Trinity Broadcasting Network

Trinity Broadcasting Network is the largest Christian television network in the world. It was founded by Paul Crouch, Jan Crouch, Jim Bakker, and Tammy Bakker in 1973. It is broadcasted in the United States of America.

History
TBN began in 1973 when the elder Crouches, along with Jim and Tammy Bakker (formerly affiliated with Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network), rented air time on a local UHF channel in Santa Ana, California. TBN, then known as the Trinity Broadcasting Systems, spread from UHF stations to cable outlets and then to satellite distribution. After a falling-out between the Crouches, Jim and Tammy left to start the PTL "Praise The Lord" network.

Recently, TBN has been purchasing independent television stations to gain cable carriage, due to FCC must-carry rules. As a result, TBN is available to 95% of American households, as of early 2005.

According to the TBN website, TBN has several hundred affiliate stations, although just 61 of these stations are regular UHF or VHF stations. The rest are low-powered stations, requiring a viewer to be within several miles of the transmitter. The network has grown to 47 satellites and 12,500 affiliates, reaching nearly 100,000,000 households globally.

Today, Paul Crouch is TBN's president and chairman, Jan Crouch is its vice-president and director of programming, and their son Paul Jr. is its vice president of administration. The network maintains production deals with their other son, Matthew. TBN is currently is largest and most influential Christian cable network in the country (followed by Daystar Television Network and INSP Networks), and is the ninth largest broadcaster in the United States.

TBN's worldwide networks
In addition to their flagship network, TBN also offers other cable/satellite channels in the United States. They include:
 * Enlace USA
 * JCTV
 * The Church Channel for church services.
 * Smile of a Child

In Europe TBN offers a mix of American and European Christian programming via "TBN Europe", "TBN Italy" (Italian language) and "TBN Russia" (Russian language).

In the Middle East, TBN operates an Arabic language channel called "Kanat al-Shefaa", which translated means "The Healing Channel".

In Africa, TBN broadcasts their programming via TBN South Africa and TBN Family Media in Kenya.

In Central and South America, TBN broadcasts via TBN Enlace which consists of Spanish language programming. Enlace Juvenil is their Spanish youth-oriented network.

Asia is reached by TBN Philippines, and TBN South Pacific covers Australia, New Zealand and the surrounding islands.

As of 2005 TBN's broadcast signals are carried by 48 satellites and cover every inhabited continent.

Criticism
The network has attracted criticism for its continuous fundraising activities, including the frequent promotion of the "prosperity gospel," an offshoot of the Word of Faith doctrine that appears to promise donors, including impecunious ones, that God will make them rich as long as they have faith and give to TBN. Frequent appeals for money, including semi-annual, week-long, non-stop "Praise-a-thons" and the smaller "Macedonian Call" telethon, display frequent preaching on the subject, as well as impassioned and sometimes aggressive appeals for donations. Paul Crouch has made statements to his viewers such as, "Have you got something that you have been praying about ten, fifteen, twenty years? You have been praying for it and haven't gotten it...," and that people haven't received it because they haven't given their ten percent. During a 1997 program, he conversely said, "If you have been healed or saved or blessed through TBN and have not contributed...you are robbing God and will lose your reward in heaven." The network reports that seventy percent of its donations are in amounts under fifty dollars.

TBN has also garnered the nickname "The Blasphemy Network" for its sometimes bizarre theology and teachings. For example, during a 1986 interview with Kenneth Copeland on Praise the Lord, Paul Crouch boasted about his belief in "covenant theology" -- a charismatic belief that if a person is saved, a piece of God literally exists inside of them -- and proclaimed, "I am a little God! Critics be gone!" During some of his many appearances on TBN, faith healer Benny Hinn has claimed that Adam "was a superbeing...who flew into space"; that when God parted the Red Sea in the Book of Exodus, he turned it into ice; and that TBN viewers would in the future put their dead loved ones in front of a TV set tuned to the network so that they would be resurrected.

According to a September 12, 2004 Los Angeles Times story, Paul Crouch Sr. paid Enoch Lonnie Ford $425,000 in 1998 as a settlement over what Ford argued was an unjust dismissal from working at TBN. The settlement contained several other points, among them an agreement for Ford to be silent about an alleged homosexual encounter they had had in 1996 at a TBN-owned cabin near Lake Arrowhead, California.

In a statement released on September 22, 2004, TBN denied Crouch had a homosexual affair with Ford, but confirmed the payment of the $425,000 settlement.

The Associated Press also cited the recent newspaper reports about the Crouches' "lavish lifestyle" as well as ongoing rumors of marital strife between Paul Sr. and Jan. Paul Crouch staunchly maintains that these accusations are completely false, and has voiced regret that he listened to his lawyers' advice to settle out of court. The former employee, who violated the terms of the settlement, is a former drug user and was once convicted of sexually assaulting an underage boy.

The network canceled its November 2004 Praise-A-Thon fundraising telethon in favor of showing forty hours of reruns from past telethons. Network officials blamed the cancellation mostly on health concerns for both Paul and Jan Crouch, the latter of whom had gall bladder surgery at the time. They also said the cancellation would take pressure off other religious figures who would have appeared on the live telethon.

Paul Crouch Jr. voiced his belief that other ministries were concerned that "they are going to be next on the hit list." R. Marie Griffith, a Princeton University scholar studying evangelical Christianity and the media, said that "to take the live broadcasting off...suggests...the chaos" at TBN.

Links

 * Trinity Broadcasting Network's Official Site
 * MinistryWatch.com- organization critical of TBN's fundraising amidst a cash surplus
 * An organization critical of TBN fundraising