An evangelical minister has asked his ‘disciples’ to raise $54 million (£41 million) so he can have his own private jet… despite having three already.
To sceptics and atheists, religion and faith is a foreign concept. For them, it is nothing more than an elaborate, archaic institution used to scam to congregations out of their precious time and money.
While this opinion is subjective evangelical preacher Jesse Duplantis is probably all the indignation needed to prove them right after he reached out to his ‘followers’, asking them to raise funds on his behalf for a private jet. All so he can ‘spread the good word of the Lord’.
Forgive me if I’m wrong but I always thought to do God’s work was a selfless act which included taking a vow of poverty (among other things), simply put; it’s a complete no-no to be a flash git. So why Duplantis needs a personal aircraft is something beyond my comprehension. What’s wrong with flying economy to spread the good news?
In a video addressed to his followers (posted on May 21), the 68-year-old Evangelical preacher, who founded the Jesse Duplantis Ministries (JDM) in Destrehan, Louisiana, says having his own plane would enable him to fly ‘anywhere in the world in one stop’. He would be reducing his fuel expenses and maintaining his global reach in places like the UK and Australia at the same time, CBS News report.
Duplantis says in the video:
I really believe that if the Lord Jesus Christ was physically on the Earth today, he wouldn’t be riding a donkey.
He’d be in an airplane flying all over the world.
He goes on to say:
We’re believing God for a brand new Falcon 7X, so we can go anywhere in the world in one stop.
Now people say, ‘My lord, can’t you go with this one?’ Yes, but I can’t go in one stop.
If I can do it for one stop, I can fly it for a lot cheaper because I have my own fuel farm. And that’s what’s a blessing of the lord.
You know, as someone who went to an all-boys Catholic school in East London I missed that part of the Bible where it says you have to give the priest a private jet so he can spread the word of God to the rest of the world.
Duplantis isn’t the only preacher to make odd requests, in December 2017 an imam from Turkey caused uproar after he urged men to resist the temptation to shave their beards. Speaking on the religious TV station Fatih Medreseleri (Madrasahs), Islamic preacher Murat Bayaral suggested clean-shaven men ‘cannot be distinguished from women’, thus leading to ‘indecent thoughts’.
According to the Hurriyet Daily News, the preacher said a beard is ‘one of two’ body parts differentiating men and women.
Bayaral said:
Men should grow beards. One of the two body parts that separate men from women is the beard.
For example, if you see a man with long hair from afar you may think he is a woman if he does not have a beard. Because nowadays women and men dress similarly. God forbid! You could be possessed by indecent thoughts.
Despite this belief, many Islamic scholars argue it is not compulsory for Muslim men to wear beards, and there is nothing in the Quran that suggests men must grow their facial hair.
Religion, it’s a funny thing, isn’t it?
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