Saturday, March 24, 2007
ABC News has an interesting report on the spending habits of some of the country's famous televangelists. Here are some lowlights.
The popular Kenneth Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries lives in a large mansion in Texas. He recently asked his audience to help him spread the gospel by giving him $20 million to buy a new jet. Copeland promised that the plane "will never, ever be used as long as it is in our care, for anything other than what is becoming to you, Lord Jesus."
On its way to an evangelical seminar in Australia last October, made a two-day layover in Maui. Then it was on to the Fiji islands for another stop.
After seven days in Australia, the Copelands headed to Honolulu for another three days of what they called "eating and rest."
Last December, amid other evangelical stops, the jet made the first of two trips to a Colorado airport, just a few miles away from Steamboat Springs Ski Resort.
ice.
In the name of Jesus, we are turning the water to snow. We ask for you to concentrate these divining sticks that some of you know as skis so we can smite Satan from this mountain. In a way, it's like Moses going up to the mountain top to receive the ten commandments. This time, we are going on a ski lift, and we are getting a list of ten instructions from our ski instructor. Isn't it a real hoot?
Ministrywatch revealed that Trinity Broadcasting sits on a $340 million cash hoard, and owns houses in an exclusive Orange County, Calif., community hidden behind very regal gates.
They control one mansion worth about $4 million, and an even bigger one — over 10,000 square feet — that's worth about $6 million. The Crouches also travel the world in a jet worth a reported $7 million.
Paul Crouch, however, disagrees. In the past, he has fired back, charging that "these critics want us to be humble and poor like Jesus. … Let me tell you how subtle that is from Satan himself. If God's people are poor as Job's turkey, who's going to pay to send the gospel to the ends of the earth?"
Jan Crouch has expressed similar feelings, saying that "It's the devil, it's Satan. If he has said don't give, hey, you're listening to the wrong side."
That's right. Jesus had overhead too. His donkey was actually a purebreed made from the pairing of two of the greatest asses on the planets. The Crouch family are just being asses to honor the tradition. Jesus had to beg too, in order to afford the solid gold riding saddle. He also needed a place to stay in Jerusulem, and renting the entire city cost more than 30 silver pieces I tell you.
The man who is leading this crusade to expose these lifestyles of the rich and shameless has seen some results. Joyce Meyer, another prominent televangelist, sold "off a group of million-dollar homes she and her family had been using". This really is beyond snark. Poor deluded George Bush followers around the country are giving and giving to these charlatans to do good deeds and instead they all seem to like corporate jets and mega mansions.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
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