Televangelist Jan Crouch dead at 78 after massive stroke

The queen of the world’s first mega-sized “prosperity gospel” empire has died.

Jan Crouch, co-founder of one of the world’s largest Evangelical Christian broadcasting networks, died early Tuesday of a massive stroke. She was 78, and was bogged down in what was described as “a painfully public civil war” within her family, which controlled the religious broadcasting corporation.

Jan Crouch, right, co-founder of Trinity Broadcasting Network [TBN]

With her late husband Paul, Jan Crouch transformed Christianity into a powerful and profitable global business with nearly $1 billion in net assets.

“Your legacy will be in me forever… I love you grammie,” Brandon Crouch wrote. “Wish my son would have had a chance to meet you, and wish I could have seen you at least once in the last six years.”

Brandon Crouch and his sisters, Brittany Crouch Koper and Carra Crouch, hadn’t seen Jan Crouch because of the family’s brutal infighting. Both sisters are suing Trinity.

Brittany Crouch Koper has accused the mighty Christian broadcaster of playing fast and loose with the ministry’s millions, and provided internal documents to back up her claims.

Carra Crouch alleges that she was plied with alcohol and raped by a TBN employee in Atlanta when she was just 13 – and that her family covered up the incident rather than report it to authorities, to protect TBN’s reputation.

[Orange County Register]