Creflo Dollar's new scheme to raise $60 million to purchase a luxury Gulfstream G650 airplane is the latest chapter in a long and sordid history of televangelists exploiting their churches' tax-exempt status -- and their congregants -- to line their own pockets.
Preaching the word of faith, or "prosperity gospel," and capitalizing on lax government oversight of his church's finances has enriched Dollar and his family to the detriment of his followers and the American taxpayer.
Dollar's 30,000-member church, is a tax-exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Code. That means the church's donors receive a tax exemption for their donations (including for Dollar's new jet ambitions), and the church pays no tax on the revenue.
What's more, because it is organized as a church, the federal government does not require World Changers to file a publicly available tax return, as other nonprofit organizations are required to do. Those tax returns provide at least some financial information to donors and the public about the organization, including its revenues, assets, expenditures and executive compensation.
Dollar is known for his custom suits, luxury homes and private jets that ferry him, among other places, from his home base in College Park, Georgia, to his satellite church in Manhattan, where he and his wife reportedly have a $2.5 million apartment.
For Dollar, though, these excesses aren't embarrassments. Instead, they are proof that his theology works, that God blesses the faithful with abundant riches. Dollar tells his congregants to "sow a seed" with him, promising that a plentiful harvest will be their own blessing and, essentially, a return on their investment.
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