MondayMourning: Yo Ministers Got Bling

It’s not secret—pastors like money just like the rest of us—some, however, like it a little more than others. The ministries here have gifted their pastors with perhaps the most bling-ful gift of all: a private plane.

Of course, in many cases, you can’t blame pastors for their extravagant life choices—because it’s often churches that buy the things; that way their beloved pastors can have the fortune of living it up tax-free.

Televangelist Kenneth Copeland’s ministries bought him a 6 million dollar lakefront home—that’s in addition to his ministries private jet, of course. But it gets better than even that; where other pastors do their best to rough it to local airports, Copeland’s ministry wanted to make sure he wasn’t inconvenience in anyway—so they built him an airport. Here’s the address if you want to see it on Google Maps yourself: 14355 Morris Dido Rd. Newark, TX 76071.

According to court documents, Copeland has a history of not paying child support—apparently he wasn’t big enough at the time to have his charities pay for that? You can see more of Copeland’s story here.

And if you are looking for just a bit more of pastoral ridiculous, check out this pastor who asked his low income community church for $50,000—because the helicopter needed new blades.

There are lots of good pastors—more than bad ones. They’re doing good things to increase the kingdom of God.  But before you give to any church or pastor, do your homework; make sure the ministry is accountable for how it spends the gift it receives. If they offer no audit of funds, then you really should ask why.