How Many Souls Can $65m buy? Just One: Prosperity Preacher Creflo Dollar's

Maybe it's not such a great deal!
(image by Rev. Dan Vojir)

On second thought, we'll just take the jet.

Remember Pastor Creflo Dollar of daughter-choking Mommie Dearest fame? Back in June of 2012, the prosperity gospel preacher made headlines by being arrested for child abuse (he denied it). This was after he publicly preached that he would willingly shoot non-tithers (June 15, 2011).

Well, the violent preacher of bling is in the news again, but this time, for his unabashed righteous arrogance: asking $65 million for a new jet.

You read that right. And so did a lot of other people.

Creflo Dollar Getting More Into Satan (gawker.com):

Though Jesus is, as always, the most likely culprit, it is possible that the good reverend himself took down the funding page today after reports of its existence in the secular media prompted many of ye with little faith to insinuate that this Man of God had done something wrong by appealing for $300 donations from 200,000 of his humble followers so that he could replace the old private jet he was using with a new private jet--a Gulfstream G650, billed as"the best private jet money can buy."

Money beg removed

(image by Rev. Dan Vojir)

But He NEEDS This Toy, ahem, Jet!

In flight movie: 'Jesus Christ Super Star!'
(image by Rev. Dan Vojir)

Tour the Gulfstream 650 here.

Juda Engelmayer of World Changers Church International: "The work they do is important," Engelmayer said Friday. "It's feeding, clothing, educating people, as well as passing on the word of God." Engelmayer also stated that the jet would be carrying 100,000 pounds of food on some trips.

In a statement posted by the Christian Post, David Graham, a Global Express aircraft captain said:

"The G650 MAX RAMP WEIGHT is 99,600# then add 4,000# for the G650ER. IT CANNOT CARRY 12 PEOPLE AND 1000,000 # OF FOOD AND SUPPLIES LIKE THE COMMENTER SAYS!!!! CREFLO IS A CROOK AND SCAMMIN (sic) HIS CHURCH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!!!" wrote an incensed Graham.

But Pastor Dollar really, really NEEDS it!

To say you NEED a jet like that is the height of righteous arrogance. GOD doesn't NEED it. Nor does he WANT you to have one because you so richly deserve it, Creflo. He WANTS you to help people and spread the gospel efficiently NOT luxuriously. NEEDing an jet sets you above the poor - and above GOD.

Creflo, here is what $65 million can get you:

13 million articles of clothing for the poor with Pope Francis thrown in for free to hand them out.

500,000 paperback bibles.

50 million bible tracts.

65+ liver/kidney transplants

Shelter for 8 million homeless for one night

20 million Happy Meals

... or 10 million of these:

Yes, Francis would hand them out!
(image by Rev. Dan Vojir)

Dollar, Thy Name Is NOT Transparency

In the world of prosperity preachers no transparency means no good. Creflo Dollar Ministries is placed on Donor Alert by Ministrywatch.com because of its lack of transparency and unwillingness to give Ministrywatch.com sufficient information about the ministries. That means that the "millions of miles" flown and the thousands of people helped through "food, clothing and education" are unverifiable (see the actual website-deleted money beg below). Yes, the satellite churches are plenty, but they have to foot part of the bill of Dollar's appearances (usually half of the jet's gas and maintenance - up to $8000 per flight).

So without transparency and without reasonable cause to beg for such an extravagance, the reaction against Creflo Dollar has been scathing, even from the black community (see below).

So, Creflo Dollar, be careful flying that jet in a geed-free zone while you're thumbing your nose at poor people from 10,000 feet.

And here is what DJ Akademics says about it all (NSFW)

Creflo said that he would shoot non-thithers:

Q: Why Can't Right-Wing Christians Police Their (Embarrassing) Own? A: Because They're Policing Everyone Else!

Idaho Lady Tries To Beat, Choke Jewish Woman Into Personal Relationship With Jesus

Yes, it's OK to distance yourself from the crazies, but sometimes distancing is not enough. So many Christians cry "we're not like that" while silently condoning the actions of the embarrassing few. Every day we see people who embarrass Christianity by using it to the extreme, like the case of the homeschoolers who tried to sell their daughter in marriage. 

International Cops For Christ 

You have the right at any time to stop this preaching to repent of your sins and to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Attorney – Romans 10:9-10. If you do not confess Christ, you will be convicted of sin before the Divine Court of Law and face an eternal sentence in Hell – Revelation 20:12-15. Do You Understand?

In a political landscape that has religious freedom as its mantra and "religious persecution" as its great social concern, the force of evangelism goes unnoticed: International Cops for Christ is just one of the organizations that promotes what some people might consider forced conversions.

