a Russian.” The hoax worked. It is still one of the most talked about events in wrestling history. Nikita was named Inspirational Wrestler of the Year in ’87 and at the height of his career, retired from professional athletics in ’93.

Yeah. I’m guessing Mr Koloff is the only person on this cruise with a history of misrepresenting himself.

Inspiration Network (INSP)

My current cable provider, Comcast, recently began offering Inspiration Network (INSP) as part of its extended package, and I spent a few minutes browsing their schedule recently. I have something of a weakness for Billy Graham programming, and INSP offers the occasional half-hour of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) program. Tuesday morning, for example, they’ve got a half-hour in the morning sandwiched between Creflo Dollar and Morris Cerrullo.

INSP’s programming is a funny mix of television reruns (The Waltons, Highway to Heaven, Our House, a Canadian something called Wind At My Back) and big-name television ministries, but without the TBN and CBN stars (no Crouches, no Pat Robertson). Here’s a sampling from their published schedule [link]:

• Mike Murdock
• Jimmy Swaggart
• Creflo Dollar
• James Robison
• Benny Hinn
• Joyce Meyer
• Sid Roth
• Rod Parsley
• Bill Gaither (Gospel Hour)
• Hilton Sutton
• Bishop Larry Harris
• Silas Malafaia
• David and Barbara Cerullo [link]
• Jay Sekulow/ACLJ
• Jentezen Franklin
• Beverly Crawford
• Randy Weiss
• Bret McCasland
• Mark Lyon Edmond
• D. James Kennedy
• Del Tackett
• Gregory Dickow
• David Jeremiah
• Kerry Shook
• Doug Batchelor
• Bobby and Sherry Burnette
• Keith Moore
• Charles Stanley
• Perry Stone

The first dozen or so, along with BGEA and Creflo Dollar constitute the bulk of the weekday ministry programming; the rest are part of the weekend lineup, and they’re a mixed collection of name-brand ministries and what appear to be pastors of large churches who are looking to expand.

For a somewhat unrelated reason I visited the Ministry Watch website recently and downloaded their 30 Donor Alerts of 2009 end-of-year wrapup [PDF]. It’s a very readable document, outlining seven areas they recommend being careful when making giving decisions. They list thirty ministries where they raise concerns, ranging from loss of tax-exempt status to high salaries to being a cult. Here’s the list of Donor Alert entities that is also featured in the list above:

• Benny Hinn
• Rod Parsley
• Creflo Dollar
• INSP/David and Barbara Cerullo
• Morris Cerullo
• Mike Murdock

Ministry Watch flagged the Cerullos for excessive compensation (~$3 million for the Cerullos over two years 2005-2006), the others for lack of transparency, being investigated by Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), and sundry negative media coverage.

Please note that Joyce Meyer did not make the list; her data for 2007 and 2008 was unavailable [link], and if her total compensation figures are available I can’t find them anywhere; it’s a complicated picture because she sells so many books, and only part of the proceeds filters back to the ministry [link]. Ministry Watch currently gives her a “C.”

What I don’t understand is why otherwise reputable ministries in the big list above (BGEA, Bill Gaither, maybe David Jeremiah) would have anything to do with INSP. Is there really that much money to be made? Do ministries make money consistently on a per-outlet basis? Is this just a business decision? I really have no idea.