"In 2004, the men of the inner circle watched in approval as twenty-year-old Brittany Crouch chugged expensive wine from an oversized glass. Around them, the crowd buzzed at Del Frisco's, the white-tablecloth steakhouse in midtown Manhattan populated by Wall Street guys wearing expensive suits and tourists spending a few hundred dollars pretheater. Brittany's rite of passagenot dissimilar to a fraternity hazingwas supervised by her grandfather, Paul Crouch Sr. (known to all as the Godfather), his handlers, and numerous powerful officials of Trinity Christian Center, the sprawling evangelical church they presided over."
"In 1973, long before she was born, Paul and his wife, Jan, had founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), a small Christian TV station in southern California. In the five decades since, TBN has become the world's largest international Christian-based TV network. The network's attorney was Italian, so they made this little club where Paul Crouch was the Pope, says a family member who has knowledge of the ritual and who asked to remain anonymous. They made little nicknames for everybody."
Paul and Jan Crouch founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network in 1973 as a small Christian TV station in southern California. TBN expanded over five decades into a massive international Christian television network broadcasting through more than 80 satellites and reaching over 100 million U.S. households. The Crouch family cultivated an insular inner circle within Trinity Christian Center, complete with nicknames and rituals. In 2004, twenty-year-old Brittany Crouch underwent a family initiation at Del Frisco's in Manhattan, supervised by Paul Crouch Sr., handlers, and powerful church officials. The initiation involved drinking, cheering, and an onlooker-reported vomiting episode.
Read at www.esquire.com
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