St. Matthew's Churches, formerly St. Matthew Publishing, Inc., is an

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

Christian ministry. It is primarily a mail-based ministry with an address in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, with churches in

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and

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. In 1999, St. Matthew Publishing Inc. reported $26.8 million in revenue. In 2007, it reportedly earned $6 million a month.

Origins

The ministry is led by its founder James Eugene "Gene" Ewing, a former tent minister, who, according to the Trinity Foundation, lives in Beverly Hills, California. Ewing, a native of

Kaufman, Texas Kaufman is a city in and the county seat of Kaufman County, Texas, United States. Its population was 6,797 at the 2020 census. History Kaufman was founded as "Kings Fort", named after Dr. William P. King, who established the fort in 1840 after pu ...

, was born in 1933 and has written fundraising letters for other evangelists, including

Oral Roberts Granville Oral Roberts (January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009) was an American Charismatic Christianity, Charismatic Christianity, Christian televangelist, ordained in both the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, Pentecostal Holin ...

as well as Don Stewart, WV Grant, and

Rex Humbard Alpha Rex Emmanuel Humbard (August 13, 1919 – September 21, 2007) was an American television evangelist whose ''Cathedral of Tomorrow'' show was aired on over 600 stations at the peak of its popularity. Life and career Humbard was born on ...

. Ewing operates Church by Mail Inc., which had a several decade long struggle with the IRS before being denied tax-exemption in 1992, which was appealed. Ewing was a revivalist in the 1960s with revenue at $2 million. He then began writing fundraising letters for

. By 1971, Ewing renamed organization Church of Compassion as a "mail-order church with half a million 'members'" with income exceeding $3 million. In 1979, he started for-profit advertising and printing "to provide printing and mailing services to nonprofit religious groups." Then, in 1980, his business Church by Mail applied for tax-exemption. However, by the 1990s his businesses owed back taxes to state and federal agencies. Nonetheless, in 1993, he bought a $2.2 million, home above Beverly Hills. Subsequently, a year later the

U.S. Tax Court The United States Tax Court (in case citations, T.C.) is a federal trial court of record established by Congress under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, section 8 of which provides (in part) that the Congress has the power to "constitute Trib ...

ruled Church by Mail Inc. is "operated for private rather than public interests" and "is not a church" within the meaning of federal tax laws.

Operations and fundraising

The ministry has been accused of preying on low-income and elderly people by using census records to target their mailings. Although for several years the ministry operated without a church building and conducted its

direct mail Advertising mail, also known as direct mail (by its senders), junk mail (by its recipients), mailshot or admail (North America), letterbox drop or letterboxing (Australia) is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. The d ...

donation operation through the Tulsa address, a physical location to hold services—a then-78-year-old Baptist church in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood—was purchased in Houston in 2004. St. Matthew's Churches' lawyer says weekly services draw about 1,000 people. According to the Trinity Foundation, an evangelical watchdog group, the physical churches are only associated with the mail-based ministry as a cover that allows the lucrative operation to retain tax-exempt church status. The status was granted by the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

in 2000 after a 17-year court battle. One of the organization's mailings consists of a paper "prayer rug", on which recipients were encouraged to kneel and pray. This mailing, along with others, have been mentioned by the

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

of the

State of Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage la ...

, among others, as not providing information about their financial and fundraising practices. While the ministry does hold

tax exemption Tax exemption is the reduction or removal of a liability to make a compulsory payment that would otherwise be imposed by a ruling power upon persons, property, income, or transactions. Tax-exempt status may provide complete relief from taxes, redu ...

status under section 501(c)(3) of the

Internal Revenue Code The Internal Revenue Code (IRC), formally the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, is the domestic portion of federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 26 ...

, it has been the subject of numerous complaints to the

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, whose evaluation conclusion was that the organization did not meet two standards for Charity Accountability.Better Business Burea
Wise Giving Guide – St. Matthew's Churches
Published April 2004.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.saintmatthewschurches.com/ * Direct marketing Evangelical organizations