Two stories hit close to home this week in the black church.The first was Creflo Dollarâ??s insane plea to his congregants to raise 65 million dollars to buy a new plane so he can deliver Godâ??s message more efficiently to the masses. The second was the story of Ephren Taylor who was convicted for defrauding Black congregations in a Ponzi scheme estimated at 16 million dollars.
Creflo has a net worth estimated at nearly 30 million dollars, drives a Rolls Royce, and according to the New York Times, has a NYC apartment valued at 2.5 million dollars. The vow of poverty, wouldâ??ve kept him from being a Catholic priest â?? for sure. What struck me though, was how brazen he was about asking. Sixty-five million for a plane and you have congregation members who are hungry. Really? And he wouldâ??ve received it if there wasnâ??t an outcry from outsiders. It was bad PR. My grandmother was on a fixed budget till the day she died. She was also a Creflo Dollar fan, and if she were still alive, wouldâ??ve been one of first in line to dole out her social security benefits in the hopes that God would provide (later). That makes the second story even more troubling.
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