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The aptly-named Creflo Dollar Jr. flies a Lear jet between his million-dollar mansion Atlanta and church services in New York City, where he also keeps a $2.5 million apartment.

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Tampa televangelist Paula White , who has homes in San Antonio, Malibu and New York, bought a Bentley convertible for fellow televangelist Bishop T.D. Jakes for his 50th birthday.

David and Joyce Meyer spent $23,000 on a marble topped toilet, $30,000 for a conference table and $11,219 for a French clock for the Fenton, Mo. headquarters of their not-for-profit an tax-exempt mission headquarters.

Such are the earthly rewards of preaching the so-called prosperity gospel, a controversial iteration of Christianity which holds that God rewards the faithful with material, as well as spiritual wealth.

But now the shepherds themselves are facing a reckoning. Dollar, White and the Meyers are among a half dozen TV evangelists being probed by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, for possible misuse of donor funds and their tax-exempt status as religious organizations. The other targets are faith healer Benny Hinn of Grapevine, Texas; prosperity preacher Kenneth Copeland of Newark, Texas and Bishop Eddie Long of Lithonia, Ga.

Yesterday was a showdown of sorts – the deadline in the four-month inquiry to voluntarily submit information to Congress. Four of the six ministries indicated they would cooperate, even if they did not hand over the requested material; Dollar and Copeland, however, were defiant in their refusals.

Through an attorney, Dollar, a former board member of Oral Roberts University, called the inquiry an “unprecedented inquiry into the religious activities of a church.”

Copeland, also a former Oral Roberts board member, said through a representative that only the IRS had jurisdiction to question his ministry about finances.

A leader of the prosperity gospel movement, Copeland is close to former GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee who appeared on his national television show last fall “for six days of frank discussion on the Biblical perspective of character.”

When Huckabee’s campaign struggled for cash, Copeland invited him to attend a national ministers meeting at his west Texas headquarters in January. The candidate, a Southern Baptist minister, raised $111,000 in contributions and another million dollars in pledges there, according to the Tulsa World. Copeland denied the appearance was a political endorsement, saying that Huckabee’s campaign simply rented a room, and Kenneth Copeland Ministries did not make a contribution.

Grassley sent a particularly extensive questionnaire to Copeland, requesting credit card records and information on offshore banking accounts; receipts for planes, and information about whether the ministry used its mineral rights to capitalize a for-profit company. ( The Ft. Worth Star Telegram reports that FAA records show Copeland owns three planes and his ministry has several more).

But it looks as if the Iowa Republican may have to issue subpoenas if he is going to succeed at forcing the church to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.

A spokeswoman for Grassley said yesterday that the inquiry is a “step-by-step process,” and no decisions have been made about congressional hearings or subpoenas. Grassley has defended the probe, saying he is investigating whether tax-exempt organizations are accountable to their donors, not their religious practice.

“The allegations involve governing boards that aren’t independent and allow generous salaries and housing allowances and amenities such as private jets and Rolls Royces,” he said when he announced the probe last November. “. . . I have an obligation to donors and the taxpayers to find out more.”

Kenneth Behr, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an accreditation agency for Christian ministries, called the inquiry “a very big deal,” in an interview with the Tampa Tribune. He said he is not aware of a high-ranking lawmaker ever undertaking such an extensive investigation. “I think he’s picking a fight,” Behr said. “He is not just asking them to come in and talk, he is asking them for everything.”

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