Comments     No. 424  |  March 2015     Christ & The Church     Tithing     Creflo Dollar     Joan     The Pastor's Call     Beyond The Call     Foolishness w/Pastors    

Jet Lag

In Defense of Creflo Dollar

Coach. Gucci, Lexus, Mercedes

Ministers who demand luxury deny the core of the gospel. Rev. Dollar has been known to twist the gospel in the past, proposing that Jesus was independently wealthy. Dollar invented this gospel to make it easier to build a case for his own wealth. But the prosperity gospel has become a hollow message in our generation. We are confronted every day by the reality of poverty and suffering in our world, and we know that true followers of Christ are called to give and share, not take and hoard. We also know that a preacher who gets rich off of the offerings of poor people is involved in exploitation. --J. Lee Grady, former Editor, Charisma Magazine

On DC RealTalk, this same pastor who'd dismissed local pastors as "Zip Code Pastors"  went on to rail against Church Folk, saying, to the effect, that we’re always trying to put Jesus in coach. Saying Jesus wasn’t poor, implying that Jesus had money by making the point the disciples’ collection was large enough that no one noticed Judas skimming from it.

First: here is no biblical record of Jesus ever having owned anything, not even His earthly father’s house. There’s no mention of Joseph’s house, of Jesus having any equity stake in anything. Granted, that’s not the same as saying Jesus was broke, but it is the same as saying Jesus was in no way engaged with material worth. The record is that of Jesus being ostensibly homeless, returning to Nazareth in only one precipice [Matthew 13:57] and leaving quickly because He could not perform His ministry there.

Jesus, as I understand Him, would indeed ride coach. He’d prefer it. There is no biblical evidence, nothing in the personal example of the Master, to suggest Jesus would ever, under any imaginable circumstances, fly first class. This pastor’s assertions about Jesus are troublingly off the mark, making me wonder if he actually has any idea Who Jesus is. Coach, beloved, is filled with the people Jesus would most want to talk to, would most want to be around. It is simply unimaginable that Jesus would rather slip on His Beats headphones as the stewardess slides that curtain over so the rabble squeezed into coach won’t see them hand Jesus a warm pair of slippers. That is a ludicrous visual because it goes so against anything the bible teaches us. Yet, here is this pastor—a pastor—yammering on, attacking local pastors for doing their job and putting Jesus in the elite first class cabin.

And all the other guests on this show just nodded and yassuh! and all of that. It’s just beyond belief, this Stockholm Syndrome of Christians devolving into Church Folk. They are so distant, so cut off from the Master’s voice that they can’t tell when Satan is impersonating Him. They are led astray by all of this Jesus-riding-first-class nonsense, one sister bragging about how all her life all she’s driven is luxury cars and pledging to write her check immediately after the broadcast. Did she, or was she just posturing for the show?

What deeply troubles me is Dollar’s clarion call will directly impact the local church. Deceived people, believing they’ll get “a blessing,” will starve their local church while writing checks to Dollar. They may think of it as “tithing” into Dollar’s “ministry,” but the church on the corner—with that lesser-known pastor who shows up before they wheel you into the operating room, who comes to your kid’s soccer game, who welcomes you over to his house for barbecue—that guy gets stiffed and the local church talks a hit on its mortgage and light bill so that Creflo Dollar can travel in luxury.

I found little evidence to support the claim that any of the callers to that show were actually Christians. Their reasoning, their doctrinal conclusions (which mainly involved—one after the other—repeating Psalm 13:22 over and over), were so far afield from what the biblical record clearly demonstrates was Jesus’ posture, His personality, His comport. The brassy, aggressive, domineering, judgmental tone (much like I myself demonstrate here) has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus, and the preposterous defense of the indefensible marks these as deceived people led astray by this particular gust of false doctrine.

I felt *soiled* just listening to it.

This Is Not A Cargo Plane: Presuming World Changers' claims to be true, if they truly needed a conveyance with which to serve, they'd buy a far less expensive cargo jet. Ministries need a bus, not a Porsche 911.

Baggage Claims

Once again, to be fair to Dr. Dollar: even if conceived by the pastor, Project G650 was likely executed by the media firm the ministry contracts with. As of this writing, Dr. Dollar has not ducked responsibility for the public relations debacle--as most would; I mean, that's what PR firms are for: to take the heat and get fired when something goes wrong. Dollar was reportedly out of the country at the campaign launch, and immediately cancelled the appeal upon learning of the media blowback:

Defending Dollar’s apparent need to purchase this extravagant form of traveling instead of hopping on a commercial flight, Juda Engelmayer, who represents Dollar’s ministries, said the significant cargo they carried with them made the aircraft a must. The 5W Public Relations representative continued that when Dollar flies around the globe, he takes with him a team of 10 to 15 people and they carry with them thousands of pounds of food and provisions. Engelmayer went on to say, “If he’s coming to the New York church, he’ll hop on a Delta flight; if he’s taking 12 people plus 100,000 pounds of food, it’s not that simple.” He continued, “The work they do is important. It’s feeding, clothing, educating people, as well as passing on the word of God.”

However, when David Graham, Global Express aircraft captain with Advanced Air Management, heard about Dollar’s reasons for wanting his followers to purchase a G650, he rubbished their excuse, stating that their reasoning didn’t add up. Others also expressed dismay as to why Dollar, who lives in a million dollar home, needed such an expensive aircraft, which is usually bought by billionaires.

