Analysis: Copeland's religious empire benefits his family

~~[b]~~Analysis: Copeland's religious empire benefits his family[/b]

NEWARK, Texas — Here in the gentle hills of north Texas, televangelist Kenneth Copeland has built a religious empire teaching that God wants his followers to prosper.

Over the years, a circle of Copeland's relatives and friends have done just that, The Associated Press has found. They include the brother-in-law with a lucrative deal to broker Copeland's television time, the son who acquired church-owned land for his ranching business and saw it more than quadruple in value, and board members who together have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for speaking at church events.

Church officials say no one improperly benefits through ties to Copeland's vast evangelical ministry, which claims more than 600,000 subscribers in 134 countries to its flagship Believer's Voice of Victory magazine. The board of directors signs off on important matters, they say. Yet church bylaws give Copeland veto ...