Megachurch pastor biggest beneficiary of charity he founded

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/politics/12500710.htm

Jesus wasn't broke, and leaders of churches shouldn't be either.

That's what Bishop Eddie Long, who heads Georgia's biggest church, has to say in defense of his grand lifestyle, funded largely by the nonprofit religious charity he started in 1997.

According to tax records, Bishop Eddie Long Ministries, Inc. provided him with more than $3 million in salary and benefits, including a $1.4 million 20-acre home and use of a $350,000 Bentley. Long also received more than $1 million in salary, including $494,000 in 2000.

Long maintains the money came from royalties, speaking fees and several large donations - not from members of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, where he became pastor in 1987. The charity stopped operating in 2000.

[Jim Sagle]

1. Good things happen to good people.

;)

[bperci108]

2. I seem to recall...

That Jesus was born in a barn, was a manual laborer, had "no place to lay His head" (Luke 9:58), and had but one possession of any value: his cloak, made for Him by his own mother.

Doesn't sound like a slick, rich preacher to me.

Apparently Eddie here doesn't know you can't serve God and mammon at the same time; a man can have only one master.

I think King Cash won out here over the Prince of Peace.....:puke:

[NMMNG]

3. Jesus wasn't broke?

I don't recall him living in a palace, having piles of gold or a souped-up chariot either. He specifically preached against being rich, something this nitwit obviously has chosen to ignore.

[indepat]

4. Give your money to the Lord but send it to my address

[MissMarple]

5. Christianity is devolving into random cults.

Maybe the Catholic Church was right, in part, on the idea of keeping the Bible out of the hands of the uneducated. Luther and Gutenberg opened the door to some good things, but with the good comes the bad. The differences between, say, the Quakers and these Baptist churches speaks volumes on the vagaries of human nature.

And I'm not saying that the Church has always been in the right, but, as an organization, it understands the necessity of controlling the dogma. And I hate dogma.

[3waygeek]

6. Well, charity begins at home (n/t)

[ShockediSay]

7. Jimmy and Tammy Baker

showed them the light, the way and the rip off that was possible.