In an email to the Christian Post on Friday, Graham, whose experience experience ranges from Chief Pilot to Line Captain with Worldwide Operations, stated, “The G650 max ramp weight is 99,600. Then add 4,000 for the G650ER … It cannot carry 12 people and 100,000 of food and supplies like the commenter says. Creflo is a crook and scamming his church in the name of the Lord!!!”

The manufacturer of the Gulfstream G650 appears to confirm Graham’s claims on their website. It states that the aircraft holds about 18 seated passengers and can take off with a maximum weight of 99,600 pounds. It also lists a pre-owned G650 for $67,950,000 which had 1,616 hours of flying time and 625 landings.
  [All Christian News]

If World Changers were serious about this plane thing, instead of buying a luxurious $65 million Gulfstream they’d pay only $10 million for a late-model Boeing 757 cargo jet [source: Bloomberg Business]. The 757 is at least four to five times the size of the Gulfstream and can carry the “100,000 (pounds) of food” Engelmayer alluded to. The difference: cargo jets have no amenities. They are big, hollow tubes set up for tons of stock. The ministry could always build a luxury suite on board for Pastor Dollar and still have enormous space for passengers and cargo—and have $55 million in the bank as compared to the ludicrous personal jet they claim is for ministry work.

Dollar could solve his plane problem any number of ways that would not involve fleecing the flock on so preposterous a scale. First, his reported net worth is $27 million. That means Dollar could put $20 million down on a new jet and still have enough money left in the bank to not have to work another day in his life. For $20 million down, any finance company on the planet would finance that plane and that would be that.

For a fraction of that $20 million—say five to seven million—Dollar could have his existing plane rebuilt from the tires up; stripped down to nothing and completely rebuilt with all new parts, brand-new engines, the works. The new plane would be barely recognizable as the same conveyance; it’d be like flipping a house: all new inside and out.

For much, much less than that, Dollar could contract with a charter service that already owns a nice Gulfstream. That plane would be at his disposal at a moment’s notice. It would still be an insanely expensive way to get around, but he wouldn’t have to actually buy a plane.

Lastly, for a fraction of that fraction, Dollar could travel in elite luxury first class anywhere in the world. He doesn’t need a plane. He wants a plane and he wants the very best plane so he can boast about having the very best plane. Besides being materially obsessed, Dollar seems to be in need of constant external validation, his face and name all over everything, taking credit for everything, which marks him as terribly insecure. These are serious red flags; yet we Church folk swoon when the guy comes to town.

This is the difference between Christians and Church Folk: Christians worship Christ. Church Folk worship the church. Church Folk get so caught up in their Church Folk nonsense that they start buying whatever foolishness people are selling—even this plane nonsense.

The $65 Million-Dollar Question: This man is worth millions. If he has a vital word for God's pastors,
why is he charging them to hear it? Better question: why are gullible people paying?

Reality Check

Jesus would never, under any imaginable circumstances, pay $65 million for a plane, nor would He accept it as a gift from His followers. Jesus never moved more than 200 miles from his home, traveling mostly by foot and by boat. I believe, were Jesus walking among us today and Creflo Dollar gave him $65 million, Jesus would use that money to hire professional soldiers to protect the tens of thousands of women and young girls being serially raped in Sierra Leone, in Darfur, in the Congo. I believe Jesus would buy planeloads of anti-viral meds to combat AIDS in Africa. I believe He’d spend that money feeding people, healing people. It is unimaginable our Lord would spend $65 million to pad his gilded flying cage as He jetted around to events where, yes, He’d hawk silly products and oppress the seekers for money. That we’re still this ignorant, that we still fall for the Reverend Ike okie-doke, simply astounds me.

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. —Mark 10-:21

Take up the cross. In all the heated, ranting defense of Dr. Dollar, both on Reverend Cherry’s webcast and, subsequently, on his Facebook page, there wasn’t one mention—not a single one—of the cross. There were repeated mentioned of Gucci, of Mercedes of Lexus, of luxury items and exclusive labels. Not one solitary word about the cross.

This is what heresy does to you: it allows you to slip from being a thoughtful, committed Christian to being Church Folk: quick-tempered, ill-informed, lost in pettiness and estranged from our purpose as Christians. Beloved, our purpose is to take up the cross; to share that burden and not force Christ to carry it alone.

The misaligned, under-educated mindless babble routinely spat out at buffet joints (and radio shows) by Church Folk is usually tinged with what these deceived persons consider “righteous indignation” or “boldness;” many considering the example of Jesus flogging the money changers or chastising the Pharisees as their justification for simply being idiots. Sister, brother: mean is mean. Jesus turning over tables (an ironic choice considering the subject) represents perhaps two percent of the Gospel narrative, h overwhelming body of which depicts a Man who was not only calm and composed but gentle, meek, patient, loving in tone. He often said nothing at all, allowing the Church Folk of His day to babble on incoherently until they hanged themselves with their own words.

He was slow to speak and quick to listen. He took nothing. He gave everything.

Absolutely none of the people I heard or read vehemently defending Pastor Dollar sounded anything at all like Jesus Christ. Which, in the final analysis, is all the evidence I really need.

Christopher J. Priest
22 March 2015
editor@praisenet.org
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No. 424  |  March 2015   Christ & The Church   Tithing   CREFLO DOLLAR   Joan   The Pastor's Call   Beyond The Call   Foolishness w/Pastors   Donate