April 30, 2015 6:06 AM

Creflo Dollar: Good luck getting that camel through the eye of a needle

Responding to media criticisms regarding his attempt to crowd fund a $65 million Gulfstream G650 jet, Pastor Creflo Dollar defended the acquisition to congregants at his church in College Park, Georgia. In a five-minute video, Dollar preaches to the assembled masses that, despite the “devil trying to discredit [him],” he was going to proceed with the jet acquisition anyway. Dollar notes in his sermon that people who don’t understand why a Christian preacher would need a plane simply don’t get what it is that he does. Notably, Creflo Dollar Ministries’ operations are global in scope. The religious group’s website reports presences in a number of countries, including India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Russia…. “The airlines they don’t fly my schedule.”

There’s something about a preacher acting more like a CEO of a Fortune 500 multinational conglomerate that seems out of whack. Perhaps it’s the old saw that it’s more difficult for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I don’t want to automatically cast aspersions on Creflo Dollar and his intentions. I don’t know enough about him or what he does to automatically assume that his ministry is a thinly-veiled sham designed to line his pockets and support a lifestyle of excessive luxury.

Still, even I have to wonder how someone who feels call to preach the Word of God can justify lavish homes, cars, and private jets. On a very simplistic level, an observer might assume that every dollar spent on such luxuries is a dollar not spent on feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and/or healing the sick- the sort of things Jesus Christ actually taught. I’m just a nonbeliever…so what do I know??

Following a firestorm of criticism about his decision to raise money for a G6 in the name of Jesus, Creflo told his followers, “I can dream as long as I want to. I can believe God as long as I want to. If I wanna believe God for a $65 million plane, you cannot stop me. You cannot stop me from dreaming.” In response, gatherers gave their pastor an enthusiastic standing ovation.

If “they discover there’s life on Mars,” Creflo continued to much audience excitement, “I’m gonna have to believe God for a billion dollar space shuttle. Cause we got to preach the Gospel on Mars.”

So Pastor Dollar wants to take his quest to preach the Gospel to Mars if life is discovered there. I suppose at that point, he’ll be asking the faithful to fund a space shuttle and the space program necessary to support Dollar’s ministry there. Until that happens, though, we’re left with a preacher who seems to think there’s nothing inappropriate or amiss about wanting a private luxury jet. Never mind that the millions used to buy and support the continued operation of a Gulfstream G650 could feed, clothe, and health thousands.

Creflo Dollar may well be a man of God possessed of pure heart and intent. He may well believe that the millions he collects will be used to fund his ministry. From outside his bubble, though, it looks as if Pastor Dollar is a greedy and corrupt false prophet funding his caviar dreams and lifestyle by fleecing his parishioners and others who fall under his spell.

Whatever your feelings about the appropriateness (or lack of same) of Dollar’s appeal for yet more money, it might be good to ask what all of the millions he’s raked in over the years have been used for. Like Joel Osteen and his basketball arena-cum-megachurch and $10.5 million dollar manse, Creflo Dollar seems primarily concerned with funding and maintaining his high-rolling lifestyle. He makes it clear that he no longer accepts a salary and has donated millions to his ministry, but that only raises more questions- like what’s a preacher doing with a bank account in the millons? Not that someone who feels called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ must as a matter of course take a vow of poverty, but the leader of a ministry leading a lavish lifestyle can- and should- invite questions of corruption and greed.

Creflo Dollar may be many things, perhaps even a prophet destined for sainthood…but a holy man shouldn’t needs a bloated bank account, a mansion, and/or a private luxury jet to minister to his flock. Has he never heard of Skype or teleconferencing?

Good luck with that camel….

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on April 30, 2015 6:06 AM.

If this atheist can stand for equality, shouldn't Christians be able to do the same? was the previous entry in this blog.

Dammit...I wanted a LARGE order of fries! is the next entry in this blog.

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