Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht accused of massive financial misconduct by former ministry insiders

Longtime allies say the MAGA-aligned worship leader exploited donations for personal gain—and they can back it up

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For years now, critics of Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht (rhymes with “exploit”) have been shouting from the rooftops that he’s not a decent person. The musician is a COVID super-spreader. He exacerbated public health emergencies. He formed an alliance with a domestic terrorist. He held a mass baptism with an accused rapist (last week!). But because he plays Christian music and talks about Jesus, many white evangelicals have basically given him a pass on the extremism.

Now, however, his own former allies are coming after him.

Not because he’s a Christian extremist, mind you, but because he’s just a horrible person in all sorts of other ways.

Sean Feucht (screenshot via YouTube)

Those former allies include Christy Gafford, Peter and Amanda Hartzell, Liam Bernhard, and Richie Booth. All of them worked with Burn 24/7, a Christian ministry launched by Feucht in 2006 to hold worship gatherings in cities around the world. (Booth worked for other Feucht-affiliated groups, too.) They say in an open letter that they have “documented” proof of “longstanding and serious moral, ethical, financial, organizational and governance failures” involving Feucht and his other ministries.

Based on the documented and corroborated nature of these concerns, we strongly urge that Sean Feucht be removed from positions of leadership and financial stewardship. This statement is made in good faith for the purpose of preventing further harm and upholding standards of biblical accountability, transparency, and justice… We have consistently witnessed Sean publicly point his finger at the sin of the world yet repeatedly fail to take responsibility for acknowledging, repenting of and turning away from his own serious and habitual sin…

…

… We can no longer encourage anyone to work for him, paid or unpaid. And we can no longer encourage anyone to partner with him in any ministry capacity or invest in him financially due to the following egregious, corroborated, and longstanding sin…

All of this drama was hinted at late last year when MinistryWatch, a website that functions as a financial watchdog for Christian ministries, published a piece highlighting how Sean Feucht Ministries, which had previously had a “transparency” grade of D, was now at an F. The watchdog group urged donors to “withhold giving” to the group without more information, and Feucht wasn’t filing the IRS paperwork that other non-profits have to file because he just said all of his ministries were churches and therefore exempt from any non-profit transparency rules.

Making matters worse, Feucht’s personal ministry went from taking in about $250,000 a year in the late 2010s… to making nearly $4.5 million in 2020, when he got notoriety for his COVID spreading events. With that much cash flowing in, any decent ministry should let donors know where that money is going. He wasn’t doing that. In fact, the decision to reclassify his groups as “churches” occurred after that jump in income.

But a lack of transparency doesn’t necessarily mean anything shady is happening.

That’s where the whistleblowers’ website fills in the blanks. They thoroughly document what they know and why it is so disturbing.

The most damning allegations are that Feucht’s groups have overlapping functions (so he’s soliciting contributions for multiple groups despite doing the same thing), that he’s using ministry donations for personal expenses (including “at least 10 properties” that he owns in multiple states like a million-dollar cabin in Montana for hunting), and that he’s misusing donations specifically earmarked for various purposes (like when he raised over $200,000 for the “persecuted church in Afghanistan”… despite having no concrete plan for what to do with that money).

Oh. He also lies about how many volunteers work for his groups. And he doesn’t pay them even when they take on roles normally reserved for staffers. And former staffers say they have experienced “spiritual, emotional, and psychological abuse” from him. And he exaggerates how many people attend his events and get baptized. And he lies about what he needs money for. And he pretends to be persecuted even when he’s subject to the same laws as everyone else. And the people who serve on the boards of Feucht’s groups don’t actually conduct any real oversight. And whenever anyone raises these concerns privately, he defames them, blacklists them, and threatens to sue them.

It goes on like this for a while. Some of the allegations are arguably criminal in nature. A lot of them just point to a man who’s in over his head, a horrible leader, and a habitual liar.

The website concludes with these recommendations:

• A formal investigation by the Internal Revenue Service into the financial practices of Sean Feucht Ministries Inc., Light a Candle, and affiliated organizations

• Examination of the appropriate use of ministry funds for real estate acquisitions

• Review of the legitimacy of the church reclassification granted in 2022

• Investigation into potential private benefit and inurement issues

• Assessment of compliance with laws regarding international financial transactions and reporting

• Evaluation of board oversight and governance practices

I have very little confidence that the IRS, under Republican rule, will do anything to go after one of Donald Trump’s loudest and most fierce supporters no matter how many financial crimes he may have committed. Trumpvangelists always protect each other.

But the website should serve as a warning to any Christians who may give money or support to Feucht and his groups. A lot of that money isn’t being used for whatever they believe it’s being used for. The people who make those groups function are treated poorly.

It also sends a direct message to the other Christians who help lead Feucht’s groups: If they actually care about their stated missions, they should remove Feucht from any positions of power. At the very least, don’t give him access to the money.

Feucht hasn’t formally responded to the website yet. But it’s not like he doesn’t know what it says. He’s perpetually online and tweeted over a dozen times yesterday, mostly trashing the very idea of Pride Month. It’s possible the following cryptic message was his response: “The spirit of offense will give you the ability to hear things that were not said.”

If that’s his way of dismissing all the allegations, then you could argue he’s just further gaslighting those former staffers.

At the end of the day, though. none of this is all that surprising. Someone who’s this deep into the MAGAverse is bound to be a grifter; the only question is what that grift is going to be. If these allegations bear out—and that’s assuming anyone close to Feucht cares to investigate, which is a long shot—I doubt that Feucht will apologize, much less change his actions.

He’ll do what conservative Christians everywhere do these days whenever they’re accused of wrongdoing: Deny everything, pretend Satan is coming after him, treat his critics as liars who hate Jesus, and urge followers to give him even more cash to help him battle these charges.

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