A $10.5 Million Mansion and a US$54 Million Jet: A Columnist Asks Where Christianity Is Heading

• A Gleaner columnist cited research finding 43 of 49 countries became less religious from 2007 to 2019
• He listed televangelists’ jets and mansions, including one pastor’s $10.5 million Houston home
• One preacher asked each member for $300 towards a $65 million jet
• The column was prompted by reports of alleged human sacrifices at a Jamaican church

Tony Deyal’s Gleaner column of April 9, 2022, began with a joke and ended with a grim list. What prompted it, he wrote, was a report headlined “Jamaican pastor arrested for allegedly performing human sacrifices and ‘cult-like’ rituals”, which led him and many other Caribbean people to wonder where Christianity is heading.

He cited a University of Michigan Institute for Social Research paper which found that, from about 2007 to 2019, “the overwhelming majority of the countries studied – 43 out of 49 – became less religious.” He noted a Gallup poll in which Americans ranked clergy’s honesty at a record low, below nurses, doctors, pharmacists, teachers, police officers, accountants and funeral directors.

Much of the column dealt with money. Deyal described a BBC report on televangelist Todd Coontz urging viewers to plant a specific “seed” amount. He wrote that Jesse Duplantis said God told him to buy a Falcon 7X, his fourth private jet, for US$54 million, and that Creflo Dollar asked each congregant to give $300 towards a $65 million Gulfstream. Joel Osteen, popular on Caribbean television, earns US$55 million a year, has a $10.5 million mansion in Houston and a net worth above $100 million, Deyal wrote. He also listed scandals involving preachers in the US, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana.

The piece closed on his own wry note, but its point was clear: a string of scandals and displays of wealth had damaged the standing of the clergy, and religion in many places seemed to have hit rock bottom.

The list has a property lesson that applies well beyond televangelists. When church giving turns into private jets and personal mansions, members lose both their money and their trust. Healthy congregations do the opposite: the land and buildings are titled to the church, not to the pastor, the accounts are open to members, and big purchases are voted on. For Jamaican churchgoers asked to give towards a building or a leader’s needs, knowing whose name will be on the title is a fair and faithful question.

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