The Best Stories You've nEver Read --Third In A Series

From time to time, I'll post links to gripping stories here that are meaningful and relevant to our times. Today I recommend the Tampa Tribune's  "Of Faith , Fame and Fortune." This story is both well-documented and well-told. Michelle Bearden and  Baird Helgeson beautifully demonstrate how to use the best narrative techniques to draw readers in, and then bring to bear a set of facts that cast a shadow over what once appeared to be a well-intentioned ministry. They write about Randy and Paula White who arrived in Tampa 16 years ago with all their worldly possessions in a U-Haul and a driving ambition to create "the perfect church for people who are not." Today that church is one of the fastest growing in the country with many worthy outreach programs, but it has also enriched the Whites to the tune of a $1.9 million business jet and homes worth more than $5 million in Tampa and New York.

-- Dick Weiss