Paul F. Crouch, 79, Evangelical Broadcaster

Paul F. Crouch, a television evangelist who founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network with his wife and turned it into the world’s largest Christian television network, died. He was 79.

Crouch served as the face of Trinity Broadcasting, along with his wife, Janice, expanding it from one station in Southern California to thousands of stations across the world. He often appeared on camera, microphone in hand, quoting from the Bible and delivering his upbeat brand of Christianity. But he also faced criticism over lavish spending of the millions of dollars in donations collected through the network. TBN now runs on 84 satellite channels and more than 18,000 television and cable affiliates. The network also owns the Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando (FL). The network runs sermons from prominent preachers.

(Dec 1)