Project ROSE is a Phoenix city program that arrests sex workers in the name of saving them. In five two-day stings, more than 100 police officers targeted alleged sex workers on the street and online. They brought them in handcuffs to the Bethany Bible Church. There, the sex workers were forced to meet with prosecutors, detectives, and representatives of Project ROSE, who offered a diversion program to those who qualified. Those who did not may face months or years in jail.
In the Bethany Bible Church, those arrested were not allowed to speak to lawyers. Despite the handcuffs, they were not officially “arrested” at all.

In Montgomery, Alabama, a similar program, called Operation Good Shepherd, is explicitly designed to bring young women under the power of local Christian leaders. “What we want to do is combine the religious community and the Mont­gomery Police Department, and we want to unite those as one,” explained police corporal David Hicks. No non-Christian religious groups are allowed to participate in the program.

Grass roots conversion conspiracy? Perhaps. But policing souls is what many evangelicals see as a calling, forgetting such things as separation of church and state and the individual's right not to be coerced into any form of religion. 

NALT

"Not All Like That" is a project that affirms the Christianity of gays and lesbians. That's fine, but does NALT have any actual power in policing the ones they are distancing themselves from? No. "Not All Like That" is a nice group - in other words, a group of nice people who are scorned by most Evangelicals. They are also exclusively associated with the gay community. So how about Jews? How about prostitutes? How about atheists? Do they have any Christian groups accepting of them? NALT may be a step in the right direction, but it is a baby step, not the kind of forceful leap needed to shake up the "Christians" embarrassing the rest of Christianity.

Would that a non-denominational Christian tribunal existed to strip embarrassing "Christians" of their Christianity, or at least their association with Christianity. An excommunication of sorts - one enforced through social media - might seem vengeful and drastic, but embarrassing people who are in themselves embarrassments would be fitting. Their websites, publications and rallies would be declared "no-go zones" for Christians. 

A Christian tribunal. We can dream, can't we?

Of course, a problem presents itself in the fact that anyone can declare themselves "Christian" and get away with most anything non-Christian. Such is a society with freedom of religion: people are free to use religion in any way they want. And according to Evangelicals, they are free to use people any way they want in the name of religion. 




The Embarrassing Criminals:

Everyday, we experience people who, in professing their love of Christianity, unmask themselves by being un-Christian.

Benny Hinn - The domino (Let the Bodies Hit The Floor) healing of Benny Hinn is certainly entertaining, but it's also embarrassing to serious, reasoning Christians. Hinn's lavish lifestyle is also a testament to greed resulting from the gullibility of desperate people. His shills are never ashamed to look as if they are wired together with high voltage cable. 

Cindy Jacobs - Jacobs cannot be cast as a charlatan simply because people are dumbfounded that anyone believes her. But some people do, since her "ministry" rakes in cash enough to keep her in ridiculous outfits. 

Ann Coulter - "Christianity drives everything in my life." However, her eschatology ("love thy neighbor" is a minor, incidental tenet) and self-admitted mean-spiritedness undermines all her claims to Christianity. In fact, the only reason that the gold cross she wears hasn't burned a hole in her chest is because her righteous arrogance oozes out of every pore, forming a force-field through which Jesus Christ's teaching could never get through. 

Victoria Jackson - To associate with Victoria Jackson (who recently claimed that Obama is most certainly a Muslim) is to have your I.Q. syphoned out of you by a black hole of reason. The only guest on her show to make her look intelligent was E.W. Jackson and that's saying quite a lot. 

Bryan Fischer - Changing positions for Bryan Fischer at the American Family Association has done nothing to undo the hatred he continues to spew. The man seems to thrive on ostracism, since he wasn't a featured speaker at the Values Voter Summit last year. 

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone - In his latest skirmish with his unhappy parishioners, Cordileone was forced to "reconsider" wording in his now-infamous morals clause for teacher contracts. Considered the "anti-Francis" in his obsession with morals and opposition to gay rights, the archbishop was chastised by California lawmakers who threatened to probe schools for civil rights violations. 

His case brought up a significant point: must embarrassing clergy be policed by the state in order to draw attention to their un-Christian attitudes? 

Scott Lively - In yet another case of clergy being called to task for un-Christian activities, Lively has been hit with a "crimes against humanity" lawsuit concerning his involvement in Uganda. He continues to crow about his associations with Russia and Uganda and their acceptance of his rhetoric. 

Off Bounds

The crazies, the charlatans, the mean-spirited pundits should be exposed and declared off-bounds to a reasoning, loving Christian community. In affect, they have been time and time again, but people still contribute, still believe, still read and support them. They manage to survive scandals and congressional investigations. They manage to amass fortunes and (in the case of Cordileone) authority. 

Maybe their followers should be policed for being embarrassing to Christianity as well.