Sometimes, the control and power of a pastor can be overwhelming. This power is meant to be used responsibly and some just don’t want to do that.
A pastor in Texas is being criticized for telling his parishioners that if they give money to pay for his broken helicopter, God is going to bless them with a new vehicle themselves.
According to Bishop Ira V. Hilliard of the New Light Church, God would give a new car in “52 days or 52 weeks” if you give $52 to help fix his chopper. Maybe he plans to use the helicopter to fly up to heaven and collect the money from God himself.
“Do you need better transportation?” Hillard said in a letter obtained by the Smoking Gun website. “Do you have a dream vehicle or luxury automobile you long to purchase?”
“We have an urgent transportation need that the Lord said can be an opportunity for you to see His favor and His wisdom released to help you,” he says in the letter. “Scripture teaches when you give to a Kingdom need God will raise up someone to use their power, their ability and their influence to help you.”
God says that those who help him to get his helicopter off the ground will receive God’s favor.
The pastor has his defenders. Sugarland Pastor Saiko Woods says that he would never release such a message, but says that there is “nothing wrong with Christians being rich as long as their riches are being founded upon the scriptures or they earn it honestly.”
Woods did, however, say that the claim of “$52 dollars for 52 weeks or with 52 days” was “totally blasphemy.”
“Gospel is the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not you promising money blessings a bigger house a bigger car a jet whatever these things might be,” he said. “It causes people to look at Christianity and to laugh at it or to make a mockery of it thinking Christianity is all about money.”
“I’ve seen this man’s home, I’ve seen where he lives. You can’t tell me you don’t have $50,000 you can pay out of your own pocket.”
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