It's time to get our priorities straight, says musician Kirk
Franklin.
And priorities should not include a $65 million jet when millions across the
world are suffering.
"When a pastor wants people to buy him a private plane while a
missionary in Somalia bathes
children with sores, that's a shortage of character," Franklin writes. "When I camouflage my 'greeds' to look like
'needs,' that's a shortage of character."
Dollar said in a video campaign for a new private jet, which has since been canceled, that he needs a new jet to
further the spread of the gospel.
Financing of the jet would have required hundreds from Dollar's
supporters.
"If all of our existing partners were to sow $300 each, from all over
the world, we'd be able to acquire this jet in a very, very short period of
time," said Rick Hayes, project manager.
But for Franklin,
it goes beyond the asking of money, and into the heart. It's not about laws,
but rather about how to integrate morality into our choices.
"I agree you cannot legislate morality in our culture, but you cannot
avoid holding people accountable," Franklin
writes. "You can't let people slide by just because they are charismatic
and can 'kill' a room. We don't have a shortage of greatness, we have a
shortage of character."
5 Reasons Creflo Dollar Shouldn’t Buy a New Jet
 |
| This is a Gulfstream 650 jet, like the one Creflo Dollar
wanted to purchase. |
This is a Gulfstream 650 jet, like the one Creflo Dollar
wanted to purchase.
Last week Atlanta-based prosperity preacher Creflo Dollar announced to the
world that he needed $65 million to buy a new Gulfstream jet. He asked 200,000
of his followers to donate $300 each so he could ride in style. He told his
audience that the plane was needed so he could "continue reaching a lost
and dying world for the Lord Jesus Christ."
A few people dug into their wallets to send Dollar the needed cash. The rest
of us started feeling sick to our stomachs.
By this week, after the blogosphere blew up with angry reactions to Dollar's
outlandish proposal, his public relations firm announced that "Project
G650" had been placed on hold. Dollar reluctantly caved to public pressure
and decided that, for now at least, he will have to be content to either
charter a private jet or—heaven forbid—fly first-class on a commercial plane.
I am not sure which is crazier—that Dollar insisted on being treated like
the king of a small country, or that his church-owned PR firm didn't realize
this inane fund-raising plan would backfire. Hello? Welcome to the year 2015, a
time when Christian people are smart enough to smell a religious scam before
they get bamboozled.
I hate to even give this scheme any attention, but there are naïve
Christians who don't realize when they are being taken to the cleaners by a man
who claims to speak for God. Rev. Dollar and those who follow him should be
ashamed that he has dragged the name of Jesus through the mud and made all
Christians look greedy and egotistical.
Here are the five top reasons why I would never give Creflo Dollar money for
a private jet:
1. Private jets are a foolish use of donor funds. The Bible
calls us to be good stewards of God's resources. Private aircraft cost an
exorbitant amount of money compared to commercial flights because the owners
must provide service and upkeep on the vehicles. If a preacher insists on
renting a private jet, the cost to fly from Fort Lauderdale
to New York
would be in the ballpark of $59,000, compared to a $652 ticket on a commercial
plane. People who own private jets spend as much as $4 million a year just on
maintenance.
2. Ministers shouldn't use donors to boost their egos. So
why would any preacher need his own plane? They can give you a litany of
reasons: Time saved, hassle-free travel, no worries about lost luggage. But the
real reason is obvious: It makes them look good. It's all about image. It
reveals a pride problem. And the Bible says: "God is opposed to the proud,
but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6b). If someone needs to fly to
the most remote village
of Borneo, and there are
no commercial planes, then I can understand the need for a private plane. But
Rev. Dollar is not going to Borneo. Usually he
is flying to his satellite church in Brooklyn,
New York. (Delta has a round-trip
ticket for $337 from Atlanta.)
3. 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.
4. The world doesn't need a message of greed. The
prosperity gospel was popular during the 1980s, when many Christians in the United States
were riding the wave of American capitalism. But most of the get-rich preachers
of that era either landed in jail or fell morally, and we reaped a whirlwind of
bad fruit. We were supposed to learn a lesson from that failed experiment. God
blesses us not so we can become selfish consumers but so we can become selfless
channels of His blessings to others.
5. Jesus rode a donkey. When the Son of God was about to be
presented to the city of Jerusalem
as the promised Messiah, He didn't raise money to buy a gold chariot drawn by
Caesar's best horses. He rode on the back of a rented donkey, the
transportation of a poor man. He didn't require a first-class seat or a luxury
vehicle.
Jesus humbled himself. He lowered the bar and invited all of us—especially
those who call themselves ministers of the gospel—to model servanthood.
