Our sister paper in Detroit has a mind-blowing story about a Christian minister whose church bought him this $3.65 million mansion. The 11,000 sq-foot mini-palace also qualifies as a tax deduction, at the cost of $40,000 a year to Redford Township.
“God’s empowerment is to make you have an abundant life,” Elder Marvin Wilder, a lawyer and general counsel for the church, told the Detroit News. “In this country we value rock stars, movie stars and athletes. They can have a lavish lifestyle, and a pastor who restores lives that were broken shouldn’t? When our value system elevates a man who can put a ball in a hole and not a man who does God’s work, something is wrong.”
Detroit World Outreach Pastor Ben Gilbert is a purveyor of the Prosperity Gospel, a belief that God wants his people to be rich. It reminded me of this story, written two years ago by a fellow religion reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Detroit story led Nancy McLaughlin, religion reporter for the News-Record in North Carolina, to ask her readers a reasonable question, “Should the tax law be amended?”
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I attend this church and it is wonderful. Members are taken care of spiritually and physically. My husband and I were in need and they helped us. Pastor Ben has helped us transform our lives and finances.I know them personally and postings like this ae a joke. Are you aware that my church has bought homes for members? Or that we feed ANY person in need. Our jobless record, teen pregnancy and divorce rate are a fraction of most churchs. For all of you that are posting things like this please get the full story first. P.S. My Pastor was wealthy waaay… Before he became a Pastor.
As Lashawne stated, the pastor was VP of Design for one of the big 3 until he “gave it up” for the Kingdom.
God gave David a kingdom for his obedience… I don’t see why he can’t give a pastor a mansion…